My DIY Wedding Events as a Miami Bride
Updated: 2 days ago
My husband and I got married in 2014, after dating for nine years. Yes, we were high school sweat hearts, getting married two years after I graduated college.
The majority of our wedding was shabby chic DIY, with a $10,000 budget to cover our wedding and honeymoon. This post is reshared as part of my From the Archive project, where I reshare and edit posts from my previous blogs into one place with commentary from where I am now.
I'm backdating these wedding posts to the week of and week-after our wedding, as they were originally part of a blog theme I called Wedding Week. I know, very adorable.
Looking at these photos and videos, I can't believe how much I've changed and how different life has become in the years since. I'm grateful we recorded so much of this time, as part of our YouTube vlog channel Daily Random Happenstance.
My husband and I maintained DRHappen through college and a little under a year after our wedding. It chronicles so much of our early adult life, and then fell away as life got more complicated. Figures!
Below are photos and videos from these events, with additional commentary from me now in 2026. I can't wait to share more of my previous wedding content, there are a few more to go.
Thank you for going down memory lane with me today. I'm grateful you're here.
My Wedding Makeup Test: 11/13/14
Having a makeup and hair person was not in the budget for the wedding, but buying new makeup for the occasion was. Around this time I was working as a social media manager for a small business that is no longer live.
I'm actually a little teary-eyed working through this post, as I did a deep dive into archives of my old computer to find the below photo, because I wanted to include what the final trial makeup looked like.
This photo was taken with my point and shoot digital camera, because it was the early days of Instagram and camera phones. I sent this photo to my maid of honor, I think taking a picture of my camera's screen, and texting it that way.
I have very distinct memories of taking this photo, feeling proud of myself, and the thrifted peplum shirt I picked up from a now-closed Plato's Closet in my area.
In the background you can see Grace Helbig's book, published a month before this event. At the time, I was very invested in being a YouTuber, before the word "influencer" was even popular, and everyone was called a guru.
It is a time capsule of hope. I'm glad I took the time to remember it today.
Our Wedding Rehearsal Dinner: 11/14/14
One of the funniest things about our rehearsal, was that we didn't rehearse as much as we should have. Chris and I didn't practice how we would kiss, our first dance, our mother-son or father-daughter dance. None of it! We only walked the venue, decided how we would walk down the aisle, and then went to Chris' parent's house with the wedding party to eat.
And peep the sock bun in this vlog! Wow, that was such a big trend.
We had catering for our meal from Leo's, our favorite local Miami pizza place, getting pizza, ceasar salads, and caprese salads. We still eat there once a year for Chris' birthday.
For the wedding party gift, I gifted everyone a Target glass container and a poem. See the poem below, and a picture of the glass now, as I still have it.
Wedding Poem About Family
Take care of your hands, they have so much yet to hold onto.
Take care of your feet, there are years left to travel.
Take care of your minds, it may be needed to provide wisdom soon.
Take care of your hearts, they'll find even more to love and grow bigger for it.
Above all else, take care of your soul.
For its generosity and kindness has helped us reach here.
And from here on out our hands, feet, minds, hearts,
and especially our souls
are primed for you.
Let's move forward in our new larger family.
A marriage is not just about two.
DIY Bachelorette Flower Crown
My goal was to feel like a fairy princess, and I succeeded with my Goodwill baby-doll dress and floral crown made of baby's breath (our wedding flower) and wrapped wire.
What an adorable video, featuring music from Maddy Newton, back when videos weren't as common and I could literally email or DM artists to ask if I could use their music.
My Bachelorette Sleepover
There are a lot less opportunities for friend sleepovers as you hit adulthood, so I'm glad my bachelorette became a sleepover with face masks, movies, good food, and champagne.
Taking screenshots of Instagram may seem a little cringe, but it's so interesting to see how the interface has changed now.
We literally took every sleep-able surface and piled it into our living room so that all eight of us could sleep in one place.
Our Coed Wedding Shower
Hosted by the maid of honor at 94th Aero Squadron in Miami. We had a small wedding, and most people lived in our area, so in hindsight a bridal shower was not needed in our situation because nearly every wedding guest also went to the shower, but it was full of great memories and the games were a blast.
My grandmother and uncle are no longer with us, so seeing these pictures and videos of them makes me really happy. This was years before their health declined.
And lastly, a few bridal shower prep photos from my mom and maid of honor, as they got ready for the event. Having fake flowers is definitely a money saver for DIY brides, and I love how they turned out.
More From the Archive pots coming soon on our DIY wedding in Miami.
If you found this post while looking into ideas for your own upcoming wedding, I'll leave a few small tips you may not have heard yet.
No matter the stress, document this time period. Having these photos and videos, even from harder times while wedding planning, feel so beautiful now that we are over a decade later.
Keep an archive of how you felt that isn't just on Instagram and social media. One day, you may lose access to that account, but keeping a diary or a personal blog like this one, as well as printing actual photos and hand writing notes in that albulm, keeps the memories with you all of your life.
Ask yourself, am I doing this for my wedding because I feel like I should, or because I want to? For example, I used only baby's breath with a smattering of tiny other flowers in my bouquet. Yes that was trendy for shabby chic, but I did it because looking at it made me hapy, not because it was cute on Pinterest. I wanted something simple and timeless, and I felt that way with baby's breath.
More tips and memories to come. Thank you for being here and caring to read further, and I wish you the best.
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