Our Handcrafted Cabin Wedding

This is probably going to be the longest post I write because I feel like it’s a way for you to really get to know me, the gal behind the blog. Think of this as an extensive “About Me” page. I’m gonna talk a lot, then share some photos, and then talk some more. I apologize in advance for my extensive ramblings but since I receive so many emails with questions about our wedding, I figure this is a great place to share that info. Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts too!

Our Handcrafted Cabin Wedding in the North Carolina Mountains

Don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings if you zone out or just look through the photos, but you could also grab some coffee and follow along to see if I share any tips on what not to do at your wedding.

If you’ve browsed through my site you may recognize some of these photos, but I’m throwing in some of the more personal moments, both from our handcrafted cabin wedding and before as well.

Love at first sight? Really?

Eric and I met in 2007 while going to school in Ventura, California. It was love at first sight and I don’t care if that sounds cheesy because it’s the truth. 🙂 I went with my friend Danielle to drop off a keyboard she had borrowed from our friend, Ian and it was when we were backing out of the driveway that Eric came strolling up. He peeked inside the window to say hello and Danielle introduced us. My heart pretty much stopped in it’s tracks and I could barely manage to get a few words out. Not something that happens too often. It was the strangest gut feeling I’ve ever had and not in just a “hey he’s cute” kind of way either.  It may have been a brief introduction but one I will never forget. Especially because I remember thinking “oh no I didn’t do my hair today!”.  Ha. When he went inside he talked to Ian to get the 411 on me, so I guess it didn’t bother him too much. A few weeks later we were together and have been inseparable ever since.

To DIY or not to DIY that is the Question.

Let me start off by saying that not everyone wants to DIY their entire wedding, or even most of it, and I totally get that. Wedding planning is stressful enough without all of the projects, and you have enough on your plate as it is. Yet I encourage you to create some handcrafted element for your wedding, even if it’s just one tiny project and it’s with the help of your friends and family, because it will make your big day feel that much more personal. If nothing else you will have a fun story to share with your kids someday. We were on a tiny budget and the only way to create the wedding I wanted, was to handcraft it myself. So that’s what I did. Of course we never could have pulled it off without the help of family and friends, they were amazing!

So you want your wedding to feel totally unique and be a reflection of you and your fiancé’s personalities, without feeling like you are copying someone else’s love story, right?

With all of the beautiful wedding inspiration floating around the internet these days, it can be difficult to find fresh ways to celebrate your “ever after”. The good news is you can take that idea you see on Pinterest, Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, etc. and by adding your own personal touch you can create a special day, unique to you and your spouse, and one that your wedding guests will never forget.

True Confession

I have a true confession, I never got all that into weddings and prior to being engaged I never even opened up a bridal magazine. Shocking coming from a girl who now has her own wedding blog, right? Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone. Well, I have to admit that after I started browsing around the wedding world {and, of course, Pinterest} I quickly became obsessed and finally understood what the fuss was all about.

It didn’t take long before I was up at 3 am every night with 20+ internet tabs open to wedding-related sites while “Say Yes to the Dress” played in the background. And all of a sudden I found myself crying every time a girl found “the dress”. What the heck was going on with my emotions!? Can anyone else relate or am I just a weirdo? No need to answer that.

I was especially excited to see that the wedding world was more accepting of budget brides and less traditional celebrations. Call me frugal {or crafty} but the truth is I’m a DIY girl at heart, and our rustic handcrafted wedding was a labor of love to say the least.

My dream wedding as a little girl…

Growing up, the only thought I ever gave to my “future wedding” was that it had to take place outside. In my mind it was always in some sort of forest underneath a waterfall. Yup, a waterfall. I didn’t see tons of people in my little daydream, or the dress I would wear, or what my cake would look like. Instead my dream wedding was focused more on an intimate setting surrounded by the beauty of the great outdoors {and, of course, the man of my dreams}. And although Eric {aka the man of my dreams} and I didn’t get married underneath a waterfall, we were married outside, in an intimate setting enveloped by nature and the love of our family and friends. Thinking back to it, my in-laws did stay at the “Waterfall Cabin” just 2 doors down from the ceremony site, which has a small man-made waterfall out front, so at least there was that. Um does that count?

The Uninvited Guest to our Handcrafted Cabin Wedding

I was a Murphy and don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but Murphy’s Law definitely showed up (uninvited) to our wedding.

I knew things would go wrong and kept my cool when the caterer flaked a WEEK before, we couldn’t fit all of the decorations into the car on our way down to North Carolina {oops}, and my mom realized she forgot her dress once we got there. Then the gazebo wasn’t finished due to the rain {it was literally just boards on the ground the day we arrived}, the {DIY} flowers were 5 hours late. and people kept getting lost, but we had no phone signal and had to keep driving down the mountain to the nearest gas station to meet them, and then have them follow us up to the cabins. We didn’t know the phone numbers to each cabin because when I tried to call my phone from it {so it would show up on the caller id} it would go straight to my voicemail since I had no signal. Talk about stressful!

Did I mention I forgot my license at the cabins when we went to get our marriage license {about 30 minutes from where we were staying}, that my friend lost my car keys at the grocery store, and that all the extra time I thought I would have to “finish up” some last-minute projects was sucked up faster than you can say “Why didn’t we elope?!”. Yes, the list could go on.

I had more meltdowns the day before and the day of our wedding than I think I have had my whole life! Seriously. I don’t think I have cried that much EVER! I was so scared nothing was going to come together and was feeling bad that our friends and family had to help out so much. Luckily I would only cry for a few minutes then pick myself back up, and run around to get more things done. There literally was no time for crying, lol. I was a hot mess of emotions, to say the least.

Luckily our friends and family reaaaaally pulled through and helped put the pieces back together. Some things didn’t get done, and I had to do more delegating than I’ve ever had to do in my life. I also had to relinquish control on a lot of things, which wasn’t easy.

The unfinished gazebo, which is where we held the ceremony and later used as the dance floor., was probably the most stressful part. Yet I have to admit that it turned out to be pretty amazing.

Once I realized it wasn’t going to get finished I cried. Then I took a deep breath, grabbed all of our lace tablecloths, runners and tulle and worked with the family to figure out a new plan. Too bad they didn’t know they signed up for a rustic handcrafted cabin wedding weekend marathon because that’s what they got. They were troopers, that’s for sure! On the plus side, at least it didn’t rain the day of our wedding, woo-hoo!

However, using decorations on the gazebo that I had planned for the tables and decks definitely threw things off, and I had to improvise fast. Steve {the owner} had some extra white tablecloths that we were able to throw on the tables, but there was no time for ironing to we just had to roll with the punches.  We even sent some friends out to the nearest Walmart {30 min away} to buy white twinkle lights to hang from the top of the gazebo. We were supposed to bring some up from our house in Georgia but had forgotten them, booo}. I had brought up string globe and rope lights, but there wasn’t enough to cover the gazebo too.  Looking back at it all, I’ve gotta say that I’m actually happy the gazebo wasn’t finished because we were able to dance under the stars, which was pretty awesome. Silver lining, right?

I had planned on making pretty chalkboard signs but ran out of time which sucks because I even spent time playing around with fonts and quotes in illustrator so I could get them printed on transparency paper at staples. I thought I’d be able to get them printed the day before we left {I didn’t want to write them up and chance them getting ruined on the ride up there}, but the Staples by me closed at 7 that day and I had to pick my friend up at the airport, so I didn’t make it in time. So I then brought my huge ET looking projector to the cabins thinking I could find a Staples there and then easily trace them while there. As if I was going to have time for all that, pfft. So yeah…. we didn’t have time to find a staples and in the end, my bridesmaids helped write the signs, which was nice, but we had to change up some of the wording to make it easier. I think using printable chalkboard signs would have been a better option.

I had also decided 10 days before the wedding that I wanted a fabric bouquet and that we could mix fabric flowers with real flowers for the bridesmaids. We made soooooooo many fabric flowers and although my bouquets were finished, in the end there just weren’t enough fabric flowers for my girls and we had to throw some last-minute bouquets together. I should have spent all of those hours finishing other projects, vs. starting new ones, whoops. We also somehow lost the pins for the boutonnieres right before the wedding and I don’t remember what the guys used but Eric’s is upside down in most of the photos, haha.

So…. we were supposed to have our ceremony at 5:30 because I thought that would have been good to get in nice daytime, sunset and evening photos. Only things got crazy and we pushed it back to 6:15. Our family and friends were all there helping so it didn’t matter when we pushed the time back, but we lost daytime FAST. That was such a bummer and I wish we would have been able to get married on time so we had more daytime photos.

Eric {the now hubster} was amazing and we even saw each other the day of because we were all working together to set everything up. I know it’s not what most couples do because traditionally you’re not supposed to see each other until the ceremony, but we are a team and work so well together. Plus I’m a DIY bride so there was no way I was going to let him be out there working without me. A few of our friends {and Eric} used to work on film sets so they were amazing at getting things set up pretty fast, which was a bonus.

I mention all of these things, not to dwell on the negative but because I want to share my real experience with you. Who knows, it may prevent you from forgetting your license, from piling on too many projects at the last minute, or realize that it’s not the end of the world if things don’t go according to plan.

So despite the laundry list of things that went wrong, it was still a magical day filled with rustic romance and a touch of whimsy. In my eyes, it was still perfect. It reflected our personalities, brought our families together, and was the dream rustic handcrafted cabin wedding I never imagined I would experience.

Side note: The venue {which wasn’t technically a venue when we were married there} has come a long way since our wedding, and the owner has put some practices into place to ensure weddings run more smoothly. I’m also happy to report that the gazebo is finished.

Budget for Our Handcrafted Cabin Wedding:

Our budget was less than $5k and that included renting out just about all the rooms in the 5 cabins for 3 days, and the extra 4 days Eric and I spent there for our honeymoon, which took up at least 50% of the budget.

Alrighty, let’s get onto some photos of our handcrafted cabin wedding and then I’ll share some more info from my most asked questions at the bottom of this post.

  Season: Fall | Location: Mars Hill, North Carolina | Budget: Less than $5,000
Venue – Memory Mountain at Wolf Laurel | Photography – Facing the Lens

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Q&A

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1. Proposal Story:

After being together for 6 years and talking about marriage throughout those years I started to soften up on the idea. I had been telling him for years that I didn’t know if I ever wanted to get married because I had seen so many failed relationships around me. I never wanted to get married just to end up divorced. Who does? I have never known anyone like him though, so loving, supportive and genuine. We have been through so much together and make such a great team. I feel like together we really can accomplish anything. As though we are unstoppable. So despite what I told him I secretly always knew he was the man I would marry. It just took me a few years to finally own up to it. He started asking me questions like what kind of wedding rings I liked, ya know ’cause that’s not obvious or anything. A few weeks later while out for a hike along the Chattahoochee river with our pup, Bailey, he proposed to me. It was perfect.

2. How long did you have to plan it?

We had 6 months to plan the wedding since a lot of Eric’s family is in the farming business and would be able to make it to a fall wedding, otherwise, it would be pushed back over a year. We figured 6 months was enough time and didn’t see any reason to put it off any longer.  Of course, I didn’t really start getting into planning gear until June, which gave me about 4 months, and now I understand why couples have long engagements. All of those little details certainly add up!

3. How did you pick your wedding style?

Eric and I are pretty laid back and are all about nature and the great outdoors. In fact, we plan to one day {hopefully soon} live in a charming small town in the mountains surrounded by tall trees. I was really drawn to all of the romantic, vintage and ethereal wedding photos I came across, but also wanted it to be a little more playful. Hence, a romantic and rustic handcrafted wedding with a hint of vintage and a touch of whimsy. That was a tad long to make the title of this post though. Ha. If we still lived in California I would have been all about the redwoods and gone with a woodland-inspired wedding. Either way, a handcrafted cabin wedding in the mountains fit our personalities so perfectly and I couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate with our family and friends.

4. How many dresses before I found “the one”

We were on a super tight budget and I was originally hoping to find a vintage style dress at an antique or consignment shop but wasn’t having much luck. I was trying to be practical yet knew I still wanted to feel special and beautiful once the big day rolled around. I found some great deals online but was too nervous to buy something without trying it on. Normally I have to try on over 20 pairs of jeans just to find a pair I like, so online wedding shopping was out of the question. I was also limited on time which meant limited on options. I knew I would need something off the rack but also had a budget of $500. We made a spontaneous trip to David’s Bridal one day and it honestly wasn’t the best experience. I have friends who have purchased beautiful wedding gowns there at great prices, but it was super packed and I felt sorta awkward coming out of the dressing room with 20 other girls. It was a little intimidating for me. I tried on two dresses, and although they were pretty, neither was “the one”.

So 2 months passed and I hadn’t tried on any other dresses. I was waiting to lose weight only that wasn’t happening, woops. I researched a bunch of “affordable” wedding dress shops near Atlanta and came across Carrie’s Bridal. It’s a bridal boutique where Carrie designs all of the dresses herself, they are all priced under $1,000 and there is a selection of about 300 dresses off the rack. She also only meets with one bride at a time so it’s just you, your posse and Carrie. After checking out her Facebook page and reading the comments I felt a sense of relief. I felt like this could be a place I’d feel comfortable and find a dress that is affordable, yet unique. When I first walked in there was a dress that stood out immediately and I told my sister, “oooh I like that one!” but it was a size too small and the price was $599. $100 over budget. Boooooo.

So I tried on a super pretty wispy and romantic number that on paper was exactly what I had been looking for. I wanted something romantic, vintage and with a bit of whimsy. It was pretty and I liked it a lot but didn’t looooooove it. Of course, my sister then grabbed the dress I had pointed at and made me try it on. So I did. And I fell in love. I actually did the ugly cry as soon as I saw myself in it. Yup. My mom then told me she had planned on going up to $600, and they both knew it was my dress. And so it was. My mom even did all of the alterations for me and made my veil, so we saved on that part of it too. We spent a long time looking at ways to bustle the train because of all of the rosettes on the dress, and my mom did such a great job that we forgot it was bustled until AFTER the wedding. Oops.

5. Did you DIY any Projects? If so which was your favorite?

What didn’t we DIY? Lol. It’s difficult to pick a favorite because they were all so special. My mom helped with most of the projects and we spent many nights watching “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Four Weddings” while planning out ideas and crafting it up. It would probably be a toss-up between our invitations, floating moss letters, mason jar chandelier, and my fabric bouquet. Okay if I have to pick one it’s probably my bouquet, which I decided to make 10 days before the wedding. Stressful? Yes! Worth it? Yes! You can view all of the handcrafted projects that have been posted in the DIY gallery.

6. Did you use a Wedding Coordinator? Would you recommend one?

I didn’t hire a wedding coordinator because 1. We were on a super-duper tight budget and 2. I’m a control freak and wanted to plan everything myself. I felt like I needed time to really hone in on what I did and didn’t want, and didn’t want to be influenced by anyone else. Plus I have a sister-in-law that worked in the bridal industry and she helped out quite a bit. I don’t think a wedding coordinator would have helped me much because they couldn’t have kept me from DIYing to the last second and I would have driven them crazy. Plus I had the help of friends and family. However, if you don’t have bossy family or friends to step up and get things in order then yes, a wedding coordinator would be super helpful! Weddings are stressful and wedding planners are there to help alleviate that stress and make sure things get done. I definitely think they are worth it and have so much respect for them.

7. Favorite source of inspiration for our handcrafted cabin wedding:

Pinterest. Cliche but true. I was able to create boards and after pinning tons of photos I started to see patterns of what I liked,  which then inspired most of my DIY projects.

8. First Dance Song:

It was a toss-up between “Sweet Pea” by Amos Lee and “I won’t give up” by Jason Mraz. I ultimately decided to walk down the aisle to “Sweet Pea” and we danced to “I won’t give up”. I <3 Jason Mraz but that song was soooooo long and Eric and I were giggling while we danced because we are terrible dancers, and it felt like we were up there forever while everyone watched us dance like middle schoolers.

9. Favorite part of the day:

Geez, this is a tough one. Obviously the moment I stepped out and saw Eric is one I will never forget. Seeing him up there smiling at me and knowing that I was about to become his wife was an incredible feeling, and yes I cried. Now every time I hear the song “Sweet pea” I think back to that moment and get all choked up. It was such a perfect moment.

Our friends and family worked so hard to help me create the rustic handcrafted wedding I had envisioned, but I knew there wasn’t enough time to get things exactly how I wanted. At one point I stopped to look around and saw Eric helping to set up the chairs, and this feeling came over me and I just couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle to him.

At that moment I looked around and realized everything was perfect. Magical is the one word that really comes to mind. Our friends and family poured themselves into helping out with all of the wedding details, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Watching everyone work together and create this absolutely magical and romantic space for us was incredibly overwhelming. You could feel the love all around and I actually cried. Happy tears of course. I wanted our rustic handcrafted wedding to be a time for our families to get together and celebrate our marriage. I had never felt so close to them and seeing how well we all worked together was nothing short of amazing. It was then that I was like, alright I can go get dressed and get married. Let’s do this!

10. Advice or tips for those planning a wedding:

Just remember that things will likely go wrong and yet it will still be absolutely perfect. Maggie from the Love Nerds told me that before our wedding, and it was so true! Accept that you may have to make some last-minute changes, so try to be as flexible as you can and it will still turn out beautiful! The little details that you stress about, most people won’t even notice anyway. If I didn’t have so many DIY projects, and so many things didn’t go wrong, it would have been a lot less stressful, yet I wouldn’t change a thing. Know your strengths and your weaknesses when it comes to planning and ask for help.

I suck at this because I’m a control freak and not the best at delegating tasks. Chances are, your friends and family want to be a part of the planning process so let them enjoy it with you. Oh and don’t forget to UN-bustle your train, if you have one! I’m still kicking myself for that one. And maybe remind your fiancé to remove his phone from his pocket so it doesn’t show up in photos, haha.

I would also say, don’t leave any wedding signs until the last minute because Staples may be further than you realized, things could happen and I would say framed printables or wood signs would be best. This way you don’t have to worry about chalk smearing or handwriting, etc, unless you have time on your side or don’t have to drive several hours to your venue. Also, I don’t recommend liquid chalk if you do use chalkboards because it doesn’t erase like normal chalk, which isn’t fun if you mess up.

Vendor Information for Our Handcrafted Cabin Wedding:

The rustic handcrafted wedding took place at Memory Mountain at Wolf Laurel. My dress was from Carrie’s Bridal and my bridesmaids were given color swatches {in different shades} and picked their dresses out wherever they liked. All of the cardigans were from Victoria’s Secret. Eric got his pants at Macy’s, shirt, shoes and belt at TJ Maxx and suspenders from Target. The ties and bow ties were ordered from this awesome Etsy shop.  We were lucky since Eric’s sister does hair for a living so she did my hair and makeup and was supposed to help the other gals, but since we were running behind they just helped one another. Oh and Eric’s dad officiated the wedding, how awesome is that?!

So… our caterer {a friend of a friend of a friend that was trying to start a catering business} totally flaked on us last minute so we had A WEEK to figure out a new plan. We ended up buying brisket and chicken from 12 bones, a BBQ place in Asheville. They have weird hours and we had to pick it up the day before the wedding, but they showed my mom how to re-heat it. I’m actually a vegetarian so I didn’t eat any of it, but everyone else said it was realllllllly good! Our mom’s and other family members then contributed to making the sides. We kept appetizers easy and more family helped contribute to our sweets table so we had cake, more cake, cake pops, cookies, and peach cobbler. My sister actually made the cake, grooms cake and cake pops and my mom made the cake topper.

For the photographer, we went with Deborah of Facing the Lens Photography. She is AWESOME and I felt so comfortable around her like I had known her forever! She has beautiful photos and great prices, especially for a wedding photographer!

The chairs were rented from Rental Me This, the owner is really nice and reasonable. We were able to pick the chairs up the day before the wedding and drop them off the day after so that we didn’t have to pay the delivery fee. So we used the chairs on the gazebo and then moved them over to the decks for the reception. The tables were built by the owner of the cabin resort, Steve, and we also “shopped” his antique collection for old jars as well as the eclectic antique dishes.

Most of our flowers came from Sam’s Club, and we didn’t even get to use all of them! The Scabiosa Pods were ordered from a local Asheville florist, and one of Steve’s neighbors let us use a bunch of her dahlias on the gazebo since they were about to freeze over {wasn’t that sweet?}. We had also picked up some baby’s breath at Publix the day before. I thought we were going to have time to make floral crowns. Um…nope. The day after our handcrafted cabin wedding we dropped all of the flowers off at a local nursing home.

I’m sure that’s more than you ever wanted to know about our handcrafted cabin wedding haha. I hope you enjoyed the photos and getting to know the duo behind this blog a little more.