Joy: Our Wedding – Wishing Tree & Photo Displays
Written by Sara on December 30, 2010 – 8:11 pm -
Hello readers! After taking a break for the holidays, I’m back with more recap posts! Click here to get caught up on our wedding recaps:
{Hair appointments; Picking up flowers; Getting ready; The Gown; Our First Look, Girls & Guys Attire, More Photos, Jitters and Communion, Ceremony Decor; Our DIY Ceremony Programs, Prayers, Readings and Music, Walking Down the Aisle, More Ceremony Shots, The Getaway Car and Reception Table Centerpieces}
Today I’d love to showcase two personalized touches that made our wedding reception feel more “us” – our Wishing Tree display and our photo features!
Wishing Trees are certainly making their way around the blogosphere, but I knew that the majority of our guests had probably never encountered one before at a wedding reception. It’s really, really important to remember when planning your own wedding that the majority of your guests don’t spend time stalking the most popular wedding blogs, so it’s perfectly fine to utilize the trends that resonate with you, regardless of how popular or played out the trend seems!
While in retrospect, I wish I would have had my Dad or our friend Chuck (who both took turns at acting as MC for the evening) announce that the Wishing Tree was available and where it was located (on the way into the reception space), we did have quite a few wedding guests make their wishes for us.
Here’s a look at our adorable Wishing Tree, which my bridesmaids and I put together utilizing manzanita branches from here, a flower pot purchased locally and some moss. We also utilized a wooden crate box purchased locally to hold our slips of paper tied with twine for the guests to hang their wishes:
We also included a variety of photo displays of both our engagement pictures (flanking the bar) and some pictures of us as children and us while dating. These photo displays were a lot of fun (and super easy!) to put together, especially since we already gave our parents framed engagement pictures for Christmas the previous year!
I found these two adorable white shutters at our local flea market in Sioux Falls; I just love them, and I want to try and find a way to incorporate them into our decor in our home!
Here’s a few pictures:
Up next: shots from our homemade photobooth!
[All photos by Creative Kindling, our awesome photographers]
Tags: Creative Kindling, Creative Photo Displays for Weddings, DIY wishing tree, Wedding Photo Displays
Posted in Adornments & Embellishments, Budget Weddings, Decor, DIY, Eco-Chic, Inspiration & Insight, Our Wedding, Personal, Photography, Venues, Wedding Recap, Weddings | 4 Comments »
Check Us Out – We’re Featured!
Written by Sara on December 11, 2010 – 2:27 pm -Happy weekend, readers! We’re currently snowed in (a blizzard’s a-brewing outside!), and we’re quite happy about it – even our puppy Wyatt loves the snow! Check out this picture of Wyatt after a romp outside in the snow today:
I’m breaking radio silence this weekend to let you all know that one of our wedding photos has been featured by Whisker Works, the lovely talent behind the mustache props that we used in our wedding photos!
Check it out here. Big thanks to Whisker Works for featuring us on their Staches in Action page!
Happy weekend!
Posted in Adornments & Embellishments, Inspiration & Insight, Our Wedding, Personal | No Comments »
Joy: Our Wedding – Reception Table Centerpieces!
Written by Sara on December 8, 2010 – 10:46 am -{Click here to catch up on our wedding recaps:
Hair appointments; Picking up flowers; Getting ready; The Gown; Our First Look, Girls & Guys Attire, More Photos, Jitters and Communion, Ceremony Decor; Our DIY Ceremony Programs, Prayers, Readings and Music, Walking Down the Aisle, More Ceremony Shots and The Getaway Car}
Here’s a look at the centerpieces that we utilized at our wedding! We used the following items for each table, as well as the cost per item:
- 1-2 birdhouses (depending on size) from my mother’s collection. We did purchase a few birdcages (my Mom mostly has birdhouses, and I love cages!), so I would say that we spent $50 max on 2-3 birdcages.
- A picture of our relatives on their wedding day. While we borrowed many, many picture frames from family members, we needed to purchase a few frames; I would estimate that we spent no more than $25 total.
- Mason jar, tied with ribbon, with a candle inside. We brought these from the ceremony site to the reception site (yay for reuse!), but we needed to purchase one set of jars (my mother had the others!), candles and the ribbon. I would estimate about $25 for this project; we purchased a ton of candles from IKEA for super cheap!
- Letter ‘G’ to represent our last name, Gillis. I purchased these at Hobby Lobby, painted them ivory and distressed them with sandpaper. Total cost for this project: about $15.
- Square of burlap, which acted as an anchor of sorts for the centerpiece. I know that we purchased a large bolt of burlap from Joann’s Fabric for 50% off one day…I’m sure it didn’t cost more than $20.
Here are a few more pictures, including our cootie catcher favors, a note for our wedding guests, our DIY fabric napkins, and our DIY photobooth tickets!
Up next: More reception decor – the wishing tree and our photo displays!
[All photos by Creative Kindling, our lovely photographers]
Tags: birdcages, birdhouses, burlap, candles, cootie catcher favors, Creative Kindling, DIY fabric napkins, DIY photobooth tickets, mason jars, reception centerpieces, Wedding Recap
Posted in Adornments & Embellishments, Budget Weddings, Decor, DIY, Eco-Chic, Inspiration & Insight, Our Wedding, Personal, Photography, Stationery, Venues, Vintage Beauties, Wedding Recap, Weddings | 3 Comments »
Joy: Our Wedding – The Getaway Car
Written by Sara on December 4, 2010 – 9:31 am -{Click here to catch up on our wedding recaps:
Hair appointments; Picking up flowers; Getting ready; The Gown; Our First Look, Girls & Guys Attire, More Photos, Jitters and Communion, Ceremony Decor; Our DIY Ceremony Programs, Prayers, Readings and Music, Walking Down the Aisle and More Ceremony Shots}
For our getaway car, I really wanted to rent or borrow an old classic car to ride away in. Luckily, one of my father’s coworkers restores cars, and he allowed us to borrow his classic Chevrolet free of charge (actually, all he requested as payment was a photo of us with the car, looking overjoyed – how sweet is that!). It was so much fun to ride away in it. My lovely father drove us from the ceremony to the reception; here are a few pictures!
The only downside to the car was that being a classic car, it lacked air conditioning. Since we were married on literally the hottest day of the year, it was quite miserable inside the confines of that car. However, our emotions were running at an all-time high, so we were too overjoyed with the variety of people honking at us in celebration to care much about the heat!
For those of you that are curious, our “Just Married” sign came from Etsy seller Earmark – it was whimsical and perfect!
Up next: the centerpieces at our wedding reception!
[All photos by Creative Kindling, who we couldn't recommend higher!]
Tags: classic car, classic Chevrolet, Creative Kindling, Earmark, Etsy, vintage car, wedding getaway car
Posted in Adornments & Embellishments, Beauty & Polish, Budget Weddings, Decor, Fashion, Flowers, Inspiration & Insight, Our Wedding, Personal, Photography, Venues, Vintage Beauties, Wedding Recap, Weddings | 2 Comments »