Old Havana Garden Wedding...

This vintage Cuban wedding, shot by Maggie Harkov, is absolutely beautiful! Lisette and Jose paired bold colors and floral patterns with vintage accents to achieve the wedding of their dreams. I love the yellow vintage Chevy that Jose surprised Lisette with! It's the perfect addition to this lovely wedding.

More from the bride, Lisette:

The theme was 1950's Old Havana Garden Wedding (a nod to my Cuban heritage) and the whole wedding was definitely done on a budget, so our creative juices had to get flowing. Thankfully I have friends who just started an event design company called Funky Fresh & Fabulous who helped bring everything together and helped me endlessly with my DIY projects.

When deciding how to utilize our budget, we definitely knew where we wanted to spend more money... our photographer and venue were most important to us.

The day of the wedding my girls worked so hard to put everything together so that I wouldn't have to worry about a thing. They even got into a car accident the morning of and a lot of the decor was broken as a result, but they still finished everything and did the most that they could with what they had and kept everything running smoothly for me. One of them, Melina, even went to my house after the whole ordeal and did my makeup for me. They were truly fabulous!

I had been wanting to have a vintage 1950's car for my wedding since I was a little girl. When we decided on our theme, I HAD to have it.... But it almost seemed impossible to find one in my area. I couldn't even find one in NYC. I was so disappointed. Since I didn't want a limo, and it was not in our budget anyway, I decided we would just have to go in my parents little red nissan. My dad drove me to the ceremony and I had come to peace with the fact that I wouldn't have my perfect 50's car.... To my surprise, as we walked out of the ceremony, parked right in front was my 1953 Chevy. My friend, Melina, had gotten in contact with someone who owned one without my knowing and called my husband the day before the wedding to let him know. That was his wedding gift to me and it was PERFECT! I actually cried when I saw it.

We DIYed the invites. They used the wrapping paper I had used to line the envelopes as inspiration for the actual invites and I hand wrote the names on the envelopes.

Our reception was at The Woman's Club of Ridgewood. I knew I wanted it to be the place I had my reception when I attended a friend's wedding four years earlier. It just fit right into the airy, casual, yet classy feeling we wanted to have that day. With it's wood floors and neutral colors, it was just perfect for us.

We also DIYed the escort cards, which were dominoes to go with the Havana theme. I hand wrote the names on one side and whatever number of dots were on it was the table number.

The wrapping paper from the invites was used to make table numbers.

The best tip I can give to brides-to-be is not to sweat the small stuff. At the end of the day, things are always going to go wrong. I personally vowed that I wouldn't let my wedding day pass me by without enjoying it. We were present at every moment of our wedding day. I just let everything go, and it worked like a charm. I wasn't even nervous on our big day. Whatever happened happened. There were a couple of things that went wrong and I noticed them, but I just didn't mind that they went wrong. I had great people that I trusted that helped me that day. Most importanly, surround yourself with people that you care about and that care about you. That's the best tip I can give as far as enjoying the wedding day.

As for the budget, choose a couple of things to DIY that are feasible and choose where you want the bulk of your money to go. For us, it was photography and it was the best decision we made. Find what's most important to you in the beginning and everything else will fall into place. Also, be creative with where you can get things. You don't always have to go for the expected... Our food was great and it came from our neighborhood pizzeria... Nobody even knew... Until now... Lol! Think outside the box and put your personal touch. Not everthing has to be what tradionally is expected. If you want something in your wedding that doesn't fit into the mold of what a "wedding" is, GO FOR IT! It's YOUR wedding... Don't let yourself be persuaded by other people because you will regret it. Follow your gut and I'm sure your wedding will be just as perfect for you as ours was for us!

Wedding Vendors:

Photographer: Maggie Harkov
Venue: The Woman's Club of Ridgewood
Florist: Flowers by Diane
DJ: Fernando Nuñez
Waitstaff: We're Having a Party
Catering: Local Pizzeria
Cupcakes: Kathy Cotto
Rentals: Content Party Rental