Welcome to DIY Wedding Week! In case the lack of recent posts hadn’t tipped you off, I’ve been pretty busy lately. I get married in 12 days! And we’re doing a huge amount of the wedding stuff ourselves. I’ve decided to dedicate all of my blog posts until the big day to wedding stuff in a series aptly named “DIY Wedding Week.” I know, 12 days is NOT a week, but “DIY Wedding Week and a Half” or “DIY Wedding Week and Five Days” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

In the process of getting ready for our wedding, we’ve had plenty of inspiration along the way since everyone and their frickin mom is getting married right now. A couple weeks ago we got to see our friends Chris and Rachel tie the knot in Orange County at Rancho Las Lomas, a rustic ranch with beautiful gardens and zoological areas featuring lions, tigers, zebras and birds. They played off the romantic vibe of the venue with hundreds of red roses, candles, and intimate seating areas. And yes, they had a coordinator to help them pull this all off.

We spent last weekend in Longview, Washington at the wedding of our friends Jeremy and Crystal. They actually got engaged a few days before us and have been our wedding companions during the whole planning process. We even planned our honeymoons around each other to be sure we’d all be at both of our big days! They had a low-key, fun wedding (complete with jello shots and funfetti cake) at an event hall in their hometown – and they did EVERYTHING themselves, from the food to the decorations.

Nate and I are meeting somewhere in the middle with our wedding – we like the romantic, “weddingy” feel of roses and elegant placesettings, but also want to reflect our fun, playful relationship. We decided to go with black, white and turquoise as our colors and don’t have any particular theme. Here’s the inspiration board we put together:

Check back tomorrow for the beginning of our numerous wedding projects. So far we’ve started tackling program fans, centerpieces, arches, and invites. Next up is the table numbers, placecards and (prepare yourself, this one’s quite an undertaking) a DIY photobooth!