Today’s vintage purple wedding is filled with tons of amazing handmade and repurposed materials. I am in love with all the little cakes with vintage cake toppers! The cake toppers also make for an adorable addition in the cluster centerpieces. And how fab are the vintage earring escort cards? There are just too many great ideas to count! And I love this couple’s focus on friends and family, it really makes your day so much more special!
My husband and I had been together for almost 10 years before he proposed. We met in college and 3 years later became separated by jobs, grad school, etc. When things got tough, as they often do when 1,000 miles separate you, we were very fortunate to have the love, advice, and support of friends and family to get us through. Because of that, we really wanted to make sure that friends and family became the theme of our wedding and that we focused on the fact that our two families were becoming one.
The first decision we made after getting engaged was to ask our brothers, Mike and Scott, to officiate our wedding. This gave us the opportunity to personalize our wedding ceremony because we had the ability to write it ourselves. That led us to writing a ring warming ceremony which includes tying the rings together and passing them around to all the guests attending so that they can say a prayer or a blessing over the rings before we exchanged them. The hardest part of writing the ceremony was choosing readings that represented our relationship. In the end we asked a couple friends to choose a reading and keep it secret from us until the ceremony. This turned out to be a really fun added piece to the wedding and everyone really enjoyed the creative readings that they picked out.
The other piece of the wedding that we wanted to make sure we included were the handmade and vintage pieces of the décor. My family has been collecting antiques since before I was born and we often spend family vacations or holidays seeking out the best antique stores in the area and looking for the perfect find. My artistically talented aunt came up with the idea of using the vintage purple medicine bottles and the vintage cake toppers for the centerpieces and invited everyone to her house for a wedding crafting weekend. I was really proud of myself for coming up with the idea to use vintage cluster earrings for the boutonnieres and as magnets for the place cards. My mom and I spent the year collecting vintage details such as a large frame we used to display wedding pictures of our families and wedding party. My cousin Josie even offered to make the beautiful headpiece out of vintage lace.
We had an amazing time planning the wedding because thanks to the fact that everyone pitched in and helped, it meant spending more time with friends and family in the year leading up to the big day. We are beyond grateful to our parents, family, and friends to making this experience unforgettable.
Photography | Dana Laymon Photography | Venue | The Balcony on Dock St | Coordinator | Jenn Rayle and Kristie Falcioni | Cake | Hot Pink Cake Stand | Dress | Mikealla | Shoes | Rack Room | DJ | Brian Hood
