What kind of wedding photographer would I be if I didn’t share photos and resources from my own wedding? There’s so much to share so this will be the first post of probably a few that’ll be shared. This post will cover location, the flowers, signage, and the majority of our decor pieces.

I had the pleasure of working with Kelsey Marie Photo who’s a wedding photographer out of Indiana. She hired two associates (Claire Hope Photo and Joy Flare Photo) to come and shoot for her and she did all of the editing magic. As a wedding photographer myself, I was so picky in choosing who I wanted to do our photos and I couldn’t have been happier with how they turned out.

But let’s start from the beginning.

Caleb and I got engaged on January 17th 2023. It was the day before my birthday. We knew that we wanted to get married soon and so we picked out May 20th as our date. We booked Scarlet Oaks Estate for our venue. It’s a charming little homestead with a gorgeous house and side home that our families were allowed to stay in the night before the wedding, a stunning front yard with hanging lights and a spacious backyard where the ceremony was held. Off to the side of the property is a barn that we were also allowed to use for our rehearsal dinner.

Pat is the manager of the property and even allowed us to use the estate for our engagement photos. My best friend and Matron of Honor, Kaytlin, who is also a photographer, took them for us. Caleb and I had been long distance for the entirety of our relationship and Finlay Ohio (also the location of Scarlet Oaks Estate) had become a middle-point for us to meet. And we found one of our favorite coffee shops there - Coffee Amici. You’ll notice that we took some photos there as well.

Fun Fact: Caleb and I saw each other the morning of the wedding. We went to Coffee Amici for breakfast and I gave him a watch to wear during the wedding (that you’ll most likely see in a later post).

Let’s talk details. I’ve always been artsy and very particular about the details. And one of our goals for our wedding was to land on the cheap side whenever we could. Many of the things that we incorporated into our wedding were hand-made, diy-ed, thrifted, etc.

One of those things was this photo arch set that guests could use during the reception. Kaytlin had previously used this arch set just the year prior for her own wedding and allowed us to use it as well. We gave it a few coats of paint, added this custom neon sign by DecorByPitz on Etsy with our initials and year, and some chicken wire with tons of babys breath flowers stuffed inside the wire.

This brings me to the flowers. I decided that I wanted to do the flowers myself. I knew that tulips were going to be the star of the show with pops of other “springy” flowers. I found a site called Fifty Flowers where I was able to order everything we needed. And because I did a crazy amount of research to determine how many flowers we would need, I’ll list everything I got in honor of the fellow brides out there who are also at a loss when it comes to diy-ing your own flowers. (We also had about 20 tables and about 160 guests for reference).

5 bunches of the assorted poppy pack for the table center-pieces
50 yellow craspedia billy balls for table center-pieces and bouquets
100 white snapdragons for center-pieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages
100 mint green parrot novelty tulips for bouquets and center-pieces
50 white fringed novelty tulips for bouquets
50 white ranunculus flowers for bouquets, center-pieces, and boutonnieres, and corsages
10 bunches of italian ruscus greenery to fill in wherever needed
20 bunches of feverfew daisies to fill in wherever needed
120 bunches of babys breath which sustained us for the arches, the table center-pieces, the aisle pieces, and the floral nest that was used in the ceremony.
2000 white rose petals for the petal toss after the ceremony

Both my family and Caleb’s family helped us so much in arranging most of these flowers. We arrived at the venue the evening before the wedding with a trailer full of flowers and limited time and hands to put everything together. If it hadn’t been for our extended families to help us, there’s no way we would’ve gotten everything done in the time we had.

The table center-pieces were made from chicken wire that I arranged into “donut shapes” and then stuffed with babys breath and feverfew daisies. They were to be placed on top of some shallow glass dishes with some flower frogs super glued to the bottom of the container. The frogs would then serve as a “pin cushion” for larger flowers to be displayed from. (I get it, nothing I just said made any sense, just look at the photos for context).

Kaytlin and I painted the candlesticks that you see on the tables.

Here’s a quick tip: Include a QR code on the back of your table numbers with a link to a shared google album so guests can upload photos they take during your wedding!

The Aisle Pieces and Pieces for the Floral Nest were also used for the sweetheart table and at the base of the photo arches. Those were a fairly easy diy. I bought 1x2-foot pieces of wood from Menards along with some chicken wire. I cut the chicken wire into smaller strips and then used them to create an arch shape that I stapled to the wood. All that was left to do was adding babyss breath.

Another quick tip: When it comes to babys breath, start more sparsely, spacing the flowers out a bit. Our mistake was packing in the flowers super tightly at first, which made us run out faster.

I loved how these pieces turned out and that we could use them for multiple locations (the center aisle, the floral nest arch, the sweetheart table, and the photo booth).

Lastly, my bridesmaids and I created the boutonnieres for the men as well as some smaller bouquets for our moms and grandmothers as well. Caleb’s boutonniere contained a snapdragon, a ranunculus, and baby’s breath.

All of our signs were made with Canva. I downloaded each design and had them printed at The Hubbard Company in Defiance, OH. I got the frames from Walmart and spray painted some of them gold. Our table numbers are from Amazon.

Be on the lookout these next two weeks for the next post which will cover our food, some of our homemade touches, setup, and more!

My Wedding Part One: Photographers, Florals, and Signage