We LOVE this couple's unique style and stunning wedding!
Shea Shoemaker
Shea Shoemaker December 07, 2016

DIY Wedding | Aaron + Lisa

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“These two had one of the most fun and beautiful weddings I have photographed in quite some time. Aaron and Lisa had so many unique details to their wedding, everywhere you looked there was personalization. The “Say Anything” custom art that they had on pins were amazing, I have never seen anything quite like that. The wheat bouquet was also a favorite! Did I mention they had a bouncy house? Every wedding should have a bouncy house! They ended the night with a beautiful sparkler sendoff and what could be better than that!” –DeAnda Photography

We're loving this gorgeous Mr. and Mrs. and their unique wedding!
The Bride's stunning wedding dress and details!
Stunning snap of the beautiful bride before the ceremony!
Stunning snap of the beautiful bride before the ceremony!
Stunning snap of the beautiful bride before the ceremony!
Stunning snap of the beautiful bride before the ceremony!
The Bride wore her something old butterfly pin from her Grandmother on her arm!
The Bride and her stunning Bridesmaids before the first look!
The handsome Groom getting ready for the first look with his Bride!
How great is this Groom's wheat boutineere?!
Custom tie pin made for the Groom!
What a cool idea! The Groom created his Groomsmen shoes for the big day!
The Groom and his Groomsmen before the ceremony!
Super sweet snap of this couple and their first look!
Super sweet snap of this couple and their first look!
Super sweet snap of this couple and their first look!
Super sweet snap of this couple and their first look!
We love this Bride's unique wheat bouquet! So stunning!
We love this couple's gorgeous ring shot!
We're loving this stunning outdoor wedding with tons of DIY details!
We're loving this stunning outdoor wedding with tons of DIY details!
We're loving this stunning outdoor wedding with tons of DIY details!
Terrible towels for the ceremony for this couple's Pittsburgh wedding!
Terrible towels for the ceremony for this couple's Pittsburgh wedding!
Such a fun shot of the Groom holding a boom box while his bride walks down the aisle!
Swooning over this couple's stunning outdoor ceremony!
Swooning over this couple's stunning outdoor ceremony!
Swooning over this couple's stunning outdoor ceremony!
We love this couple and their gorgeous wedding party!
We love this couple and their gorgeous wedding party!
We love this couple and their gorgeous wedding party!
We love this couple and their gorgeous wedding party!
We love this snap of the new Mr. and Mrs. with their pup post-ceremony!
Swooning over this gorgeous couple and their fun wedding!
Swooning over this gorgeous couple and their fun wedding!
Swooning over this gorgeous couple and their fun wedding!
How cute is this theater Bride's cast list for this couple's escort cards? Love it!
We're in love with this fun advice bank idea!
We're in love with this fun advice bank idea!
So many cute details at this stunning wedding!
So many cute details at this stunning wedding!
So many cute details at this stunning wedding!
So many cute details at this stunning wedding!
Cute smore dessert bar at this couple's darling reception!
How cute are these fortune cookies a nod to the couple meeting years earlier!
Check out this couple's cute cake topper! How fun!
Cutting the cake as Mr. and Mrs!
Sweet snap of this couple's first dance as Mr. and Mrs!
The Mr. and Mrs. leaving their wedding through a sparkler exit!
This couple had the most fun sparkler exit!
The Mr. and Mrs. leaving their wedding through a sparkler exit!
The Mr. and Mrs. leaving their wedding through a sparkler exit!
How adorable is this sparkler heart photo?! LOVE!

What is your favorite wedding day memory?

Wow, there were so many! Can any bride ever narrow it down to one? I have little pockets of beautiful memories that I will carry and treasure from that day, but if I had to pick just one… A week before the wedding, someone gave me one last piece of advice. She said, “No matter what, on your wedding day, find time to steal away with your Groom alone and take a moment just to yourselves. Take it all in together and make a memory.” On the actual day, I will tell you, THAT is no easy task. Every time we tried to steal away a moment, we got grabbed and lured into conversations with friends and family at every turn, which is okay because that’s what the day is about sharing this time with those most important to you. Part of our “moment” will always involve the many times we tried to be sneaky and dip out, only to be caught by someone, but then the photographer grabbed us away to do some night shots. It was the perfect excuse to tell everyone we would be right back. So then, when the photographers were yards away setting up lighting, there we we were standing alone together on the long, dark driveway of the farm. I quickly turned to my Husband and said, “This is it. This is our moment.” We put our faces together and looked into each other’s eyes, wrapped in each other’s arms. We had a good minute and a half to hold each other in private and giggle together about being married before the photographers were ready. The person who gave me this advice said it would be one of the few things we’d remember from the day, and it is. It was such a quick, fleeting moment but one that holds us in time surrounded by all that joy. It was truly romantic and unlike any other moment from the whole day, because it was just us.

What did you DIY for your wedding?

We wanted our wedding to be familiar to our friends, nostalgic for our family and to fit what I have always said about our relationship, “Mismatch made in Heaven”. So we incorporated just about everything we could that was important to us and things that represented our differences that became shared passions as we grew together. Our colors also represented these differences… my Husband likes gold and I like white, so our colors were gold and white. We did Golden Tickets for our invitations to fit the theme, “everything is golden”. From there it just went on and on. All of my girls DIY’d everything, from golden baskets and other decor to handwritten signs to making every guest feel like they were a part of our story with little touches throughout the night. For the ceremony, we lined the aisle with antique boomboxes and cameras {My Husband makes music and I am a photographer} and my Maid of Honor handmade all of the whimsical altar and ceremony decor with gold fabrics and accents. Our dog, who is our world, was our ringbearer {complete with super dapper bow tie. #puglife}. My walk down the aisle was to Vitamin String Quartet’s rendition of “In Your Eyes”, while my Groom was waiting at the altar holding a boombox over his head {with his band’s logo is a silhouetted image of John Cusack holding the boombox from the movie “Say Anything”}, and that was the moment most of our friends say they lost it.

My brother, who is a survivor in every sense of the word, did a reading giving marriage advice that was put together using only Yoda quotes from Star Wars. Our officiant, who is a very important person from my past and now OUR present, had us write private letters to him months before the wedding about why we loved each other. In the middle of the ceremony, he surprised us by pulling out those letters and reading them out loud in front of all of our family and friends in a really unexpected, intimate moment. My Husband’s late Grandmother, who had given him the ring that was to become my engagement ring, was a published poet and an excerpt from one of her poems was read in her honor to inspire our new life together. I’m not a flower kinda girl, so in lieu of flowers, I wanted wheat (that has a sentimental meaning to me) and twinkling lights everywhere. So the bouquets and boutonnieres were handmade with wheat and pampas grass (by my bridesmaids sister), the centerpieces were made with wheat, sprigs, and LED branches in gold vases and I made table “scenes” with photos of the two of us at various places or events from important moments in our lives with a short story on why it was important to us attached for guests to read. Guests found their table scene via a Cast List to find out which scene from our lives they had been placed at for dinner. Our wedding favors were rally towels that were made to resemble the Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towels {I’m from Pittsburgh and that’s also where my husband proposed}, and everyone waved them after the ceremony and during our introductions to, as the towels stated, “rally for love”. There were also little special touches.

My husband and I wrote a “wedding rap” that we performed right after the introductions to get the party started and thank everyone for attending. And my favorite, our Bounce House! You heard that right! We are kids at heart, and we even found some time to jump in it together. Worth. Every. Penny. Also, my Husband is a sneaker collector, so he designed custom Nike IDs for the Groomsmen. The cake topper was designed around the “Say Anything” image, but with the silhouetted guy holding the bride over his head instead of a boombox and a little dog sitting by them.. There were also other wedding themed pins, designed around our many interests, that went into a toy capsule machine as prizes for the guests, and once they got their prize they left little notes or advice for us in the capsules so we could restock the machine with their thoughts and use it as a piggy bank for date nights. My Sister-in-Law made custom pants for the bridal party to get ready in and a custom Yardzee game, and we also had a giant jenga made for guests to play during cocktail hour. My good friend handmade a gold birdcage as a card box and her boyfriend, artist Patrick Skoff, hand painted one of our engagement photos on a large canvas for display at the reception. For dessert, since my husband and I met while bartending at P.F. Changs China Bistro, we had gourmet fortune cookies with custom fortunes we wrote inside of them, and the lucky numbers were the numbers in the date of our wedding. We also made goodie bags for everyone staying at our hotel full of snacks we love and a little note thanking them for coming. There were so many little things that I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot, but I think the point is that everything that day was just a big hodgepodge of us, which is exactly what we wanted.

Did you have a something old, new, borrowed and blue?

My Something Old was a white and gold butterfly brooch from my Grandmother {she had no idea what our wedding colors were when she picked it out of her jewelry to give me, so it was perfect} that I wore on a ribbon tied to my arm. My Something Borrowed was a diamond heart anklet from my mother. My Something Blue was a handkerchief with tiny blue embroidered flowers {the only flowers at my wedding} that was my late Grandmother’s that I inherited after she passed away. Lastly, my Something New ended up being the earrings my husband gifted me on our wedding day which was so perfect because the earrings I’d planned to wear…after I tried them on for the first time on the wedding day…I absolutely hated. So that really worked out for me, luckily!

Any advice for brides currently in the planning process?

One of the biggest gems I have, is to surround yourself with good friends and let them help you, because they want to! My bridal party and close friends stepped in and basically gave me an intervention, saying it was their honor and duty to help me with whatever I needed. I’m not good at asking for help and they all know me so well that they just came in and took over things for me. I never realized how truly loved I was until the whole wedding planning process. The things my friends and family did for me was very humbling and I hope that I can live up to how much they care for me by giving back to them any chance I get. But Brides, let yourself be loved and taken care of by those who love you. They are happy to see you happy. I was also given the following advice {and didn’t always follow it}, so I will pass it on: #1. Don’t stress about the little details! Enjoy them, make them fun and let go of anything that is making you uncomfortable, because it’s not worth it. I stressed so much about the sweets table and decorations and I NEVER even noticed them until the very end of the night and we ended up with about 100 custom fortune cookies leftover! #2. SO IMPORTANT!!! STAY. OFF. PINTEREST. It’s hard, I know. I spent day and night and hours on end burning my eyes out staring at Pinterest and pinning my dream wedding. A lot of wonderful, unique ideas, but most of them were unfeasible or useless to me in the long run…because when it came down to it, I wanted my wedding to represent my Husband and I and our love. And all those breathtaking ideas had nothing to do with US, as amazing as they were. When I finally got off Pinterest, I was able to clear my head and start thinking about things that applied to our story and our love, and we ended up having so many personal touches that all of our guests were raving about the little things we did to make our day unique to our relationship and who we were. So in the end, our personalization of things that we loved and cherished made our own wedding Pinterest-worthy. Lastly, #3. STEAL A MOMENT ALONE WITH YOUR GROOM! Find a way! If even for a second. -Lisa, the bride

Event Credits

Photography: DeAnda Photography // Venue: Northfolk Farm // Wedding Planner: Peggy Misna // Videographer: Whitney Cinema // Florist: Rachel Buster-Dorsey // Catering: Uncle Bubs BBQ // Invitations: Vistaprint // DJ: Impulse Entertainment // Transportation: M&M Limo // Cake: The Sugar Path // Rentals: Top Notch Rentals // Bride's Attire: Glamour Closet // Bride's Shoes: Ralph Lauren // Groom's + Groomsmen's Attire: Dockers // Groom's Shoes: Air Jordan // Groomen's Shoes: Nike ID Custom Shoes // Photo Booth: Your Night Productions // Bounce House: The Bouncy Store // Fortune Cookies: Fancy Fortune Cookies // Ceremony Rally Towels: Towels Outlet // Cake Topper: Plastic Smith // Bridesmaid Hangers: Seraphine Hangers // Bridal Belt: Sabina KW Design // Dog Collar/Bow Tie: Yo Diggity By Kimberly

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