100 Layer Cake

With only 11 days to relocate to a new venue after getting an email saying their original venue had to immediately shut down permanently (um, crazy!), Tess had a bit of a meltdown, who wouldn’t, and had to take all of the ideas she’d been dreaming of for the past 8 months and make them work for a new venue. But, like we hear from so many brides, everything worked out for the best in the end. The whimsical, diy, clean, classy, and by no means formal wedding Tess had in her mind came out beautiful, of course! Oh and we’re pretty much in love what she did with their ceremony venue. You’ll see.

Peonies – the perfect flower!

Wish we could turn these photos into a little flip book. So adorable how she’s so excited that she’s running to meet her man.

And here’s the white fabric + book paper pendants strung with lighting that we’re loving so much. We don’t know what it would have looked like in their original venue, but we must say, it looks awesome against the wood backdrop.

One of their hobbies is restoring and recreating furniture/antique items they’ve found on the street & thrift stores, hence the vintage fans, clocks and vases.

A practical tip from Tess: I would really recommend to be flexible, keep a notebook, make lists, process everything with a few close friends and/or your planner, make a budget and stick to it, delegate to trustworthy people, try not to give family any responsibilities the day of the wedding… just let them enjoy the day with you. Keep things simple and keep it real. I took all of my favorite ideas I’d seen others had used and worked to recreate them in a way that expressed our own unique style. I was being influenced by so many different ideas but it was driving me crazy! I needed to find out what spoke to me, what made me feel the most comfortable and the most beautiful. After that I knew exactly what my wedding would look like. I had to keep reminding myself that this day was supposed to be for me and my husband…and everyone else had the privilege of being a part of our special day. The end result was everything I had imagined and most importantly we had a blast!

Photography: Steven Michael / Wedding coordinator + Floral + set-up: Serendipity Events / Ceremony venue: Bridgeport Church / Reception venue: Office Port / Snow cones: Fresh than Fresh Snow Cones / Wedding invitations: Andrew Chen Design / Wedding dress: Bridal Extraordinarie