Courtney, Graphic Designer & Jake, Maintenance Mechanic
One sentence sum-up of the Wedding Vibe: A woodland wonderland inside a downtown chapel.
Soundtrack for reading: “Home” by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros
Other Cool Stuff We Should Know About
My now husband Jake and I got married on October 12th at this historic chapel in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Jake didn’t care where we got married, as long as it was inside. I fell in love with the vintage look of the church as soon as I walked in there the first time. I knew I wanted our ceremony and reception in the same space, so some amazing folks at the venue, my wedding coordinator (a friend of my mom’s), her husband, and a friend helped to flip the ceremony space to a reception party room in less than an hour, while our guests mingled downstairs for a cocktail hour and the wedding party went off to do photos with our photographer.
We tried to do as much as we could on our own, not only because I love to craft and DIY but because I wanted our wedding to feel personal. I painted old pickle jars with glitter glass paint for centerpieces, Jake and I covered Ikea frames in fallen birch bark for our seating chart and I did all of the invitations and printed them on wood veneer. Jake and I also made jam for our favors, even picking our own strawberries for it. We also catered the cocktail hour, mostly veggies and dips, and he made the deviled eggs. I also made all the cupcakes for the reception, because I love baking, and it actually calms me when I’m stressed.
Some of my favorite aspects of my wedding were the flowers (which were all done by my mom), my dress (a never been worn sample I picked up for only $370), and the late night snack of hushpuppies and chicken nuggets from a local drive-thru burger joint where Jake and I had our first (very) unofficial date. We also chose to do a unity tree planting. Both of our mothers gathered dirt from their own yards and put it in mason jars and brought it up during the ceremony for Jake and me to plant a little indoor palm tree. I liked the idea that it’s something living that we could keep forever and symbolizes our growing love. Of course to me the best part was getting to party—and party—with our family and friends and my new husband.
Favorite Thing About the Wedding
When taking pictures downtown, a City of Raleigh fire truck drove past and sounded all the horns for us! Also, that we did the whole wedding for under $8,000!
