Ciara and Michael’s DIY wedding was a friends and family affair: her mom did all of the food on her own from BJ’s and Publix, their DJ was a family friend that did the music for the ceremony and their best man did the music for the reception based off of playlists on Spotify. They handmade all of the bouquets and boutonnieres. The cake came from their family friend, the girls hair was done by her maid of honor’s mom. Another friend made make all of the centerpieces and handled all of the decorations. The result was a beautiful morning wedding with a lovely park reception brunch in Langford Park. It really was a sweet, little backyard get together.
In Ciara’s words:
Describe your wedding day style in one sentence: We chose a very rustic, flower-filled, simple style for our wedding which blended with the gorgeous natural foliage at the park itself.
Wedding day color scheme: Our color scheme was a light blush pink with hints of light blue.
Describe your wedding planning process: Our engagement was around 10 months long, so we had plenty of time to plan. I liked to tackle most of the big stuff (dress, location, photographers, etc) early on so when it came down to crunch time, we would only have minor details like bits and pieces of decor left. I planned the wedding with the help of my fiance, mother, and a few other friends.
What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day? 1. Do a first look!!! Seeing your man before all of the nerve-wracking parts happen really helps. Because from that point on, you two will be together. 2. Whatever is going to happen will happen and most of it will be out of your control, so just remember, at the end of the day – you’re going to be married to the love of your life. Nothing that could go wrong (rain, missing clothing items, technical difficulties) can stop you from spending the rest of your life, from that day on, with your best friend. Plus, you have so many people on your team to make your day perfect as can be.
Anything you would have done differently? Honestly, the only thing I can think of is I wish we would’ve had our ceremony videotaped. I know there’s a lot that happened that I missed because I was waiting to walk down the isle, haha.
Most memorable moment during the planning process: I remember feeling a lot that there was no way we could get everything to come together as fast as we needed it to, all on our own. The day that we finished all of the planning was great because we were both so flooded with relief and excitement instead of anxiousness!
What are you most looking forward to as a married couple? That we now have the freedom to go on trips together, spend our early mornings and late nights together, and just know that we always have someone to walk through life with now.
Which moment are you the most excited to see in photos? Oh my goodness I can’t wait to see all of the candid moments that were captured. Posed pictures are super cute, but candids have a way of showing someones real feelings and their hearts.
What was your wedding inspiration? I really loved our beautiful Langford Park is on its own, so we really just tried to play that up. Our decorations were all burlap, lace, mason jars, and lots and lots of pink! The white chiffon and pink flowers in the gazebo for our ceremony really complemented the nature and made us stand out in the best of ways right in front of it! We just really loved the simplicity of playing up the beauty of the park while adding a few touches (like my dress, the lightbulbs with flowers in them, and the yard games) that stood out just enough. We wanted our wedding to feel like a lovely, sweet, little backyard get together.
Describe some of your favorite wedding details and how you came up with them. Some of my favorite details…hmm. Well, I SO loved our centerpieces, photo booth, and how we did our vows. Vows were my favorite so let’s start there, haha. We wrote our vows to each other and then read them to each other during the first look. It was so intimate and romantic, just the two of us. We also typed them up and framed them so anyone who wanted to read them could, but we still got to share such a special moment at the beginning of the day together. The photo booth was so fun.I had seen the idea on pinterest and then our friends Erica and Galina, our decorators, really picked a perfect place to put it. We love to have fun and many of our friends are straight up goofballs, so taking silly pictures at the photo booth was so fun. I can’t wait to get the cameras developed!
Last but not least, I had seen many different ideas for rustic/simple/DIY centerpieces. I finally sent the pictures to our decorator and then went out and bought the supplies and pretty much let her do what she does so well! She created beautiful centerpieces that were absolutely everything we could’ve hoped for. I LOVED them!
