“Troi and John’s Wedding was a beautiful barn wedding with a twist! The barn is located on a B+B property with a gorgeous southern inspired brick mansion! Firstly, Troi wore her mother’s wedding dress. It was such a special symbol for their marriage to begin with such a meaningful memento. Troi also handmade almost all of the decor for her ceremony and reception, including the handmade wedding arch made out of beautiful tree limbs! She also included cute touches that really identified her and John’s passions! One of their wedding favors was to adopt a {stuffed} puppy! This was so special for the couple because they have two fur-babies of their own. If she wasn’t the DIY queen already, she even embroidered her wedding shoes with her new married name, her wedding date and an engagement ring! However, there was no denying throughout the day that they were there for one purpose – they wanted to marry their best friend!” –Samantha Webber Photography

What is your favorite wedding day memory?

Oh man! To pick out one memory that was my favorite would be difficult, but I think the best memory that I have was John and my first dance as a married couple. A lot of people would have songs already picked out prior to this time, but we completely forgot. Some of our friends picked “One” by Metallica. John and I are both metal heads so this song was pretty dead on! It was funny for not only us {we laughed the entire time} but also for all of our friends and family. Our first dance was unscripted, spontaneous and absolutely 100% us! It was perfect!

What did you DIY for your wedding?

I pretty much DIY’ed everything for our wedding! I am a very crafty person! Our colors were copper, burgundy and navy. I designed all of the centerpieces myself by spray painting them copper and wrapped navy twin around them. Following that, I hot glued an acorn in the middle and also put some berries around it. I also adorned it with fall colored flowers that I purchased. Around the wine bottles I dropped fake moss, metallic copper, gold and silver pumpkins, gourds along with pine cones, as well as, copper fairy lights. In addition to the centerpieces I made our table numbers too. I took picture frames I picked up from the dollar tree and spray painted them navy blue and then took brown paper bags and cut the back grounds out. Each number was with a corresponding age picture of my husband and I. {1, was a picture of John at one years old and myself at one year’s old too.} Everyone loved this!

For flowers, I designed and created my bouquet, along with my two bridesmaids bouquets and my husbands boutonniere! Oh and I can’t forget my mom and my mother-in-law’s corsage as well! These were done with fall flowers like sunflowers, dahlias, berries, mums, asters, etc! I also had charms with my Great Grandma and Grandma on there. For my flower girl, I designed a flower ball of sunflowers. She was less than two years old so I had to improvise because she wouldn’t know to throw flower petals. I took a Styrofoam ball and hot-glued sunflowers on it and attached a copper ribbon for her to hold. For her dress I also incorporated and sewed on a sunflower to match her flower ball on the ribbon around her waist! It was so cute!

My dad helped me DIY my wedding as well as he is also super crafty! {Probably where I got it from!} He made us an arbor to stand under for the ceremony. It was made with branches that he had cut and carved himself. Before the wedding, my bridesmaids and a close friend adorned the arbor with fall flowers, pots of mums, hay bales and pumpkins!

I also painted a sign that said “Pick a Seat, Not a Side. We are all Family when the Knot is Tied.” When I say painted, I mean PAINTED! I purchased a frame that was probably 3×2 ft at a thrift store. I used chalk paint to cover the glass and make it look like it a chalkboard and then spray painted the frame itself copper. Afterwards, I wrote the quote and underlined the quote like my Great Grandma used to do with my birthday cards.

For our loved ones that had passed and couldn’t be there celebrating with us for our wedding I made a memory table. I printed out their pictures and displayed them with a flame-less candle that would never burn out.

One of my favorite crafts that I worked on for the wedding was our “Adopt a Puppy” table for the kids at the wedding! I purchased little puppy stuffed animals from Amazon and put wedding veils on the bride pups and then bow ties on the groom pups and then good the box I received the puppies in and cut it to look like a picket fence and made a sign that said “Adopt a Puppy”. I put pictures of our dogs around it as well because as much as we wanted them there with us {they are our babies} we weren’t able to!

Of all my DIY endeavors for our wedding the one that I am most proud of is my shoes! I purchased rose gold keds and embroidered ‘Mrs. Stith’ on them with the iconic wedding ring and hearts and on the other shoe I put our wedding date! They were comfortable and super cute!

Any advice for brides currently in the planning process?

Give yourself enough time to plan and don’t stress about the small things! At the end of the day you’ll be marrying the love of your life and the little things that go wrong will be comical! {My brother in law lost one of my wedding bands at the wedding. Although I cried I didn’t let it ruin the rest of my night!} -Troi, the Bride

Event Credits

Photography: Samantha Webber Photography // Engagement Ring: Kay Jewlers // Bride's Shoes: Keds // Bridesmaid's Jewelry: Distinctly Ivy // Wedding Favors: Picture Perfect Papier // Wedding Programs: Splendid Day Designs // Cake Topper: Copper Maiden Jewelry // Guest Book: Alphabet Canvas