Luke & Margaret’s southern-style wedding is overflowing with warm yellows and cool blues, luscious fabrics, sunshine and a whole lotta comfort food. The location for such an event couldn’t be more perfect – an amphitheater in lush Andrew Jackson State Park in South Carolina. Margaret and her friends did an incredible job turning this public are into a unique and stunning scene for a wedding – with loads of DIY elements that are sure to take your breath away.
This necklace is stunning- why go with a string of pearls when you can do a fun and lavish cluster on a soft ribbon?
The wooden stage of the amphitheater looks gorgeous with those creamy golden fabric for the drapes and runner. So warm & earthy.
All kinds of cute and personal touches like those plates featuring the bride & groom’s home states.
Margaret, an artist who is well versed in letterpress, designed, printed and assembled the invites and other paper goods herself (with help from a few friends). The floral pattern was actually scanned from a vintage plate design and re-printed onto new plates. Such a cute idea!
A perfectly imperfect banner for the desserts table.
Unquestionably gorgeous, Luke & Margaret!
Venue: Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, South Carolina / Photography: Mary Dougherty Photography / Floral Design: Sassafras / Dress style 185FB by: Aria Dress
28 comments
This wedding is so beautiful. I love the rustic feel. Where did you find the homestate plates? They are adorable and I would love to steal that idea!
I love this! Gorgeous details and such an attractive couple– you can really tell everything about this wedding was put together with love:)
love this…their invitations are way too cute…
Love the your wedding ideas! Everything is beautiful! Where did you get your necklace? I looks perfect with your dress!
Where is the wedding dress from? I love it!
I am in love with this dress too! Any idea where its from?
I want her necklace that is GORGEOUS!!
Love the invites, where and who did them???
Hi, I’m an artist / printmaker myself and am planning on making my wedding invitations, too. I like the idea of printing on wood (birch?) and was also interested to know the specifics of the process you used to print? Thanks!
- Lily
such an adorable wedding. love the billy balls & all of the “imperfection” that somehow still seems polished.
What a fabulous wedding! I love love LOVE her necklace.
personal touches were great, the table setting was beautiful
Where did she get her invitations?
The wedding dress looks incredible, its so simple but the box pleats make it look immaculate!!
Love the nod to their home states and the touches of burlap everywhere!
oh an the long table too!
xo Kirby
This wedding is one of my favorites! I would love to know if there are more photos online somewhere that I could see? I am interested in having my wedding at that park but I live in Orlando and have no way to see what it looks like. I would be grateful for any help, thank you!
love her necklace. and the simplicity of the centerpieces on the tables too!
Oh my! I love so many things about this wedding….her necklace is to die for, the long table with that runner and yellow flowers, just everything. Love all these details!
Oh, how I adore a dress with pockets.
loving this. What a beautifully earthy wedding with class.
That’s so great to be able to create your own professional invitations and other items used in your wedding.
What a romantic wedding! And I am completely and utterly in love with Margaret’s necklace. Pretty….
I LOVE the genius idea of the escort “glasses” doubling as their drink glasses for the reception. That is so cute and well-thought out! Beautiful!
Handlettering gets me every time. xx
I looove this. How did you go about getting the assorted plates I am dying to know.
What beautiful pictures of a beautiful wedding! I love all the artistic touches. My best to you, Luke and Margaret. Such good memories of your Houghton days, Luke. I’m so glad you joined the Theater class! My very best to you both.
Hi, readers! First of all, I want to express how deeply Luke and I appreciate your comments. Our wedding was accomplished only by the love, support, and generous hours that were poured in by our friends and family. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful and perfect day.
I wanted to answer the questions you are asking so you can see how doable a wedding like ours really is. I haven’t tallied our total spendings yet, but I’m guessing we came in around $5,000 (the original budget was much, much lower, but again–the generosity of our loved ones made it all possible).
This was possible in part because Luke and I are complete thrift store junkies. We had a blast hitting up AmVets, SalVal, Goodwill, etc. together, scoping out items that would make our wedding a truly special reflection of us–embarrassingly, even going so far as to creating large stashes of dessert plates, bud vases and blankets one Friday because we were tipped off that there was a 50% off sale the next day! Every dollar saved adds up! That day we purchased about half of the assorted vintage-patterned dessert plates, many of the bud vases that stretched down the center of the dinner tables, and all of the blankets we laid out for our guests to sit on in the amphitheater (see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marydaph/5103746933/). The home state plates I found at a Goodwill, as well. It was a complete score at $1.99 per plate…add some dollar store plate stands and you’ve got a completely adorable personal touch.
Many of you are wondering where I got my necklace, so I guess it’s time I spill the beans on my ultimate sneaky wedding secret: my necklace is actually not a necklace at all–it is a bracelet! After scouring the mall with a friend, we were exhausted and disappointed in the chunky necklace options offered by jCrew, Anthropologie and the like. We ended up in White House | Black Market falling in love with the look of their chunky pearl bracelets. A little bit of brainstorming and we decided there was no reason we couldn’t make that amazing bracelet into a stunning necklace. 25 minutes later, thanks to a couple feet of my favorite ribbon and my trusty needlenose pliers, I had my perfect piece of wedding jewelry.
My dress was style 185FB from Aria Dress (ariadress.com) and was light, lovely and luxurious. The pockets were my favorite feature! I fell in love with this dress after first spotting it in Martha Weddings, and the price was definitely right. I made the silver fabric flowers to wear in place of a sash, and my mother-in-law sewed them onto a pin for me.
Lastly, our invitations we the single most time-consuming and laborious feat I’ve ever attempted. Completely worth it, I must add. I was taught the antique art of letterpress this year at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education in Rochester, NY and immediately fell in love. The birch veneer was bought in a 4×8 foot roll at a local home supply store and I cut it down to the classic 5×7 inch invitation size. I stuck to a very simple design (handlettering by my best friend and graphic from a vintage plate pattern) and color palette (silver and chartreuse). I printed each piece of the invites by hand (including each main & rsvp envelope) on a Vandercook #4 cylinder press. The invitations exceeded my expectation and I’m so glad I put in the time and effort to send this message to our guests: if you want to witness a true labor of love, a day that celebrates beauty and creativity, please join us at our wedding celebration.
If you’d like to follow me on Twitter (@nightinga1e) you can track the (sometimes painfully) slow process of figuring out where I’m going from here. I’m a newlywed in a new place with a passion for creating beautiful things–and no job. But your comments have inspired me. Maybe one of these days you’ll see me tweet about a brand new etsy shop filled with items to delight you, or I’ll be off on some new learning experience. Thanks for joining me on one small part of my journey–it’s been exciting! All the best to you!
I love Aria dresses and I’m thinking of getting one myself. The dress looks beautiful on you and I’m wondering what fabric and color it is. I love the pleats and the pockets–and the beautiful necklace!
How crafty and cute is that?! Congratulations and kudos on a beautiful wedding.