our wedding: i heart thrifting.

Note:  I was doing some blog cleanup and realized this post never got published with our other wedding recaps... so here it is in all its glory!

Our wedding incorporated a lot of DIY and thrifted elements.  Since we did not hire a wedding planner, we were able to have total control over the design of our wedding- but had to get creative about how to get the vintage-inspired, elegant look we wanted on a tight budget.  That's where thrifting and DIY came in, and it was a nice coincidence that our wedding date was I Heart Thrifting day in Roanoke!

Chalkboards

Venue Photo

I had fallen in love with the idea of menu chalkboards after seeing them on lots of bridal blogs and in magazines, but ready-to-use chalkboards can be expensive.  Like many brides and craft bloggers before me, I discovered chalkboard paint.  To create each chalkboard, I bought picture frames from Goodwill, spray painted the frames with ivory Krylon spray paint, distressed them with sandpaper, and then painted the glass with chalkboard paint.  I used a chalk marker for the lettering.

Venue Photo

This frame had a great pattern, so I sanded it quite a bit.

Milk Glass

Venue Photo

I collected milk glass for months before the wedding, and it was all from local Goodwill stores!  I found that the best store for large pieces like the ones shown here is the Westlake Goodwill, but I also found quite a few pieces in Vinton.

Venue Photo

The "milk glass" cake stands were a cheat- they're actually from Pier 1.  But the vases are thrifted!

Books

For our centerpieces, I looked for books with wedding-related titles, like Bartlett's Words for the Wedding, shown above, covers in our wedding colors like Ultimate Wit here, books with significance to our guests, like Coal Miner's Daughter on my mom's family's table, and books we personally love, like the Harry Potter series and Catherine Marshall's Christy.

I found these initial mugs at Ross.

Here's one of our tablescapes showing off thifted and DIY creations.