A Barn Wedding at Lakeside Occasions in Topeka, Indiana

In order to pull off their rustic barn wedding at Lakeside Occasions in northern Indiana, Lauren (21 and a registered nurse) and Timothy (22 and a security dispatcher) tapped into their creative sides. "I wanted a DIY wedding, so my mother and I made all of the center pieces, table skirts and garlands," Lauren explains. "My mom also made over 600 silk flowers that she antiqued with old brooches and buttons. They looked so realistic and it really added to the personalization of the wedding." Each handmade element of the couple's lawn ceremony and barn reception added a special touch unique to both Timothy and Lauren -- including birch centerpieces hand carved with the couple's initials and their own customized wedding playlist. "We had the venue play a CD with all of our favorite love songs," Lauren says. "It meant so much more to us to have the songs that Timmy and I had danced to a thousand times playing during the ceremony."