Rustic Chalkboard Themed Wedding

Julie and Todd’s autumn wedding at Malibou Lake Mountain Club was a romantic and rustic celebration with chalkboard details and stunning floral designs throughout! With a neutral color palette accented by red wine hues, their décor and DIY elements accented the natural beauty of the venue perfectly. Lukas & Suzy VanDyke captured their day!

A romantic chalkboard themed wedding in neutral tones in Agoura Hills, CA

Todd and I met while working in different departments at a major film studio in Los Angeles; I am a Marketing Director and he works in Finance and Technology. A friend and co-worker of mine who works in our creative department worked very closely with me to custom design our invitation suite. We wanted it to reflect the romantic feel that our wedding would exhibit and incorporate three crooked hearts in the same dark cranberry/wine color of my bridesmaids’ dresses. I have a fascination with the design of crooked hearts and loved the way that they were incorporated to add both a pop of color and also a hint of our wedding color scheme into the invitation.

Our focal point project was the custom chalkboard photo backdrop with 10’W x 8’H dimensions! Todd and I designed this piece entirely from scratch in Microsoft Powerpoint. From coming up with multiple fun phrases to include, to testing and deciding on different fonts to utilize for each line to add creative interest, we collaborated on every single element together. We added the three crooked wine-colored hearts from the invitation to tie the backdrop to the invitation. The huge piece was then printed on a tarp used to dress up trucks! Yes, really, our chalkboard masterpiece was actually a truck tarp printed by a company where Todd’s cousin works. Todd’s father bought piping from a local hardware store and propped up and installed the piece on the morning of the wedding. To complement the photo backdrop, we created 16 custom chalkboard photo props with funny sayings (i.e. “Dancing Queen” and “Leave The Drunk Speeches To Me”). We bought fun wooden shapes, wooden sticks, wood glue and chalkboard paint from a craft store and Todd glued and painted every single one to create an awesome prop. Our good friend, Monica, used chalkboard pens to write messages on each prop in her gorgeous handwriting and also created our large custom welcome sign that included some fun, welcoming messages from us and also included the menu. We left Polaroid cameras and a board for guests to pin their pictures.

To continue the DIY elements, Todd’s parents made the various wooden signs for us that were scattered throughout the outdoor ceremony. We have actually now placed the “Happily Ever After” wood stake in the front yard of our home, as it’s still so special to us and brings us great memories of our big day on a daily basis. I bought succulents and tin pails online and replanted each one in an effort to create a combo escort card and guest gift in one. I bought chalkboard stakes from a craft store and wrote each guest’s name and placed a sticker with their table number and created a sign to instruct guests to grab their name, find their seat and take their plant home to “Let Love Grow!” One of our favorite items from the wedding is our cake topper. We purchased a customizable cake topper on Etsy, in which the designer incorporated everything from my lace dress, to Todd’s wine-colored bowtie and hairstyle! We love it so much and currently have it displayed in our home as a great little art piece.

My romantic lace dress, soft blue shoes, the gorgeous venue, the beautiful fall leaves in the background, the warm sunshine and my super handsome groom all lent themselves to such a magical day. I got to marry my soulmate overlooking a beautiful lake, in front of our closest friends and family and then got to dance the night away. It’s a day that Todd and I will always cherish. – Julie
See also
Real Weddings
Castle Hill Cider Wedding