Savannah & Tony’s Quirky & Eclectic DIY Wedding with a Bouncy Castle
Savannah and Tony both have eclectic backgrounds — they’ve shifted from being actors to financial advisors — and that quirkiness in their personalities was reflected in their AWESOME DIY wedding. From the colorful bunting and playful signs down to all the shenanigans that ensued, the celebration was totally “them.” Even their venue was completely customized to hold their party AND their non-negotiable: a bouncy castle! As Savannah told me, “We had the best time and couldn’t imagine a single piece being different.”
We have Laura Marie Duncan Photography to thank for the gorgeous photos and here’s Laura with a few words about the special day:
A week before Savannah and Tony’s incredibly colorful, DIY extravaganza of a wedding, the reception room (the brand new dance studio owned by Savannah’s dad) was a raw, unfinished shell of a space… there weren’t even stairs leading up to the room from the first floor! But with the help of her friends and family, they turned it into the perfect, paper-flower-filled down home barbeque complete with a popcorn machine, donut table, and yes, a bouncy castle. One of my all time favorite events!
Loving these photos yet? We’ve only just begun guys! Before anything else, I’d like to turn you over to the lovely Savannah who’s here to tell you all about herself & Tony and their one-of-a-kind wedding:
My husband Tony is originally from Indianapolis IN and is a Naval Academy Grad, turned Broadway actor, turned Financial Advisor. I am formerly a Broadway and TV actress turned Financial Advisor business coach. I was born in New York City and raised between New York and New Orleans (where all my mother’s family lives). We currently live on the Upper East Side in Manhattan with our kitty Rosie McNugget.
Our eclectic backgrounds were a large part of what made our wedding so much fun. So many people from so many geographic locations and backgrounds coming together.
Apart from the bouncy castle, Savannah listed elements in their wedding that made it truly their own:
The Venue: I remember when we were driving back from Sarasota FL (where Tony’s parents live) after the Christmas Tony proposed. Neither Tony nor I are wildly conventional and we were discussing how we could really express ourselves with our wedding. We came up with a Bouncy Castle. It’s fun and playful… The kids who were coming would have a blast, and maybe we could get some of our crazy friends and family in it. It was really our one non-negotiable. You’d be surprised how limiting having that one nonnegotiable was! There wasn’t a single venue we researched that would allow us to have one. Our one option was to have our wedding at my dad and step-Mom’s performing arts studio Fineline Theatre Arts. They had just bought a building in New Milford, CT across the street from their old location. The building was completely cool and charming and needed a complete overhaul. So my dad spent from Jan to August gutting and renovating the building. Here’s a pic of the building pre-reno to give you an idea.
The building was still being finished the morning of the wedding. Literally windows were being installed the night before the wedding by my dads cousin and my two best friends got no sleep making sure all the decorations went up. If say that was my favorite part of our wedding was that everyone pitched it to make it the beautiful day it was. We affectionately call it “The Barn Raising.”
Bunting: i love love love crafts and I am obsessed with bunting and so I spent 2 months sewing 600 feet of bunting. I wanted it everywhere. So many of my friends and family members helped me make tons and tons of bunting. It became a huge piece of the wedding. My mother text me at the peak of the bunting making extravaganza that “a day without bunting is like a day without sunshine.” I think everyone is thrilled to not get my “daily bunting updates”. But I was really happy with how it turned out.
Paper Flowers: I couldn’t wrap my brain around the flower situation. It just didn’t feel as whimsical as I wanted. We decided that paper flowers in lots of bright colors would give the room the playfulness we wanted. I was especially in love with the big flowers called Oopsy Daisy’s from Whimsypie.
Doughnut Festival Village: rather than a cake, we set up a table stacked with tons of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and put a Barbie and Ken doll as our centerpiece (I’m a Barbie fanatic from way back)
Our Guest Book: was this amazing piece put together by an etsy store called O Names Left. She asks about you and your wedding and caters a scrap-bookey type guest book for you with lots of pockets and spaces for people to have fun writing their message to you. It was totally personalized and perfect.
Gift Bags: I loved our gift bags. My step-dad created the design on the tote and then we put a scratch off game and a fortune cookie with a personalized message in each bag. I don’t think anyone got a big win with the scratch of games, but people had fun with them.
Our friend Leslie Odom is an incredible actor and wonderful singer. He sang, “Amazing” by Bruno Mars, “Grateful” by John Bucchino, and by “Stevie Wonder” accompanied by the piano played by our dear talented friend Michael Lavine. It was very special.
Advice from the newlyweds:
Your wedding day is wonderful, but the wedding is not just one day. It’s everything that comes before it too. You have to enjoy the prep and the planning and all the craziness that comes before the big day. I really do feel like my wedding was one of the best days of my life, but I can also name days preparing for my wedding that are other best days of my life. Enjoy it all!! And never try to compete and compare with other brides. I was so inspired by some of my other bride friends, and even borrowed some of their fantastic ideas, but comparing mine to theirs gave me tons of anxiety. I’d always have to remind myself that the best weddings were the ones where the wedding uniquely reflected the bride and groom regardless of budget.
Huge thanks to Laura for sending these beautiful images my way, and congratulations Savannah & Tony! I sincerely wish you a lifetime of married bliss.
Want more Savannah & Tony? Here’s the short version of their wedding video. (The long cut is here.)
Tony and Savannah wedding trailer from Brian Shaub on Vimeo.
Photographer: Laura Marie Duncan Photography (Bride’s note: I mean… Can you handle her awesomeness )
Videographer: Brian Shaub. (Bride’s note: I saw my friend’s wedding video 2 weeks before my wedding and fell into a 48 hour depression because I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid and not gotten a videographer. I can’t believe he was available 2 weeks notice, on Labor Day Weekend. He works out of Lancaster and he is amazing!)
Wedding Planners: Lovely Day Styling and Events (Bride’s note: Colleen and Beth talked me down from a ledge and helped me stay quirky without going full-boar ridiculous. They had lots of ideas that inspired, but mostly they made the big day run totally without a hitch.)
Dress/ Veil / Hair and Makeup: Roy Haylock aka Bianca Del Rio (Bride’s note: Roy is one of my family’s dear friends and is a very prominent drag queen. I have known him since I was 10. He made both my mother’s and my aunts wedding dresses and he was the only person I would trust to get it right. I called him months and months before my wedding, but he usually doesn’t start to put something together until the last min and I had a pretty good idea what I wanted so I wasn’t worried. All of the sudden 2 months before the wedding he tells me he is disappearing for a month but to trust him that he will be back in time to make my dress. He did and everything worked out fine, but come to find out months later, he was gone because he was shooting RuPaul’s Drag Race on LOGO and then ended up WINNING. He is an amazing talent. I just thought that was so awesome.)
Catering: Jeff’s BBQ and Catering (Bride’s note: Pulled pork sandwiches and Mac and cheese. I still have dreams about his cornbread!!)
Paper Flowers: Princess Approved, Whimsypie
Signs: Kutekardz
Guest Book: O Names Left
Venue: Fineline Theatre Arts
Lighting: Vivid Events
DJ: Vivid Events
Image submission via Two Bright Lights
