The Adventures of Mrs. Mayfield: My DIY Wedding

My husband and I got married in April of 2012. I loved our wedding. Despite all the stress and headaches it caused lead up to it, it was one of the best days of my life. I spent months planning and making stuff for our wedding. We held it at our friend's ranch in Hidden Valley, which is one of the most beautiful areas with sprawling ranches just outside of Los Angeles. Being that it was April, we were very worried about it raining on our wedding day. Our ceremony and reception were both outside on the ranch, where it would easily turn into a muddy mess if it rained. It rained almost every weekend leading up to our wedding, but it was miraculously warm and sunny that day. We were trying to stick to a very small budget for our wedding and we came very close to it. Our location was free because it was a friend's ranch. I bought my dress on craigslist for $450 and altered it for about $150. Our caterer was the most expensive part of the wedding, but the food was amazing and the caterer provided, setup and cleaned up all our rentals. Our photographer, Meghan Christine was one of the best and most affordable photographers we could find. Exotic Green Garden was our florist. They were very reasonable and I loved our flowers. DJ Mojoe was our awesome DJ. My hair was done by a family friend and our cake was from Albertson's. Although, I don't recommend Albertson's wedding cakes. Almost everything else at our wedding was stuff I made. Overall, it was a great day!

Here are some pictures!

I twisted wire to make a personalized hanger for my dress.

I made my garter out out of ribbon, lace, elastic, and a locket from a necklace I had.

I love these shoes! I cut the "I Do" with my Cricut, of course.

I designed our programs to have a drawing of us on them

My sister and her boyfriend made these folded page books. I really loved these.

I setup a vintage suitcase and strung the word GIFTS inside
for all the small gift to go so they wouldn't get lost.

I drew my guestbook tree for everyone to sign.

Our rings on guestbook tree.

My mom had this old typewriter in the attic that we set out for people to leave notes on.

Our aisle.

Our nephew carried our "rings" in on a pillow I made of muslin and ribbon

My husband and I tied twine and ribbon around mason jars that the
florist filled with flowers and hung of shepherds hooks.

I liked brooch bouquets, but I really liked the classic-ness of flowers.
My florist suggested putting brooches in my flowers and I love that idea!
I had some of my grandma's brooches as well as some Forever 21 jewelry

Rancho de los Fresnos was gorgeous.

Everyone at our wedding! This is one of my favorite pictures.

Our wedding party

I made all the bridesmaids dresses. They were convertible dresses so that everyone
was able to wear it in a style that was comfortable. They also only cost about $30 per person.

We had a beautiful location

We made these signs to direct our guests around the large ranch.

I painted this menu sign and now it hangs in our kitchen.

We had books as decor on every table with 2 flower
arrangements in random vase from thrift stores.
I folded brown paper bags around books and glued numbers
to them to assign the tables.

I didn't want to do the normal cheesy wedding favor since no one wants them anyways.
So instead, I made these bookmarks with my Cricut and
we donated money to an animal rescue in the guest name.

I bought this cake topper at a thrift store when I was about 10 I believe.
I sealed it in a box and didn't open it until we were engaged. I had forgotten
what it looked like, but it just so happened to have a blond bride
and a groom with brown hair.

Our cake was the one part of our wedding that went terribly wrong.
The cake came from Albertsons, which was cheap enough and tasted good.
When it came time to put the cake together, the cake started to crack. You can see
the columns between the bottom and second tier leaning. They assemble it a minute
before we cut it so they could take pictures. This still bugs me.