Alice & Chad’s DIY Purple Maryland Barn Wedding at Linganore Winecellers

It’s with a heavy heart (and a big sigh) that I start today’s blog post. I have written the “struggling to blog post XXX tragedy” before, and I don’t want to write it again. But I can’t ignore the fact that yesterday the city I love, the city I live and work in, was struck by terrible tragedy. I am still trying to make sense of how someone could do what was done yesterday.

But as a wedding blogger & coordinator, I think I need to consider myself lucky – in that so much of my life and days are filled with stories and images of love & happiness, not hate & sorrow. And so, though yesterday was tragic and will continue to be for all those families that were affected, there is a duty in each of us to continue on with strength and messages of love. It is the only way we can attempt to move on from such horrific events.

So for today I am sharing an extra special Maryland wedding – one that was originally planned for later in my editorial calendar, but I thought it was just TOO full of love and happiness, to not share today. It features an adorable couple (Alice & Chad) that are just SO happy and in love on their wedding day, that it’s down right contagious. And isn’t that something we’d all like to catch today? Without further ado:

Alice & Chad’s DIY Maryland Barn Wedding at Linganore Winecellers

Vendors:

Photography: Photography by Brea | Venue: Linganore Winecellers | Flowers: Local Color Flowers | DJ: Do Justice to Music | Cupcakes: Jessica Kerin | Caterer: Fine Cuisine Catering | Hair and Makeup: Victoria Budosh | Bridesmaid Dresses: Jersey Maid | Submitted via Two Bright Lights

 From the photographer:

#chalicewedding happened at Linganore Winecellars on August 24th. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and a stunning location to provide the backdrop as these two amazing people committed their lives to each other. Their simple but stunning details were the perfect fit as well! There was a lot of heart that went into this wedding and I just love their cute DIY centerpieces and details! Even the flowers that were provided were freshly picked wild flowers!

What? I LOVE Alice’s yellow engagement ring!!! So unique!

From the bride:

I was never that girl that dreamed of having a fairytale wedding one day, until I met Chad. Chad and I were acquaintances for a few years before we started dating, but soon after that first date, I found myself with a new best friend for life.

My mother-in-law likes to call us “the ying-yang couple” and you can see it right off the bat. Chad with his super blonde hair and my super black hair paired us up looking like “how is this possible?”. Yet, here we are, married & happily living together.

Click inside for SO MUCH more of Alice & Chad’s DIY Maryland barn wedding!

On picking this stunning venue:

We picked our venue upon our love of going to wine festivals. Chad introduced me to their Medieval Mead and from there I fell in love with Linganore wines. We took a weekend and traveled to some wineries to see which would be the one, and upon arrival at Linganore Winecellars, I teared up. Chad knew at that moment that this was it. The scenery at Linganore Winecellars was absolutely amazingly breath taking and perfect for our outdoorsy ways. We had originally planned on a fall wedding, but due to the venue being unavailable during the time we had originally wanted, we had to go with an end of summer wedding.

On the bridesmaids dresses:

I took into account my experience as being a bridesmaid in deciding on the color of the dresses for the bridesmaid and their shoes. I wanted this wedding to highlight each girl so I went for a convertible one size fits all dress. No fittings, no extra costs and I wanted them to be able to wear it again and again. Jerseymaids had the perfect color for my wine-filled wedding. On top of that, I knew shoes were a big pain for most of the wedding parties I have had the honor of being in, so I wanted my girls to be comfortable. And since it was still a summer wedding, I went with Reef flip flops.

On the groomsmen’s style:

To counteract the bridesmaids were wearing such a rich colored dress, we went with a heather gray color for the groomsmen and to the grooms request, suspenders were added to the attire. We went with Reef flip flops for the groomsmen as well. The ties were my favorite touch to the groomsmen attire. All the similar shade of yellow but each tie had a different pattern. It ‘tied’ together so well with the convertible bridesmaid dresses. Each dress for the bridesmaid differed and so did the guys ties.

On their purple & yellow sunflowers color scheme:

I chose the colors for our wedding based upon the fact that the wedding would be at a winery and wanted to have that end of the summer/beginning of fall feel.

On all their DIY details at the wedding:

Everything from the favors to the centerpieces were handmade with love & help from our friends and family. The wooden platforms from the centerpieces & cupcake stands were designed by my dear friend Michael Rasinski and chainsawed by Chad’s brothers. As for the bottles wrapped in burlap? Our friend, Sean Kelly, saved the empty bottles from his place of work to contribute to our wedding. Then the dollar store became my best friend during this time, tea light votives and vintage-looking water glasses all came from there giving my budget a little breather.

The fun part in all of this was colors! I had no idea how everything would look until the day of so to see the pictures and to see how the colors worked were amazing! Ellen’s local Flowers had a huge impact on how the centerpieces and the bouquets turned out! The only flower I picked out were the sunflowers and I was very fortunate enough that they were in season! The rest, Ellen had picked out based upon the colors of the dresses and suits. Since the venue had that beautiful rustic feel to it, I didn’t want to dim it down with whites and neutral colors, so the sunflowers were a great pop color to each table.

One of my favorite handmade details from the wedding was the seating chart. Chad had bought a $10 cork board from walmart and then painted the back side with chalkboard paint. Our good friend & groomsman, Bill Ritson came over with his chalk markers and his amazing penmanship and literally sat on our living room floor and wrote everyone’s name down for us.

Going with the wine theme, my friend Katherine Rasinski had found an idea of making wine cork key chains. From there I thought instead of plastering our names on the cork, we would just draw a heart and stamp the date and the phrase “a special day” on all 130 corks.

Throughout the whole process, Chad’s parents’ place became headquarters for the wedding planning. Both families pitched in and we are eternally grateful for that.

Throughout all this, we wanted to make sure that this wedding reflected Chad and I as a couple. And it was no better portrayed than the fact that set up and execution was all done through our friends. My friend Kelsey Morris became my point person the day and pretty much set my whole vision up in the reception room.

The day of the wedding could’ve been a disaster without this one person, Jason Crawford. Jason became my stand in wedding planner to execute the ceremony and reception with perfection without me even asking him! His directorial skills shined as he stepped up to direct the wedding party and coordinate with the DJs.

Congratulations Alice & Chad, thank you for sharing your beautiful DIY Maryland Barn wedding with us. A special thanks again to Photography by Brea for sharing her images for this feature.