March 15, 2009

How to Elope with Style


Lots of little girls dream of their weddings. All I ever fantasized about was the dress and the jewelry. So when my now-husband and I decided to get married, we quickly dispensed with the notion of a shin-dig and decided to do it on our own terms.

Niagara Falls called to us, so we booked a room with a gorgeous view and came up with excuses to get away for a few days in April.

The mayor of Niagara Falls, New York performed the ceremony. Rather than the boiler plate we'd expected, we got his take on the wedding vows, which were much sweeter and more heartfelt.

Although our nuptials took place in the dark ages before Etsy and the {New New}, they did include many handmade and DIY elements.

My dress was custom made at a local shop called Kimera. My cute capelet also came from a local shop that carries lots of handmade goods, Rapisarda. My husband worked with jewelry designer Lady J. to create an engagement ring based on one that had been my grandmother's. We got custom wedding bands from the Original Titanium Workshop.

As a gift on the day we got married, he got me a beautiful handmade purse from Refinery, a local pioneer in handmade retail.


Afterwards, we let our friends and family know we'd gotten hitched by sending out this card:
which we made by taking a picture of some public art near our house that we thought kind of looked like us. With each card we included a cd of the theme song to Laverne and Shirley, "Doing it Our Way."

If I were to do it all over again, I'd still elope. We spared ourselves a great deal of stress, and to this day we still feel justified in splurging on travel since we saved so much money by not having a a wedding.

The only thing I'd change is I'd definitely do a lot of my shopping from the {New New}!

Stylish elopement necessities from Ikyoto, bluestitch books, metalicious, groundsel, jesswitaj and Lingua Nigra.

-MaryAnne
wabisabibrooklyn.com
wabisabibrooklyn.etsy.com

6 comments:

KimmChi said...

OMG - the Laverne and Shirley theme is a HILARIOUS idea!

Anonymous said...

this is so dangerous for a soon to be bride to read, lol. erase the stress and keep the cash!
and omg @ ur theme song playing in my head now lol

awesome post

MaryAnne LoVerme said...

That theme song just summed it all up for us so nicely!

Anonymous said...

How adorable!!! And I love your wedding dress (what a great color!!). I love learning about "alternative" weddings. :)

MaryAnne LoVerme said...

Thanks! The dress has a beautiful turquoise lining too. And I wore it SEVERAL times after the wedding.

AngelTree Gems said...

We eloped in Vegas. I agree with the money saving. Wish Etsy had been around then, as I ended up wearing an old white sundress I had had forever.

The song idea was inspired! Wish we had thought of something like that. We just waited until someone asked us (Jokingly) if we had gotten married while we were there, smiled, and said "Of course we did!".