As promised – here is part 2 of Mandy and Ben’s incredible DIY celebration, the details.  I was seriously blown away by all the DIY projects encompassed within this wedding.  The bride’s parents are both chefs and therefore inherently creative people but they seriously went above and beyond turning their back yard into a virtual wedding wonderland.  There were so many little touches that personalized the celebration that I’m going to share just a few but to see more be sure and view the slideshow as well as yesterday’s post.

Let’s take a little tour, shall we?  From the minute you stepped out of the car, you knew this was going to be an event to remember.  A hand-painted sign directed you to the reception.

From there you followed a stump-lined, mason jar lit path to the action.

Need to lighten your load a bit?  Hang your coat in the “Country Coat Check.”

More of those great hand-painted signs.

Super cute blackboard welcoming guests to the celebration – also note that cute custom bird house in the tree!

The Lemonade Stand blew me away.  It is hands down one of the cutest things I have ever seen at a wedding.  Mandy and Ben had it stocked with fans with recipes printed on them, blue and yellow striped straws, mason jars with wooden name tags and even photos from their relationship hanging from a clothes line.

The back of the stand complete with bride and groom

And the lemonade being enjoyed by a guest.

The “Kids Corner” was heavily used by the kids later that evening and looked so cute!

I know I showed this yesterday, but I can’t decide if the Lemonade Stand or the Bride and Groom cut out was my favorite.  I’m just going to give them a tie for coolest props ever

There were little touches like this sprinkled throughout the backyard.  Loved it!!

I really loved the bright yellow and blue colors and they made for a beautiful table scape.

And what’s a wedding without a Candy Buffet?  Mandy and Ben had stocked theirs with some really unusual, cool, and color-coordinated selections.

A very cool cigar bar area that later in the evening played their engagement photos on rotation.

As I said before, Mandy’s parents are chefs so I’m not going to share all the amazing food with you but I did want to share these sweet heart shaped cookies and some chocolate something-I-don’t-know-what-it-is-but-looks-amazing  My main reason for showing the chocolates is so you can see the cool way in which they were displayed – glass sitting on top of mason jars. What a perfect display!

And finally the cakes!  The main wedding cake was actually a group of personal size cakes displayed on an antique cart.  Both the wedding cake and the grooms cake were topped with personalized bobble heads Mandy had made as a surprise for bobble head loving Ben.

And finally the groom’s cake.  You may remember from the engagement shoot that Ben is a drummer – what a GENIUS idea to use a snare as a cake stand and drum sticks and a cymbal as decoration.  It was perfection!

So that wraps up the wedding of Amanda and Ben.  I still feel like I barley scraped the surface in these blog posts so I would definitely encourage you to scroll back up and watch their slideshow.

Mandy and Ben – thank you both SO MUCH for having us there to photograph your day.  You two are a pleasure to be around and we wish you a lifetime of happiness together!!