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Todd & Dorana - Our Handmade Weddings: A Simple Fairytale - Featured on Etsy.com

We're so excited to have our wedding featured in the world's largest handmade community! Thank you to all of Etsy Admin and members for helping us have the perfect simple wedding!

siempre- dorana

The THANK YOU - Our HANDMADE ETSY WEDDING - Dorana & Todd 12/26/2009

How do you thank not just the people that help you create a memorable and joyous wedding, bring happiness to your life both personally and professionally, but also the people that helped you become the person you are and cheer you on as you aspire to be the person you want to become?

We wanted a special way to say thanks to those near and far!

Thanks to the incredible photography of our friend Stephen Shadrach, we collected our favorite photos of the day and a favorite quote and designed our special 4 Page Photo Thank You Card.

We were fortunate to have our good friend Kat Wauters from Etsy's H20works.etsy.com bring our design to life!

It is the perfect keepsake and token of our incredible union.

Thank you for your wonderful customer service Kat!

A very special THANK YOU to our family and friends who helped make our day exactly what we had wished for!

To my ETSY "MORE MEANINGFUL GIFTS" FAMILY - there aren't words to thank you enough for all of your love and support!

siempre- dorana & todd

THE BRUNHAMMERS

Photography by Stephen Shadrach.

The WISH - Our HANDMADE ETSY WEDDING - Dorana & Todd 12/26/2009

(Our Wedding Day featuring custom made gown by Etsy's cybersewingfairy.etsy.com, flowers by dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com, bouquet crystal jewels by 4classydesigns.etsy.com.)

I was thrilled to find a great Etsy Shop to make special personalized handkerchiefs as gifts for our parents and a special present for my new husband on our wedding day!

Linda from Etsy's EmbroiderybyLinda.etsy.com offered the PERFECT sentiments, fast shipping and the best customer service!

My mother cried at my personal message and proudly shared the story to the ladies at the spa during our pampering that morning

"Mom, thank you for teaching me the importance of corn, Uncle Buck, laughter and love. Love, Dani 12-26-2009"


Linda's handkerchiefs were a perfect way to put into words what I have known since me and Todd's first vacation!

Shortly after Todd and I started seeing each other, we went on a mini vacation to Disney's Epcot Center. It's one of my favorite places as traveling has been such a big part of my life; imagine going around the world in a short afternoon!

In Morocco as we giggled over the silly genie lamps in the gift shop, a woman held one up and asked Todd,

"What would YOU wish for!?"

He looked over at me across the way and said,

"... To spend the rest of my life with that girl over there!"

I didn't think I could love him more than at that moment...

Waking up everyday in the beautiful house that we're making into our home in this dreamy historic town, hoping to start a family soon, I know that a wish was granted that day...

But it is EVERYDAY that he makes all of my dreams come true and I love him even more!

The DRESS - Our HANDMADE ETSY WEDDING - Dorana & Todd 12/26/2009

After all, isn't always about THE DRESS!?

Everyone knows that I've been fantasizing about a Autumn wedding ever since that last scene in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves where Marianne walks with her white dress floating around her while gorgeous leaves fall down upon them with the incredible colors of gold and reds creating that amazing backdrop!

We didn't do too bad ourselves with this incredible backdrop off of 72nd and Broadway! This picture was taken after the snow storm right before Christmas as I did a trial run of my makeup, hair and unmentionables! (And yes, I promise, I AM wearing shoes - strappy red-satin knotted heels!)

I absolutely fell in love with the off-the-shoulder, simple gown that Mary Jane wore in the Spiderman 2 movie in 2005! I learned that the dress was basically glued onto her body to create that off-the-shoulder, form-fitting bodice and that we would have to do quite a bit of creative design and sewing to pull it off with my ample bosom!

Another favorite dress of mine had a beautiful empire, straight skirt with beautiful embellishments.

I, of course turned to the amazing talented artists on Etsy to find a seamstress that could combine my favorite dresses into my perfect wedding dress!

I could not have been more blessed to have found a more patient, miracle-working seamstress in all of the world; Linda Mampalao of Etsy's cybersewingfairy.etsy.com ! Aside from having less than 6 weeks to make my custom designed gown with both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the mix, she helped me pick out the fabrics and added her own special touches tying the two dresses together!

I wore my great aunt's vintage yellow topaz and gold calla lily earrings, the pearl and diamond necklace that my mother gave me on my 21st birthday that my father had given to her the Christmas after I was born, and amazing red satin strappy heels!

The weather didn't quite cooperate on our wedding day, but nothing could have darkened my day wearing this breathtakingly gorgeous gown!

We are hoping to take the dress with us on our honeymoon to have the opportunity to take more pictures of the two of us together in the sun!

Thank you Linda!

Photography by Stephen Shadrach.

The WINTER WEDDING SHAWL - Our HANDMADE ETSY WEDDING - Dorana & Todd 12/26/2009

As I worked with my fabulous Etsy seamstress to create my dream wedding dress, I commissioned this gorgeous Andean Silk Yarn winter wedding wrap with a ruffled edge from the talented Maryum Karim of Etsy's yarncoture.etsy.com!

What an incredibly special work of wearable art!

SO soft and luxurious, I was thrilled with the quality and craftsmanship of the gorgeous wrap Maryum made for me.

It was the perfect compliment to my wedding gown.

I have been so blessed with all the love and support from my Etsy family in helping me create our dreamy Etsy Handmade Wedding!

The CAKE TOPPERS - Our HANDMADE ETSY WEDDING - Dorana & Todd 12/26/2009

Do you know what you get when you throw two Alpha-type personalities in a kitchen renovation after buying a new house, hand them a couple of power tools they've never used before, demolish the floors throughout the entire house forcing them to move into a windowless dungeon for three months with two smelly cats and a 14 year old, 90lb yellow lab, that can't walk up and down the stairs on his own, sprinkle in a four-week engagement and Christmas wedding - all in less than 6 months:

Yoda and Chewbacca!


If you've ever experienced any of these things, then you're probably at least a little familiar with the conflict that can arise from such chaos; kinks in the budget, hot dogs cooked by hand-held plumber's torch 'cause you forgot to refill the propane tank and there's no stove, the occasional electrocution, and arguments... lots of arguments...

Arguments between two Alpha's who are NEVER WRONG.

It was during one of those arguments on day one million and 82 of drilling cement screws into cement backer-boards, preparing the hallway and kitchen floors for the 1500lbs of Kale Multi-colored Travertine that I yelled back at my now husband, for what exactly, I can't say,

"OKAY YODA! Whatever you say, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!"

"What!?" he replied.

"Don't call me that!

And Yoda wasn't Master of the Universe - that's HE-MAN!"

I raised my sword-like power drill up in the air, clenched with both hands pointing straight up and yelled:


"I HAAAAAAAAAAVE THE POOOOOOOOOOOOWER!"

collapsing in a fit of laughter!

And thus, "Yoda and Chewbacca" were born...

My rolling eyes now had a verbal partner: "OKAY YODA!"

"OKAY CHEWIE!" he always responds hoping to get the same rise out of me that he gets out of my Yoda-ing.

Now, to me, that sounded perfectly logical! I mean, have you seen my hairy Chewbaccaness!?

Yoda, wasn't a new nickname in our family... We've been calling my little sister Yoda ever since her little pointed ears coined the nickname as a baby!

Over the summer a fellow More Meaningful Gifts threadmate had ordered fondant little Yodas for her son's birthday cupcakes as toppers from fellow Etsian The Lil Details.etsy.com and I had bookmarked them for my little sister's birthday!

My brilliant idea was vetoed by my mother, but when I started planning our wedding, I KNEW I had to order her fondant Yodas for our wedding cake!

Even better, I wrote to Jenn and asked her if she could make a matching Chewbacca!

When I opened up those adorable little cake toppers I couldn't help but squeal in delight! I knew Todd would pee his pants when he saw them!

They were absolutely PERFECT!

Jenn even covered them in a sparkling finish- the perfect embellishment for a wedding Yoda and Chewie!

And after our ceremony when I brought my new husband to see the beautiful cake that my little sister had lovingly made for us on Christmas day and put together just hours earlier, adorned with the beautiful clay roses from Diane Phillips of dkdesigns.etsy.com and our special Yoda and Chewie Cake Toppers, the moment was just as I had imagined; filled with joy and laughter and even some magical powers with my new Master of the Universe!


Photography by Stephen Shadrach.