Lots of little girls dream of their weddings. All I ever fantasized about was the dress and the jewelry. So when my now-husband and I decided to get married, we quickly dispensed with the notion of a shin-dig and decided to do it on our own terms.

Niagara Falls called to us, so we booked a room with a gorgeous view and came up with excuses to get away for a few days in April.

The mayor of Niagara Falls, New York performed the ceremony. Rather than the boiler plate we'd expected, we got his take on the wedding vows, which were much sweeter and more heartfelt.

Although our nuptials took place in the dark ages before Etsy and the {New New}, they did include many handmade and DIY elements.

My dress was custom made at a local shop called Kimera. My cute capelet also came from a local shop that carries lots of handmade goods, Rapisarda. My husband worked with jewelry designer Lady J. to create an engagement ring based on one that had been my grandmother's. We got custom wedding bands from the Original Titanium Workshop.

As a gift on the day we got married, he got me a beautiful handmade purse from Refinery, a local pioneer in handmade retail.

Afterwards, we let our friends and family know we'd gotten hitched by sending out this card:

which we made by taking a picture of some public art near our house that we thought kind of looked like us. With each card we included a cd of the theme song to Laverne and Shirley, "Doing it Our Way."

If I were to do it all over again, I'd still elope. We spared ourselves a great deal of stress, and to this day we still feel justified in splurging on travel since we saved so much money by not having a a wedding.

The only thing I'd change is I'd definitely do a lot of my shopping from the {New New}!

Stylish elopement necessities from Ikyoto, bluestitch books, metalicious, groundsel, jesswitaj and Lingua Nigra.

-MaryAnne
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