Teresa and Damon’s summer wedding was a DIY affair with a modern Western feel at her parents’ farm just outside of Portland, Oregon. Teresa’s family spent nearly a year getting the farm ready for the wedding, and the couple’s creativity is obvious in all the wonderful details! Jesse Holland Photography captured their amazing wedding day.
There were a couple primary factors that inspired our DIY elements. The first being we are a very hands on/artistic couple. Damon is a custom illustrator/artist and I love getting creative and breaking out my arts and crafts basket. The second was that we held the wedding ceremony and reception at my parents’ home, thus we needed to work with our surrounding resources and go from there!
Right from the start, we began doing lots of our own work – we designed our own save the dates and invitations and had them printed at a local print shop. Damon did the layout and illustrations, and I did the calligraphy. We gathered DIY ideas about decorations and how we envisioned the day to happen. We also wanted to incorporate help from family and friends. Since the wedding was at my parents’ home, there was plenty of space for our friends to camp in the pastures, which allowed for a casual wedding weekend and lots of support for us! We loved it! Given our friends were already on site, they helped with lots of set-up and decorations. I pretty much handed supplies over and said – take charge. My girlfriends helped make garlands, set-up tables and flower decorations. The guys moved hay bales for seats, husked the corn and prepped the beans. It was a great trade, a little set-up help for a place to stay! I knew our group of friends would make things happen and help when needed.
We also tried to use a lot of local resources. Our flowers were grown and assembled by a family friend. We worked with a local wine shop for our wines. We purchased beer from a local brewery as well as a few kegs that were brewed by my cousin and the groom himself. The guys got to make their own bar and tap system for the kegs, one of a kind! My father made all our dinner tables and my mother put together 30+ hanging flower baskets. A great friend made the wedding cake, other dessert items and arranged the dessert table. It was a huge family event! Plus my good friend and old roommate, Jesse Holland, did an amazing job setting up the popular photo booth and took beautiful photographs!
I think what I enjoyed most was having our family and friends all in one place celebrating together. That was amazing. Watching everyone enjoy the evening and see all our hard work look so beautiful was perfect! Even though a few small things got forgotten or looked over, our wedding day was great! It was fun, exciting and filled with joy and love. Our wedding embraced our lifestyle. Casual, yet small elements of charm and originality. Support from our loved-ones. And utilizing our local resources. – Teresa
Artists
- Photographer: Jesse Holland Photography
- Venue: The Rough Delux (Private Family Farm)
