WEDDING BLOG

This Couple Filled Brandywine Manor House with Evergreen Details for Their New Year’s Day Wedding

June 28, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

After just five short months of planning, Carlyn and Dylan transformed Brandywine Manor House into the winter wedding wonderland of their dreams! To integrate their love of nature and make their ceremony feel as if they were outdoors, the couple used evergreen trees as the backdrop for their ceremony inside the venue’s rustic barn. They also brought in Flowers by Jena Paige to create winter-inspired red and white floral bouquets and simple greenery table runners to add subtle pops of color. We can’t get enough of the handmade details, especially the National Park table numbers and custom seating chart map, as well as the winter-specific details, such as the blanket wraps and s’mores bar, which truly made this a cozy affair to remember. EarthMark Photography did a brilliant job of capturing every dreamy and romantic moment of Carlyn and Dylan’s wedding!

The Couple:

Carlyn and Dylan

The Wedding:

Brandywine Manor House, Honey Brook, Pennsylvania

Throughout our wedding planning process, we wanted everything to be true to who we are as individuals and together as a couple. We were grateful to have so many amazing vendors who made this possible. We both felt incredibly honored to have family and friends fly in from all over the country. Nothing was better than being in a room with so many people who have been integral parts of our lives!

We fell in love with Brandywine Manor House the first time we walked through the doors. Dylan and I knew we wanted a natural space that felt homey and comfortable and we wanted our guests to feel the same. Once we saw the use of natural wood and fireplaces we were sold. It felt so cozy on the day-of and the venue was so beautiful that we used minimal decorations to accent space.

Dylan and I have a love of the outdoors and wanted to feel like we were around nature despite having an indoor winter wedding, We chose to have evergreens as our alter background, which made us feel like we were getting married in the woods plus it smelled amazing. We also decided to write our vows together, each promising each other the same things in front of our family and friends.

We have a goal to visit as many national parks as possible and wanted to incorporate this into our reception. To do so, we numbered our tables with National park postcards and displayed the table seatings on a giant wooden map of the US, which my aunt created. She also made our welcome sign! Dylan stained and assembled our cake/cupcake display as well as our wooden coaster wedding favors for a personalized touch.

Processional – “More Than Words” (instrumental) by Extreme
First Dance – “I Like to be With Me When I’m With You” by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

The Wedding Team:

Photography – EarthMark Photography
Venue – Brandywine Manor House
Floral Design – Flowers by Jena Paige
Catering – Williamson Catering
Cake – Bella’s Desserts
Makeup Artist and Hair Styling – Something You Onsite

Congratulations to Carlyn and Dylan, and our biggest thanks to Junebug member EarthMark Photography for sharing this cozy winter wedding at Brandywine Manor House with us! Planning a winter wedding of your own? Let us help you find your perfect style with these 15 winter bridal looks!

Southwestern Bohemian Fort Worth Wedding at The Post at River East

June 27, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

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Scout and Michael gave southwestern vibes an artsy, bohemian twist in their wedding at The Post at River East. Using a combination of macrame details, subtle greenery, mismatched glass jars, and table numbers made from broken terra cotta pieces, they created an edgy and earthy feel that beautifully complemented the worn look of the historic outdoor venue. The couple also honored the bride’s Mexican heritage with a Mariachi band, a taco truck, and an impressive assortment of traditional sweets at the reception. Scout’s bridal look fully embraced the bohemian and southwestern vibes with a lace top from Sarah Seven, custom skirt created by her friend, Julianna Reese, a delicate floral crown that popped against her blue-green hair, and a fringe jacket that tied it all together. This wedding was a visually captivating representation of this couple’s artistic perspective, and the photography duo of Liesl Claire Photography and Matthew Allen Photography captured their vision perfectly.

The Couple:

Scout and Michael

The Wedding:

The Post at River East, Fort Worth, Texas

My main goal was to make sure the entire month leading up to the wedding and the wedding day itself were as unstressful as I could make them. I used to work in the wedding industry and heard countless horror stories of brides who didn’t fully get to enjoy their engagement time due to being stressed. I had the goal of having everything planned and ready to go a solid one month before the wedding date. I didn’t meet my deadline perfectly, but I got really close! Throughout my wedding planning season, I wanted to ensure the wedding date would be stress-free, laid back, and totally us. I think we nailed it!

I’m an artist and art teacher and Michael is a home remodeler, so we both had a lot of opinions and ideas for how the wedding should be styled. Our wedding vibe was picked to be a visual reflection of our two cultures coming together in this marriage with an artistic twist. I am Hispanic, and it was important to me to reflect my heritage in many ways during our ceremony and reception. We had a Mariachi band play right after the ceremony, which was a delight to everyone there!

I chose a non-traditional entrance down the aisle and it made me (and everyone else) cry. One thing I knew right after getting engaged was that I wanted my siblings to be my Bridal Party, but I still had close friends I wanted to be included in my day, as well. I ended up having a partial solo walk down the aisle and built my wedding bouquet using my friends on either side of the aisle to hand me the flowers as I walked down. Michael’s mother then tied off the flowers for me half-way down and both my parents escorted me down the remainder of the aisle — per Mexican tradition of both parents walking the bride down. It was such a touching experience to hug each of my closest friends as they handed me bits of greenery to build my bouquet! I loved having my friends so intimately included in the ceremony.

Fashion is something I thoroughly enjoy, and I knew my wedding day style had to reflect not only my personality and heritage but also be something I could rock on the dance floor! I tried on several dresses but ended up leaving the bridal boutique with only a top and the ambition to find the perfect skirt, which was easier said than done. After searching for months, I couldn’t find one I loved, so I asked my friend who is a costume designer to help create a skirt that fit all my needs. She killed it! For the reception, I traded in the full skirt for a shorter, more traditional Mexican-inspired skirt that my brother hand embroidered for me.

Sticking to our Southwest theme, we chose to have a food truck that served street tacos for our reception dinner. Guests loaded up on chips and salsa at our chip bar, enjoyed a stocked dessert bar featured Pan Dulce treats, and got to choose from several Aguas Frescas from our bar along with Michael’s favorite beers and cocktails!

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Liesl Claire Photography
Second Shooter – Matthew Allen Photography
Day-Of Coordinator – The Southern Socialite
Venue – The Post at River East
Floral Design – Oso Pretty Things
Catering – Salsa Limon
Cake – Sugar Bee Sweets Bakery
DJ – DJ Sean P
Wedding Dress – Sarah Seven (top) and Julianna Reese (skirt)
Rentals – Sugar Creek Vintage Rentals

Congratulations and a special thanks to Scout and Michael for sharing their incredible wedding at The Post at River East with Junebug! Love the southwestern vibes the couple infused into their big day? Then you have to see this intimate southwestern desert wedding at Moab Under Canvas!

This 200-Person Castaway Portland Wedding Felt Intimate as Could Be

June 26, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

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It’s no easy feat to create an intimate wedding with a guest list larger than 50 people, but Hannah and Mitchell pulled it off in their Castaway Portland wedding that included 200 of their closest friends and family! With the help of Kelsey and her team at Vanity Affair Event, the couple created a timeless elegance with a rustic twist in the warehouse venue. Vanessa Schmidt Co. created stunning floral arrangements and displays, including an asymmetrical floating floral installation for the ceremony, that added a touch of whimsy and a lot of dimension to their decor. Their reception featured a mix of elegant, linen-covered tables and rustic, farmhouse tables and included Spanish-style comfort foods from Crown Paella. Hannah, Mitchell, and their dream team of vendors did a remarkable job keeping this large wedding feeling cozy and intimate, and Karra Leigh Photography nailed it in capturing every moment.

The Couple:

Hannah and Mitchell

The Wedding:

Castaway Portland, Oregon

One of the most important parts of our wedding to us was our guests. We opted for a larger wedding of about 200 guests. We feel we are a direct reflection of the amazing community we surround ourselves with, and we wanted our people an intimate part of our wedding. Ensuring our guests were welcomed, comfortable, and had a unique, fun wedding experience was so important to us. We would not be us without them and throwing a party was a way to thank our support system for their unwavering love throughout our lives and kick off this new chapter.

Our first look was in a greenhouse onsite — just us and our photographer. Time stood still during our first look. We embraced knowing this moment was the beginning of forever and, in a few short hours, we’d be married. He cried. I cried. It was pretty freakin’ awesome! Neither of us can remember the words we exchanged; we held each other, and on the craziest day of our lives, the world felt still for a moment. It was so emotional and powerful, and a beautiful precursor for our ceremony to come.

Wedding planning will be the exact experience you think it’s going to be. If you think it’s going to be stressful, it will likely be an exhausting process; if you think it could be fun, I promise it will be an absolute blast. Set time aside in your schedule to work on wedding planning so it doesn’t consume all your time. Find a team of extraordinary creatives to help you bring your vision to life. But most importantly, stay true to you and your partner. Make sure your details are reflective of what embodies you as a couple.

Our ceremony was a dream, and a water show. There were lots and lots of happy tears! We were married by my godfather who had also married previously my sister. We exchanged personal, honest, funny vows that laid the foundation to the marriage we aspire to have. We concluded our ceremony with a unique Celtic knot tying ceremony and a super epic first kiss. One of our guests told us it was the kiss of a lifetime, and it definitely was.

Working with our photographer was like hanging with a friend all afternoon. Karra is hands-down one of the sweetest people we met through our wedding planning process. She created such a fun, professional environment for us to relax and be ourselves. She captured us so perfectly in our photos — they are a perfect reflection of how truly moving that day was. We feel blessed to have had Karra a part of our wedding team and now we call her a forever-friend.

We tasked my parents with selecting our favors for our wedding. They had over 200 oversized ceramic camping mugs with our custom wedding monogram made for our guests to take home. We had no idea what my parents had planned until the day of. It was so sweet and our guests absolutely loved them! We get pictures all the time of guests using them and remembering our day.