The Bride
Tanja The Bride: Clean, simple but no classy and no bling bling. That’s how I wanted my gown to be. No quillings, but natural materials and colours. Just a lovely lace bolero for the WOW-effect. I found my dream dress in this lovely piece from
Cymbeline. A long time dream and must-have for this special day: those champagne
Jimmy Choos. That’s right where I love to have a sparkling touch! Same goes for the rings. Nothing else than
Tiffany’s was all I ever dreamed of.
The Groom
Andreas and his best man went out for a mens fashion shopping day. To ensure it was a perfect match with my own style for this special day, we shared a
Pinterest board. And YES – he looked stunning! The best mans present were cufflinks with the visual sound track of our “I do” during the civil wedding. Couldn’t be more personal.
The Venue
Before we even knew we would get married, we knew we didn’t ever want to have a cheesy wedding. No glamorous wedding in a castle. No formalities! So we started searching for our location. More the rustic style, a barn. Where there’s nothing perfect, dressed up and clean. And then one day we found
Pflugsmühle. The perfect place. The perfect hosts. Inside almost perfectly fitting decorated for our big day. Full of life, but naturally so.
So, first piece of advice - amazing hosts at your venue are a gift. This is where your day gets the awesomeness.
The Decor
After we found the perfect location, we thought about what style, colour and theme would fit for our wedding and the location. We knew it should be soft, pastel and cute as a contrast to the rustic, strong, deep and dark toned barn. So this is how we came to this lovely pastel apricot colour theme you can see in almost every detail of our big day. The save-the-date cards started the whole theme. As
Tanja herself is an absolute creative mind with passion for sketchnotes, lettering and everything else paper and a pen is needed for, she crafted a handmade stamp with two balloons and printed them on postcards. So this was the point we figured out, our wedding will be as much DIY as we can do. Save-the-date cards, calligraphed and self-illustrated stationery with letterpress and personalised printing colour, calligraphed place cards out of stone, signposts, pegs with names and so on...
Fitting to the rest, we decided to decorate naturally, no over-the-top, laid-back but lovely, and a get together from this soft pastel tones with the rough barn style.
The Flowers
Natural, loose-fitting, matching colour to our overall theme, and IMPORTANT: The succulent. Succulents are the new roses ;) The flower crown had to be soft and natural, too.
The Ceremony
We had the chance to have our personal pastor doing the ceremony. So it was a really intimate and personal speech, because he knows us since years. I think this is important for bride and groom but for the guests, too. So much better than someone talking about your relationship who has met you maybe two times before. Two songs were a MUST HAVE during our ceremony. The song “Ein Hoch auf uns” from German singer Andreas Bourani – because it’s the song that reflects our relationship so perfectly. And the second was “All of me” from John Legend. Goosebump moments.
The Entertainment
We wanted our best friends and family to celebrate this amazing day with us. It was important for us to keep them entertained. Because we wanted not only to celebrate for us but for our beloved ones. So that everyone has a great and funny time and reminds this day as a great experience. It was a garden/barn party and in the evening the guests got to hear some intimate speeches and an once-in-a-lifetime Disney-based declarations of love. From bride to groom.
Later on our DJ kept us moving way into the night. We were prepared as I surprised Andreas with new Disney slippers after my speech. Micky Mouse for him, Minny Mouse for me. But before the party started, we did our very own personalised first dance. One more surprise for our guests.
The Favours
As little guest presents we had tasty bread for everyone straight from the venue, an old mill. We loved getting all those pictures from our guests remembering our wedding while having breakfast the next morning.
The Food
I dreamed of this huuuuge candy bar. All managed by the amazing Bibi from
Kleine Feine Köstlichkeiten. And this pretty pretty cake was even more a dream came true (
Kleine Tortenstube). Tasty and matching the colour theme. On top we got this DIY-tree-trunk cake stand from Andreas’ best man. Amazing work! We loved it! Later on we had a fantastic more traditional dinner and the candy bar was visited over and over again.
The Photography
It was fortune we found each other. Everything went out perfect. And this is so important. You have to take care that you choose an experienced photographer. Someone you feel comfortable and have so much in common with. As your photographer will be next to you on the whole wedding day – so there must be a connection and confidence. We were so happy our paths crossed and we had amazing and being everywhere
Anija capturing this important day so perfectly. To get all those moments we decided to have a second shooter helping and taking part, lovely
Jennifer.
Advice
You should think about what you really are able to handle if you’re planning a DIY-wedding. Delegate the work you’re not able to do. And be really honest to yourself. You can manage everything in the preparation. But when the day has come – relax and let it happen. One of our favourite moments was sitting in the car after the ceremony. Only us two, realising what had happened, enjoying the landscape and the moment. One of the moments you’re alone with your love on this big day.
And we loved the moment we toasted with all our friends and family for the first time. We had a great day, great weather and everything went so fabulous! It was sometimes stressful during the preparations but it was SO worth it.