I want to take a little moment to talk to my dear florists that visit this little wedding blog. Darlings, send me your submissions! I’ve found that submissions from florists are INCREDIBLE and chalk full of details. Just like today’s rustic wedding submitted by Sarah, the Portland based wedding florist from The Green Dandelion. With all the rustic trimmings this Portland wedding is ALMOST as sweet and endearing as the DIY bride herself! Mandee is just a doll and I thoroughly enjoyed her interview so I wanted to share every last detail with all of you!
Where to begin? I’m Mandee, wife to Ryan, and I will tell you from the beginning, we love people. That was the driving force behind every piece of our wedding. We didn’t want to plan a wedding that was all about us. We wanted to have an event that celebrated all of the people that had played a role in bringing us to this incredible place in our lives. And it was just that.
We got married at a place called Five Rock Ranch. Our family flew in from out of town a week early and we spent the entire week at the ranch, enjoying time together, celebrating life and love, and specifically celebrating the legacy of our grandparents’ and parents’ marriages.
Favorite Memory: Sometimes Ryan and I get so caught up in loving other people, we forget to take the time to truly invest in one another. Early on the morning of our wedding, the pastor who married us and his wife (good friends of ours) came to us and said, “Today will go by in a flash. You will be surrounded by people you love and amidst all the celebration, actual time to connect will be sparse.” They encouraged us to take 15 minutes that morning before all the craziness started, to take a walk around the ranch together, and just breathe in the moment. It was such an incredibly sacred time together that I will absolutely never forget.
Advice to Brides: Amidst the details, remember the reason for all the planning. Love your fiancé well and give him grace – most likely he hasn’t been dreaming of your wedding day since he was a little girl. Hire a coordinator so that your mom can just enjoy being the mother of the bride. Keep perspective. Remember to eat. Enjoy.
Personal Touches:
- I rode in on a horse. It was a surprise to everyone except our wedding coordinator and the photographers. My dad is a rancher at heart and he absolutely loved this picturesque surprise.
- My last name was “Spotts” and I was very sad to see it go. As a kind of celebration of my family and my name, Ryan let me incorporate “spots” into our wedding in a variety of tasteful ways. My personal favorite was that all of his groomsmen wore spotted socks.
- Our guest book was a canvas with a tree printed on it. Everyone left ink thumbprints as the leaves on the tree.
- We wanted the wedding to be laid back…so everyone dressed casual, we ate bacon burgers, watermelon and killer cupcakes, and we brought our cowboy boots for dancing. We actual had someone teach line dancing to anyone who wanted to learn.
DIY Projects:
- I made fabric flowers for the bridesmaids to clip in their hair.
- We made our programs into fans to keep people cool on the day of the wedding.
- The location didn’t have a dance floor outside, so my dad built one from scratch. It was a fairly simple floor plan, but it was a huge hit and not having to rent one saved us a lot of money.
- We made a CD of all our favorite music for our guests. We bought cardboard cases to assemble ourselves and then pasted a personal “thank you” from us on the inside of the case. We tied each one with ribbon and stamped a “spotted” heart in the corner.
- We used plastic silverware, but wanted to make it look a little bit nicer, so we wrapped each set in a colored napkin and tied it with twine.
Venue and Food – 5 Rock Ranch, 5rockranch.com | Flowers – The Green Dandelion | Photographers – Joliphotographie | Cupcakes – K’s cakes n’ cookies | Invitations, Programs, Guest Book Canvas – Ryan Wilmot, W Design | Video – Bunit Prooductions
