Circarnival Wedding Details | Vintage Circus Carnival Wedding on a Budget

I've previously shared some beautiful photos shot by Sharon of Wild Saffron Photography of Jessi & Mark's Vintage Circarnival wedding. Today [finally!] I'm going to share some detail shots of the DIY goodness that I shot myself.

The Cake

Jessi's sister is an aspiring cake artist and was kind enough to create this cute elephant-topped circus cake.

I picked up this wheelbarrow for cheap from a yard sale. It's a Budweiser beer display from a liquor store so I painted pieces of plywood with circus lettering and hung them from the side to hide the beer logos. The wedding was in October so the hay bales were an easy (and inexpensive) find at a local farm. 

These paintings are now hanging in the couple's living room. 

I originally found these cupcake towers on Oriental Trading but found them for slightly cheaper on Amazon (plus free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime).

Drinks & "Stuff"

The circus gods were in our favor when we started the [last minute] shopping for this wedding. Michael's just happened to have a loooot of circus. We found all of the plates and napkins at Michael's... and they were on sale. So we stocked up. 

I bought these ice cream holders in summer clearance from Target for about a dollar each. I rolled patterned paper into cone shapes and filled them with napkin wrapped flatware packets. To make the "cones" match a bit better I cut the circus tents from the fronts of some of the napkins and glued them on. 

Because this was a dry wedding, most of the beverages came in the lemonade variety. The bride purchased four different lemonade flavors that I put in three inexpensive drink dispensers from Target and one large drink dispenser that I already owned. The carnival tabletop tent was purchased from Oriental Trading.

I covered the rims of mason jars from Wal-Mart in coordinating paper and glued circus tents from the napkins to the fronts of them to hold bundles of paper straws. Candle sticks from the dollar store were glued to the bottoms of some of them to create height variation.

This inflatable drink cooler was from Oriental Trading. The retro sodas were bought in bulk from Costco. 

I borrowed the popcorn and the cotton candy machines from my parents so they were an easy and inexpensive addition.

The bride and I found this popcorn tin at a yard sale for less than a dollar. We used colorful tulle circles that a friend was getting rid of to tie up little pouches of bird seed for wedding guests to throw during the ceremony's recession.

These light-up marquee letters were an ambitious DIY project. My tutorial on how I made the marquee letters can be found here.

The Candy Bar

For the candy bar I hand painted "Step Right Up" in circus lettering on polka dotted fabric (purchased from JoAnn's) stretched over an old canvas's frame. I flanked the side of the painting with handmade paper pinwheels. For my previous post with a full tutorial on the paper pinwheels click here.

Most of the candy apothecary jars were purchased from Home Goods. The candy was purchased from Oriental Trading and BJ's. Candies were labeled with circus themed names like "elephant droppings" for M&Ms, "clown tears" for Skittles, "silly sticks" for striped candy sticks, "wacky wax bottles" for--you guessed it--wax bottles, etc. 

These canisters were also purchased from Home Goods. We hot glued circus animals (which can be found in the toy aisle at the dollar store) to the lids and spray painted them red.

I already owned the cake stands but threaded them with red polka dotted ribbon for the occasion. The carnival tickets were purchased from Amazon. A few of the display pieces (like this lollipop stand and the gum ball jar) were holdovers from a circus themed baby shower I threw--after which the aunt of the mommy-to-be kindly let me have her creations for my future use.

 

I found the circus elephant at a local flea market. The animal crackers could have probably been purchased cheaper elsewhere, but were picked up last minute from the grocery store.

 The lion atop the gum ball jar is actually a dog chew toy that I found on Amazon and glued to the top.

The groom proposed to the bride by hiding the ring inside a fortune cookie, so these colorful fortune cookies were a must-have. The strongman dumbbells were made by a friend by covering giant marshmallows (in frosting--I think?) and shoving one on each end of a pretzel rod. 

Flowers

The bride's mother supplied the bridal bouquet and purchased the flowers.

I made small arrangements of red carnations, baby's breath, and handmade paper pinwheels in vintage milk glasses vases I already owned. Beneath the arrangements I sprinkled vintage doilies that I also already owned.

Balloons 

Nicole of Inflation Sensations built this 'popcorn' balloon arch coming out of large plywood popcorn boxes that my husband and I made. 

I found some resin balloon animal stakes on Amazon but the cost to line the entire aisle with them quickly began to add up. When it occurred to me to ask Nicole to line the aisle in actual balloon animals stuck on dowels I couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to me before. And it was so cute!

Fun & Games

Clown noses were bought in bulk off Oriental trading for guests to wear during the ceremony. 

My husband was kind enough to diligently drink beers and then save the bottles for me for this game of Ring Toss. The rings were purchased off of Amazon and the bottles were scrubbed clean of their labels and then accented with rings of coordinating paper.

A friend sewed tiny little bean bags for us in the same fabric as the "Step Right Up" painting for this simple game of Pitch-a-Pouch. Cups were lined in the same paper as the ring toss bottles.

The same friend who sewed the little pouches for us also donated old formula cans for us to decorate for this game of Kill-a-Can. The balls were purchased from Amazon.

Winners of the carnival games were given these cute fish-in-a-bag soaps. To view my fish soap tutorial click here.

These miniature decks of playing cards with "Thanks for Playing with Us" stickers (customized and purchased through Oriental Trading) served as wedding favors.

Carnival "potato sacks" for sack races were also purchased from Oriental Trading.

Kissing Booth & Barn Decor

My husband built this kissing booth and was even kind enough to engineer it to fold up for easier storing. I hand painted the circus lettering. The pinwheels were handmade out of paper. 

Vintage circus cut-out masks served as kissing booth photo props. I'd purchased them from Michael's before I ever really had a plan for them over a year ago. 

Colorful pennants and red paper pom-poms were purchased from Oriental Trading. The barn venue was Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in St. Leonard, Maryland.

Jessi & Mark's Circarnival Wedding | Circus Carnival Photos by Wild Saffron Photography

I know Jessi from the pole community. After seven years together, she and her boyfriend Mark decided it was time to tie the knot. They may have taken the slow and steady route with their relationship at large... but when it came to wedding planning, they certainly did not. 

Jessi told me the day that she booked her venue at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum that she'd like my help with the planning. And then, conveniently, dropped the bomb on me that they'd booked the venue for only six short weeks later. Oh, and their total budget would be $1500. And $600 was just used toward the venue. And the wedding would be just days after Jessi and I both performed in a pole showcase--for which we'd be spending much of our time rehearsing. Nopressureoranything. 

She told me she'd like a vintage circus/carnival theme... which was lucky for everyone involved because I'd already thrown a circus themed baby shower and had some "stuff" still at my disposal. 

I'll be posting a rather exhaustive look at all the DIY details that went into this fun-on-a-budget wedding. But for now I wanted to focus on the stunning and (you won't believe this but it's true) first-time-shooting-a-wedding photos from our photographer. 

I had previously shot a pinup shoot with a new-to-me photographer, Sharon of Wild Saffron Photography. I was beside myself with awe for the set we shot and asked Sharon first if she'd like to shoot the wedding--for free. I knew it was a long shot, but I also knew I'd help to make sure the pictures turned out great for Sharon's portfolio to help her get a foot in the wedding photography biz. I was hoping she'd see it as a mutually beneficial event. And, to my (and my bride's) absolute delight, she did. Sharon is a spectacular human and even let us get ready at her house!

 

 

Our friend Ashley from TnT Hair Salon in Cape St Claire did Jessi's hair based off a sketch I drew up and sent to Jessi one day. To save the bride some dough I lumped my makeup artist service and a wedding dress I just so happened to have on hand into my wedding planning fee. 

 

 

By sheer luck the wedding gown was a perfect fit for Jessi and she didn't need any alterations or even any pinning in place. All we added was some red and white striped ribbon from Michael's that I pinned around the waist. The dress was originally from David's Bridal but was altered years ago to have the sweetheart neckline. I also supplied the birdcage veil (which I already had from a previous event and was an inexpensive $18 from Michael's anyway). I made the bride's pinwheel fascinator (click for a tutorial).

  

Speaking of pinwheels... this giant pinwheel was handmade using the same steps as the pinwheel fascinator tutorial linked above and made an excellent photo prop. I also handmade Mark's pinwheel boutonniere. 

 

 

Nicole of Inflation Sensations REALLY brought some magic to this wedding. My husband and I built giant popcorn boxes out of plywood and Nicole swept in and added a giant 'popcorn' balloon arch over the entryway to the reception connecting the two boxes. (I'll have more pictures of this awesomeness in my next post featuring this wedding's details!) I'd seen some balloon animal yard stakes on Amazon that I thought would be a cute addition to the wedding, but the cost of them added up quickly. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize that I'd be working with a talented balloon artist who could make these for me--and all I'd need to purchase were wooden dowels from Lowe's to stick into the ground. With Nicole's help these were super inexpensive and looked great lining the aisle of the ceremony. After the ceremony they also doubled as fun photo props (and, much to our surprise, as weapons for some rambunctious children?). Being able to shoot their own circus-carnival version of American Gothic was unplanned but awesome! If you're in the DMV area, you can book Nicole for weddings, birthdays, and corporate events.

 

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum turned out to be the perfect location for this wedding. The barn pavilion worked great for the circus-carnival theme. The weather was great, luckily, so we were able to use the surrounding grounds and scenery for the ceremony and photos, but I think the venue could work well even in rainy weather just by housing everything in the barn pavilion. Plus it was a super in-expensive $600, which is a pretty good bargain anywhere, but especially in Maryland. For the ceremony we used an open space outside of the barn and framed the I-Dos between two large trees. Between the trees I (read: "my husband") hung a canopy purchased from the children's section of Ikea that I had on-hand from the previous circus baby shower and hung underneath it yellow curtain panels that I've had since college and were originally purchased from Wal-Mart. 

The bride's mother supplied the flowers. She had the bouquet made and brought me budget-friendly red carnations. I arranged the carnations in vintage milk glass vases that I already owned and topped them with pinwheels.

The reception was a blast. There was a lemonade stand, a circus themed candy bar, a popcorn stand, a cotton candy machine, and a kissing booth (that my husband built and we all (me, the husband, and our bride and groom) painted. The popcorn and cotton candy machines were both borrowed. Guests played games of "ring toss," "pitch-a-pouch," and "kill-a-can" for prizes of goldfish-in-a-bag soap. To stretch the budget, the wedding was not catered. Instead, guests all brought their favorite dishes for a potluck. People generally scoff at the idea of a potluck wedding, but in the right setting I think this is a perfect choice for the bride and groom on a budget. The bride's sister made the elephant-topped cake herself (which I'll feature in my next post). 

 

The corn-hole game was borrowed. It was not carnival or circus themed, but I covered it with red and white striped wrapping paper to give it a more worthy appearance. The mini decks of playing cards were purchased from the bargain bins at Michael's. I wasn't sure if they'd be a big hit, but by the end of the reception they were all gone. (I asked my husband to set them up, by the way... and he delivered with this intricate playing card tower. He was also a great help in dutifully drinking all of the beers for the ring toss game.) In my next detail post on all the DIY-goodness of this wedding I'll be diving in deeper on all these circus-carnival wedding crafts, but Sharon did such a great job at making my handy work look beautiful that I thought I'd feature some photos here as well. 

For all my hard work, I must admit that the best part of this wedding was the general feeling of fun and love between the bride, groom, and their friends and family. Guests came dressed to the nines--as clowns, bearded ladies, strongmen, and in general vintage loveliness. Guests (and the pastor) donned clown noses for the ceremony.

Yes, this wedding was put together in under six weeks. Yes, the budget was (and remained) under $1500. And YES, Sharon of Wild Saffron Photography is now booking (paid!) weddings. Between weddings, engagements, boudoir, and general shoots, Sharon is now booked out for months. I'd highly recommend her for your upcoming event... but make sure you book in advance!