A blog dedicated to small and intimate weddings. Step inside for wedding venues, DIY wedding ideas and real weddings with 75 or fewer guests.
Looking for a wedding bunting to hang at your reception or ceremony?
My mother-in-law has been busy creating some gorgeous new buntings for our Etsy shop. All of her handmade buntings are truly a labor of love!
Take a look at her latest creations (all are available for sale in our vintage bunting Etsy shop).
Earthy colors, great for a rustic wedding:
Aqua and dark brown – my favorite color combo!
Soft, peachy bliss:
For more vintage buntings, check our our Etsy shop!
Vintage buntings are a perfect way to add whimsy to your wedding day decor. You can drape them across the front of your sweetheart table, above your dessert table, or use them as props for wedding photos. After the wedding, you can hang them in your home as a remembrance of your Big Day!
We’ve just opened up an Etsy shop with handmade buntings. These buntings are NOT made in China. They are not slapped together in a factory. These are lovingly made by my mother-in-law, who has been sewing 50 + years. (Just call her ‘Bunting Barb!’) At $24 each these are a steal! Seriously. I know how much work has gone into them.
Most of the buntings have been made with vintage fabrics. We love upcycling!
Do take a look at our new vintage wedding buntings shop. Here are some of the gorgeous buntings currently available:
Love this pretty retro floral look!
Is yellow one of your wedding colors?
This one is extra long – and extra fun!
Love the olive and hot pink in this bunting.
Having a fiesta wedding? Wouldn’t this bunting be perfect?
There are plenty more patterns to choose from in our shop.
Cobalt blue is one of my favorite colours of sea glass - and it happens to be hot for weddings too!
This handmade cobalt blue sea glass jewelry is in my Etsy shop.
This filigree heart locket filled with cobalt blue sea glass is stunning. A perfect bridesmaid gift! Need more than one? Drop me a line!
This cobalt blue pendant glows when it hits the light.
This stacked cobalt blue sea glass pendant is made with sterling silver findings and comes with a sterling silver chain.
This cobalt blue sea glass mosaic pendant is truly one-of-a-kind.
I am a sea glass fanatic. I began collecting seriously in summer 2009 on the north shore of Lake Erie. (That’s my husband and two daughters above.)
Lake Erie has some damn fine sea glass. To put it scientifically, Lake Erie has a high PH – almost as high as an ocean, and this helps to make the glass nice and frosty. (I read this in Richard LaMotte’s Pure Sea Glass
I collect sea glass in area called The Pelee Passage, where there have been 275 shipwrecks. The area was a popular summer attraction for many years and I’m sure some of the glass I find is from wild parties many moons ago. I find quite a bit of old glass (80+ years old), and it’s fun to think about where it originated.
What does a girl do with mason jars full of gorgeous sea glass? She makes jewelry!!
I’m a big fan of using sterling silver in sea glass jewelry – so you’ll find lots of that in my Etsy shop.
Sea glass jewelry makes for wonderful one-of-a-kind bridesmaids gifts. Here are a few of my latest pieces:
Stunning, perfectly frosted white sea glass pendant with sterling silver bail.
Dainty cornflower blue sea glass necklace.
Lush, plump emerald green sea glass.
Uber rare lavender sea glass pendant. Perfect shape.
Stunning blue sea glass mosaic. The sea glass in this piece comes from England.
What a refreshing take on paper cranes and origami flowers. These photos were found at Ikea Sweden. I don’t understand a word on the site, but the photos are fab!
Eat your veggies – and decorate with them too! Veggie decor is a hot trend. It’s a great alternative to flowers, especially for brides trying to save a few bucks.
Luckily vegetable decor can be just as colorful as flowers so you won’t have to sacrifice on color and vibrancy! These vegetable boxes have a great rustic, farm-fresh feel to them.
What I like most about this veggie buffet table is the details. The artichoke pillars, cabbage bouquets and brussels sprouts runner are such great unexpected details. I would love to see a thick brussels sprout runner down the middle of a farm table. Gorgeous!
I don’t know about you, but when I think about a “veggie bouquet” I envision a bunch of carrots (literally), not the most sophisticated image. Thankfully, brides today are much more imaginative than that and are great as making fusion creations. Some bouquets simply incorporate vegetables like this hydrangea and artichoke bouquet as well as the kale and artichoke bouquet.
A bride can also totally surprise you and create something you never would have imagined before; like a bouquet that features heirloom carrots, purple kale and asparagus among its greenery and flowers.
Veggies can also be doubly efficient by being used as both the centerpiece and your candles. Here these veggies have been carved or wrapped around to house candles.
You could even continue the veggie theme through to your paper products, using radicchio to make a gorgeously designed stamp for your menu, invites, or thank you cards!
Photo One: youaremyfave.com; Photo Two: marthastewart.com; Photo Three: forgetmeknotweddingsblog.com; Photos Four and Five: pawleysislandposh.blogspot.com; Photo Six: whitelilacinc.blogspot.com; Photo Seven: greenweddingshoes.com; Photo Eight: greenweddingshoes.com; Photo Nine: tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com; Photo Ten: yesbride.com; Photo Eleven: marthastewart.com
Rebekah is a DIY obsessed, wedding and event design wizard who loves hunting her bay area homeland for clever craft ideas, vintage gems, bargain buys, new pieces for her vintage rental line and blogging inspiration. She and her husband live and write in Oakland. Read her blog.
Washi tape is sweeping the wedding world with more uses than you can shake a stick at!
There are so many different applications of Japanese washi tape. I’ve picked just a few of my favorite ingenious uses.
I love how sophisticated this black and white striped washi looks used as seal on these invitations.
These invites are so clever, and affordable! If you found them too casual to use for your actual wedding invitations, they would make perfect shower invites. The bunting is cut out from the washi tape in triangles, then black stitching is added for the line. The color selection here is very classic too, which avoids them looking too young.
In this adorable set-up we’ve got washi streamers for a delicate detail and washi flags for place settings.
Two different place seating uses for washi; either on a flag or wrapped around the place card. It’s nice to see how well washi lends itself to vintage aesthetics as well. Wrapped around this vintage postcard it looks both modern, yet not out of place (no pun intended) on the postcard and with the vintage looking gingham.
Another washi flag, but here it’s seen used as an ever so chic cocktail flag. Love it!
Brilliant. Washi tape table numbers: using vintage books you can DIY yourself some washi table numbers using complimentary tape colors and an exacto-knife.
Photo One: i-do-it-yourself.com; Photo Two: mermag.blogspot.com; Photos Three and Four: ProjectWedding.com; Photo Five: i-do-it-yourself.com; Photo Six: etsy.com; Photo Seven: Oncewed.com
If you’re like me and aren’t into all the cutesy stuff that typical cake toppers are made of, you’ve probably dug through Etsy through all of the overwhelming cuteness to come up with one or two that you kind of like. C’mon! Here you are on Intimate Weddings because you’re unique! You’re looking for an awesomely distinct and memorable celebration. You’re going to do things in a meaningful way, despite the sweet-nothing promises of huge guest lists and over-the-top weddings.
Well, I went on a hunt for you, dear readers. I hope you like the results.
1. Fabric flower cake toppers from PrettySwell on Etsy. The simplicity and versatility of color and texture in this cake topper makes it impossible for me to pass up. Plus, at only $15.00, who would want to?
2. Custom Love in the Library cake topper from Lace Rubbish on Etsy. As far as cute cake toppers go, this one’s pretty darn adorable. Hey, I can dig cutesy, don’t get me wrong. I just can’t dig Precious Moments cutesy.
3. Custom Double-Bike cake topper with two cute pets from UrAStarHouse on Etsy. UrAStarHouse proves you don’t have to have a bride dragging a groom off a cake to make an adorable, unique custom cake topper.
4. Love is Beautiful Wooden Rainbow Heart cake topper from Together Forever on Etsy. Not only do I adore the cake topper, but matched with the colorful accent and all-white cake and cake-stand, this whole cake is a beaut.
5. “Maddi” Cake Bunting from KiKiLaRu on Etsy. Simple, beautiful, charming…I believe this too-adorable-for-words miniature cake bunting would capture your guests’ attention. What do you think? And for Heaven’s sake, why does almost every cute thing have an even cuter miniature counterpart.
6. Custom designed and sculpted Couple Bust cake topper from Red Light Studio on Etsy. There’s something that melts inside me when I stare at this cake topper. I think it’s because busts are so typically used to commemorate famous historical people…and to have them on your wedding cake would just be fantastic.
7. Bride and Groom Hippos cake topper from Bunny With a Toolbelt on Etsy. They’re. Hippos! How could you not lose your cool for a moment?! Actually, Bunny With a Toolbelt’s entire shop is filled with adorable animals, robots, silhouettes and other wood-carved cake toppers just like this one.
8. Custom Whimsical cake toppers from Matylda Biedron on Etsy. Talented Matylda personally sews each hair on your likeness’ head in place and has unique and whimsical style to boot.
9. Cake Banner No. 2 No Common Phrases by ReadyGo on Etsy. 100% recycled cardstock means these sweet paper cake toppers aren’t just indie, minimal and perfect for almost any wedding theme, they’re eco-friendly to top it off (pun intended).
10. Paper Wedding cake topper from Concarta on Etsy. I have spent an unusual amount of time staring at the detail of Concarta’s work on Etsy. The amount of patience it must take to make these beauties is just unbelievable and the final product is something I can’t take my eyes off of.
There are cake toppers out there that will suit you and your partner. It might take a little digging to find something perfect…but if worst comes to worse, you can always go with the minimal-chic vibe and turn down a topper altogether.
Have you found your perfect cake topper yet?
Lizzie Smithson is a recent public relations graduate and wedding/design blogger at Love Your Way planning a $10,000 (or under) wedding with her graphic-designer fiancé, Isaiah.
If you’re having a small wedding you can can cut out all of the nonsense and unnecessary flub that gets added onto enormous affairs. With an intimate wedding, you get to trim the fat so to speak and get down to the essence of what makes you and your future spouse unique!
A really fun element to show your uniqueness is the card receptacle. I say receptacle because it’s not just a box, or even a birdcage anymore. Now you can see card boxes made out of everything from a vintage suitcase to a log!
Here are a few of my favorite vintage suitcase card boxes:
This log card “box” is so imaginative! I love how how it shows how you don’t have to be held back by anything but your own creativity when thinking about the design of your wedding!
I leave you with last, but not least, a dreamy vintage mail box as a card box. I love how logical it is, while still seeming so unique and creative.
Photo One: landlockedbride.com; Photo Two: estherlouise.com/blog; Photo Three: ruffledblog.com; Photo Four: amysallthingswedding.com; Photo Five: weddingbycolor.com
Have you heard of Pinterest? If not, you must check it out! Thanks to Lizzie, I recently discovered this incredible source of ideas and inspiration. It’s free to join, and once you become a member you can use the site to easily organize all of your favourite images from the web. It’s a fantastic way to keep all of your favourite wedding images in one place.
Here are a coupls of my recent favourites from Pinterest:
Jar lanterns via Pinterest from alkemie.blogspot.com:
Fun photo shoot via Pinerest.
Don’t sacrifice style for warmth for your winter wedding.
I can’t say it enough, I love winter weddings. Aside from the charm and elegance winter naturally carries with it, one of my favorite aspects of winter weddings is the ability to change the style of your dress and keep warm at the same time.
For the charming, crafting, DIY, eclectic brides of the world, you can pretty much pick any style of shrug, sweater, shawl you like. Here are a few handpicked from around the web.
The luxurious, glamorous and extravagantly chic bride has to be a bit more picky. Feathers, faux fur, lace, finely crocheted and sheer wraps, shrugs and shawls are the way to go. A little something like this, perhaps?
I love how this sweater understates the elegance of a wedding. Kiera Knightley pulls of this look with style and subtlety, and so can you. Choose either a button-down cardigan or a ribbon-wrap cardigan as shown and you’ll be warm and looking too-cool-for-school in no time.
Photo One: Etsy seller SweetKnitting Photo Two: Wedding Paper Divas Photo Three: Adrienne Gunde Photography; Photo Four Paris Wedding Photo Five: Etsy seller Silvia66 Photo Six: Elizabeth Anne Designs Photo Seven: Veil Tales
Lizzie Smithson is a public relations student and wedding blogger planning a $10,000 (or under) wedding with her graphic-designer fiancé.
My Danish grandmother did beautiful embroidery work. I still have many of her pieces tucked away in my linen closet. I don’t use them – but I would never part with them because they remind me of her.
Embroidery really epitomizes what so many of us love about ‘vintage’ and old-fashioned. It reminds us of our grandmothers, and of a time when handmade was the norm. A time when computers and gadgets didn’t monopolize our free time, and a needle and thread were the perfect way to relax.
The thing with vintage embroidered linens is that you can often buy them at second hand stores for a song. But what do you do with them?
You make wedding invitations!
UK stationery designer Vicky Trainor uses vintage embroidered linens in her fantastic “Made with Love” wedding invitation collection. She also adds some of her own embroidery.
“I have a degree in Fashion/Textiles – specialist Embroidery – so it is great to be able to use a slight hint here and there,” she says.
Using vintage linens, appliqued florals, buttons, beading and embroidery Vicky creates linen wedding invitation booklets that are not only unique – but downright delightful. She will also be offering favour sewing cases, embroidered table numbers, lavender bags, linen and ribbon place ties, and name chair back ties to go with the collection, which will be available in January 2011.
The boxed booklet invitations start at $14.50 USD each – which isn’t a huge splurge if you are have a tiny guest list!
Photos: Rock My Wedding
