Real wedding: Myra + Matt




A few days ago I posted about Myra Callan’s fabulous bridal headpieces, and after checking out her wedding photos, knew I had to have her post something about it! It just proves how great DIY can truly be…here’s Myra with the details….

My hubby, Matt Callan, and I tied the knot in Gervais, OR at Willamette Mission State Park on September 8, 2007. We held our ceremony under an enormous Black Walnut tree in the middle of the afternoon on a perfectly sunny and warm day with around 180+ guests. The wooden arbor was created by Matt! He even hung the ribbons!

All the bouquets and flower arrangements were created by the bridal party the day before the event. We were trying to save on costs and bought the more expensive flowers at a florist and more basic flowers through Safeway in bulk. My mom use to do wedding and church flower arrangements, so I most definitely utilized her expertise.

Almost everything was handmade by me, but some items were created with the help of family. For name card holders/decorations/favors, I planted around 200 corkscrew willow clippings in mini terra cota pots and finished them with live moss. Matt and I wanted something that would look cute and that guests could take home, plant, and cherish for years (and corkscrew willow trees are so whimsical to look at and so easy to grow!). I created all the name cards by hand which were these little flags that guests would “plant” into the name card pots. They were displayed in a large wooden box that my dad built and planted with moss. All the centerpieces, I planted myself using purchased pots and plants from Home Depot and Lowes. It actually cut down on costs for traditional all flower centerpieces and we let guests take them home to enjoy for months, maybe years to come. The tables also had several glass vases on each which I purchased at IKEA. The table names I made by hand using bird prints and used Crate and Barrel name card holders to display them. Many of them blew away during the evening with the breeze! The mini box favors were assembled with family help and were composed of jordan almonds in our wedding colors, tissue paper, and a little tag with our anniversary date and “thank you” note. The napkin and utensil sets were straight out of Martha Stewart Weddings. I loved the look and ordered a ton of tissue paper wholesale online, found the perfect napkins at IKEA, got utensils from our caterer and with a ton of help from family, made all of the literally up until the day before.

The giant green lanterns I purchased in bulk through a couple online sources, one of which was Ebay and were strung by family. The lights also had dangling ribbons, which I literally purchased by the roll through Ebay sellers (so much cheaper!). The cake topper birds were created by Ann Wood Handmade and the wedding cake was created by Myriad Cakes.

All the programs and invitations were also made by the bride using purchased fonts, clipart, paper from PaperZone, and a really great HP deskjet printer. After not being able to find the perfect head piece to wear and while wanting to DIY on everything, I created my own hair accessory (sans the veil) and all the bridesmaid hair pieces. My wedding gown was custom designed by myself and Elizabeth Dye (elizabethdye.com) – she of course did all the sewing and most of the work!

[images by Paul Rich Studio]