20 guests joined Carmen and Jim for their intimate September wedding at the Second Empire Restaurant and Tavern in Raleigh, North Carolina. Carmen first learned of Etsy when her friend Christina opened up Just Envelopes an Etsy shop selling cards and envelopes.  As a somewhat crafty person herself, Carmen was instantly hooked and is now considering opening up her own shop.

The Details

Wedding invitations by Just Envelopes

Airplane place cards for the reception by Timeless Paper

Wish tree sign-in cards (with a postcard theme) by Packrat Diva

Wedding necklace by Allison Mooney Jewelry Design

Bouquet Bling by Sara Libbey Jewelry

Photography by Brian Mullins Photography 

 

Amanda and Mark got married last August at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa in front of a 500,000 gallon fish tank!  They, along with their 60 guests had the entire Aquarium to themselves.  And as Amanda put it…it was awesome!

The Details

Monogram by jennjohnstondesigns   

Cootie Catchers by katskrafts

Personalised handkerchiefs by linenwhites

Seashell bouquet & brides hair piece by romanticflowers

Table Numbers by GEDesigns

Personalized table runner by exclusiveelements

Sign by EverlastingMoment

Guest Book by cutthecakedesigns

Photography by Logan Mallon of Just Say Cheese Photography 

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?

Pool Blues Ivory & Silver. The colors were inspired by the venue. We wanted a beautiful under the sea look. And the silver was for the color of the fish scales and reflection of the moon on the water.

What was your favorite Etsy find? My bouquet.

It was so original and exactly what I wanted since I am not a flower kinda girl!

What creative (DIY) or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

I did a lot of things myself. I loved my silver boxes with our favorite candies inside. Wrapped with a blue ribbon and a white starfish glued on top! Everyone loved them! And my centerpieces I did myself. I took tall cylinders and put seashells on the bottom and a party light inside. Then took a single white orchid and put inside. It was perfect for the tables since everyone could see each other and fit in with our underwater theme. Plus we were in front of a HUGE fish tank. So it worked! For invitations we had messages in bottles. They were soo cute! They had sand in the bottom and little shells and our invitation rolled up. And then a seashell box it was in. It really helped set the tone of our wedding.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Relax. Take your time. And do a lot yourself.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Before our daughter walked down the aisle as our flower girl, we had penguins walk down the aisle! And the sparkler send off was a lot of fun too!

Today’s wedding took place last May at the Darwin Botanic Gardens, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.  Bride Desiree first learned of Etsy through the wedding forum Australian Wedding Central.

The Details

Customised toasting flutes from Magic Brushes Workshop 
Silk flowers for bridal bouquet, bridesmaids’ corsages and buttonholes from Southern Girl Weddings 
Brides gold earrings from LuluSplendor  
Program fans from Impression Invitations  
Table number holders from The Funky Shack  
Shoe clips from Twisted Crystals  
Bindi from Miischelle 

Photography by Christopher Knight from Digifilm

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?

Our wedding theme was Fusion (Indian + Western) to incorporate both mine and Matt’s cultures (I’m Singaporean Indian and he’s Australian).  The colors were red, white and light gold, inspired by my Indian background.

What was your favorite Etsy find?

It’s a tie between the silk flowers and the shoe clips! The seller for the silk flowers was just amazing. She was very patient and customized it to suit my wedding entirely. The shoe clips are my favorite as well because I can re-use them whenever I want

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Walking down the aisle and seeing my husband’s beaming smile.

What creative (DIY) or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

- Table numbers – I created our table numbers using photos of our 3 pets and the word ‘love’ in different languages.
- Handmade individual guest cards that were completed and compiled in a DIY guestbook.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Compromise!

Rachel and Dion had an amazing destination wedding in Las Vegas, Nevada back in March.  25 of their closest friends and family turned out for the Ohio couples big day.  The wedding ceremony was held at The Chapel at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and the reception was held at Maggiano’s Little Italy in the Fashion Show Mall, just down the Vegas strip from Mandalay Bay.  Rachel first came across Etsy while searching for Christmas gifts.  She’s been hooked ever since.

Scroll down to the bottom of the post for some fabulous shots of Rachel’s “Trash the dress” photoshoot taken a week after the wedding.

The Details

Invitations, table numbers, and wedding photo frame by onereverie. 

Bride’s wedding jewelry by Sahara Amaya.

Personalized hanger by Lila Frances. 

Bouquet by Croska. 

Favor Tag by Fubabee. 

Escort cards by RepChi.  

Cake Topper by Dandelionland.   

Poographer byTodd Wilson of Bently & Wilson.   

Trash the Dress Photo Shoot  by Jennifer Mott. 

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?

We didn’t have a theme for our wedding–Vegas is enough of a theme on it’s own without going out of our way! But, our color scheme was an espresso brown, and a fern green color–and, to be honest, was only decided upon when we found our amazing invitations on Etsy. My dress was a coffee colored silk, so, we knew not much would “go” with it, but we found the perfect invitations, and subsequently the perfect color scheme almost by accident!

What creative (DIY) or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

We tried our best to make our wedding as “us” as possible, which was hard because, at the time, we lived in Ohio–getting things to Vegas for the wedding would be difficult. So, it was the little things that we did in an attempt to tie it all together–and, surprisingly enough, Etsy helped make that possible. We were able to, through multiple vendors, stick with the same color scheme, and make it all look cohesive, despite being thousands of miles from home. We DIY’ed our favors (mini glass jars of personalized M&M’s and chocolate covered espresso beans, with labels from Etsy), and I dyed my crinoline blue (as my something blue) for under my dress

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

For me, the most memorable part of our wedding day was the few hours my husband and I spent taking pictures alone prior to our ceremony. We had a “first look,” followed by two and a half hours of picture taking at various locations throughout Mandalay Bay. It was an amazing feeling to spend time with my husband alone prior to the big moment; it was extremely calming, and not to mention fun! We definitely felt like celebrities walking around a hugely populated casino in our wedding attire!

What was your favorite Etsy find?

It’s definitely a toss up between my bouquet, the personalized hanger, cake toppers, and invitation print that now serves as our guest book, if only because we have constant reminders of them placed throughout our home! 

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

The best advice I have is two-fold:

1.) No one cares about your wedding as much as you do. It’s sad, at the time, but it’s true. For as excited and involved as I was–well, no one else matched my level. It was disappointing at the time, but looking back now, it makes sense. It was our wedding, so it was obvious that it would be more important to us that others. 

2.) insofar as no one else will care about your wedding as much as you do, no one will notice when things don’t go as planned–so, don’t stress the small things. Weddings are like life, they aren’t perfect, and things will undoubtedly go wrong, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter, and isn’t worth fretting over on the day of the wedding. If, at the end of the day, you’re married to the one you love, then the wedding was a success!

 Trash the Dress Photo Shoot

More from the bride on her Etsy purchases:

Our invitations, table numbers, and wedding photo frame all came from the amazing onereverie.  They were fantastic to work with, and incredibly helpful when we continued to go back with more ideas for additional needs. We started with just with invitations, then returned back to the store months later for the table numbers, and again for a print that resembled our invitations to use as a photo mat to sign for our guest book, and they were amazing every single time! 

My wedding jewelry was from Sahara Amaya. I couldn’t have asked for more beautiful jewelry. Although I didn’t end up wearing every piece, I can’t say enough about this shop. I had trouble with the back of my earring staying on, and she was quick to send me back ups–talk about professionalism! 

One of my favorite purchases was a personalized hanger from Lila Frances.  I knew in advance that my wedding dress would be too heavy to hang on the hanger (to be fair, my dress was gigantic!), but I still managed to find a way to get it into some pictures. And now, it’s proudly on display with my amazing bouquet. 

Speaking of my amazing bouquet, it was purchased through Croska.  I knew I wanted something unique when it came to a bouquet, but, in Vegas–unique would have cost a small fortune. When I realized I could have something unique that would last forever, I was sold on this bouquet. I was fairly late in the game in order this (and two smaller versions for our sisters who were our attendants), Croska did everything in her power to make sure they arrived before we left for Vegas. Now, if only I could stop my cat from attacking the feathers on the bouquet…. 

The tags for our favors came from Fubabee.  This purchase was one of the easiest ones we made!! There was no thought involved; the tags we went with matched our color scheme perfectly! 

For our escort cards, we decided to spice them up a bit with personalized buttons from RepChi.  These buttons were such a hit, and I still hang on to my “Team Bride” button!

Our “cake” topper came from Dandelionland.  We knew we wouldn’t be having a traditional wedding cake because we had such a small guest list, so we went with mini-cupcakes for our guests, and two regular-sized cupcakes for us and our mini-look alike toppers. They not only turned out great, but now serve as cute decorations!

Katherine and Chester shared their fun summer wedding with 145 guest.  They were married in Ohio on August 7th, 2010.   Katherine first came across Etsy while browsing the wedding blog “Style Me Pretty”.

The Details

Custom bridal bouquet tile by palomasnest

Tons of pink and cream paper pom poms by FiestaPomPom

Mustache photo prop by whiskerworks

Custom sugar anemones by sweetpetalbakery

Table number/names calligraphy by treschicecriture

Photography by Norman Freelan and his assistant, Sarah

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it? 

I wanted the wedding to radiate fun, summer, and pink.  I think the decorations and details we chose really supported the vision.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

The whole day was so much fun.  I loved seeing Chester for the first time that day.  It was so special to have all our friends and family with us to celebrate.  I definitely got a kick out of some of the dates of the bridal party having the limo driver take them to get a fast food order for all of us while we were taking pictures!     

What creative (DIY) or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

My mom made about 75 flag pennants for guests to wave as we exited the church.  It was fun to see the flags waving in the sun.   We had white roses in a vase in our church.  We wrote a note in our program to let guests know they were there in memory of our relatives and friends who had passed away.   To incorporate Chester’s love of cycling, the seating display featured mini bicycle ornaments with flag pennants on them to direct the guests to their seats.  The tables were named after mountain climbs in the Tour de France.  Guests could drink from brightly-colored striped straws and dab their mouths with customized trivia napkins featuring fun facts about us.

What was your favorite Etsy find? 

I really wanted to have sugar flowers on our wedding cakes but had trouble finding just the right ones.  Etsy was the perfect place!  Sweetpetalbakery was amazing.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

My best advice for planning a wedding is to make sure that you have elements that your guests will see and say “that’s so the bride and groom”.  Those personalized touches are what your guests will remember and they make the wedding day so much more fun.  Also, the day will not go exactly as you have it planned, handle that with grace and laugh it off.  Not even a flat tire on our limo en route to the reception could ruin our fabulous day!