Drawing on their creative personalities, Real Stella York bride, Elizabeth and her husband, Christopher, incorporated personal touches to their DIY wedding to make it totally them. From their Best Dog, Milton, to Elizabeth’s stunning Stella York wedding dress, everything was perfect. Cheers to the happy couple!
From the bride: My husband, Christopher, and I were married at the Welshfield Inn, in Burton Ohio. We both wanted an outdoor, nature-inspired wedding that reflected who we are and the things we love, without following all of the rules. Instead of a veil, I wore a white rose in my hair. Our dog, Milton, served as the Best Dog (and videographer) and walked down the aisle. Instead of a traditional wedding party, we chose to have seven flower girls and a nephew to be in our ceremony. Our “cocktail hour” was actually an hour-and-a-half.
We are both creative and love DIY projects, and our wedding was no exception. I grew the centerpiece succulents starting about 14 months before our actual wedding day. My husband enjoys woodworking, so he handcrafted cedar planter boxes and cedar candle blocks for each table setting. My father-in-law helped my husband and I designed the custom watercolor invitations, menu cards and a red carpet photo backdrop.
The morning of my wedding, I opened a wedding gift from my then soon-to-be husband: a beautiful set of pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. He had not seen my wedding dress and did not know that it was also accented with pearl beading. (After crying happy tears) I wore the necklace and earrings on my wedding day instead of the jewelry I had planned, and felt even more beautiful.
Planning an outdoor wedding is a most wonderful risk. The day of our wedding, the weather forecast called for a big summer thunderstorm to roll in at the same time as our ceremony, so we had to move it to an indoor room instead of under the beautiful catalpa tree we had planned. Our indoor wedding ceremony turned out to be perfect beyond all of my daydreams of our big day. It was intimate, close, and amazing — even with all 150 of our guests crammed into a room that was probably a bit too small! The weather forecast was a little off — the storm actually held off long that enough to allow us to get some outdoor pictures after the ceremony (including some under the beautiful catalpa tree) and then rolled in spectacularly during cocktail hour.
