Naturally, I had a kickass vegan rainbow wedding on a helipad in DTLA with my favorite live band, stilt-walking fire-breathing burning man performers, gemstone gift bags, a rainbow cake, and a keg of kombucha!
I did my entire wedding for under $15,000. Which is pretty damn good considering half that was for my rooftop helipad venue in Downtown Los Angeles.
Being the control freak Aries that I am, I did almost everything by myself. DIY all the way!
Here's how I did it.
When ordering custom dresses online it is important to note that alterations made be needed. One of my bridesmaids was 6 months pregnant by the time of the wedding, so you can imagine she needed a little altering. That's why its important to order these dresses early so you have time to make the alterations you need.
For their baskets, I bought basic wooden baskets at a craft store for a few dollars and spray painted them before adding the rainbow ribbon. I ordered a bulk bag of dried lavender and dried roses for the flower girls to toss.
THE BRIDE'S ATTIRE, HEAD TO TOE: Since my girls were decked out in rainbow, I decided to stay classy and simple(ish), hiding my personal rainbow touches to be revealed later.
I bought a classic dress on sale at David's Bridal for $300 + $80 in alterations.
Not being a high heels kind of girl, I stayed true to myself and wore a pair of super fresh white patent Doc Martens.
I added my rainbow touch by wearing thigh high rainbow socks under my dress, which I didn't reveal until the ceremony. My husband got jealous I didn't tell him to wear fun socks, but not my problem!
I made my headpiece by purchasing a string of tiny natural pearls and hot gluing them to a pearl fascinator I made from scrap fabric in the fashion district downtown and finished it off with white feathers from the craft store. My good friend, Nathan Cheli is an amazing Los Angeles hairdresser and he brought everything on my head together in a beautiful, elegant way (including someone else's very expensive hair!) I had just cut off my 10 year old dreadlocks and didn't have a lot of hair left to work with, so we improvised and just bought someone else's.
GROOMSMEN: All the groomsmen wore classic three piece grey pin-striped suits, as not to upstage the bridesmaids. They each wore a boutonniere with the same color flower as their matching bridesmaid.
BRIDAL GIFTS: For my bridesmaids and flower girl gifts, I had personal rainbow leather journals handmade for them from a leather designer in England . They cost only about $20 each.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JackdawBindery
PARTY FAVORS: For my party favors I had tiny drawstring canvas bags printed with S+J, off of Etsy. I had heart shaped seeded-paper in a rainbow of colors(paper that you plant and wildflowers bloom) and I wrote a little poem on each one that said,
"Plant your heart and watch it bloom, with love from the bride and groom."
I put a heart in each canvas bag along with three gemstones.
The gemstones were bought on Amazon in bulk.
FLOWERS: Being fortunate enough to live walking distance from the wholesale flower district in downtown LA, my mom and a bridesmaids helped me pick out rainbow flowers the day before the wedding and we simply made the centerpieces and bouquets and wrapped them in white silk ribbon, sitting them in water until the wedding.
WEDDING CAKE: My husband and I each got to pick what was absolutely the most important things we wanted with this wedding. He chose a rooftop helicopter landing pad as the venue and I chose a rainbow themed wedding, an entirely vegan menu, and a rainbow cake.
Doomie's vegan home cooking in Hollywood did the catering and cake. Which was perfect since I'm from the south and love me some soul food! We had a delicious entirely vegan menu of:
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches Creamy Mac n Cheez Cole slaw Mini Apple turnovers Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Honey Glazed Carrots and RAINBOW CAKE!
The poor baker at Doomie's had no idea how to make a rainbow cake, but Doomie insisted he could pull it off and he definitely did!
BAND: Ok, so I didn't have a band of musical rainbow unicorns playing at my wedding, but I did have my most favorite band (and friends) SUN SALUTATION drive across the country from Austin, Texas to play my wedding. If you haven't heard of them, check them out. They're amazing!
https://www.reverbnation.com/sunsal
PERFORMERS: If you are fortunate enough to know some cool performers then definitely see it they'll do a little performance at your wedding! Our good friend and groomsman Daniel Cheli (Kozmik Twins) came out on stilts and blew fire. Since we already had to pay for a fire chief since we were on a rooftop, we took advantage of that and were able to have a safe supervised fire performance. My guests loved it!
https://www.gigsalad.com/the_kozmik_twinz_stilts_and_fire_beverly
MCs: My good friends April and Bobby Black are professional MCs for High Times Magazine so it was a perfect fit having them MC my wedding! And April played along and wore a perfectly fitting rainbow dress!
Tip- when keeping your wedding costs down, let your friends use their talents to help out. Having talented friends definitely helps cut costs along the way and they will be thrilled to help out in whatever way they can!
PARTY RENTALS: When having a rainbow wedding there is a lot of color everywhere, so to keep it from becoming tacky, it's best to keep the party rentals, chairs, and tablecloths a clean off-white color. This way the color pops of the flowers and favors get to really shine through. This also saves money since often times using colored tablecloths and napkins is more expensive.
BOOZE: One of the most important parts of a wedding, lets be real, is the booze! Have you ever gone to a Catholic wedding before? If so, i'm sure you swore them off as soon as you left the church, like I did. Boring! So, reward your guests with some happy juice! Kegs are great and more eco-friendly than individual bottles of beer. And if you're a bartender, like I was at the time, then ask your fellow bartender to serve the booze at your wedding. Chances are you'll get a way better deal than hiring a bartender from a catering company, and you get to be surrounded by people you know and like!
NON-ALCOHOLIC OPTIONS: I got lucky and a friend of mine had started a Kombucha company earlier that year, so his wedding gift to me was two kegs of delicious kombucha! Which in my circle of health conscious granola crunching friends was a huge hit! Check out KOMBUCHA DOG. Each bottle of kombucha has a dog on it thats up for adoption. So far, Kombucha Dog has helped tons of homeless dogs find happy homes! How cool is that?!
www.kombuchadog.com
ECO-FRIENDLY SERVINGWARE: I wanted my wedding to have the least environmental impact as possible, so I opted out for all bamboo plates and silverware and sugarcane "plastic" cups. Everything looked great and the plates and cups were super durable! I found them on amazon for a reasonable price.
RAINBOW LED ICE CUBES:
To add another one of my magical little rainbow touches, I found rainbow LED ice cubes on amazon. They are reusable, bright, and made our champagne toast that much cooler! It's all about the little touches that make it your own, which is so much more fun and more memorable than just paying half
a year's salary to a wedding planner to do it for you.
Everything came together so beautifully. It's important to remind yourself that everything will work out exactly as it's suppose to and no one will know if it doesn't, except you. If there's white roses in your bouquet and you wanted pink roses, the only person it will bother (if you let it) is you. So, roll with the punches, get crafty, be creative, and design the kickass customized wedding that defines who you are (and your husband if you let him be involved!)
and of course, don't leave out your best friend...
I love colorful weddings like this as it represents fun and joy. I have decided to get hitched at New York venues and thinking to decorate and arrange my wedding similarly. So, please help me with some fun ideas apart from these.
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