Liana and Donald’s DIY Fall Barn Wedding. By Daniela Dawson

Happy Monday! Am I happy to see the start of a new week! Last week was horrible. If you follow me on Facebook and twitter you will know that my little boy Dexter was taken into hospital on Thursday.  Nothing serious thank goodness, but non the less very scary and a few days full of worry.  I’m sure you parents out there will know exactly what I mean when I say that seeing your child go through pain is the worst thing ever. Nik and I felt so helpless and just wanted Dexter to get better. He is all full of smiles now and nearly back to his normal self.  A few more rest days for him and he will be as right as rain! I’m hoping this week will be a bit more cheerful and we will all be able to start to get into the festive spirit a bit more!

To start the week off I have this super cute fall wedding all the way from Massachusetts. It’s the wedding of Liana and Donald which was sent into me by Daniela Dawson. The wedding s full of gorgeous DIY ideas, lots of fall inspiration, a gorgeous venue and a wonderful outdoor ceremony. What a great way to start off the week.

‘We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Having all of our family and friends around us the fall foliage in the background and the sun shinning was exactly what we wished for’

Liana and Donald were married on October 25th, 2014 at Brooksby Farm, Peabody Massachusetts ‘Even before we were even engaged, I wanted a rustic themed wedding after reading wedding blogs and seeing Pinterest Pins. I knew that having a more laid back wedding matched our personalities vs. a country club type venue. We visited several barns in our local area and didn’t find that barn that we really fell in love with. It wasn’t until we visited Brooksby farm, the last venue on our list was when we got that butterfly feeling. We had a HUGE Nor’easter storm three days before our wedding with lots of trees down all over and the bride and groom even lost power. Nerves were pretty high on what the weather was going to do on our big day. We had 98 close family and friends to the wedding and it took 20 months to plan.’

How thy met
The bride and groom met through the groom’s sister Christine, whom the bride played college club field hockey.We have been together 4 years.

The proposal
Donald planned to propose on the brides 25th birthday at a restaurant called Top of the Hub which located at the top of the tallest buildings in Boston. After spending the afternoon ice skating on the Boston Common we walked over to our dinner location. Donald popped the question right after dinner, though after a little awkward silence, I said Yes.

How did you allocate your budget?
We had a very tight budget due to paying for the wedding ourselves. We cut corners where we could and tried to spend money where it counted. With lots of Pinterest ideas, many of our decorations were made by the bride’s parents and bride herself. Even the groom pitched in and hand painted many of the pinecone place cards.

Why did you choose your photographer?
We actually have had two wedding photographers during the course of our long engagement. We had our first photographer take our engagement photos the Fall before our wedding and we thought that we were all set for our upcoming wedding. Then six months before our wedding our photographer backed out and could no longer take our wedding photos. Total melt down mode! We had friends, family, coworkers sending us anyone and everyone they knew took any sort of wedding photos. It ended up being a friend of Donald’s coworker that suggested we use our second photographer Daniela. Once we all met in person we knew it was a perfect fit and couldn’t have been happier with our end result.

The dress
My ivory lace dress was made by Casablanca. I always wanted to wear my mom’s wedding dress but after trying it on it was clear that it was not going to work easily. I instead opted to wear her cathedral length lace veil that ended up matching my dress perfectly. My shoes were Nina, silk plum purple to match my bridesmaids. My pearl necklace was actually the first piece of jewelry that Donald gave me the first Christmas we were together.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suite was Men’s Wearhouse, Grey Calvin Klein, after 3 separate trips and numerous changes to our groomsmen outfit we ended up with our rustic grey look. The bridesmaids wore Alfred Angelo.

Theme or colour scheme
Yes we really wanted to stick with a Fall color scheme with plum, pumpkin orange and brown being the main colors.

Flowers
We tried to really stick with flowers that were in season so lots of sunflowers, berries and gerber daisies were used.

Decoration
Many of the decorations were hand made by the bride and the brides parents. We had chalk boards found at local yard sales and the side of the road that were all hand painted by the bride. The bride’s parents made all of the directional signage, bride and groom signs, table numbers, shepherds hooks, hanging baskets and the swag hung on the gazebo. A friend of the brides mom donated our antique rusted mason jars for our centerpieces which we added locally grown cranberries and battery powered lights along with our flowers. We couldn’t have a fall wedding without pumpkins, sunflowers which we bought the previous year on fall clearance. Instead of a traditional signing guest book we wanted to have something we could display in our new home. The bride’s mom found an old used boat oar at a local yard sale that was cleaned up and we had guests sign their names.

Food
Our main meal consisted of butternut squash ravioli, chicken marsala, blushing bride mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables.

Wedding cake
We opted for a small cake topper that was white cake with strawberry mousse with butter cream frosting. In lieu of passed cake, we had a cookie bar for our guests which we served chocolate chip, m&m, reese, s’more and oatmeal raisin cookies and guests choose what they wanted. We used old dresser drawers that were fixed up and painted by the bride to display the bakery items.

Entertainment
We had a DJ and a photobooth.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
Our invitations were designed by the Grooms college friend and the bride and bridesmaids did the rest of the stationary themselves.

Personal or handmade touches?
LOTS of DIY we ended up with almost two cars filled with DIY projects.

Special moments or highlights
The weather the day of our wedding was so abnormal for October in New England that for some reason there were hundreds of lady bugs flying around. They were certainly a welcome surprise of luck for us both.

Advice for other couples
Remember to soak it all in and opt to have it recorded on video tape. Our budget was small so hiring someone was out of the question. We had a family friend capture the big moments of the day and its one of our most valued items from our wedding.

Biggest surprise
After months and months of planning the bride had coordinated an antique car for their surprise getaway car. The first car fell through and finding the second car a month before the wedding became the bride and bride’s dad’s final mission. Finally, the night before the wedding we found an antique 1939 Packard that we could use for a grand entrance instead of an exit. The grand entrance was a surprise to everyone and ended up being a perfect addition to the wedding.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Daniela Dawson – photographer www.danieladawson.com
• Creative Catering – www.creative-catering.com
• D’Amici’s Bakery- www.damicis.com
• Harbor City Photobooth- harborcityphotobooths.com
• DJ Plus – www.djplus.us 
• Jean Baker Design – floral
• Primp at Tiffany’s – hair and make-up  www.yelp.com/biz/primp-at-tiffanys-stoneham
• Kdill Designs – invitations -www.kristindillon.com

For more information on Daniela’s work go to 

www.danieladawson.com
[email protected]
FACEBOOK
407 748 6940

Based in New England, (Providence, RI and Boston, MA) USA
My style is artfully journalistic. I strive to portray each wedding day by highlighting the details that make each day unique. I place an emphasis on the classic artistic forms of photography and light, while delicately dancing on the line between bohemian and timeless imagery.