Today’s Real Wedding are two familiar Kansas City faces. Betsy is part owner along with her sister, Emily, of a local store, bon bon atelier, which specializes in all things hand made. The two carry beautiful and unusual fabrics, yarns, and sewing supplies as well as awesome gifts created by local indie businesses, so it’s no surprise that Betsy and Jonathan’s wedding is packed with adorable DIY projects.
Who, What, Where ~~ Ceremony/Reception: Californos. Photography: K-Dog Photography. Flowers: emmy-ray. Cupcakes: Dolce Baking Company. Dress: Vintage.
Betsy wears vintage all the time in every day life. She says she tried on a few new wedding dresses, but they just didn’t feel right. She found her gown at the vintage market in Chicago, and knew it was the one. She made it her own by adding giant pink flowers to the bustle (two of which she wore in her hair), and a beautiful embellished jacket from Betsy Johnson.
Emily, Betsy’s sister also wore a lovely vintage dress, and both wore shoes by Irregular Choice.
Emily also hand sewed a garter for Betsy out of fabric and satin ribbon.
Jonathan wore a brown vintage suit Betsy found, which came all the way from London (one of her favorite places). He kept things casual by skipping a tie.
I worked with Betsy on her personal flowers to create an eclectic, textural, bouquet that was a mix of succulents, burgundy, and purple dahlias, and other fun flowers like scabiosas and thistle. The boots were made up of mini succulents, and globe thistle, for a masculine, and not too flowery look.
They exchanged vows in an outdoor ceremony, at Californos in Westport, where they live and work. The backdrop was a hand sewn curtain made by Betsy and Emily. The couple lit a unity candle passed down from Betsy’s parents, and both her and Jonathan’s sisters did readings during the ceremony.
Betsy and Emily are crafters through and through so it was only natural that they do tons of projects for the wedding. They hand made 100 yarn pom poms, which they stuck in different vintage spools of thread for the outdoor table decor. They sewed runners for the tables at the reception, which they mixed with squares of scrap book paper, and hand made pinwheels for every guest as favors. A little embroidered sign on the guest table was a copy of the little bird on the couples invites (which Jonathan designed himself).
Betsy create fun collages of paper flowers which hung from the ceiling during the reception, and potted tons of tiny succulents in tea cups for the centerpieces, which were antiques of the family, or thrifted. Her moms friends helped arrange the flowers for the centerpieces, which were an eclectic mix of containers and cake stand.
One of the biggest hits of the party was the cake topper which Betsy ordered from Melabo, a ceramic artist on Etsy. It depicted a bride and groom, but the grooms head was a unicorn, and the title of the piece was “Fantasy Husband”.
Overall Betsy and Jonathan wanted to keep their day casual, and were able to infuse it with tons of little details that made it special, an uniquely theirs. A big thank you to Betsy for sharing their day, and to K-dog Photography for their beautiful images.
