Alternative & Sweet Colourful Theatre Wedding in Tennessee

Marin and Tony’s wedding is just the cutest. All colour popping second of it.

They wanted a day which included their fave colours, yellow and orange. Plus they DIY’d to their hearts content, with pom poms, button bouquets and little touches throughout. I love Marin’s short frock and Tony’s bright jacket, they looked so perfect.

Thanks so much to Alex Bee Photo for sharing these joy filled images today.

THE VISION | We wanted a fun day which was non-traditional and really just a celebration. Having everyone we loved there to celebrate, dance, and join us in the start of our great adventure together was really all we could ask for.

Beyond that, we wanted a specific feeling for our wedding. We wanted colour, and lots of it! We chose our wedding colours based on our favourite colours (mine is orange and my husband’s is yellow) and then to mix it up we threw in green as well.

We wanted our guests to feel comfortable and we didn’t want an event that felt stuffy.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | I would say we, but when it came to the details, my husband handed it all to me and I loved it!

>I wanted it to be all about the details! Our colours, yellow, orange, and green would be everywhere and focus on handmade décor would be evident; and this would certainly be a non-traditional wedding.

From the moment guests walked in, they would see our personalities everywhere. Hand-written chalkboards welcomed the guests and we had a friend use an instamax camera so guests could sign their name on their photo to use as our guest book. We had DIY table-décor, wall décor, and accessories.

The wedding itself was different. Each of us was walked down the aisle with our parents. We didn’t have a lengthy ceremony; instead, we said the words which were most important to us with our personal vows. And our officiant was a friend who quoted movies like The Princess Bride and Spaceballs.

Guests were kept entertained between ceremony and supper with a “bar trivia” game we created. The winner of the game was the first to head through the buffet line – which was catered by Moes!

We skipped out on the regular wedding traditions: no cake cutting, garter throwing or bouquet toss. Instead we filled the remainder of the evening with dancing and laughter.

THE FOOD | I have some unique dietary restrictions being a celiac (coeliac) vegan. While traditional caterers within our budget couldn’t fit our needs we turned to other options. We wanted something we actually enjoyed instead of standard wedding food. And after looking at a few options, we landed on Moes which had fantastic options for vegans and carnivores alike! They staffed the event, keeping everything refreshed and seemed to have as great of a time as our guests.

THE VENUE | Our chosen venue, Relix Variety Theatre was just a block away from the house we first rented together. I’d known that I wanted to be married in that space long before the proposal. It’s a beautiful building with exposed brick and beams and the perfect blank canvass for all the personal touches I waned to bring in. The walls that aren’t brick are black, which was great for having our colours pop!

We wanted an all-in-one space which Relix was perfect for. We were married on a small stage which provided viewing for all guests. After the ceremony, guests simply transitioned to their tables just a few steps away.

THE ATTIRE | I am a non-traditional bride and knew I wanted a short dress. Because I was working with a smaller budget, I knew I had to get creative. After I’d worked all my spreadsheet magic, I would have no more than $300 for my wedding dress. Shopping was a challenge. If a store had a short dress, it was not what I had in mind. The dresses I found online were in the thousands. I happened to stumble across a dress on Pinterest and it linked to a website that had what looked like it could be nearly the perfect dress. It was just a hair over $100 and would be shipped to me from China where they were using my exact measurements to make my dress.

When it arrived, I was underwhelmed, but with some great alterations in fit, some added tulle for fluff, and a yellow belt to add a pop of colour – it became perfection!

My husband wanted to wear a yellow suit. Unable to find what he wanted, he settled for a yellow jacket anf tie, purchased from Belk, and grey pants which he already owned! Paired with some dapper shoes I gifted him with at Christmas, he looked dreamy!

WEDDING PARTY | We didn’t want to be too strict with our wedding party’s attire because we wanted them to be able to wear their clothes again. We assigned colours to each (best man and matron of honor would wear orange and bridesmaids and groomsman would wear green). The men would wear any grey suit they owned paired with a tie gifted to them in their assigned colour.

The ladies, on the other hand, had a more daunting task than I thought it would be initially. We all made multiple day-long shopping trips searching for the perfect dresses.

In the end, each girl was wearing a different style dress, each from a different store but they looked like they belonged together and were the perfect accompanying style for the dress I chose.

DIY DETAILS | Nearly every aspect of our wedding was DIY. I wanted to do something special and that people hadn’t seen before. Going DIY was perfect because we were working within a budget. The following were all of the DIY projects.

Wedding attire:

Shoes – I found the perfect pair but it came in yellow. Problem solved: I painted them yellow!

Hairpiece – I had the vision but it didn’t exist in reality so I bought an ornate bee barrette and added netting detail to create a birdcage-esque fascinator.

Belt – The belt that came with my VERY affordable online dress was not attractive so my friend helped me sew a yellow one.

Earrings – I make earrings and wanted to wear one of my own unique designs for my wedding. I made my own earrings as well as my bridesmaid’s earrings. These were one of their bridesmaids gifts.

Wedding décor:

Puff balls –  My bridesmaids and I made over 100 large tissue-paper puff balls to suspend from the ceiling and around 100 small ones to be suspended at varying intervals for our backdrop.

Bouquets – I love buttons! I’ve always loved collecting them and crafting with them. I made my bridesmaids button bouquets as well as my own. I hadn’t realized when I started that this would be no small feat!

Centrepieces –  I borrowed my sister’s DIY vases from her wedding (simple cylinder vases jazzed up with “frosted” spray painted designs). Inside were grains of rice in our wedding colours (which my bridesmaids and I hand-dyed!) This supported large branches which my dad collected from his yard and we painted white. We then suspended button balls from them.

For tables which didn’t have the large branches, we used the un-used button flowers. We also created our table numbers from skewers, card stock, and of course – more buttons.

Button Balls –  I used Styrofoam balls and pins to pin buttons into the balls. I made over 100 of them. These doubled as a gift which guests could take with them to use as a Christmas ornament or whatever they pleased!

Bunting – For the empty spaces in the venue (along the bar, down the staircase, etc) I made bunting out of fabric scraps and jute twine. It was adorable and I’ve kept it for decorating for parties.

Wall art – I bought cheap frames (less than $1) at garage sales and then painted them in my wedding colours. We then printed some of our favourite engagement session photos and I suspended them in the middle of the frames with fishing line. These hung on the wall with jute twine as an accent wall (which would have otherwise been solid black.)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The moment when we were walking back down the aisle together, hand in hand. I was so insanely happy and I was trying not to cry. It was a strange moment that happened both so quickly and in slow-motion. A moment where it seemed unreal that all my dreams had just come true.

Another stand-out moment is when we were watching the video my sister (who was my matron-of-honor) had made for us. It included photos of our childhoods and then our life together. Watching the faces of our guests, seeing our parent’s happy-tears, and seeing our lives unfold – that was an awesome moment. Now, we often watch it before we go to bed. It’s a sweet reminder of that day.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Relix Variety Theater

DJ | Joey Tack

Catering | Moe’s

Photography | Alex Bee Photo

Hair | Lily at Chop Stop Hair Studio

Wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing guys xo Lou