Details and Transformation: The Barn

This is how the barn looked before the picture below...but it was oh so much worse! These AMAZING, AWESOME bridesmaids, my dearest hearts in the world (and their husbands) made our wedding beautiful! That was a loooooooong, fun, dirty day. Notice the absence of the white sheets to the right and the pile of junk to the left behind Charlotte.

Lights strung (I found a ton of Christmas lights at Hobby Lobby for $1 because it was off season!), lanterns hung, the table stretched out and everyone having a blast!

One of Sam's groomsmen and 2 of my bridesmaids' husbands, Nathan and Martin, created our dancing area for our dance floor.

Notice the diner booths to the left-we found those in the barn and incorperated them for seating! The guys made this beyond lovely!
Tackling the barn and giving her an internal face lift!

This barn was being used as a huge storage shed, we pushed everything back and stapled white sheets behind the beams.

We found some treasures in the barn, including this vintage chair and desk! We left one portion of the barn uncovered, using it for our gift and cake room.

One of the most beautiful sites for a wedding shin dig I've seen! Still one of my favorite locations.

The location of your wedding sets the tone and the feel of your entire ceremony/reception. If the ceremony is being held at a winery, you automatically have the ambiance of elegance and class. Let's say it's located at a downtown pizza eatery-you have that laid back unique flare and casual vintage sense. If you have it a barn, or in the woods-well-the possibilities are endless...
The location of our love parade was not a wedding venue at all. It was a horse property, 2 mama huge barns and kingdoms of woods that had no desire to be tamed. I knew I wanted something raw and when we tracked through the woods avoiding horse manure piles and then pulled the massive weathered grey barn doors open, I knew, this was it! The spider webs danced hauntingly and the dust that was sleeping on all the timber flew about bringing about sneezes in Sam. My friend and co wedding planner Molly and I looked at each other-we knew-this was the jewel we were looking for. We saw the lights hanging and the table stretched down the center of the beams and rafters, everyone laughing!

Sure, some of our family members thought we were a bit crazy and couldn't see past the junk-but in the end, it couldn't have been more perfect!

There was junk everywhere in the storage barn that we had our reception dinner in-old furniture, barn equipment, timber and tons more misc. objects that where quite stubborn in being repositioned behind the white sheets myself and 16 bridesmaids staple gunned to the beams!

We searched for deals on globe lights, Christmas lights and the like. We borrowed paper lanterns ordered a dump truck load of saw dust to be poured do the center of the barn. Away wen the dirt floors and the sweet smell of fresh sawed wood filled the barn! That's one think I totally believe in if you are on a budget, if you have friends who are willing, borrow things like lights, lanterns, jars etc.... it saves so much money and most times makes people feel more a part of the wedding.

This is the house we ALL stayed in. (all 16 girls, 2 husbands, my dad and mom, aunt and 2 extra friends plus myself!) It was an adventure. My girl friends came out 3 days early all the way from Norway, Mozambique, Northern CA and Israel to help out and be with me! Weddings are wonderful, especially when you have friends like that come out and enjoy the love with you.

Boho Bridesmaids

My friend Charlotte from Norway had to cut the bottom of her dress because it was so long, so she used the extra fabric for a head scarf! Love it! Abby created another amazing boho head piece with the hem of her dress! mmmmmm love, love!

One of my favorite things about these dresses, is that they were comfortable and easy to have fun in! They had no problem gettin' down on the dance floor or twirling around the bonfire!

My Maid of Honor Beka, (aka: best friend/sister in law) wore an AMAZING scarf I found on Ruche, one of our fav places of vintage style, unique, feminine clothing and accessories.

One of the challenging things for me in my quest for my wedding was the attire of all my girl friends. I wanted something different, no cookie cutter, "Oh, just another bridesmaids dress."

Sure, I considered the regular kinda thing-but just couldn't do it. The weeks kept creeping closer and closer to W day and still NO how I was going to pull off the look I wanted. Considering I had 16 bridesmaids, (which on that topic ALONE I had more opinions that I desired) it's not that easy to find 16 clothing items of anything!

I considered doing wrap skirts and the day before I ordered them I accidentally found my hidden treasure! At a funky, loud apparel shop in Dallas called "MetroPark." The tie dye-tube top wonder of a dress jumped out at me and then the process began. Locating 16 of the varied sizes I needed in about a month. HA! We did it eventually. It was the product of a lot of calls to MetroPark stores all across the country and rushed shipping. Once getting them in, I shipped them back out to my girls all across the the nation and internationally as well, including Norway! It was worth it!

The dresses cost around $60 which is AWESOME! They all LOVED the dresses and will wear the heck out of them this summer. (I liked them so much I even bought one for myself! Heck, their dang awesome! )

You will notice the wedding pics-every girl did something a little different with her accessorizing, which I absolutely loved! Dresses of this style give a laid back, feel but keeps the style of elegance at the same time.

The Veil

I'm going to do a couple of blog posts on the details of our funky awesome wedding day. A little series. This awesome chica, Kat who has one of my fav wedding blogs posted our wedding on her site and a couple of gals have some questions on how we did a few things. Still being obsessed with anything to do with unique, crazy and rich in meaning weddings I'm going to feed my weakness for everything organically couture and write some posts. :)

The Veil:

Most of you knowing that I don't really gravitate to the "norm," I wanted something in a veil that mirrored my style and who I am. I even thought of not having a veil because I was pulling away from traditional things. But, I mean, come on, a girl's gotta have a veil. At least I did. Haha. My trade mark with anyone who knows me is the fact that I wear the heck out of scarves on my head. Any which boho way you can. So, why not, I thought do it for my wedding?PERFECT. Thus the birth of my veil.

It all came slowly together. If any of you watch the airing of the "Girl Meets Gown" episode our wedding is on-they got the whole process of how it came together.

Step 1: "Pile and Pin" Toss up your locks of beauty with a dozen or so bobby pins.

Step 2: Get your scarf fabric ready once your hair is a perfect mess.

• (I ordered a couple of extra yards of fabric, the same as my wedding dress to do this. I wanted some of the aspects of my dress to be unique and me.)

Step 3: Tie the scarf securely.

Step 4: Attach the Fabric/lace flower head piece.

• (The flowers are sewn to a ribbon which I tied along with the scarf. I made them out of several different types of laces and cottons-then I kinda ratted them and made them scruffy.)
• After that I added the tulle veils under each side of the knot of the scarf. The two veils were different lengths which added a dramatic effect. A little bit of romantic dressiness.

As the day/evening progressed having veils that were separate allowed me to take the long one off then both leaving just the fabric tails of my head scarf which was a much more laid back look and made it easier to dance and be crazy.

Of course, by the end of the night, when the bonfire started going and the drum circle started, all of my veil, scarf and all was long gone. My hair, a wild, wild mess and every ounce of me delighting in every moment. But hey, that's the joy of it-it was my wedding my hair could be crazy and I didn't care! I married my best friend and love of my life-who cares what my hair looks like! I was celebrating and no hair style or wedding veil was going to keep me from doing that to the fullest of my hearts content!

Be Mine?

Me and my man going on a late Valentine's Date. (He was sick yesterday.) Just when you think that you can't love a human more than you do-love surprises you and blows you right back to the beginning where you feel like it the first kiss, the first holding hands, the fist everything wonderful. I love my husband.

More To Tell

It's been 4 months of total bliss! I FREAKING LOOOOOOOOOOVE being married! I truly believe the state of being married to your best friend and hero the most wonderful thing God ever dreamed up!

Here is the highlight video from our wedding! It is amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMpFEjD_8j0

Guess what! Just under 3 weeks until our show airs! March 9th! WE tv-"Girl Meets Gown" premier! We are so excited!

Just yesterday one of my fav wedding blogs posted our wedding pics!

Click here and see the article and more pics!