As many of you already know, Ginger Root Design was quite busy this month.  I am so excited to announce that I am now married!  The month before the wedding was beyond crazy for Erin and I, and even though the wedding was amazing, it is nice to be back at the shop in DC.

As a thank you for everyone’s patience during the hustle and bustle (no pun intended…), I thought I would post a few of the pictures from the wedding to show you what we were up to.  My friend Tiffany Bolk was our photographer for the special day, and I honestly don’t think she could have done a better job.  I posted a few of her pictures below so I could give descriptions of the hand-made aspects of the wedding, but please feel free to see the rest of the pictures on her website!

Our goal for this wedding was to keep it as Eco-friendly and hand-made as possible.  Above is the first thing I sewed for the wedding–the invites.  I wanted them to be special and represent the DIY and hand-sewn aspects of the wedding, so why use glue?!  We ordered clothing labels with “Kristen and Louie” on them, ordered the white cards from Greener Printer, and I went at it using my trusty industrial sewing machine (please don’t try this at home)!  You can’t see it on this picture, but there is also 2 lines of blue thread sewing the white paper to the green background.

You could probably figure it out, but this is my hubby and me.  He is wearing a $3 suit I found at the thrift store and then tailored to perfection, a stunning blue vintage vest and maroon wingtips from Rock it Again, perfectly fitting white shirt from Hugh & Crye, computer circuit board tie pin and cuff links by Betsy Berberian (purchased on Etsy), and one of Louie’s Grandfather’s ties that Erin (the Ginger) reVamped for the occasion.  I am wearing the dress that I recycled from my mom’s dress, Louie’s mom’s dress, and the dress of one of my Grandmother’s friends.  I’ll post before pictures at a later date.  The challenge was that my mom’s dress was white and the others were ivory, but I was very happy with how it worked together.  My necklace was custom made by the lovely Claranette, working in a few chains from my mother-in-law’s old necklaces, other vintage chains, and delicate pineapple quartz beads.  My earrings (also worn by the bridesmaids) were all custom-made by Erin’s mom of Metal Musings, and were pressed with a window screen for texture (gotta love the small details!)  The corsages also have buttons on them from Louie’s mom’s dress.

The guys are in ReVamp vests, which originally came from Rock it Again before Erin worked her magic.  She also reVamped the guys’ ties to match Louie’s, and their tie bars are hand-made by Metal Musings.  We wanted to avoid a tux rental where they pay and don’t get to keep anything.  I reVamped the bridesmaids dresses from 4 vintage dresses, incorporating black striping (which is also on the back of the guys’ vests), and sewed our signature Lady Ties for the girls (I let them pick out shoes that matched the color).  The flowers girls are wearing dresses my Grandma sewed and mini Lady Ties I made.

Baby’s breath was the perfect flower choice since there were so many other things going on.

The front and back of the programs consisted of paper seeded with wildflowers that you can plant in the ground.  Louie and I actually planted a lot of these in my parent’s back yard along with other flowers that decorated the venue.  The programs were stamped with a potato stamp that my sister Ashleigh made.

The wedding bands were recycled from family gold by Conrad Selle.

The venue was beyond rad.  It used to be a roller rink, and still had the gold streamers hanging from the ceiling.  The later addition of white paper lanterns, and newly finished wood made the Pavilion the best combo of retro, earthy and modern, AND it’s on a lake.

Right after the outdoor ceremony, the guests began to mingle around during the “social hour” where they found the bar, and listened to my dad’s jazz band play.  This sign was made by my sister Ashleigh out of an old storm window that she painted with chalkboard paint.  The signature drinks were the “Louie” and the “Kristen”, most of the beer and cider was made by my dad and my cousins, and a majority of the wine was from midwest vineyards.  The bar glasses were old mason and sauce jars that we’ve been collecting for the past year.

Elizabeth Graeber designed the wine labels for the toasting cider.

There was not a plain white plate in sight.  All of the dishes were antique or 2nd hand.  The napkins were cut from vintage sheets, and the wine glasses were painted with chalkboard paint so the guests could keep track of it throughout the night and bring it home with them.  The cake plates were made from old punch cups and plates that were found at garage sales the then glued together.  The “cake” was bars made by my family (dubbed “Gramma Bars!!” by me as a kid).  This was my one major demand for the wedding 🙂

And for the last photo, Erin made us wedding bibs!!  Louie’s was recycled from a damaged tuxedo shirt, and mine is an oversized ReVamp Ascot!  I had a few tears of joy and laughter when I saw them at first.

On Tiffany’s blog you’ll also notice that we released sky lanterns at night (which were biodegradable of course).  I have a slight obsession with hot air balloons, so it was so amazing that we were able to do this.

I hope you enjoyed the photos and we hope to see you at the shop soon!