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.

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, a must-have book for any avid sea glasser!)

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.

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.

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.

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

Here are a coupls of my recent favourites from Pinterest:

Jar lanterns via Pinterest from alkemie.blogspot.com:

Fun photo shoot via Pinerest.