• Real Weddings

Brianne and Brandon chose the theme vintage romantic for their wedding, which they achieved by collecting tons of vintage decor, creating their own DIY details and using a color palette that included pops of color with soft accents. Continue reading to hear so much more from Brianne about their special day, including advice for other brides and things they wished they could change! Don't miss any of the details from this vintage wedding at Dawn Ranch Lodge by visiting the full gallery here, all captured by the magnificent Matt Edge Wedding Photography.

From the Bride:We felt that a vintage romantic theme fit the venue perfectly and would allow us to use elements of family heritage, heirlooms and flea market treasures. After I found my dress it really resonated with the theme and feeling, we knew we wanted everything to be really soft with pops of color. I fell in love with the lace and bead detailing and knew that everything about the wedding decor would have to compliment this gorgeous dress. We landed on a color palette of coral, orange, sand and succulent. Pop of color but also soft accents to not overpower the beautiful green outdoor setting.

Having our ceremony in the apple orchard nestled among the apple trees, cocktail hour with live acoustic music just behind and dinner and dancing in a beautiful tent in the meadow surrounded by redwood trees was magical. Everyone cooled off after the ceremony with our signature cocktail, "Binder Breeze" vodka, iced tea and lemonade. Refreshing on a hot summer day!

Planning the details was a fun adventure. My mom and I went to the Alameda Flea market throughout the year picking up vintage skeleton keys, crochet and lace doilies, large metal letters, amber bottles, trunks, trays, and a great mirror for our menu. My favorite find being our guestbook, which was a vintage canoe oar we had everyone sign.

Having both of our names B's (Brandon and Brianne) and our last name start with a B (Binder) we also incorporated B&B wherever we could with metal letters, printed on our cocktail napkins and on our custom matchboxes. Both the cocktail napkins and matchboxes had a custom floral design from our invitations by Rifle Paper Co.

It a great year of treasure hunting followed by crafting. Combining heritage and family heirlooms in so many different details. All of the bouquets were wrapped with my Grandmothers handkerchiefs; the dessert table had a vintage doily tablecloth, punch bowl, serving set and champagne glasses that were also my Grandmothers.

All of the details worked together perfectly with the vintage seating vignette, gorgeous farm tables, sweet treats dessert table and vintage table decor of mixed bottles with crochet doilies lining the center of the tables and the pops of orange florals. The farm tables were perfect for our farm to table family style dinner that added a casual feel to dinner among the elegant and romantic decor. There was so much love under that tent!

We had Greek favors, "Koufeta", for Brandon's Greek heritage, set at each place setting. The muslin bags were handmade by my mom, stamped with our personalized monogram and filled with Greek Jordan almonds symbolizing happiness, health, wealth, children and a long life. We had way too much fun crafting, making signs, burlap bags for bridesmaid favors, adding lace to mason jars and much more all adding small personalized details.

For brides that want to plan and design your own wedding there are so many resources and inspiration. In addition to all of the amazing wedding blogs, magazines and Pinterest. Etsy was a big go to for me. There are so many talented independent sellers that added to my DIY details. From the ring bearers sweet bow ties to tissue tassel garland I was able to piece together details that fit and were still very personalized to our wedding.
We were also very lucky to work with amazing vendors who were so talented and supportive. It was incredible to see our vision come to life and executed perfectly. The best advice I received was edit your ideas, there are so many great ideas and inspiration out there you can't do them all. Find what fits for your theme and incorporate details but don't try and do everything or you will go crazy and your wedding will not be cohesive.
I had very little complaints or things I would change about our wedding. We were lucky that everything went pretty smooth and were executed perfectly. A few small things I would change would be:

• I would have padded more time in the timeline to actually put my dress on and enjoy that moment longer. Getting ready the day of the wedding goes so fast but it is so special. It flew by much faster than I thought. We had a really well planned out timeline for first look and pictures before with our coordinator and photographer but things do take a little longer that day and you don't even realize. We ended up being on time but I wish the putting the dress on moment and enjoying that with my mom and bridesmaids as well as capturing that wasn't so quick!

• Taking a moment away with Brandon down by the river. The property was so big and getting down to the Russian River behind the property would have been tough in my dress but worth a really special moment enjoying one of the things we loved about the venue and area. Time flies when you're having fun and before we knew it the night was over.

• We had tons of amazing handmade paper flowers from our welcome BBQ from the night before the wedding that my mom and I made. I wish we would have re-purposed some of them in a small way in either the cocktail hour or reception somewhere. They were so adorable, took a lot of time to make and we had tons of them!

• The temperature cooled down a more than I expected at night being so close to the pacific coast and on a river. I wish I had still done a basket of pashminas! We figured in a tent we were ok but it would have been a nice little addition for the ladies.

• Bridal Shoes: Jimmy Choo
• Cake: Crisp Bake Shop
• Coordinator: Clever Girl Consulting
• DJ: Feet First Entertainment
• Earrings: Elizabeth Cole
• Flowers: Spiral Hand
• Gowns & Veils: Claire Pettibone
• Groom's Attire: Canali
• Hair, Makeup & Beauty: Sherrie Long
• Jewelry: Untamed Petals
• Officiant: Reverend Peadar Dalton
• Paper Goods & Calligraphy: Rifle Paper Co.
• Photographers: Matt Edge Wedding Photography
• Prop or Furniture Rentals: Wine Country Party & Events
• Rentals: Zephyr Tents
• Save-the-Dates Vintage Hanky: Lucky Luxe
• Stationery: Hello Lucky
• Thank You Hand Signs: Little Retreats
• Venue & Caterer: Dawn Ranch Lodge
• Wedding Dresses: Amsale