Our Wedding was Featured on... Emmaline Bride

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So excited! Our wedding was featured on Emmaline Bride.

Here is the link to the post on our wedding Rustic Real Wedding with DIY Charm.


They included many photos as well as all of the descriptions of various items / DIY projects below the photos at the bottom of the post!

Thanks Emmaline Bride!

Many of the items I created for my own wedding I now sell in my Etsy Shop for those planning a similar themed wedding!


Our Wedding Vendors:

Photography By Jenn and Dave Stark
Flower By Bella's Floral Boutique
Cake by Mill Street Cakes
Venue Balls Falls Conservation Area
Tissue Pom Pom Decorations by Bryar Strutt with Event Essentials
Catering by Diane and Dave Beasley

Mothers Should Get Bouquets too |

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Being a photographer I meet a lot of brides, and I know that a lot of them would say,

"I wish my mom could be my matron of honor!"

Moms are so special and so for my wedding day I wanted them to look like even more a part of the bridal party and so I gave them each their own bouquet.

The bouquets not only tied them in nicely with the rest of the bridal party but they also gave them something to hold during pictures (which they both said they liked, as it is often hard to figure out what to do with your hands in photos).

Bouquets are also a younger looking item to have as apposed to an arm corsage. And on a hot day like our wedding day was I am sure they were thankful NOT to have an arm corsage.

Here are a few images of hows the mom's bouquets looked. They were made up of smaller scale sunflowers and all of the same filler/wild flowers that were part of the bridesmaid's bouquets.

Bouquets by: Bella's Floral Boutique in Niagara Falls ON

Our Wedding Slide Show |

Want to know how all these posts, ideas and DIY projects came together?

Watch our wedding slideshow below:

How It All Came Together...

How it all came together to make my dream wedding a reality!!

Here are some photos to share with you how all of the planning that lead up to the 'first day of the rest of my life' with my new husband Benjamin came together!

Photos by Jenn Stark Photographers

My Wedding Hair

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My childhood friend Karen did a fabulous job of my hair during my trial this past Wednesday!! Who would have thought that we would both go from playing hairdresser and photographer as little kids to now pursuing them as both of our careers!

She incorporated everything I wanted while using her judgment to edit out things that my conflict with each other!

I am super happy with the final result! My 'hair trial' doubled as a hairdo for my graduation that took place that afternoon and everyone just LOVED the hair!!

Thanks Karen! I can't wait for you to do it on the day of!

The hair from all angles:

Flower Girl Dolls!

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My Grandma made the cutest old fashioned dolls for my 4 little flower girls to carry! My mom found this adorable rust coloured fabric that has mini sunflowers on it for their dresses. And they either have brown or gold bonnets which fits the colour scheme and theme of the wedding perfectly!

These will be gifts to my flowers girls, three of whom are great granddaughters to my grandma and one who is her great niece. So these dolls will not only be adorable for the girls to carry on the day of the wedding but will also be nice keepsakes for them to have from their great grandma / great aunt.

Thanks Grandma!! :D

Now Everyone's Doing it... But that's okay with me! :D

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I don't like when I see an idea and think its SOOO unique and decide to borrow it for my wedding... only to find out MANY other have as well!

But that's okay - that is what clever, inventive and beautiful ideas are for... Stealing hehe!

The neat thing is that all the weddings that have been using these elements are all similar in style to ours (the old fashioned, rustic, antique, arts and crafts type wedding) - So it's nice to see the elements and how they came together as a whole in these couples weddings. It gives me a better idea of how they will fit together in mine :D

For instance - Everyone seems to be doing 'Antique tin can centre pieces' as well as the 'photo clothes line'!

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Just take a look! :D

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Antique Tin Centre Pieces:




Photo Line:

Ring Bearer Pillow!

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Our Ring Bearer Pillow is going to be a 'cross stitch' ring that Rochelle (Maid of Honour) will be embroidering for me! I saw this image below on a website and thought it would make a great ring bearer pillow! We can then hang it on our wall after as it will have our names, a heart and maybe our wedding date on it! :D The rings will be tied onto the top of the loop with ribbon! And it will be so special as it will be handmade with love! :D Thanks Rochelle!

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Of course it will not say 'Helen and Lito' haha - but that would add a bit of mystery to the day! :D

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Photos Of Our Save The Dates

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Bridesmaid Dresses

So I found this 'inspiration' wedding randomly on a blog and I LOVE their choice of bridesmaid dresses! They essentially have made matching skirts and chosen their own white/ivory blouses to go with them. I don't love the style of skirt, but I love the idea of being able to have different shades of brown and golden tones, with all unique ivory blouses. Then we could add a thicker sash in the same colour to tie all of the girl's together. It would also cover the seem between skirt and dress! I'm just wanting something more unique then the 'off the rack' dresses that are starting to look the same! But at the same time I would hope that these 'make them yourself' dresses wouldn't end up costing a whole lot more!

Cake Stand and Linens

I finally went into 'Forget Me Not Antiques' in St. Catharines and they had a lot of beautiful things. I was specifically looking for cake stands, a three tier candle abra for the wedding and I found a beautiful cake stand and got a good deal on it. Originally I wanted a white milk glass stand, however after talking to a potential cake baker I realized that the Butter cream icing would be an off-white colour, which would not look good with a white cake stand. So then I decided to start looking for glass cake stands and I found this one and it was perfect. My only concern is its only 10 inches in diameter, so that limits my bottom tier of the cake to be 10 inches, but it will cut down on the price of the cake!

I also got two beautiful table runners. One that is lace and one that is linen with embroidered flower and lace edging. I thought the lace one would be pretty on the registry table at the front of the church and the other one will be nice on the guest signing table, or the cake table maybe.

I also got a full sized table cloth with beautiful embroidery work on it that I thought would look nice on the head table - I would just need to find something complimentary for the other two 'main table' tables.

Pear Name Tag Holders

I thought Pear Name Tag Holders would be a nice rustic and country touch to the tables! And Since the Rickers are pear farmers I thought it would be a bit more personal as well!

I found a Few photos of pear name tag holders, but ours will be a bit different - Rochelle has agreed to do her wonderful calligraphy work to write everyone's name on a leaf (that I will use the dye cut machine at school to make). Originally I wanted to tie the leaves on - But I think the use of a push pic would be a lot quicker and it would give a cute old fashion sewing kind of effect!