Cristina and Jeff chose the East Grand Rapids Public Library in East Grand Rapids, Michigan as their ceremony site followed by a reception at the “EVE nightclub” at “The BOB”.  130 guests shared their day with them.  Looking for some inspiration, Cristina found herself visiting several websites which all seemed to link to Etsy.  After checking out the site herself and finding so many cool things Cristina was hooked. 

The Details

Bride’s & Bridesmaids Clutch Purses by DavieandChiyo  

Silver and Black table runners by UnivrsalEventLinen 

Garters by the Garter Lady 

Ringbearer Pillow is from the  Elle Bloom Series by 5eizen 

Bride’sPearl Bracelet by FlutterBeads      

Photography by Dan Deward at Studio D2D  

What were your theme/colors and what inspired it?

My husband is a police officer and I work as a police dispatcher.  Originally we wanted to do something with police and blue but when it came to picking out colors we both decided that blue wasn’t our color.  We’re a really modern city couple and we wanted our guests to pick up on that so instead we decided to keep it classy with black and white.  We threw in punches of lime green to make it modern and our venue was at a downtown club with very sleek white furniture, linens and curtains to keep it all in line.  However, we didn’t want to forget about our love for police work so we added little police touches that kept in our theme.  Our wedding programs where in the shape of a badge, the table names where all of government agency acronyms and our seating place chart was a huge pin-board in the shape of a badge with all of our guests’ names.

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

I wanted to do a lot of things myself but found that when it came down to it I just didn’t have the time to do them.  I planned everything out on my own without a wedding planner and I made my own wedding binder with all my inspirations in them so I always had a clear vision as to what I wanted my wedding to look like.

What was your favorite Etsy find?

My favorite Etsy find was for sure the clutches.  They were of such high quality.  They were beautiful and totally customizable which made them that much better!

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

Don’t compromise on what you really want/love. You can have the things that are really important to you, you just have to find a way to do it.  Also, when talking to vendors make sure you really give them a clear vision of what you’re looking for and stick to it.  You are paying them and they are doing something for you so don’t budge unless what you are asking is totally unreasonable.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Honestly, I think the best moment of the day was when we got to our hotel.  We had just had the time of our lives with our friends and family and we were exhausted but knowing what a great day it was and just laying in bed for the first time as a married couple, it was a great feeling.

Teresa and Craig chose Thursday, July 22nd as the date of their wedding.  According to Teresa people thought they were crazy but it was the anniversary of their first date and no other day would do.  They shared their special day with 85 close friends and family members at the Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa, Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada.  

Teresa first learned about Etsy from her sister.  “She kept ranting about all the unique and handmade things that she would purchase online.  She started forwarding me the newsletters of featured items, and I was immediately hooked. I had to get her to stop sending me newsletters as I spent waaaay to much time and money purchasing items.”

The Details

Matchbook Mints by EMTsweeetieWeddings  
Pearl Necklace & Bracelet by VirginiaGeigerJewels   
Wedding Dress Label by mollyandmom 
Engraved Sandalwood Fans by Laserbird  

Photography by White Linen Photographers and Brooke Bowland Photography 

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?

Our colors were black & white, apple green, and touches of damask print. It was inspired from my love for the contrast of black and white with the pop of color on top of the ever glorious damask pattern which I adore.

What was your favorite Etsy find?

My favorite Etsy find would be my Pearl Necklace and Bracelet. I absolutely adore the feeling of Pearls, very “classic bride” and I wanted to put a modern twist on them by having a chunky pearl necklace made. I got so many compliments on my jewelry that I almost should have pre-made cards that said “ETSY” on them because nobody could understand where I found such incredible jewelry.

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

Our DIY projects and personal aspects began right from the very beginning with our handmade invitations, programs, seating chart, table number signs, centerpieces, menu cards, signs on the bar and cake table, cocktail napkins, photo share cards, matchbook mints, and custom wish birdcage with note cards. 

Our personal aspect included special reserved seating signs in the front row for our immediate family members, monogrammed initials at the beginning of the aisle, sandalwood engraved fans which our guests could cool themselves off with in the desert heat, as well as a handmade embroidered wedding dress label which was embroidered with my maiden initials and wedding date which we tucked into a secret pocket under my dress to wear as I walked down the aisle one last time as a single girl.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

The most memorable moment of my day was waiting to walk out to see my fiancé standing at the altar waiting for me. It had been a lot harder on the both of us to be apart for one night than we had thought, so to finally see him and know we were close was the best feeling in the world.

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

The best advice that I can give a bride for planning would be to join a bride to be network. I joined on Wedding by Color, and met so many incredible and amazing bride to be’s who help you with ideas, share vendors, stories of nightmares and tips for planning, and simply become part of your family by the end.

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!

After an impromptu trip out of town, I’m back with a gem of a wedding.  Leah and Marc were married in Hampton, New Brunswick, Canada.  They were married  on June 26, 2010 in front of 150 guests.  Leah was first introduced to Etsy by her Maid of Honour who also happens to be a wedding planner. 

The Details

Brides hair accessory by radokri 

Groomsmen ties by cyberoptix tie lab

Invitations by FeliceDesign

Wooden bracelets by inbloomdesigns

Wedding rings by Minter&RichterDesigns

Photography by Jennifer Partridge

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?

I tried to stay with a natural, rustic, country picnic theme throughout. I love pink peonies and tried to incorporate pink and yellow with small details that would have a big impact.

During the wedding we had popcorn, candy, lemon meringue pie and chocolate chip cookies for snacks throughout the evening.  There was a photo booth, and finger print tree and squares of fabric in replace of a guest book which I hope to make a quilt from. My parents had their reception at the same venue 32 years before so I really wanted to incorporate this. I collected wedding pictures from our family and friends and put them up all over the walls for an interesting conversation piece at each of the tables.  And to have the bride and groom kiss I put together a “love bingo” where you have boxes with different items that you have to get people to sign to encourage people to mingle.

The whole evening was beautiful and wonderful and I loved seeing everything come together so perfectly. 

The colour scheme was loosely pink and yellow but I wanted the girls all in white for a really clean summery feel, and let them choose their dresses to show their personal style. I found some amazing pink frilly shoes to tie them all together on zappos.com, which ended up being the show stealer. For the boys we found some wonderfully interesting ties from cyberoptix tie lab and topped off their suits with some handmade boutonnieres which I personalized for each of them.  For decoration at the church we kept it pretty simple with only large paper flowers Marc and I made to line the aisle.

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

I love sewing and painting and knew right away that I wanted to do as much as possible myself for our wedding. I found these lovely engraved tree invitations on etsy by Felice Design and knew immediately that they would be perfect. We decided on a picnic theme for the day and wanted to incorporate our love for nature into the overall feeling.

There is a tree on my grandmother’s property where her brother had engraved his and his wife’s initials about 40 years ago and you can still see them today. So I took this idea and ran with it. I started collecting various old bottles and gathered up some old milk bottles from my grandfather’s farm and stumps which I wood burned with our initials for the centerpieces. My mother and I sewed all of the table runners and napkins for the tables, and the flowers were all picked the day of the wedding from various family gardens. 

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

So many but one that definitely stands out is everyone singing along to “All you need is love” in the church while we were signing the register. A family friend played guitar and it was really a magical moment that set the mood for the rest of the evening.

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

Keep the day meaningful for you and your husband. Try to incorporate as many details that have significance for you and give your guests a glimpse into your relationship. Involve your partner in the decisions and DIY projects if they are willing, they will be even more excited and connected to the end result. And trust your vision. When you have a picture in your mind of the décor, dress, ceremony, etc don’t sway from it, write as much down or create inspiration boards to come back to when you are making the big decisions or are unsure.

What was your favorite Etsy find?

I would have to say our invitations. They really kicked off the whole theme of the wedding.

20 close friends and family members traveled to Mexico for Liz and Ben’s destination wedding.

More from Liz:  Technically we were married at Cutter’s Bayhouse in Seattle, Washington a couple of days before we left for Mexico. We had to sign our marriage certificate in the state, so we did it over dinner with our parents. My father was our officiant in Seattle and in Mexico.  The Wedding Ceremony and Celebration took place at Casa Bonita de Isla, Isla Mujeres, Mexico on April 24th.  The Reception was held at the Camano Island Country Club, Camano Island, WA

The Details

Destination Wedding Ceremony and Celebration: 

Bride’s Custom Ivory Petal Feather Hairpiece with Vintage Center Accent by Bethany Lorelle 

Bride’s Pearl Cascade Drop Earrings by Lizardi Bridal 

Bride’s Brilliant Sparkle Bracelet by Miss Joans Hobby 

Iron-On Bride Rhinestone Transfer by Wedding Party Wear (No longer has active account) 

Bridesmaids’ Coral Hair Flower by WeeGardens 

Bridesmaids’ Hand Carved Rose earrings by Crystal Blue 07 

Paper Pom Napkin Rings by Party Poms   

Local Reception: 

Bride’s Teal Satin Flower Hair Pins by Nomsa  

Celebration Flags by PertiFulTings 

Mustaches on a Stick by MaroDesigns  

“Love is Sweet” Banner by Pink Grapefruit Design 

“Must Be Love” Vinyl Decal by Off the Wall Expression     

Ceremony Photography by Claudio for Cecilia Dumas 

Reception Photography by Jamie Dillion 

What was your theme/colors and what inspired it?  

Wedding colors: Coral and Green, inspired by tropical flowers 

Reception colors: Teal, black and white, inspired by vintage seaside 

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

I made our wedding and reception invitations as well as cute hand-drawn maps for both events. The wedding invites were message-in-a-bottle style with sand and shells inside with the rolled invite and burlap and ribbon wraps around the outside. 

We had to pack everything that we wanted to bring for decorating into one suitcase when we went to Mexico. We brought our own glass candle holders, vases, papel picado banners, luminary bags, paper lanterns, string lights, paper parasols and all of our Etsy purchases. My mother actually packed and brought all of the ingredients and elements to make our wedding cake! Because we couldn’t fit in personalized toasting flutes, we brought bride and groom wine charms from Etsy instead. Once we arrived on the island I found a florist and we ordered flowers for the wedding day. The groom’s mother did all of the bouquets, boutonnieres, and centerpieces. 

We used bright colored paper parasols to decorate during the ceremony as well as natural elements from the location like white sea urchin shells on the tables and potted palms for decoration. The location itself was unbelievable and presented a gorgeous backdrop for the ceremony and reception. Our dance floor was under a thatched palm palapa overlooking the ocean. 

As for other DIY aspects, I packed welcome bags for every guest including an agenda for the weekend utilizing the skeleton (el dia de los muertos) bride and groom stamp from Etsy. I also designed our wedding programs and tied them to palm fans so guests could keep cool during the ceremony. In place of a traditional guest book, we used a copy of “Mexican Calendar Girls” signed by the author Angela Villalba wherein guests wrote their sentiments. 

For the reception (in Washington) I created my own: circle cake toppers , paper fortune tellers (or cootie catchers) for the tables, paper flag banners, wine tasting table cards, and photo “booth”. In addition to preparing all of the food, my mother also monogrammed and individually packaged a hundred moon pies for our favors. Custom Jones Soda labels also added to the vintage feeling of the reception and the guests loved them! We used vintage black and white postcards with seaside images for guests to write on in place of a guest book. We also featured a sweet bar and used a vintage typewriter for guests to type anonymous answers to the question “What is Love?.” 

What was your favorite Etsy find?  

I loved everything I found on Etsy! I had a hard time limiting myself on my purchases. However, If I have to pick one item, it would probably be the custom ivory petal flower hairpiece by Bethany Lorelle. Bethany was wonderful to work with and the piece that she created took the place of a traditional veil, so it was very important to me. 

What is the most memorable moment of your day? 

The most memorable part of my wedding day was the amazing location. Casa Bonita is a traditional Mexican Hacienda on the ocean with gardens, palapas and a white sandy beach. Having family and friends travel so far to be a part of our celebration was incredible! It felt wonderfully personal as everyone pitched in to bring the whole event together.  The guests were all integral parts in making the day (and the trip) amazing! 

Ben and I also loved the post-ceremony wedding shoot on the dock during sunset…it was stunning. 

Local Wedding Reception

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

Start with an inspiration board; collect a variety of images that represent all that you would love to see in your wedding including your colors. Refer back to that inspiration board frequently to help yourself stay on target with items that work together and work with your theme. With so many choices for materials for weddings, it’s easy to end up with things that don’t really fit with your vision. Also, don’t be afraid to do something different, you can still have a “traditional” wedding in a completely unique and personalized way. The most wonderful thing about Etsy is that you can find an endless number of items that are totally unique!