Eclectic Hay Loft Wedding Inspiration

Love everything about this rustic winter wedding shoot, submitted by Erin Johnson Photography.  Inspired by books, candlesticks and a pug named Hank, this eclectic collaboration offers much eye candy and some truly unique inspiration.  Read on below for all the details...

photos © erin johnson photography

From Erin + Carly: The inspiration for this shoot came from some black and white striped candle sticks, our love of books and my pug, Hank. {Check out the canvas of Hank!} In Seven Oaks Farm's huge hay loft, we hung a 9ft love story poster between huge, velvet drapes. {The 9 foot banner is Carly's love story--it tells how she met and dated her now husband. It has some great lines...she tells how he drove on their first date and says: "What was she thinking?! He could have been an axe murderer!" He taught her to shuffle. She watched Lord of the Rings.} 

We centered the dining table on top of our black and white cheveron rug and covered it with a steely-lavendar pin-tuck tablecloth. We set the table with a neural floral arrangement dotted with succulents and dogwood, striped black and white candles in mercury glass candleholders, vintage mis-matched china and silverware.
 

The centerpiece stood atop a covered coffee table book and "The Dangerous Book For Boys." Inside the glass cloche stood a handmade "6", a bingo card with the 6 highlighted, a domino adding up to six, an old six of hearts playing card and more... The escort cards were strung up on old birdcage stands. Each escort card had a personalized button for each guest, the table number and a book title to help guest find their seat.
  

Sarah, from On Solid Ground Vintage Rental, and Ashley, from Simply Elegant Bridal Consulting, put together the darling dessert table and seating area.  Our set-up is inspired by our love of books, typeface or fonts, black and white stripes, and Carly's pug, Hank.

The invitations are based on the 9ft sign and pull in Hank, the pug. The RSVP offers guests the chance to “enthusiastically decline” or check a box that says, “think you’re just out for the gift."

The favors are handmade key chains with each guests first inital. The brown boxes are die-cut boxes from Archivers. We folded them, filled them with excelsior nests and our favor. The handmade tags say "thank you for joining us today."

The escort cards were strung up on old birdcage stands. Every escort card has a personalized button for each guest and the table number and book title to help them find their seat.  Local artists, Allison and Rachel Pegoraro made a thumbpring guest book.

We put together a type of “Smash Book” as a more organic type of guestbook. Lots of sentence starters, fill in the blank decals and loads of stickers allow guests to put their own spin on the guestbook.  Pictures of Hank, the pug, are in frames near the seating areas with piles of our favorite books. The postcard carousel on the coffee table holds cards for the bride and groom.

We collaborated with some of our favorite vendors in the Twin Cities to bring this shoot to life...

Seven Oaks Farm: Venue- opening in 2013
Erin Johnson: Photography

Girl Friday: Design/ Production

Simply Elegant Bridal Consulting: Coordination
On Solid Ground Vintage Rental: Rentals and Styling

Lime Canary Vintage Rental: Rentals

Festivities: Rentals

Chowgirls Killer Catering: Catering
Brides of France: Estate Furs and Vintage Jewelry

Something Borrowed: Headpieces

Jen Mar Creations: Designed the dress for the occasion

Rosan Konieczny: Calligrapher
Sweet Peas: Florist

Allison and Rachel Pegoraro: Custom thumprint "guestbook"

Salon Rox: Make-up

Salon Etica: Hair

Models: Maggie Klein, Hannah Jackson and Nina Jackson