I’m so excited to be sharing some wedding photos with you today, eee!
We didn’t intend to have a DIY wedding, it wasn’t what we set out to do. But we did intend to have a low-key wedding that had a cosy feeling. We were very very lucky with our venue, which is where all the DIY ideas came from! My sister-in-law and her husband live on a parcela, which translates as ‘farm’ but it isn’t a working farm, it’s a house with a huge amount of land around it.
We first had the idea of getting married there when their cousin’s son had his Christening party there, so as soon as we got engaged we asked Carlos’ sister if we could use her land to get married in, and luckily she said yes! So, we used the space to the best of our advantage and started planning.
The trouble was is that we were living in England, so we had to do all of the plans via email : we booked the catering (a BBQ), the photographers, the lady who did the ceremony and the marquee all via email. Which meant when we landed in Chile seven weeks before our wedding, we immediately started to plan all of the details.
The seating
This was a Pinterest idea by Carlos. We hired thirty hay bales from a local farm, and bough fabric which we then cut and placed on top of each hay bale.
The swing
This was another Pinterest idea. Carlos made this swing from old wood, and a rope that we bought. I sanded down and painted the swing, and Carlos put it all together. This was so fun as we got to see our guests during our ceremony.
Decorations
As we are from different countries, we love travel and we had wedding guests from all over the world, we wanted to incorporate that into our theme. My mum, Carlos and I made heart garlands from my parents old maps that they no longer use, and hung them between the trees where we had the ceremony.
We also made a sign post with all the cities that people were travelling from, and showing people the main parts of the wedding. These were made from old bits of wood that we then cut, sanded down and painted. We used hooks to attach the signs to the post.
Lights
We wanted lights around the swimming pool, so we used old jars and filled them with one candle each. We then attached them to posts using wire.
Table Names
Our table names were cities that we have travelled to together. We printed them using my photo printer, I then used alphabet stamps to write the names and wrote on the back. Carlos made the wooden structures from old bits of wood, and we bought mini pegs to attach them.
Photos
We made an arch from old bits of wood, bamboo and tins. We cut, sanded down and painted the wood before pouring cement into the tins and leaving it to set. We then hung up string to display photos of the guests. We also hung string to trees to display the table names and more photos.
Bouquets
We bought flowers a couple of days before, and my mum and one of my bridemaids put them all together with ribbon that I bought from a local shop.
Flower decorations
My monther-in-law grew sunflowers, as she knew I wanted them for my bouquet. They ended up being way too big for the bouquet, so we used them for decoration instead.
It was amazing to see all our work had come together on the day! We were so very lucky to have our family and friends around to help with putting everything together from collecting the hay bales, to hanging photos, to cutting cloth. Without them, our DIY ideas wouldn’t have worked ❤
These photos were all taken by our amazing wedding photographers ~ Valerie and Alvaro
Marcella xx
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beautiful! such clever ideas!:)
Thanks so much, Tanja! It was a lot of work, but we are so happy with how it all turned out 😀
Awesome couple!
Thanks!! 🙂
I absolutely ADORE your dress! It’s so beautiful! And I love the idea of the table names being places you’ve visited and the love heart maps for the garlands… I think I want to get married again now!
Thanks so much for your lovely comments, Jess!! So nice of you! I was so happy with my dress, and managed to find it by luck as it wasn’t actually a ‘wedding dress’.
So so lovely! I love small and intimate wedding celebrations. Unfortunately I come from Asian culture, so we got to have big wedding celebrations. Thanks for sharing your big day with us 🙂
Thanks so much, Kat! I have been to an Asian wedding, so I know what you mean about how big they are 😉
Love the mood of your weeding , very warm feeling 9. Best wishes for your life toguether , thanks for sharing !
Thank you so much!! 😀
Wow everything turned out so perfect!!! I love how involved your husband was with all the DIY projects.
Thank you!! Most of the DIY was actually Carlos’ idea 🙂
Marcella, I love EVERYTHING in this post!!!! I’m so so impressed that you diy’ed everything. It all looks so gorgeous. I love the boho vibe and all the creative ideas… especially the straw bale seating and the signs with all the countries and pictures on the tables. Your dress is gorgeous too! I hope you’ll show more pictures of the wedding soon!
Thank you for your lovely comment, Anna!! We are so pleased with how it all came together after all of the work 🙂
Congratulations on a beautiful wedding!!!
Thank you!! 😀
What a gorgeous wedding and lovely couple! Congratulations!
Thank you so much 🙂
What lovely photos! It’s all so dainty and adorable! Congratulations!
http://www.reginecelinaaa.wordpress.com
Thank you! We were very lucky to have incredible wedding photographers 🙂
I don’t know what I love more.. the swing, the heart shaped maps, your pictures, the signs pointing out to all the locations! Your wedding was magical! You guys are glowing by the way!
Thanks Isabel! It really was a magical day 🙂 It is great to look back at the photos and re-live it all!!
I’m in love with everything! How perfect and neat ideas. I also loved your dress!
Thanks so much for your lovely comment, Mani 🙂
Just gorgeous!! I love all the little touches and the DIY – all your work has really paid off as it looks outstanding 🙂
Thank you Jessi, that’s so sweet of you! 🙂
Congratulations! so many brilliant ideas and I love your dress 🙂
Thank you so much!! 😀
I just love weddings! That sign is one of my favorite features. You guys did an amazing job on everything!
❤ Have Ashley, Will Travel
Thank you Ashley! Making the sign was a lot of fun 🙂
Marcella!!! How am I just seeing this!??! Omg! I’m obsessed! This wedding couldn’t not be anymore gorgeous! I am so so impressed that you DIYed everything. Pinterest is a beautiful thing, huh? And your dress is flawless!!! So many congratulations on your wedding! The pictures, vibe and ideas are amazing! 😀
Thanks so so much, that’s so nice of you! Pinterest is so the way forward, I’m so glad we ended up looking at it for inspiration as it gave us so many ideas!! 😀 We are so pleased with how it all turned out.
It must have been such an amazing day! Congrats again! 🙂 And I love the idea of the swing! 🙂
Thank you, Camila! It was a really amazing day and the swing was a really fun twist 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous – especially the maps and table names. Wow, so well done!
Thanks so much for your lovely comment!
First of all, congratulations and many years of happiness to you both! 🙂 I adore going through wedding photos and I thoroughly enjoyed yours. Your wedding looks so beautiful, so many creative details, bravo! Also, your dress is absolutely gorgeous!! xoxo, nano
Thanks for your lovely words!! It was lots of work, but so worth it as we were really happy with how it all turned out 🙂
Such a pretty wedding! It doesn’t look DIY, but it must feel very special that you made all these things yourselves! 🙂
Thank you! It was great to see all of our hard work at the end 🙂
congrats! it turned out really great. I love the swing idea!
Thanks Andrea!! The swing was so much fun 🙂
My bridesmaids are going to help me out with bouquets, too – we’re going to buy the flowers wholesale and then put the bouquets together ourselves. Did you have any bouquet-making experience or did you just wing it? Did you make boutonnieres too?
You’ll love doing the bouquets! We just winged it, based on colours and textures, none of us had done it before but were so pleased with how they came out!
We didn’t have any boutonnières at our wedding.
Cool! Did you just use tape to hold them together?
No, we just tied them with two pretty ribbons that we wound around each other, like a lose plait.