When you picture a do-it-yourself wedding held at a family sheep farm, we guarantee you won’t be picturing these absolutely stunning images captured by Vicki Bartel. The bride and groom were excited to put together a lot of the wedding details themselves, and they spent a long time finding inspiration to pull together all of the ideas they had to start with. The bride says, “As two artists, we both obsess over the quality of details. We wanted everything to reflect our personalities, a task which turned out to be rather tricky.”
We think they ended up doing an amazing job – perhaps they have a future career in wedding planning! Using their family’s sheep farm as venue, they included lots of rustic details, like the light-washed wooden paint details, the galvanized tin buckets to hold the flowers on the aisles, and the slices of natural wood branches as table numbers. However, they smartly paired these rustic elements with elegant design features, like blush peonies wedding bouquet in soft feminine colours, delicately-detailed jewelry and accessories, and even a perfect lace parasol! Check out how this beautiful wedding all came together.
From the Bride…When we first started to brainstorm wedding ideas I scoured the internet for inspiration. James and I quickly fell in love with multiple elements from these inspiring weddings and were able to begin building a picture of what our wedding would be. As two artists, we both obsess over the quality of details. We wanted everything to reflect our personalities, a task which turned out to be rather tricky. It takes a lot of time, pictures and personal effort to communicate a self-devised esthetic. Working with our planners, we were able to select some skilled vendors in our area who we felt could complete our vision.
My dress, veil and necklace, were all purchased locally at Its Your Day Bridal shop. My Paloma Blanca dress was just what I hoped to find and the company even agreed to specially make my belt, rinestone free. For fun vintage touches I looked to Etsy.com. My lace earrings and aqua leather shoes were the perfect vintage/chic additions to my attire. James’s outfit was a simple pant/vest combo. The special addition to his outfit was a bowtie made from Liberty Fabrics. It was one of those last minute projects that I chose to tackle at 1 am the morning of the wedding. In the end I think we all felt it was worth the loss of sleep.
The location was set at my parent’s house in Harrow, Ontario. The hobby sheep farm and surrounding woods set a perfect backdrop for the day. In keeping with the relaxed vintage feel, I chose picnic tables over traditional tables and chairs. Using my mother’s heirloom silver, we created some rather unique centerpieces to hold a mixture of peonies and lovely little wildflowers.
For our morning ceremony we were tucked into the corner of the woods, along an aging fence. A local nursery loaned us a stunning willow arch, which fit so perfectly into the esthetic. One of our must have items was a line of fabric flags, which would flow around the environment, uniting our theme. Our designer informed us early on that no one would sell something like that, so it became the major item on our growing to-do list. It took many people, many hours, over many days of cutting carefully selected fabrics and sewing them on a line before we saw the end of that project. It seemed that for many of the details we loved, we needed to put in hours of work in do it yourself projects. James and his dad constructed our cupcake tower from a tree trunk that fell in a neighbors yard. The seating chart was slowly burned into a board, using an ancient woodburner. It resulted in many burnt fingers and sore arms but was worth every moment of pain. In the end all of our painful projects were what really made it a gem of a day.
Wedding Photography: Vicki Bartel | Wedding Gown + Bridesmaid Dresses: It’s Your Day | Bride’s Shoes + Jewelry: Etsy | Hair + Make-up: Salon Zayaa | Venue: Private Residence | Ceremony Song: “Luckiest” by Ben Folds | Flowers: Renaissance Flowers | Table Numbers: Bridesmaids + Groom + Groom’s Suit: Le Chateau | Programs: The Groom | Seating Chart: The Groom | Caterer: Protenders | Wedding Planners: A Perfect Day
