DIY Wedding in Big Lake, Minnesota, Part Three: Gina and Stein

We asked Gina how she came up with the idea of playing old films in the background of her reception?

 

"Having ALWAYS been in love with 'the good ol' days,' I have a great love for vintage fashion, films and what is known as 'the greatest generation.' After looking through many photos of my Grandma Ione & Grandpa Leon's wedding from the 1940s, I just had to have that added touch because there is something so near and dear to my heart about that time."

 

Dress: St. Cloud Bridal & Boutique
Cake: Coborn's Bakery of Elk River
Flowers: Shauna Kober
Invitations: Handmade by Bride
Caters: Russell's on the Lake located in big lake, MN

DJ/Band: Midwest Sound and Light Shows out of Minneapolis
Ceremony: Our Lady of the Lake Church

Reception: Fox Hollow Golf Club

DIY Wedding in Big Lake, MN, Part Two: Gina and Stein

We asked Gina what advice she would give future DIY brides. She graciously replied:

"Make a fun inspirational collage of things that make you happy and wedding details you love. It will really help you get a feel for the style of wedding you wish to plan. Just always remember that after all that planning, when the wedding day comes, you really just need to take everything with a grain of salt and laugh at the little things. On our wedding day, just after I walked down the isle he stepped on the train of my dress, and you could hear a big RIP noise. I just tilted my head back in laughter and the congregation at the church followed in laughter. I really think it set the mood for our evening."

We think Gina is spot on! Their "let's just enjoy the day" attitude helped them relax and let their true feelings for each other show.


Dress: St. Cloud Bridal & Boutique
Cake: Coborn's Bakery of Elk River
Flowers: Shauna Kober
Invitations: Handmade by Bride
Caters: Russell's on the Lake located in big lake, MN

DJ/Band: Midwest Sound and Light Shows out of Minneapolis
Ceremony: Our Lady of the Lake Church

Reception: Fox Hollow Golf Club

DIY Wedding in Big Lake, Minnesota, Part One: Gina and Stein

There are so many things We love about this wedding: a stunning bride, a distinguished groom, great details and most of all fun people! Gina put her heart and soul into every detail of her wedding. She made custom aprons for all her bridesmaids.

Lace/Hanky asked Gina where she got her inspiration from and she responded:

"I LOVE online wedding blogs such as: Green Wedding Shoes, Ruffled Blog and 100 Layered Cake. I also have always been in love with Martha Stewart, so I consulted her wedding magazine for fun details as well. Another one of my favorite things to do is go through my family photo albums of grandmas & grandpas, aunts and uncles weddings for meaningful details. I have always loved bright colors and from the start I knew I had to incorporate lots of color into the wedding, especially with spring having sprung it was a necessity for me! I believe color can add so much happiness and can really set the mood whether it be an everyday outfit or planning a wedding like we were doing. And wherever possible I tried to throw in hints of vintage with old fashioned fonts, a vintage cake topper from Etsy, a black & white first dance video, etc."

Dress: St. Cloud Bridal & Boutique
Cake: Coborn's Bakery of Elk River
Flowers: Shauna Kober
Invitations: Handmade by Bride
Caters: Russell's on the Lake located Big Lake, MN
DJ/Band: Midwest Sound and Light Shows out of Minneapolis
Ceremony: Our Lady of the Lake Church
Reception: Fox Hollow Golf Club

Ted and Shay: We're more practical than cheap, or practically cheap

I love all things ephemeral: clippings from magazines and newspapers, postcards, note cards, labels, photos, etc. Our living room is cluttered with shelves and stacks of old novels, atlases, how-to books, you name it. I guess I'm a sucker for visual inspiration in the physical form, which is why it totally bums me out to not send actual invitations to everyone.

Due to our financial situation, I long ago gave up on doing what other people expect from a wedding, so we're going digital! Email invitations felt tacky to me at first, but after looking at a couple of different sites that offered such services, I met my new friend, Pingg!

It's probably similar to all of those other sites, but Pingg's site design is so clean and crisp, it made me feel less cheap about the whole idea.


You can design your own invite, or use one of their templates. We ended up using the same graphic of our mugs that I stamped onto the coaster save the dates.

Pingg lets you email, text or snail mail the invites, which I thought was pretty cool.  And they track all of your RSVP info and send follow-up emails to folks who don't respond.  Oh yeah, and it's FREE!

My favorite thing about their invites, is when you receive the email and click on the link, it takes you to a site with an envelope on the screen. When you click on the envelope, the invitation slides up! Fun!

In an effort not to confuse people, we're only sending these out to the masses that are invited to the reception, not the small group invited to the ceremony and reception, to whom we already mailed invites.  I'm totally over thinking this, and I'm super worried that people who received our snail-mail invites are going to be confused about not getting the Pingg invite...Should I just send the Pingg invite to everyone, or leave it as is? Am I starting to lose my mind? Maybe a little....

xoshayox