Rustic Camarillo Ranch Wedding: DIY Details & Sweet Surprises

Matt and Stacie are both from Wisconsin and  made the big decision to have their wedding in California at Camarillo Ranch. As you see, they made the right decision and had a spectacular wedding with a little help from a stellar wedding team - Krista Mason Photography and You & Me Events to create a wedding that was entirely them.
This rustic wedding was infused with personal do-it-yourself projects like a processional pom pom toss and a beautiful wine box ceremony with a homemade box made by  Matt's brother-in-law. Those are just a few of the details that made this wedding entirely Matt and Stacie. As always, you can see all the images in the full wedding gallery here and read on to hear more from the bride.

Some of their DIY Projectspom pom processional toss, "M" & "S" raffia letters for the barn doors, escort cards (made on a retro label maker), menu cards. My bridesmaid's mom made all of my jewelry & my hair piece as well as the bridesmaids' jewelry & hair pieces. We did the wine box ceremony during our ceremony and Matt's brother-in-law put his heart and soul into creating an amazing box for us. It was so much better to have one built from love rather than purchasing one on eBay. It's our "love capsule". Matt’s sister made our fingerprint tree for us. The roots symbolize our family since that’s where we are rooted and the leaves and branches symbolize our friends. The whole drawing and finished fingerprint tree is very symbolic for us.

We wanted to honor where we are both from, so we decided to have a CA vs. WI cheese bar at cocktail hour. It is a big rivalry, after all. We played with the happy cows vs. cheeseheads theme and every one of our guests loved it!

We love getting beef jerky from gas stations when we go on road trips, so we decided to hand out beef jerky from Santa Barbara as our wedding favors.

My advice to future Brides is to get a photographer that you feel comfortable with. This is HUGE! WE felt so at ease and relaxed with Krista and Aldo and we think it is reflected in our pictures. We suggest hiring a planner. Our wedding planner, Jessi, had so many great ideas for us and always guided us with terrific advice. We are so grateful that she was a huge part of our day!

Once you make a decision on one detail, stop looking for additional inspiration. We did this because trends come and go and new ideas are always being revealed, so we didn’t want to be disappointed if a new, bigger and better idea was out there. Take one big group photo and try to make it to your cocktail hour if you can. Also, everyone says not to worry about the little things and while I do completely agree with this, I do think that they ARE important and I love thinking back to those little things that made our day special. Lastly, I would highly recommend inviting whom you want to invite. Since we were in charge of our guest list, when we looked around we knew each and every person that surrounded us on our wedding day. It made us less nervous about the day and even more excited to celebrate!

We weren’t crazy about having a big ol’ traditional wedding cake and since we love pie and were having our reception in a barn we joked around about doing a three tiered, wedding pie…and our caterer made it happen! We hid the wedding pie behind the barn door so that we could slide back the door for a big pie reveal later in the night.

Matt surprised me with a serenade during dinner. In high school, he was part of an a capella quartet with his three best friends. Since they were all in the wedding, they worked it out with the DJ to stop the music at a point during dinner. Which I actually noticed and felt like it was getting awkward that there was no music. Then, Matt and his best friends stood up and started serenading me to “Still of The Night.” Though Matt was singing lead, he grabbed my hand and we danced while they all sang to me, it was completely unexpected!

Photographer: Krista Mason Photography Event Designer: You & Me Events Venue: Camarillo Ranch Caterer: Contemporary Catering Cinematography: Well Spun Weddings DJ: Cal Sounds Dress Designer: Maggie Sottero Flowers: The Little Branch Groom's Attire: Friar Tux Lighting & Prop or Furniture Rentals: Town & Country Bar Service: Liquid Catering