‘Til Death Do Us Part

February 10, 2010 in
Real Weddings
Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods

Photo by Matthew Miller Photography

Jenn Pierce
monkeyandsquirrel

Jenn Pierce is a New York-born gal who fled for the slower pace of the South. Now living in North Carolina, Jenn creates whimsical home decor for her shop, Monkey and Squirrel.

http://monkeyandsquirrel.blogspot.com/
@monkeyNsquirrel

“I’ve known others and I’ve loved others too, but I loved them ‘cause they were stepping stones, on a staircase to you.”

When Evan and I first heard the lyrics to “Offering” by The Avett Brothers we knew we would one day dance to that song at our wedding. After the question was popped we realized other elements we wanted from our wedding. We decided to keep it simple, 100% vegan, relatively inexpensive, and as handmade as possible. These were the things that were truly important to us.

"The irony of two vegans getting married in a dairy barn was certainly not lost on us."

Choosing a venue ended up being a no-brainer once we saw this old dairy barn in Fort Mill, South Carolina. It had been beautifully renovated and restored and was perfectly suited to our tastes. The irony of two vegans getting married in a dairy barn was certainly not lost on us.

The first bit of décor that we decided upon set the tone for our entire wedding: we saw a cake topper online that we absolutely loved. But being a die hard DIYer, I decided to custom make one and save us a pretty penny in the process. [pullquote]I modeled the Day of the Dead-themed bride and groom after us, complete with clothes to match our wedding day attire.[/pullquote] It took me weeks to finish, as I’d never worked with polymer clay before, but it was worth it; it looked so perfect on top of the cake, especially after my two wonderful sisters-in-law decorated it with rose petals.

Evan and I also designed the save-the-date cards, invitations, programs, and seating cards. Evan has a background in graphic design, which definitely came in handy. We used a painting that I did of the cake topper on the invites and programs to keep the theme going. Little sugar skulls also appeared in other aspects of our wedding: the boutonnieres that I made for our groomsmen, the ring bearer’s pillow and Evan’s vest all had tiny skull buttons as finishing details. (Speaking of Evan’s vest: it was handmade by his mom, who also made my wedding dress — what a woman!)

The day of our wedding, we got up nice and early and headed over to our local farmers market with my mother and sister. We knew that buying all of our flowers there was such an easy way to make our event a little greener. It was also a really beautiful and relaxing way to start the day, and again, a wonderful way to save some cash!

[pullquote]So many elements went into our wedding to keep it really personal. A close family friend whom I’ve known since I was 12 was our officiant.[/pullquote] She added little stories into the ceremony that made it so special and lightened the mood. The groomsmen walked into the ceremony to Europe‘s “The Final Countdown” and Evan’s brother’s reading of “I Wanna Grow Old With You” from The Wedding Singer definitely got a few laughs.

Our good friend Matt Miller from Our Labor of Love was kind enough to be our photographer. He has such an incredible, non-traditional way of photographing weddings, he couldn’t have done a more wonderful job capturing every moment. We didn’t want to take much time out of the day doing all the family photos, so when the sun was setting and the lighting was just right he gathered us for an amazing, natural family portrait.

We made sure to stop and look around to really enjoy the moment as the day went on. It all flew by so fast and we simply can’t thank all of the people who came together to help us enough as we kick off our life as Mr. & Mrs.!

All photos by Our Labor of Love.

Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods
Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods

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