In honor of Valentine’s Day this week, I wanted to get a post up about our Wedding Celebration last year! V-Day will also be the 13 month “anniversary” of sorts of that amazing day!
A little background first: My husband, Agustin, and I met in 2014 while I was in law school in Atlanta. I was interning at a law firm and he came on board as the new business manager. Agustin, or as most people refer to him – Goose (yes, like Top Gun!), is from Colombia, and we started dating about 5 months before his visa expired and he had to go back home. That said, we also moved in together after about 6 weeks, and really after that, the rest was history. We did long distance from ATL/San Diego to Colombia for almost a year an a half. He then came here on a fiance visa and we got married at our county admin building 90 Day Fiance style, sans all the drama! Our actual anniversary date is 4/14/16.
BUT, we (okay mostly just me) of course wanted to have a real, fancy shmancy, dreamed of since you were little, kind of wedding! And the day that dream came true was 1/14/17! So we’ve got lots of 14’s going on over here!
So on to the big day – I knew I wanted to DIY most of our wedding myself, including my hair and makeup! I wanted to look like ME, not someone that a makeup artist got their hands on for a day!
I wanted a very vintage/bohemian feel – mostly because I feel that vibe just oozes romance. I also wanted to combine the boho vibes with a travel kind of theme. Given that Goose and I come from two parts of the world, and spent a lot of our relationship traveling to visit one another, I wanted to incorporate that into our wedding day – travel played such a big role in our relationship!
But, the biggest thing I wanted to focus on in our wedding, was PERSONAL TOUCHES, no matter how small. From my late grandfather’s ring being tied to my bouquet, to photo collages of Goose and I as kids in the bathrooms (sadly we never got any photos of those!), to a few snapshots with the American and Colombian flag, I wanted our wedding to be wholly US, and no one else.
The planing process was simultaneously excruciating and fun, but it was all worth it for truly the most amazing day celebrating with friends and family! I know Goose and I would both do it over again in a heartbeat (well, if it didn’t cost us anything this time!)
My mom and I prepped most of the decor ourselves – we even purchased a lot of the floral components for the florist to use. But I will say, we definitely did NOT do the flowers ourselves; I think I might have lost my mind had I attempted that one!
But here are some of the projects we DID tackle, with a few extras thrown in!:
Dreamcatchers:
I knew I wanted dreamcatchers to be the “main event,” so to speak, at our wedding a long time ago. I’m not sure exactly what inspired it, but I think it had something to do with the fact that my original plan was to have a very “hippy” (as my father would say) wedding, flower crown and all. (I didn’t end up going with a full on flower crown, but I think my side braid along with my vintage style headpiece was still quite bohemian in theme!)
I also knew my mom had collected vintage doilies for years – some my great grandma’s had made, and others she had found in antique stores. She did have to go buy a few more, but so many of them were made from doilies that were constructed by family members I never even got to meet. It was so wonderful to have a piece of those who came before me with me on the best day ever.
So, I put my mom to work (it was painstaking work, but ask her and I promise she’ll tell you she loved it)! She made almost 50 dreamcatchers for us, and they are still one of my favorite parts about that day!
(ASIDE: Goose was NOT thrilled about the dreamcatcher idea. I didn’t really give him an option though – sorry, babe! – but he definitely came around! This is often how home decor in our household goes as well – Ana dreams up some crazy idea; Goose not thrilled; Ana does it anyway; Goose realizes Ana was right in the first place!) 🙂
I think this is hands down my favorite photo of our wedding day. I really feel like this photo could be in a magazine, and I just adore it!
Chalkboard Signs:
I’m sure chalkboard signs will be a trend that ends for weddings sometime in the near future, but I don’t care – I love them! I love even more than I did them ALL myself. They certainly weren’t perfect, but making decor for your wedding is like DIYing projects in your home – you just appreciate their beauty that much more!
This was my all time favorite sign! It is HUGE, but it was the perfect way to welcome guests into the venue! After our wedding, I chalk painted the frame white and re-wrote the verbage to welcome guests to our new home. It now hangs over the stairs in our house and still reminds me of the best day!
This seems like SO many signs as I post them here, and it’s not even all of them! How I managed to make this many, I honestly have NO idea – but I am still so happy I did. Not to mention that making all of them saved us a TON of money! Custom signs like this on Etsy or elsewhere are $$$, especially if you want this many!
(If y’all ever want a tutorial on this, let me know – I am a firm believe that with a little practice and determination, ANYONE, yes anyone, can make these!)
Hair & Makeup:
Like I said above, I did my own hair and makeup! I am so happy I did, but a word to the wise: If you do this, you likely will not get to ENJOY the time getting ready for your big day as much as you might like. I am ultimately happy with how everything turned out, but I would have loved to have been a bit less stressed getting ready, and have had the time to actually hang with my girls (though I had “non-bridesmaids!”) and my mom and mother in law. (Perhaps we would have had more time as well had we not done the ENTIRE set up ourselves, too? But hey, that went with the whole DIY thing – and I just loved having a huge footprint on our wedding day)!
I ordered this custom headpiece and the pearls/pins in my braid from Etsy. The shop is called BeSomethingNew, and I highly recommend!
Another word of advice if you plan to do your own hair/makeup: PRACTICE. A LOT. Seriously, I don’t think my hair EVER turned out the same no matter how many times I practiced, but thank goodness I did, because I definitely had some not so great attempts throughout the practice period!
Table Numbers and Centerpiece Design:
Each table was a different place in the world – I ordered vintage maps of of Etsy and created number stencils from printed out numbers on Microsoft Word. I then positioned the number at a designated spot on the map, glued to sparkly white glitter paper, wrote the destination in cursive, framed in gold frames, and voila!
Our sweetheart table! With a few of our incredible dreamcatchers hanging in the background.
I also wrote all of our placecards, and my dad made the amazing wine cork holders for them – our wedding was at a winery after all! My mom then had these napkins custom made (also Etsy) for our sweetheart table, and they have our actual anniversary on them, which I love!
Snacks to Munch on:
We custom ordered these M&Ms (honestly a nightmare and for the price, I would never do it again!), put out amazing cheese/carmel popcorn (Costco!), and my mom made hundreds of these adorable Spritz cookies in the shape of hearts! Get the recipe HERE! You can make these in SO many shapes and colors for any occasion, but they are perfectly simple and delicious to boot, so I highly recommend!
Our main desert was from Nothing Bundt Cakes – we had this two tier cake (with our amazing cake topper from, you guessed it, Etsy) along with a TON of their little bundt cupcakes! It was perfection! I just love that Napa was with us that day, too!
Other Personal Details:
These cufflinks were a gift I got Goose before he left Atlanta to go back to Colombia. It was so special that he wore them on our wedding day!
These father of the bride and grooms gifts were also both Etsy purchases! Gosh I just love Etsy – you can find ANYTHING!
My grandfather’s ring was tied to my bouquet. It was wonderful feeling like he was a part of the day – he never got to meet Goose, but I know he would have loved him!
I just loved everything about the flowers! At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money on flowers, but in the end I am SO glad we did!
Here is the USA/Colombian flag photo I mentioned earlier! A favorite for sure! I love my Colombian IMMIGRANT!
My dad also “officiated” our wedding. Such an incredible memory to have of this day. Not only did my dad walk me down the aisle, but he then got to stand up their with me as I read my (new!) vows to the man I love!
I swear we got SO much off of Etsy! We had a wine box ceremony (wine box from Etsy) as well as a custom corn hole set made with our monogram (also Etsy and a pre wedding Christmas gift from my parents). I’m happy to say we are still going strong and haven’t opened the wine box yet (our goal is to make it to our 5th anniversary!) and we use this corn hold set ALL the time! It is such a fun momento from that day!
Pre-wedding, Goose and I collected post cards from various places we visited (We even had friends and family send us some from their hometowns as well) to use as our “guestbook.” Our guests each chose a postcard and signed the back – we love reading them as a reminder of how amazing that day was!
I created a pretty fun photo “vignette” if you will! Vintage and travel themed of course! You might also spy the leopard bench you see pop up in my home decor photos every now and then!
I bought 3 pairs of shoes before I finally found these – oops! I adore these little white booties though – and even though this is California, is was still JANUARY and COLD (is actually rained several days prior to the event and we got SUPER lucky with the weather), so I was quite happy to have my toes covered! Brrr!
We danced back up the aisle to Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling – it was unexpected for our guests and SO much fun for us!
We also choreographed our first dance (totally a last minute idea and we got the whole thing from YouTube!) – also a TOTAL surprise for our guest and we knocked it out of the park considering we had practiced for like an hour total! We danced to Heart of the World by Lady Antebellum. Also can we just talk about our tent for a minute?! #SWOON
Another one of my favorite photos!
My “non-bridesmaids”! They coordinated outfits of their own volition, I sweat! So I knew I wanted my besties getting ready with me that day, but I wanted them to have FUN, not feel like they were hand maidens or something (ESPECIALLY since we were technically already married)! So, the “non-bridesmaid” was born! I asked them to give a speech, and they helped with set up and take down (and I am forever indebted!), but they also got themselves front row seats and some extra free champagne out of the deal!
Just a few more favorite shots!
Our venue was absolutely STUNNING. We got married at Lake Oak Meadows (now Vitagliano Vineyards and Winery) in Temecula, CA. If you live in SoCal, I highly recommend you check them out!
And of course, we danced the night away! If only we could do it again and again!
So, you thought we were done, but I saved the best for last y’all!
Now, you might be tired of a wedding you didn’t attend of someone you don’t know, but let me tell you, the best gift we received was a WEDDING video made by three of Goose’s siblings (he has 5!). Seriously, his brother Pedro edited the entire thing for us and even went back and made a ton of changes that we asked for. It is for real the BEST thing ever and we still watch it on the regular. If you aren’t crazy over our wedding by now, feel free to click on the link below to watch! Truly one of the most special things ever done for us, especially since I thought I wouldn’t have a wedding video at all (a videographer just wasn’t in our budget)!
It was great to relieve such a wonderful day while writing this post, and I hope you enjoyed!
(**All photos included herein were taken by the amazingly talented husband/wife photography duo, Aaron & Samantha Thompson of Aaron and Samantha Photography! You can visit their website at www.iheartas.com. You might see a couple familiar faces there when you pop by!**)
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