Cool Modern Wedding with Foliage Decor & DIY Details

We've a gorgeous wedding for you guys today, that blends an organic feel with an urban setting.

Cordelia & Cale married in Wunderkammer Company, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The gallery space was the perfect canvas for their informal, foliage-laced celebration and talented photographers, Evan and Emily of Perregeaux, were on hand to capture all the details.

As we've said before, we love when a couple choose to reflect their everyday lives, style and interests on their wedding day, and Cordelia & Cale did just that.

From using the colour scheme from her own home, choosing her grandfather's favourite restaurant for the catering, tailoring the playlist to their favourite songs, and using her mother's wedding dress to make her gown, Cordelia's vision of her and Cale's day was all about keeping things personal.

With a stunning bouquet, beautiful handmade stationery, and lots of cool, creative DIY touches, there's a whole lot to like (and steal!) from this chic, modern wedding.

Wedding Day Snapshot

Our Proposal Story

We met in college, through mutual friends. We dated for 6 years before we tied the knot!

As Christmas of 2014 approached quickly, I assumed that we wouldn’t be engaged by 2015. Little did I know there was a ring hiding in Cale’s apartment since OCTOBER!

We planned a winter weekend away with Cale’s cousins. We went to a small cabin we rented in northern Michigan. We got there on a Friday night. While Kate and I were grocery shopping, Cale told his cousin Jon that Saturday he planned to propose on our hike.

Saturday we woke up, made breakfast, and most importantly coffee together. (Jon got Kate in the loop of Cale’s plan). We mapped out our hikes and places to visit. We bundled up in warm clothes. I should have assumed something was happening when Kate told me to make sure I was wearing something I would want to be photographed in but then again Kate is a professional photographer so it seemed normal. We grabbed our cameras and left.

We saw some beautiful places and took amazing pictures. Each stop we got to, the three of them would assess if that was the place to “do it” and I would enjoy the scenery.

We pushed on to Leland, Michigan, a very small fishing town. It was adorable! The four of us walked out onto these huge piers. It all you could see was lake and snow. It was peaceful and COLD! Jon and Kate began to walk off the pier and so I began to follow.

Cale grabbed my hand and said “wait! take my picture” I laughed because he hates pictures, also because he is a total joker. So I took his picture. He gave me a hug and said “I love you” I laughed and said “ya, I love you too”. I turned away from him for one moment to snap a photo of the water fading into the sky.

When I turned back around his 6’2 body wasn't where I expected it to be. He was on one knee and the whole world froze. I was not sure if I was dreaming.

It FINALLY registered that he said “So, will you marry me?”. I touched the box and realized it was real! So I laughed, because Cale makes me laugh. Then I realized I needed to say yes. So I said YES!

I'm pretty sure the whole scene took two minutes but it felt like a lifetime. I looked up and Kate was snapping pictures and crying and Jon was smiling ear to ear. It truly was perfect. Every last minute.

We called my parents, who he had asked in September, and my biological dad who he had also asked. We called his parents and we told everyone to keep quiet. Then we turned off our phones.

The four of us spend the evening sipping Champagne, playing games, and being together. It was PERFECT. We would tell people in the morning, but for that evening we soaked it all in.

Our Wedding

I was never the little girl who dreamed about getting married. I didn't even want to hold hands in public with any boy until I met Cale.

The first few years we dated I spent many hours looking at weddings on different blogs, including this one! Every time I heard a song that I loved, or that we loved, I collected it for our wedding. Then Pinterest came out and I collected images of things I loved.

I went to many weddings, as a guest, as a violinist, as a photographer, as a caterer… I saw high end weddings to gymnasium weddings.

When the time came to put it all together I realized that the MOST IMPORTANT things about planning a wedding is being true to yourself and and you as a couple.

Cale and I come from simple families. I grew up eating homemade meals, having deep conversations, making things by hand. We were not black tie event children, no matter how badly I wished for it.

So when it came to our wedding my goal was to make it feel like a party at our home. I wanted to serve food and drinks we regularly eat and drink. I wanted the food to be made with olive oil and fresh herbs, because that is how I cook. I didn't want chips and pop and I didn't want prime rib and caviar.

We chose all the songs from personal favorites and created all the playlists. We kept our wedding under 120 guests. The simple and classic details we choose were a reflections of who we are and how we live life on a day to day basis.

The Inspiration

I decorate with natural colors, mostly white, grey, black, with pops of blue and green. So that is what we did for the wedding.

The Flowers

I wanted our flowers to be handfuls of greenery and pops of white. I didn't want ANYTHING traditional, no roses, no carnations, no lilies.

That's really all I told Kari at Be Married Events. What I got was a thousand times more amazing that what I dreamed up. She knew what my vision was and made it happen. The coolest flowers were dahlias and this vine called jasper vine.

OH and she made us flower crowns for after the wedding, they were awesome.

The Dresses

My dress was custom made. The top half was my mom;s dress, the bottom half was created by the amazing team at Weddings 826, in Chicago.

As far as accessories: my shoes were a simple silver and white sandal from Lucky Brand. I wore very simple silver midi rings, there were my something borrowed.

The bridesmaids wore a blush pink dress from Lulu's. They each wore some type of comfortable shoe, I let them decide. They accessorized with simple silver rings.

The Photography

I went to high school with Evan. I know him and trust him. I have since fallen in love with Emily and her amazing style.

I honestly knew I wanted Evan to shoot my wedding when he started shooting years ago. He has an amazing eye, he shoots real raw images that capture emotion and detail.

I also love the idea of having the eye of a man and woman when shooting. I love the balance they bring.

The Venue

I am a total city girl, I love the downtown atmosphere. We choose this venue because it had that downtown feel with out being too fancy.

Though I love fancy, I knew I needed to stay away from the temptation of a gallant black tie event because I had already decided I wanted the feel to be a reflection of how we live.

The Ceremony

Every song we choose was personal and had a reason behind it.

As far was the ceremony, we left it very traditional, for our family members who were probably highly concerned when they pulled up to this very non-traditional venue.

The Music

Seating of parents/grandparents/guests: ‘Love Will Take You' by Angus & Julia Stone

Processional: ‘Brushes (Never Going Back Again)' by Fleetwood Mac

Bride Waking Down: ‘Bloom by The Paper Kites'

Recessional: ‘That’s What’s Up' by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

Wedding party announcement: ‘When They Fight, They Fight' by Generationals

First Dance: ‘Love Someone' by Jason Mraz

My Spotify playlist was one of my favorite parts of planning the wedding!

The Decor & Details

Since the venue is an art gallery we didn't have to do much to the inside. We (my bridesmaids and sister-in-law) made all the “extra” decor.

Behind the head table we bought two 4×4 ft canvasses and painted Mr. and Mrs. on them. Outside the building we hung two huge painters' drop cloths from the outside of the building. One we painted with our wedding logo, which I designed for the invites, the other we painted a green fern leaf to match the invitations Hannah and I designed.

We used my grandfather's globe for a sign-in book, we used a metal globe for our card holder, and Be Married Events did the rest.

We used greenery to line the aisle, we used greenery to put on the tables. Above the stage were we were married/dance floor, there were huge metal globes with moss.

I made our name cards. We placed them on wood circles my brother cut from branches. They had slits that held the name cards.

My SIL and I dipped water color paper in blue water color for the name cards. My maid of honor and I hand wrote all of the name cards.

It may sound like we did a lot but it was honestly very simple decor wise! For our favors we hand selected vintage china cake plates. Each guest could have their cake, and their cake plate too!

I designed all of our paper goods. The wedding invites were hand painted by one of my bridesmaids and dear friend Hannah.

Advice for Other Couples

Blogs and Pinterest totally help. The most important thing is, know who you are.

Know what is important to you. Know the feeling you want to create for everyone. There are billions of amazing weddings out there some that you will love and some that you will simply appreciate.

You don't need to recreate someone else’s wedding you need to create yours. Knowing who you are as a person, style wise will help. Knowing what is important to you will help you balance your budget.

The LOOK was very important for me. I wanted the every detail, from the invites, to the music to the spices on the food, to the thank you cards, to tie together. I wanted them to flow and to reflect us. I budgeted around that.

The Budget

I would say in total we spent $14,000 our goal was 10,000. Recreating my moms dress was both meaningful and economical.

Creating all of my own paper goods also saved me money. We also cut money from our time renting the venue. Our wedding moved quickly, one “traditional moment” after the other. This saved us $1,000 in venue renting time compared to other weddings that are 5+ hours!

We spent more on food, alcohol, and flowers than I had planned but part of that was just inexperience on my part.

The money added up so fast, there were lots of things I wanted to do that I just couldn't afford too but by cutting money in all the places we did we were able to have the photographers I wanted and the decorations that pulled everything together.

Favourite Moments

The whole wedding was SO us. In fact it's the only thing I heard after the wedding.

My favorite moment was when I had my brother and sister in law do a first dance. They are younger than me, they surprised our families in January 2015 with the news of their elopement.

They both live in Scotland, where my brother is going to school. They are the opposite of traditional.

Somewhere during my wedding planning over the summer I realized I wanted to give them a first dance at my wedding because they would both be coming back from Scotland. I asked Sarah (my SIL) if she would have a first dance what it would be, (I told her I couldn't decide).

She said “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. I thought for sure my brother was going to kill me, but they danced, with the biggest smiles of all time.

I also really loved my father daughter dance, we danced to Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley. I grew up listening to that with my dad, it was so fun to dance with him, and he did awesome and we never even practiced!

OH gosh, I forgot this: During the toasts, the best man “forgot his speech” he and all the groomsmen went to find it. Only he came back.

He began to share from this paper, some mushy stuff, then he threw it down on the ground and shared this sweet, funny story of the first time Cale and I hung out (he introduced us.)

Then he left the room. All the groomsmen were missing and we heard this song come on. Then one by one all the groomsmen took turns lip-syncing to All My Life by K-Ci & JoJo.

It was THE most hilarious thing I have ever seen at a wedding. They were singing to me, this super cheesy song. Then they came and one by one hugged and kissed my cheek. It was very sweet. I just loved it.