Handmade Garden Wedding
It may not have all come from her grandmothers attic, but that was the feeling the bride, Sarah, was trying to evoke. Our vote? A Perfect 10! This handmade garden wedding day is just too cute not to love!
Want to know how much they spent and hear some stellar advice from the bride? Keep reading and you'll also find out just what Sarah would have done differently too. And as always, you can see all of the wedding decor via grandma's attic by visiting the full gallery here! Photographed by Love Me Do Photography.
All about the wedding style
We started by finding the venue that spoke to what we wanted: casual, rustic, heavy on the nature, and somewhere we could see being super romantic. We ended up opting for Terrain at Styer’s, a garden center in Glen Mills, PA that also has an amazing farm to table menu in their in-house café. Terrain feels as intimate as someone’s well-styled backyard and also has the natural beauty of rustic elements mixed with all the greenery and florals a bride could possibly ask for.
on selecting drinks
We are both beer fans, so we opted to have two simple signature cocktails- served in mason jars with floral paper straws. We also had wine, and a choice of 9 different beers, each one handpicked and from a city we have lived in. It was super important to us to make sure that we had a journey through beer so our guests could try different things.
I spent the 2 years we were engaged searching through every thrift store I could find for vintage vases and containers for our flowers. I wanted everything to look hand-picked, and mis-matched- as if you rummaged through your grandparent’s attic to style your flowers. Along the way I also scored some amazing tarnished silver trays that we ended up using for our epic Dessert bar that was imagined and executed by a friend of ours.
on selecting alternatives for cake
We figured that expressing our personality was way more interesting in offering a big choice of home-made goodies for our guests- we had everything from funfetti cake bars to samoa macaroons, to handmade Buffalo NY original Sponge Candy.
Cake definitely fell on our “not a big deal” list, and so we saved a ton of money by purchasing two single tiered cakes from our local grocery store, and dressing them up with some fresh flowers from our florist, and some vintage cake stands.
Get a closer look at this vintage garden wedding with decor via grandma's attic by watching the wedding video from Love Me Do Photography below.
https://vimeo.com/99273337
Read on to hear what Sarah would have done differently and to see how much this vintage garden wedding cost. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.
Things I would have done differently:
In the beginning of planning, I worried a lot and checked in on everyone to see what their opinions on things were like flowers, ceremony flow, food options, beverage options. All that worrying made it seem like it was another item on the list to check off instead of part of the process of planning the best day of your life. As soon as I realized that it didn't really matter what others thought, it only mattered what Brian and I wanted, it turned into an amazingly fun experience.
Something I am glad I did differently: buying my dress- it was dress number two, and I found it in April (two months before the wedding). I had a feeling that the original dress I picked just wasn't MY dress, and I'm so glad that I changed it- it was made for me!
The Budget:
As far as budget, we spent the most on what mattered the most to us: Venue & Food & Photography- we love to eat and wanted to remember the day forever! We saved a ton of money by having our dear friend use her incredible baking skills to make our DELICIOUS desert bar treats and buying a cake from our local Wegman's grocery story as our cake to cut.
I thrifted most of the glassware used for our flowers, while supplementing with some great milk bottles I found for $2 each at Ikea.
We used a lot of online free printables for our guestbook and instagram signs, and re-used frames we had for our family photos we placed around the venue. We provided our own alcohol for the wedding- we stuck with two easy and delicious signature drinks for alcohol, and then craft beer and wine- simple but really showed my husband's great knowledge and love for Craft Beer!
Terrain at Styer's event staff with Christina Ferriello at the help were truly a dream for helping put everything together.
Budget for everything was about $25,000 for 100 guests.
- Bridesmaid Dresses: Alfred Angelo
- Cake: Wegmans Bakery
- Dj: DJ Natev
- Dress & Apparel: BHLDN
- Event Planning & Design: Viva L'Event
- Flowers: Fresh Designs Florist
- Groom & His Men: Hugo Boss
- Hair: Currie Hair, Skin, and Nails
- Makeup: Kaitlin Kennedy
- Photography & Cinematography: Love Me Do Photography
- Venue & Caterer: Terrain At Styers