Kelli and Joe's 'Rustic Boho' Greenery and Copper DIY Wedding by Kyle Willis

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend? Have any of you broken up for Easter yet? Or is it just us here in Sheffield? I am currently on holiday with 8 other families from Dexter’s school, we have come to North Yorkshire and are having a lovely time. Don’t worry though, I have brought my lap top with me, so will be keeping you up to date with lots of amazing real weddings and interesting wedding articles, starting off with the lovely DIY wedding of Kelli and Joe. They chose a rustic Boho theme and chose a neutral colour scheme mixing in lots of greenery and accents of copper. They kept it personal by creating so much of the wedding themselves, including the amazing bar, the flowers, table plan and so much of the super pretty decoration. The day was captured by Kyle Willis.

Honestly would not have changed a thing. We feel so fortunate to have had so much help from our families and friends

Kelli and Joe were married on 2nd September 2018 at Steppingstone Farm Museum in Maryland. ‘It was a gorgeous venue that was sort of a blank slate, we are a very DIY couple and wanted everything to be as personal as possible. It was also a good halfway point for our families—most of my family lives in Virginia and my husband’s family lives in Pennsylvania, so this venue in Maryland was perfect. We had 120 guests and it took 11 months to plan.’

How they met
We met through mutual friends in college and we have been together for 6 years.

The proposal
We were at an apple orchard and it was just a private moment between the two of us.

How did you allocate your budget?
We didn’t really plan it out LOL!, which I know is not recommended. Instead we worked very hard to DIY everything that we possibly could (including floral arrangements, a mobile bar that we built, all of the décor, the seating chart, etc.), tried to keep the guest list under control, and opted for the best deals.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
I think we kept all of our spending pretty reasonable (as far as weddings go at least), but we chose to spend a little more for farm tables, my dress, and photography and I’m so glad we did.
We saved on just about everything else, we went with a BBQ buffet for dinner; beer, wine & 2 signature drinks; and all DIY everything. We received tons of compliments from all of our guests, vendors, and even acquaintances who have only seen picture, DIY doesn’t have to look cheap! A little creativity goes a long way.

How did you choose your photographer?
I stumbled across his photos from another wedding, then went to his website to look for more and fell in love. Pretty sure I cried at some of the photos lol.

The dress
My dress was by Wear Your Love, an online-only shop that custom makes each dress to your exact measurements. Their styles are lacy and Boho and just perfection all around. I wore a hairpiece which I found on Etsy from a shop called Wedding Flower Crown. My shoes were from Lulus.

The suit and bridesmaids
The groom’s and groomen’s suits were from Boscov’s, and bridesmaid’s dresses were from Show Me Your MuMu in some gorgeous summer fabrics

Theme or colour scheme
Our theme was a rustic/boho combo, and our colors were neutrals and greenery, with splashes of copper

Flowers
Lots of seeded & silver dollar eucalyptus with a few flowers; big white chrysanthemums, blush garden roses, some peach spray roses, blue thistle, and some white button mums.

Decoration
All DIY with neutral colors and splashes of copper.

Wedding cake
A semi-naked cake with buttercream icing, with layered chocolate and white cakes, made by a super talented family friend

Entertainment
DJ Musical Excellence

Who supplied the stationery?
We used a template from Vistaprint

Personal touches?
The mobile bar that we built! (Get Hitched Mobile Bar) The floral arranging, hand-lettered tiles that we used as place cards, a flower curtain for the ceremony & hand-dyed cheesecloth that we used as table runners (both made by my husband!), the seating chart made by my mother-in-law…the list goes on.

Special moments
It’s hard to pick just one, but if I have to, then it would probably be reading our vows to each other. I’m usually pretty terrified of public speaking, but reading my vows felt different since they really came straight from my heart. I was overcome with happiness and proud to be standing there in that moment with the person who was minutes away from becoming my husband.

Advice for other couples
Stay true to yourself. Everyone has their own idea of what a wedding should look like, and while you can definitely be open-minded and consider other ideas, that day should really be about you and your future partner. If you try to individually cater to every single guest at your wedding, you will drive yourself crazy! It’s not possible, because people don’t all think the same way or want the same thing.

Biggest surprise
How fast it went by and how non-stop it was. I had heard that from so many people before but actually experiencing it was still a shock. The whole day felt surreal.