The Pankratz Wedding: A Purple DIY Shabby Chic Fall Wedding

After a year of planning, my best friend’s wedding has come and gone. And while that may sound bittersweet, in place of wedding planning, they now are building their married lives together. It truly is the best end to the year, and a whole new beginning to something even sweeter.

All that to say, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited to blog here before! And to share these photos from Harvard Photography, with a couple of my own photos thrown in there too.

This was definitely a DIY, do it yourself, craft-centric wedding… and don’t you worry, plenty of links will follow.

As the Matron of Honor, I got the chance to be there all along the way… with dress shopping, crafting, and shower planning. But even better, I got to design the save the dates, invitations, and so much more of the day of paperie and decor. From the chalkboards to the escort cards, I got to hand letter them all. It really was a joy to get to be so involved and that is another big reason why I am so excited to share all these photos with you!

Enough blabbing from me, here are a few words from our lovely bride…

It is so hard to believe that the wedding has come and gone! Over the past year, countless nights were spent crafting and planning to create the perfect decorations, stationery and timeline for what turned out be the wedding of my dreams. We were so blessed by everyone who made our special day a reality — Matt and I had a perfect day shared with the ones we love the most!!  Anyhow, enough of the mushy stuff, lets get to the good stuff…pictures!

As most of you know, my Matron of Honor, Sam is a very talented graphic designer, and as of late she has been exploring the world of photography! Before the wedding photographer arrived, she graciously took these amazing getting ready photo’s of me and my bridal party!

My normal hair dresser, the lovely Tessa Ellis from Runaway Bridal, was our AMAZING hair stylist for the day of the wedding. She works side by side with the equally talented make-up artist, Amy Grieser to give both me and my girls the exact look I envisioned.

Our lovely invitations were designed by the one and only, Sam Allen! Not only are they beautiful, but each piece holds a special memory of the late nights we spent creating them. Special thanks to my bridesmaids for helping us put them together! (photo supplied by Sam Allen)

The dress..let’s just say I am still SO in love with it! I absolutely love pearls and lace, so when I saw this dress at David’s Bridal I just knew it was the one for me.

I bought two very different garters from different shops on Etsy. The first, a beautiful shabby chic lace garter with pearls and stones from Petal n Pearl Boutique. The second garter was a little surprise for my husband to be. Matt is the biggest Indianapolis Colt’s fan and a while back I came across a cute little shop that sold NFL team garters and I knew it would be a sweet little surprise.

Our niece was quite the character all day — she wanted to be in the middle of everything! The previous picture captures that just about perfectly.

After shopping for veils at various bridal shops, I decided that making my own was the way to go — and if you’re wondering, it was pretty easy! One evening I enlisted one of my wonderful bridesmaids, Vanessa and Loretta (Matt’s second Mom) to help me. We were able to find the appliques and trim at a local fabric store as well as the basic plain veil. And get this, all we used was hot glue! No sewing was required! I am so happy with the way it turned out — simple yet elegant.

My Papa passed away almost seven years ago and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him just a little bit more. He was so special to me and I couldn’t imagine my wedding day without him. When I found this locket I knew it would be perfect for his sweet picture to walk with me down the aisle.

Sam here, I can’t help but interject every now and then… I was so thankful the photographers allowed me to grab my camera for a few shots too! So while the main photographer was taking this angle…

I was able to take these of the bride… Isn’t she gorgeous!!?

Kim Ryan from Tulips, Trophies and Treasures is amazing! She truly took my vision and made it a reality. From my first meeting with her, all I knew was that I wanted hydrangeas in my bouquet and books in the centerpieces.  From the few sample photo’s I shared with her, she included those and so much more!

My Grandma and Mom are two of the strongest people I know. These hands have made me who I am and I am so grateful for their strong presence in my life.

While us girls were having a wonderful start to the day, the guys were doing their thing…

How cute are these boys?! I love the friendship that my husband and his Best Man share.

Matt loves his Van’s! They are seriously the only shoes he will wear. So it only seemed fitting that they were the shoe of choice for his big day.

And then it was time for the First Look…

Your Favorite Moment of the Day

Amie: For me, the best part of the day was walking up to Matt and seeing him for the first time. There are no words to describe just how excited I was to see this man! I love him with my whole heart and more (if that’s even possible)! I was so overcome with emotion and I couldn’t wait to feel the warmth of his embrace (For those of you who don’t know, this guy gives the best hugs EVER). We had waited so long for this moment and it was finally here!

Matt: Standing in front of our family and friends saying I Do to the love of my life.

From the beginning of our relationship, Matt and I have always pinky promised over the big and even the silly small. This may be one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. 

Now that we got the bulk of our emotions out during the first look, it was time for the ceremony!

One of the most important things to Matt and I when shopping for a wedding venue was the privacy of the location. It was very important that the venue was secluded and intimate — especially the ceremony site.  We envisioned our wedding to be a special moment shared with the ones we love most with no outside distractions. Secluded Garden Estate definitely fulfilled that desire completely.

From early on in our planning stages, I knew we wanted to decorate with a lot of wooden signs throughout the venue, from telling guests where to park, where the reception was, to the sign my nephew held as the “ring bearer”  and with only a few days to go, the best Matron of Honor was at my service once again to hand paint each and every one!

Our typewriter held a welcome letter to our guests… it was given to us by Matt’s mom, originally it belonged to her father in law’s family back in the day!

I LOVE old books and this unique sign in book designed by Morgann Hill Designs definitely fit out theme well! You can check out her shop on Etsy here!

My Grandpa’s chair was reserved in his honor by his favorite hat.

I love the emotion captured in my mom’s face in this picture as my brother walks her down the aisle to start the ceremony…she is beautiful!

Music Choices

One of the hardest parts of wedding planning was selecting the music for our ceremony and key reception events! Finally Matt and I agreed on the most important songs, and let our DJ decide on the rest.

 For our bridal party processional we went with “It’s a Good Morning Beautiful Day” by Keith Urban. For the first three months of our relationship, Matt re-wrote the lyrics to this song and texted them to me every morning!

For my processional I choose “You Had Me From Hello” by Kenny Chesney and our recessional was “Overwhelmed” by Tim McMorris.

Here is a little wedding day story that holds a special place in my heart: I was overcome with emotion as our bridal party lined up for the wedding ceremony. I seriously could not stop crying happy tears (which is not like me — I’m normally not that big of a cryer). As I stood with my dad, watching our bridal party proceed down to our ceremony site I balled, the ugly cry. I was just so excited to marry the man of my dreams. Anyhow, moments before we were to walk down the stairs (and I was still balling) my dad told me to look down and he said, “You know, your Grandpa is up there laughing at you right now.” After a few seconds I got it together and my dad told me that the two of them were ready to walk me down the aisle. I miss papa so much but I was so blessed to have him as I made the walk to marry the love of my life. I definitely took a mental picture at that moment and I will cherish that moment the rest of my life.

Our ceremony was the most perfect part of the day. I loved every moment of it and not to mention it was just beautiful!

Another aspect that Amie loved about Secluded Garden Estate from Day 1 was not only that the ceremony site was located on the foundation of an old green house, but that the original window panes are displayed, hanging from the wooden framing. Plus Kim, the florist, added her special touches by wrapping the posts in burlap and adding a chandelier.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom were able to steal away for some more photos at the ceremony site… along with some fun formals with family and friends.

Then Amie and Matt made their way over to the reception site for their grand entrance as Mr. and Mrs… as husband and wife.

Matt is definitely an outdoorsy type person. As our relationship has grown, I have become a lot more open to the whole wilderness thing and I’ve truly come to enjoy the outdoors a whole lot more.  Our reception site felt like it was in the middle of wilderness and we just loved that! 

One of the things I truly loved about our wedding was the handmade look everything had. From the tea stained escort cards, made by Primitive Blessings, to the hand written chalk boards and signs.

Matt and I are big history nerds — especially when it comes to United States History! Although all these books are not US history related, they are all pretty old and we thought that it would be a fun way to tie our love of history into our wedding day. And then our florist engraved the table numbers.

Our signature cocktail was a mix of lemonade, vodka and iced tea… perfect for a BBQ dinner.

Each guest got to take home a mason jar, ladies got the redneck wine glasses, complete with a bookmark and wedding tattoo.

Our cake from Cakes to Celebrate was absolutely delicious! Each layer was a different flavor ranging from red velvet to dark chocolate cake filled with coconut pecan filling. I seriously can not wait for our first anniversary to dive in to this cake again!

Our cake topper was also designed by Morgann Hill and they can be found in her Etsy shop.

This was by far one of my favorite craft projects made for the wedding! It definitely was a joint effort made by my Husband, Sam and I.  You can find the DIY link here.

Matt’s favorite band is AC/DC and he was adamant that we make our grand entrance to “Thunderstruck.” Because I got to choose most of the other music I went along with it and boy am I glad I did! It was the perfect song!

Since Matt and I love games, while we were taking our formal pictures, we had the guests fill out a Mad Lib card…

Music Choices for the Reception Dances

Advice to Future Brides

Vendor Links

Location: Secluded Garden Estate

Photographer: Harvard Photography

Videographer: Boffo Video

Florist: Tulips, Trophies, and Treasures

Stationery Designer and Letterer: Matron of Honor, Sam Allen Creates

Caterer: Rooftop Barbeque

Cake: Cakes to Celebrate

Cake topper: Morgann Hill Designs (bragging bags)

DJ: Good Time Entertainment (Mike)

Makeup and Hair: Runway Bridal

Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal

Bridesmaid Dresses: purchased at Mary Me Bridal by the Dessy group

Veil: handmade by bride and family

Garters: PetalnPearlBoutique

Dress hanger: Creations by Tilly

Guest book: Morgann Hill Designs (bragging bags)

And one final note…. Thank you Matt and Amie for allowing me to have such a special part in your big day. I am so honored and will never forget these moments that we have been blessed with to share. I love you both so much and couldn’t be happier for you as you start your happily ever after…