When planning our nuptials, we knew we wanted something small and personal. And since we decided to have the wedding at my in-laws’ Montana home, the small part was taken care of – the guest list could only get to 60 in order for everyone to fit on the patio and eat dinner (that’s 30 a piece for each of our families – yikes!). I also wanted to incorporate as many fair trade elements as I could, starting with the dress.
Dress by Celia Grace.
Who knew fair trade dresses could be so elegant? The dress was stitched by a women’s cooperative in Cambodia and is made of handmade eco-silk. I couldn’t have felt more special in it.
Here’s my handsome hubby-to-be.
Burke’s tie is fair trade – also made by Celia Grace.
We got some for the groomsmen as well.
I brought a lot of jewelry options, as you can see.
I waited until the dress was on to take care of the final touches and see what jewelry worked the best. Although a Faire Collection horn necklace from Vietnam and Mata Traders’ very own Queen of Heaven necklace were very close runners up, a simple long stranded green and brass necklace given to me by Burke’s 96-year old Grammie was the winner.
Our son Nevin, 10 months old at the time, agreed with my choice.
And now for the bridesmaids dresses…did you think I wouldn’t make it Mata? I tried to be simple about designing them and picked the Flights of Floral cut in the red petal print from the Spring ’14 collection. I think I pulled it off, and I love the fact that my girls can keep wearing these dresses post-wedding since they are just the right amount of casual.
Do the two on the right look familiar? Those are my business partners, Joni and Michelle!
Habitat Events in Missoula did the floral design – and incorporated lots of local wildflowers.
My good friend Jen Parsons from Tiny Pine Press did custom place cards, menus, and the little note I attached to each guest’s party favor. I was so in loooove with all of it – Jen watercolored the inspiration for the floral designs herself and they were so sweet and colorful. Speaking of the party favor, I had one of our women’s cooperatives in Rajasthan hand-bock print an original Mata floral design on a napkin and add hand-embroidery. Then I found sleek bamboo napkin holders from fair trade company Zen Zen to for the finishing touch.
That’s me and Burke near the end of the night. I am one happy camper as you can tell. I got some good advice from somebody before the wedding to remember to take a few private moments throughout the day to process, take it all in, and be in the moment. We did that and it helped! It IS one romantic, fantastic blur though, one I will recount many times over for the rest of my life. And, thank goodness for amazing photos from Green Door Photography to help remember the day!