When Hipster Birders Get Married

Almost one year ago, these two Hipster Birders got hitched! Being both hipstery and birdy, of course our wedding incorporated those two lifestyles. You may remember that our engagement photo shoot incorporated our love of birding and the outdoors, too. Although I loved the idea of a wedding in the woods, logistically it would have been slightly inconvenient for guests and setup and food and the reception, etc. (If you’ve planned a wedding, you probably understand). In any case, when we found our venue, we knew it was the one, and we could still bring the woodsy feeling into it.

We had an intimate wedding at the Georgia State Railroad Museum in Savannah. As you may know, neither Nick nor I are from Savannah, but when we visited on our first romantic getaway 7 years before our nuptials, I knew it was the place I wanted to marry Nick (even though he didn’t know that until much later). A series of fortunate events led us to live in Savannah, which made it perfect to have our dream wedding there. Savannah really is the ideal romantic city, full of southern charm and natural beauty.

We clean up real nice, don't we? ;-)

Because Savannah has so many beautiful locations for a wedding, it was hard to narrow it down – the lush, green parks and squares, historic homes, art museums – they all had such loveliness to offer. We knew we wanted something rustic and outdoors yet also something that captures the history of this town. When we visited the railroad museum, we knew it was exactly what we wanted. The rustic, exposed brick walls and antique train cars and large machinery were begging for the contrast of bright colors, lace, and pretty details.

Photos from each year we've been together

The wedding theme was “Rustic Vintage Chic.” What does this mean, exactly? Well, this meant a lot of DIY craft projects, antique and vintage accessories and props, while still keeping it pretty and classy without getting cheesy with a bird theme. And without meaning to, we did end up following almost all of these “10 Ways You Know You’re at a Hipster Wedding.” Instead of a barn, it was a railroad museum, and there were pickled vegetables and amazing food!

We loved incorporating bird details, DIY crafts, and vintage & feminine touches: Gold Birdcages with home crafted nests; Mini nests on vines in the flower arrangements; Yarn wrapped bottles; Antique bottles and books; and Bird table numbers on wooden stands.

Because I’m very much a creative type who loves to do my own projects, it was a dream come true to craft my own lovelies for our wedding, such as the yarn-wrapped bottles and letters and the moss frames. Owl and bird details were sprinkled here and there: the custom invitations and table numbers made by my sister, the goodie bags, the bar napkins, the escort/name cards for our guests, the vases, gold birdcages, cute mossy nests made by my mother-in-law & filled with chocolate eggs, and our guest book. I really wanted to incorporate earthy textures like moss and yarn and natural wood grain mixed in with a bit of sparkle and gold. 

Woodsy Owl-themed invitations designed by me and my sister

Custom carved tree monogrammed champagne flutes 

One of the things I was most excited about was our cake that I designed – an ode to the beautiful live oak trees lining Savannah streets, complete with lichen and mushrooms. Coral colored anemones and other little flowers just made it more pretty and feminine, and it was of course topped with some fancy owls – the lady with her blush veil and the gentleman in a signature Hipster Birder fedora. Come on… Can you get any more adorable than this?!?! The former Tier Luxury Cakes did an amazing job bringing my idea to life, and it tasted amazing, too (peach cake with peach buttercream for two layers, and apple spice cake with dulce de leche filling in the other… mmm).

It wasn’t just the decorations and cake that had birdies on them. The supremely talented Audrey of French Knot Studios who crafted our owl toppers’ accessories also created darling fabric bouquets for my bridesmaids with little gray and peachy titmouse-like birds I found, as well as incorporated our favorite birds in my bouquet and Nick’s boutonniere. I surprised Nick by having a Northern Gannett on his boutonniere, which was specially ordered and crafted out of clay, and Audrey surprised me with a lovely Belted Kingfisher taking the spotlight in my bouquet. I almost couldn’t stand how fantastic these came out!

Adorable birdy bridesmaids bouquets - photo by one of my bridesmaids

Why should the ladies get all the colorful fun?

We brought in some grander vintage pieces from Ever Thine Vintage Rentals + Event Design like the weathered, minty-colored doors for our ceremony backdrop, that sweet, Georgia peach-colored sofa and the antique luggage that went ever so well with the railroad station to give it a classy, old-timey feel. Although our wedding colors were navy and coral, I couldn’t’ resist incorporating other accent colors in our colorful palette with the homemade pom-poms and pinwheels, flowers, place settings, and even the homemade peach jam favors that rounded everything out to bring in a splash of fun and whimsy. And speaking of whimsy, we were quite proud of our creative jam labels that we made up: “I Jam What I Jam,” “You’ve Been Jammed,” “Jam It Up,” and “Jamma Lamma Ding Dong.” Instead of everything looking mismatched and out of place, our coordinator (and florist) Ivory and Beau made sure everything came together beautifully with all of our personal touches.

We Hipster Birders had a very fitting wedding to our moniker. Did I forget to mention that we also provided hand car (old-timey rail car) rides for our guests? Yeah, that happened, and it was awesome. All in all, we had a perfect day – great music, fantastic food, and having a blast with our loved ones!

Even our getaway car (a 1949 Bentley - an inside joke of sorts) had wings on it!

All Photos credited to Once Like A Spark Photography unless otherwise noted.