A Cute British Wedding at St Mary’s Church in Stowmarket Followed by a DIY Marquee
REBECCA & DAMIAN’S WEDDING: HOW TO NOT LET A HURRICANE RUIN YOUR BIG DAY
So what do you do if a hurricane suddenly hits your wedding venue just weeks after you have decided on it. Well you up and move it all to your backyard of course! After Hurricane Sandy demolished Rebecca and Damian seaside venue they decided to renovate their whole backyard and host the wedding there instead. Pretty extreme some might think, but I agree with this couple when they say it will be a memory that they get to keep forever!
“Our wedding was originally planned to be at the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights as Damian is from New Jersey. We were going to have a casual wedding on the beach and then have vouchers for all our guests to play the games and eat from the food stands, and it was going to be amazing. Not two weeks after we had visited and made that decision Hurricane Sandy wiped out the place and dumped the roller coaster in the ocean. We needed a new plan!
We looked all over Seattle for a venue that would be as fun, casual, and easy, and while we found some great places, not felt quite right. In the end, we decided that we really love the home we’d created together (I am an interior designer and Damian is a contractor and we had remodelled every last inch of our home two years earlier) and we wanted to share that space with our family. That meant that we’d need to level and re-landscape the whole backyard, but we figured why not spend that money on something we’d get to keep rather than a venue that was for one night only?
So we dove in and removed all the weeds and terraced the hill into a dance floor level and sitting area. It added a whole other level of stress to the wedding planning, and we only finished two days before the wedding. Instead of throwing Damian a bachelor party, his brother, the best man, ended up spreading mulch all day with us! We were worried that we’d have a barnyard smell from the mulch, but I think it was fine 🙂
So why the vintage carnival theme? Well we met through ballroom dancing years ago, so to start with we wanted something that would let us have a danceable event. Most people are comfortable with the swing era and music, and it’s classic, so that brought in the style of dress I chose, and the clothes for the guys. Neither of us likes things that are overly expensive or ostentatious, so it had to be dressy but casual. The carnival theme came from our love of Cirque du Soleil and Teatro Zinzani, and it was a great match for the Seaside Heights. Once we were not going to be married in Seaside Heights we still wanted the carnival feel, but now it needed to better suit the backyard feel of our home, so it kind of morphed into a “backyard vintage Italian carnival,” Italian because he’s half Italian and we were about to honeymoon for a month in Italy, so why not? We served all the food family style like any good Italian family would do. We insisted that guests wear either hats and suspenders, or hats and dress (we were not gender specific about that) because we really wanted the guests to be as much a part of the decorations as we were. And we hosted a swing dance lesson so everyone could participate in the dancing even if they’d never danced before.
To prepare for the wedding we held monthly prep parties where about six of my dearest girlfriends would come over and we’d make invitations, make hats (for those who showed up not wearing one), try different cakes, cut pennant flags, and drink. That was SO much fun!
In the end it just suited us. We love to dress up, we love to play, we love fun and unpretentious parties, we love to dance, and we love to eat. So Backyard Vintage Italian Carnival just seemed right 🙂 The best part is that we came away with an amazing backyard space for entertaining, and we get to host parties there all the time now (like our recent Zombie-Apocalypse Emergency Planning Party 🙂 Our only regret is that we didn’t invite more people. We had 60 guests, but when we finished the space we realized we could have hosted many more. Oh well, it was great!”
Supper Suppliers – Photographer: VeroLuce Photography// Caterer: Angelica// Bakery: Larsens Bakery// Floral Designer: NW Wholesale Florist// DJ:Seattle Music Solutions// Submitted via Two Bright Lights//
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The color palette is amazing! Love all the details especially the background with lots of balloons.
I LOVE that pillbox hat! I am looking for one in the same color to wear at my vintage carnival wedding. Where did you find yours?