Today, it’s all in the DETAILS!!
I
knew I didn’t want to get carried away with a million different details
or keep adding to the list the closer we got to the wedding. Instead, I
decided EARLY on what was important to me details wise, and let the
rest just fall into place.
My
must have’s were our flowers, pennants and string lights, chalk boards
and our cake displays. I was uncertain about décor for the church stage,
and that just fell into place. I was uncertain of food, but that worked
out with only minor problems. (Quite frankly I would’ve been fine not
having food, but my dad said, “We have to feed people something”, and he
was paying that particular bill, so we had food.) I wasn’t worried
about music selections, photography, hair, makeup…it would all work out.
And it did!
I
have an obsession for all things chalk and knew I wanted to incorporate
that into our wedding. I found several ideas on Etsy for wedding
invitations, but they were all more expensive than I wanted to spend.
Instead, I chose to work with a local printer (who happens to be my
cousin’s wife) I sent her the ideas I had and she designed the perfect
invitation for us! She also designed our Thank You cards, Rehearsal
Dinner invitations, and programs. Everything she did was perfect and
totally custom for our wedding! I love knowing that the first piece of
our wedding that guests saw set the tone for our wedding!
When
we started working on programs, I knew I wanted them to be
light-hearted and a little different. Again, I found several ideas on
Etsy and Kerri meshed them all together and came up with this
one-of-a-kind program just for us! We had so many compliments from
guests saying they loved it and they could tell they were in for a
laid-back, enjoyable afternoon! #success
I
placed large ferns, and Amy’s potted plants / flowers outside the main
entrance with this chalkboard. (Amy is my green thumb. She has the most
beautiful flower gardens and offered to plant and grown flowers for our
wedding! She started working on them in the Spring and by late September
we had beautiful pots that we wrapped with navy fabric and yellow
burlap to sit throughout the church and reception area.)
On
the church doors were these jute wrapped letters that my friend, Amy,
again, so graciously made for us. (She’s a handy friend to have!)
We
decided on using navy and yellow for our colors. Originally it was
going to be navy and green, but our dear friend / arch nemesis Pinterest
stepped in and started showing me navy and yellow and that was the end
of that.
Entering
into the church foyer, I wanted the center doors to be open and for
guests to be able to be seated from the center aisle. I just feel like
it takes away from the effect of the big picture when you come in from a
side door and side aisle. I’m weird; it’s ok. We placed more of Amy’s
plants by the doors with our #hashtag board for everyone to use. I made
ribbon wreaths for the doors and the poms on the church pew ends. My
friends, the Bumbalough family made the backdrop. Our florist let us use
(for free..holla!) the two candle displays on the stage. The ferns came
from Stephen’s parents’ front porch. We placed mason jars with flowers
and candles in the windows inside the auditorium (which no one probably
saw, because I’ll be honest, I never paid attention to them that day).
Done.
The
sign-in table was super simple. I re-used framed photos from one of my
showers. Stephen’s mom and grandmother made EVERY. SINGLE. table runner
you’ll see from here on. Robert (my cousin Sarah’s husband who was a
HUGE help to us in setting up) threw together a beautiful arrangement
in a large mason jar from spare flowers we had purchased from Kroger the
day before the wedding. (TIP: Buy your bouquets and boutonnieres from a
florist. Buy a ton of loose spare flowers in your color scheme from
Kroger and arrange them yourself. Huge money saver!! All the flowers on
our tables, cakes, jars, etc….we did ourselves the day before the
wedding. It was quick and easy and looked great!!) For our guest book, I
ordered a photo book from Shutterfly using pics from our Engagement
session. Two years later, this book is still on our coffee table and
everyone who’s visited us has looked at it. (Annnnd…..I noticed about a
year after the wedding that I never paid attention to the fact that
APPARENTLY you can edit the spine of the book!! Therefore, the default
example was what printed since I didn’t notice to change it. Literally, a
YEAR later I noticed that our guest book said, “The Williamson’s” on
the side. I can’t make this up.)
Stephen’s
mom makes jewelry and it seemed like an easy choice to ask her to make
something for my bridesmaids. She made each of them these bracelets
along with matching earrings for the wedding. These were part of their
gifts they received at the Rehearsal Dinner along with a monogrammed
tote bag.
I
know I mentioned flowers just a bit ago, but flowers were SUPER
important to me. I LOVE flowers, but they have quite a heavy price tag
especially when you’re buying 13 bouquets, 5 corsages, and 20
boutonnieres. I met with a couple florists to compare notes and prices
and decided to go with Deborah’s Designs. She was so easy to work with
and made a thousand notes on the pictures I brought her. My bouquet
ended up IDENTICAL to the photo I took her!
I
incorporated orchids into my bouquet and my mom’s bouquet because the
one she carried 40+ years ago when she and my dad married was filled
with orchids. I just thought that would be a special touch for her to
carry orchids again.
Also
attached to my bouquet was my “something blue”, a handkerchief that had
been my mom’s years ago and a broach with my grandparents’ photo
inside. This was so special to me to feel like I had them with me all
day. My Mammy would’ve loved to have been there to visit with everyone
and see how pretty everyone was dressed up. My PaPa would’ve given
Stephen such a hard time, pulling things over on him left and right.
He’s been gone for 16 years and she’s been gone for 13 – there are days
that it still seems like they should be here or that I’ll turn around
and she’ll be sitting in the pew behind me at church again. Miss them.
Coming into the reception, we had a table set up for people to leave their thumbprint on a lightning bug / mason jar print I had ordered on Etsy. I made a chalkboard with directions and used only two different shades of yellow for the ink pads and it turned out GREAT!
This
is the "finished product". I had a piece of glass made and a back put
on the frame, and we have hung it in our bedroom. I love seeing all the
love that was shared with us on our wedding day. So many people have
touched our lives, it's just a friendly reminder of how much love and
support we have with us.
My
last “must have” was a special area strictly for cake displays. At some
point along the line, my friend Emilee and I came up with the idea for
lemonade stands. They would fit the outdoorsy, fun theme I wanted and in
my head I started picturing the whole thing looking like a backyard
party or street fair set up AND I LOVED it. Emilee’s husband Chuck
gathered up several pallets for us and he and Stephen (mostly Chuck)
made these suckers by hand one night. They were absolutely free and have
been used SO many times by other people since our wedding! They’ve been
in 3 weddings after ours, multiple craft fairs for food display booths,
and birthday parties. SO MUCH USE! I love that!!
I
made different chalkboards to label our cupcake and cake flavors as
well as our “Stafford’s Lemonade Stand”. We served Pink Lemonade,
Arnold Palmer, Strawberry Lemonade and Lemon Water. The cakes were made
by a friend of mine who does them occasionally on the side and were
FANTASTIC. The cupcakes went in a HURRY! Such a hurry that neither
Stephen or I tasted one that day. I wanted a smaller tiered cake and
several “satellite” cakes. I don’t know why….I just wanted cake
everywhere. We had quite a bit left over that got divided up among
friends and family at the end of the night (which by the way NO ONE
seemed to mind) and we took two to-go boxes full of cake with us on our
honeymoon and it was the best thing ever!
We placed more of Amy’s flower pots around the area and Robert added any extra spare loose flowers we had to all the cakes, tables and stands and it looked more beautiful than I ever imagined. My jaw was on the floor when I saw it all finished. This was my favorite detail of our entire day!
We placed more of Amy’s flower pots around the area and Robert added any extra spare loose flowers we had to all the cakes, tables and stands and it looked more beautiful than I ever imagined. My jaw was on the floor when I saw it all finished. This was my favorite detail of our entire day!
We
decided to set up an area for a photo booth at the reception. Between
Emilee and I, we had everything we needed to have a great set up from the
backdrop to the props! Everyone had a great time snapping fun pics
here.
We
set up two long rows of rectangular tables and a few round tables on
the sides of the room. We used the table runners that Stephen's mom had
made on each table. For the long tables, I had purchased glass stem
vases from Hobby Lobby, painted them each white and distressed them with
sandpaper. We filled them with random, loose flowers we had. On round
tables we set various mason jars with more loose flowers. Added votive
candles to each table and BAM! DONE!!
Under the pennants and lights, this room just had a totally different look and I loved it!
As
mentioned in a previous post, I didn't want to do birdseed, bubbles or
rose petals for our send off and it would be too light to do sparklers. I
felt like my options were limited, and that's when I found this idea on
Etsy! I made up a chalk board for instructions and we filled a basket
with paper airplanes that my friend Katey and some others had folded
together a couple days before the wedding. We received differing
feedback from our paper airplanes idea prior to the wedding, but in the
end, it was fun and the pictures turned out great. (I think everyone
loved throwing paper airplanes around outside whether they wanted to
admit it or not.)
Next week, I'm sharing our ceremony, reception and photos from our group shots. Which may or may not include photos of all the guys standing in the middle of one of the busiest streets in our town! All for the perfect shot!
If you've missed any wedding posts up until now, you can check them out at the links below.
Nursing Girls Shower - here
Church Family Shower - here
Stafford Family Shower - here
Flatt Family Shower - here
Girls Night; Little Black Dress Party - here
Setting Up; It Takes a Village - here
Rehearsal Night & Dinner - here
Getting Ready - here
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