This week’s wedding is an adorable hometown wedding with tons of character. It was a whole town effort, with lots of support from family and friends coming together to help make this wedding as special as possible. I absolutely love all of the details, especially the make your own cupcake bar! Definitely a steal worthy idea!
The sweet bride Sierra shares all the details:
John and I got engaged in July of 2010, in Sacramento Ca., where he was studying at an automotive tech school for the year. I spent countless hours with my nose in wedding magazines and web blogs, keeping busy til John graduated school in November. Both of our families were huge helps in planning (and affording!) everything we wanted to do for the wedding. Having grown up in our little dirt sidewalk cowboy town of Templeton, we wanted to keep a real hometown feel for the day. We eventually chose to hold the ceremony at the Templeton Presbyterian Church, built in 1887, and the reception in the garden of the Country House Inn, which was the first home built in Templeton, and is now a sweet little bed and breakfast. An incredible last-minute addition was being driven from the church to the party, in a 1925 ford model-t, offered by a neighbor who is a member of the local historical society.
The invitations were hand-drawn by an artist friend, and were such an amazing personal gift for us. The centerpieces were a combination of ideas I gathered from my own head, as well as the wedding blog community. I’ve always been interested in history and antiques, so it was a total blessing to be able to work at a local thrift store for the last few years, where I’ve collected so many great old things. These were my first inspiration for decorating the tables at the reception, which turned out incredibly, thanks to some hardworking buddies. We bought the burlap table coverings in bulk from a local hay & feed store (low cost for big impact!), and borrowed the glass beverage dispensers, which offered sweet tea with peaches, and strawberry lemonade.
Our good friends at Shannon Moore Photography took our incredible engagement and wedding day pictures, and also provided a photobooth for the reception. The photobooth was a really fun way to get our guests involved in the celebration and make some memories of their own, as they were able to keep one copy of their pictures, and place the other in a guestbook, handmade by Shannon, along with a personalized note! The design of their booth and guestbook table in particular really added to the rustic look and feel of the reception, which was awesome.
One of the things I was really looking forward to seeing in person was the cupcake topping bar provided by Enjoy Cupcakes. We met several times with Kevin Vandervliet, co-owner of enjoy cupcakes, and tossed around ideas for making their vision of a self-serve cupcake topping bar come to life at our wedding. Choosing Enjoy was one of the easiest decisions we made during the entire planning process — they are SO good. We decided to keep the cupcake flavors simple (chocolate & vanilla) and enjoy took the wheel from there, providing a generous array of complimenting sauces, fillings, and toppings to allow our guests to get creative with their dessert. John and I decided to take advantage of how fun this aspect of our day was, and create a cupcake to cut, instead of our own whole cake.
We asked a friend to dj and mc the reception, using her laptop and a borrowed PA system. More than anything, we wanted our guests (especially those from out of town) to feel comfortable, relax and have fun celebrating this new part of our lives with us! John and I both play music, and I play in an oldtime string band, so we decided that towards the end of the evening during dancing, we would jam on the porch and invite everyone to square dance. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole day!
When I think of planning our wedding, my mind goes to every family member, friend, and stranger that lovingly offered all they could to help make our day as special and fun as possible. From the photography, to the bbq, to the wonderful group of family friends that gave up their entire day to setup tables/ refill drinks/ collect trash and ten million other tasks — we couldnt be more grateful for the outpouring of small-town generosity that made our wedding happen.
Photography | Shannon Moore Photography
Ceremony | Templeton Presbyterian Church
Reception Venue | The Country House Inn
Flowers | Lori Boe Floral Design
Invitations | Winston Braun
Cupcakes | Enjoy Cupcakes
Dress | Da Vinci Bridal
Hair & Hairpiece | Hilary W. at Beehive Salon
Groom’s Outfit | Express
Transportation | Templeton Historical Society
Rentals | Taylor Rental
Photo Booth | Moore Photo Booth
Band | The Blackwater Union
