Kelsey and Peter are a super fun and thoughtful couple. They wanted to strike a balance between DIY and not-DIY, both to help keep the budget down and because the bride is fabulously crafty. Their wedding was very simple and classic with a couple of cute or silly twists (e.g., the placemats). Â Kelsey spent weeks printing invitations (her father is a celtic-knot artwork guru and helped with the design), spray-painting various objects (she is now going through spray-painting withdrawals), and creating gifts (the bridesmaids’ robes were all handmade, for example). Kelsey spent the morning of the wedding finishing the table numbers, and keeping busy definitely helped keep her calm and happy. Thanks to Jenna M Miller Photography for sharing!
Kelsey & Peter’s Crafty Virginia Wedding at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
Vendors:
Photographer: Jenna M Miller Photography | Venue: The Atrium at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens | Catering: Great Blue Heron Catering | Cake: Edibles Incredible | Bride’s Dress: Nouvelle Amsale | Bridesmaids Dresses: eShakti | Hairstylist: Erika Bergsagel | Makeup: Sherri Crane | Florist: Karin’s Florist | DJ: Kirkabee DeejaysÂ
 I also made the robes for the bridesmaids, that was a biggie. I wanted them to have something special to let them know how much it meant to me that they were there, and to have something cute but also practical to wear day-of for hair and makeup, so I went out and bought the softest fabric I could find in different colors (they each needed their own, of course, carefully selected to flatter each individual) and made their robes. Thankfully I had a lot of snow days last school year or I don’t know that they all would have been done in time!
My dad creates, studies, and teaches classes on celtic knotwork, so we asked him to design a knot for us for our invitations. He then worked with us to create the knotwork that became the borders on the invitation. Really lovely. My pearls were gifted to me by Peter over time- earrings for Christmas, bracelet for Valentine’s, necklace for my birthday- with the intention of wearing them to our eventual wedding.
The colors: Honestly, one day at the beginning of planning I was thinking about colors for the wedding and I looked down at my outfit and was like “huh, light blue, dark blue, and orchid look good together.” Then I looked at my white kitchen table and saw my light blue placemat next to my orchid placemat with my dark blue dishes and that was it. Lightbulb moment.
Dress: I had to find a dress that was classic, clean lines, pretty details, AND it had to look good with pearls. back when we had been dating for a year or so, Peter had given me a set of pearl jewelry in stages: earrings for Christmas, bracelet for Valentine’s Day, necklace for my birthday. He asked one of my friends for help choosing the set and confessed that he hoped the next piece of jewelry he would give me would be an engagement ring (and that he was hoping I would wear them on our wedding day). My mom, who went with me to all of the dress shops, had only one rule about the dress: it had to be made out of “good fabric.” I found the one at Nordstrom Wedding Suite in Tyson’s Corner. It was down to two dresses, both of which fit the bill, so I brought a team of friends with me to help me make the decision. I came out in one and they all smiled and said “that dress is BEAUTIFUL.” I came out in the other – the Nouvelle Amsale gown I ended up with – and they all started crying. That was the response I was looking for.
Click inside for more pictures and details from this beautiful Virginia wedding!
Venue: we went to a lot of different places, but the Atrium was the first place where Peter said “I could see myself getting married here.” Decision made.
We had our officiant contact our parents, the maid of honor, and the best man to gather stories/tidbits about our relationship so she could get to know us better as she wrote the ceremony. We asked two close friends to do readings during the ceremony that we really liked the sound of – an excerpt from Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith, and from Hafez (1325/26–1389/90, Persian poet).
We actually made just about everything for the wedding – we didn’t get a planner or anything, it was all on us. I spray painted all of the centerpieces (and the letters “P&K for the cake table. and the letters “MR” and “MRS” for the head table.). We designed our own invitations and programs. I don’t know if the guests noticed, but there were four different sayings on the programs expressing our excitement at having them all there. One of my favorite details was the paper chargers with Peter and my favorite sayings on them: “Hurray!” for him, “Party all the time!” for me. These were set at each table place, and all of the guests got a big kick out of them. I crafted the ring box out of a little $1 wooden box from a craft store, painted it and added the padded interior. I made the “here comes the bride” sign, and braided the hair on the girls who carried it.
I also was really proud of our placecards. That was Peter’s idea – since I am a teacher in an elementary school, I use those poster letter cut-outs all the time in my classroom. He suggested we use those letters as the placecards, meaning if Kimberly was sitting at table 1, her name would be written on a 1. We struggled to come up with a way for them to be upright, so they would all fit on the table, and came up with Rollos as the base. Delicious, and sturdy enough to hold up the cards!
^ROLOS?! INGENIUS!
Bridesmaid dresses: these I found on a site called eShakti.com, where you can order the dress to fit your precise measurements, and you can adjust any dress on there for length of skirt and sleeve. It’s great. So all of the girls were able to wear the same dress, because they could get it tailored to flatter their individual shapes. They also all expressed genuine excitement that they honestly could wear them again – one sent me a picture of her wearing her dress at work the other day!
Cake: the cake was all Peter – I found a bunch of fun cake designs/ideas and Peter was like “SPRINKLES!” I asked the bakery if they could do sprinkles in the wedding colors and they were so happy to do it.
Sprinkle wedding cakes are the best.
Congratulations Peter & Kelsey! Thank you for sharing your beautiful, bright & crafty Virginia wedding with us! A special thanks again to Jenna M Miller Photography for sharing her images with us for today’s feature!
