As promised, we’ve got a lot more to share from Emily and Andrew’s amazingly fashionable and creative DIY wedding! Check it out if you missed their wedding ceremony at a private residence in Maryland.  Emily incorporated her love of fabric and textiles throughout the reception, from a beautiful escort card board to the vintage-inspired centerpieces.  Of course, Justine Ungaro was there to capture all of the fun, and Emily is back to share a bit more about how the details all came together.

From Emily: Casey Johnson also crafted boats to float in the pool during the reception.  There were nine boats, each with a fruit of the Spirit on it: “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  We believe them to be the keys to a good marriage.  He used the fabric for the sails.  It never felt like we went overboard with the fabric because there were probably 10 different patterns, all muted light colors.

The idea for the centerpieces was simple: collect as many random jars as we could in 9 months.  Mostly clear jars with splashes of color here and there, any shape and size.  The jars we found all over, mostly thrift stores and freecycle.  Thrift stores are great, because if you buy a lot of pieces, you can usually bargain down for a really low price.

My parents’ entire living room was with filled with jars for months. We set the jars up the morning of the wedding, just placing them randomly on top of the fabric squares, with flowers or candles in them every so often.  This was very cost effective because it didn’t require very many flowers.  I bought the tea light candles from Ikea, they burn for 9-12 hours (trust me, I tested them) and are very cheap.

The idea for the table numbers I just kind of happened upon.  Three days before the wedding, I was scouring Michael’s looking for ideas and came across these wooden flags, I thought they were perfect because I could just stick them in the jar on each table.  I found some wooden numbers, painted them white, spray glued the fabric on the flags, and glued the numbers on.  Super easy!  We now use a lot of the jars at home as flower vases or as mugs.  My mom took some of the fabric squares and turned it into a quilt for us!  That’s a green wedding for you!

My husband is a wedding videographer and was obsessed with having enough light during our mostly dark reception.  I love Design Sponge, and we used this mason jar light idea that we found there.  We hung them from a big tree and placed tall mason jars around the reception site for more light when it got dark.  All you need is a lighting kit and some big mason jars with lids.

Emily and Andrew also sent over their wedding video (edited by Andrew), which you can watch below!

Emily and Andrew from Stereo Waltz Films on Vimeo.

The following DC-area wedding vendors contributed to Emily and Andrew’s wedding:

Bridal Attire: Sarah Seven
Veil: EM Bridal
Hair and Makeup: Immortal Beloved
Groom Attire: H&M Black Label
“Love Never Fails” installation and sailboats: Casey Johnson (available for custom work)
Videography: Stereo Waltz Films
Music & Entertainment: Mason Gentry and Aaron Marsh
Floral Design: Sharon Davis

Don’t forget to visit our vendor guide for a full list of DC-area wedding professionals or our real wedding gallery for more DC-area weddings!

Photo Credits: Justine Ungaro