TBT: Artsy Maine Wedding Details
Eight months have flown by since our dreamy wedding week and I’m just now getting around to online-scrapbooking some crafty details — it was fun to keep everything personal for awhile, but it’s also fun to reminisce and share. I know some of you real-life-pals and internet-pals are in celebration planning phases, so I hope bits of our process can be inspiration as you bring your own dream day to life.
The good photos are all thanks to Harper Photo Co., who we 1000/10 recommend. The projects shared here are all thanks to our family and friends, who were truly deeply in it with us.
There’s so much to all of this! I’ll focus on how we did the DIY crafty things: save the dates, invites, & maps, field guides & seating chart, outfits, and week-of projects.
Save the Dates, Maps, & Invites
Save the Dates: Doodled local scenes with markers → digitized them and added text using handwriting, Canva, and Photoshop → ordered printed postcards on Moo’s thickest paper.
Invites: Covers: Picked up handmade paper from the wonderful Share Studios → drew a favorite view with markers → digitized that image and brought it to Directangle Press → printed covers using the very cool very old letterpress there. Insides: Ordered natural cotton paper that matched our covers → wrote out and laid out our schedule and RSVP info using a combination of digitized photos of my handwriting, Canva, and Photoshop → printed these on a generic printer. Assembly: Folded inside pages → folded and cut cardstock back cover to make a pocket → sewed this back pocket up the right edge with a sewing machine → stacked cover, inside pages, and back covers and sewed up the left sides to bind → added maps to pockets → cut and tied white strings to keep everything together.
Maps: Drew a map of Mount Desert Island and a close-up of Southwest Harbor using pen, marker, and watercolors → digitized this and added text using handwriting, Canva, and Photoshop → added extra doodles including some repeats from the save the dates → risograph printed them at Directangle Press.
Field Guides & Seating Chart
Field Guides: Wrote species accounts for 18 different plants and animals our guests might encounter → made and digitized marker sketches of each species → put them all together in Canva and Photoshop → wrote out our ceremony program on the inside flap → added doodles from other wedding things to the front and back → printed the field guides with a generic printer on paper leftover from invites → folded them with the help of friends just before the wedding.
Seating Chart: Spray-painted an old room divider gray-blue → cut three pieces of thin plywood, sanded them, and painted them the same color → painted on topo lines → glued on clothespins → drilled holes in the top and bottom of the panels → tied them down → printed table lists with corresponding number and plant or animal → totally forgot to add a “find your seat” paper sign at the top. Table cards: Printed cards with table numbers and species accounts → sewed borders around each of these, attaching them to an identical backing and more cardstock → attached these cards to sticks and wooden bases reused from a friend’s wedding.
Rocks: Collected rocks from the Mount Desert Island coastline (outside of National Park boundaries!) → used white paint, paint markers, and helpful friends to add each guest’s name to a rock → lined the path to the tent with the rocks so each guest could choose one, bring it to their table, and claim their place.
Outfits
My outfit (mostly mom’s sewing work!): Skirt: Cut the top off of the wedding dress my mom and grandmother wore → sewed in a fresh lining → hemmed it → added a waistband. Top: Dug through scrap lace; found curtain fabric → sewed it into a sheer, cropped t-shirt → wore it over an Express brand bodysuit. Jacket: Thrifted an Alex Mill jacket from Poshmark → embroidered a loon and lupine on it. Jewelry: Bri Bol. Shoes: Bryr Clogs. Flower Crown: Little Red Flower Truck. Sam’s outfit: Weavers of Ireland vest, Grease Point Workwear pants, tie he already owned.
Week-of Projects, etc.
Arch: Harvested dead & down cedar from the white mountains → de-barked the cedar and created posts → harvested driftwood from Mount Desert Island (outside National Park boundaries) → lashed it together with bark (and a few bits of string) on-site.
Signs: painted old fence boards.
Tables: Boards: harvested from a falling-down-fence in my parents’ yard (thanks, Dad). Lanterns: spray-painted → filled with mussels and a candle. Flowers: grown by Little Red Flower Truck → assembled into thrifted vases by friends in a workshop the day before the wedding.
Guest book: canvas and fabric markers. Banner: Bread & Puppet; was already hanging at our venue. Flags: folded over and sewed fabric rectangles → threaded twine through them.
WHEW, there was so much to this. It was next-level fun, and also a lot to pull off while juggling our full-time-teacher lives. It was all thanks to our people. I’ve kept this recap to sine of the crafty bits and held off on gushing about the life-changing/life-affirming-love aspects of the whole shindig, but that’s what it was all about. Feel free to comment with any questions or if there’s more you’d like to see. Love love! Here’s to celebrations.