Good morning everyone. We have quite a treat for you on The Wedding Community today as we are featuring the fabulous wedding of Carissa and Ryan. This wedding took place at The Milestone Barn in Michigan, USA, and was filled with handmade details. Would you think of using tea bags as part of your wedding styling? Well, maybe not, but this couple did and it looked amazing! They used tea bags as part of their ‘LOVE’ ceremony backdrop, with 600 tea bags used to get the ombre effect across the ceremony doors. Every part of this wedding has such attention to detail and is so meaningful to the Carissa and Ryan; even the granola for their wedding favours was made by Carissa’s Grandma!
Grab a cup of tea (it has to be tea in respect to this couple) and indulge yourself in this amazing wedding, photographed by Glass Jar Photography.
“From the start, we wanted our wedding to be transparent. Being in love is about vulnerability, and we wanted to be as open as possible with those who had helped our love to grow. From our handwritten vows to the invitations, the song selection to the poetry and decor, we wanted to take a risk and put our passions on display in every element of our wedding.
“Using his passion for writing, Ryan wrote me a thirty-two page fairytale poem for our engagement, with the question “Will you marry me?” hidden inside. So, it was only natural for books to become a major element of the wedding; he rewrote every poem he’d ever given me, and I turned those pages into paper flowers for my bouquet and his boutonnière. It was so meaningful to me to carry his love in those moments, words that were composed over our entire relationship. One particular poem — a portion of which is included in our wedding video — was read at the ceremony. Even his pocket square had one of his poems printed on it, composed by him and handwritten by me.
“For me, our wedding was a dream opportunity to indulge my creativity. As the daughter of a carpenter, I was inclined to working with my hands when it came to making items like the ceremony backdrop. I’ve also dabbled in photography, 3D design, and antiquing, putting a bit of a spin on my specialization in graphic design. It was a given that I would craft the invitations and Ryan would write them. My lifelong love for running found a place in our vows as the perfect way to show my friends and family that even my greatest passions could never compare to my love for Ryan.
“I’m really into tea and Ryan is a huge coffee enthusiast, so coffee beans and tea stains were included throughout the decor. I even dyed around 600 tea bags in a pot on my stove to get the ombre effect across one of the ceremony doors. Since words mean so much to us, we also chose a meaningful quote to paint inside the other ceremony door, along with four poetic pieces that had defined our love over the past three years.
“Nothing was included ‘just because’ in our wedding — everything had its place. We hand-picked each of our vendors and loved every one of them. They are such gifted, honest, and devoted people; without them, our day would not have been full of so much peace and joy.”
Images © Glass Jar Photography
