I thought I would show you some more of the crafty things we did for the wedding. That was the fun part!
The reception was in an outdoor pavilion at a gorgeous private park in our city. We are so fortunate to have it because it is free to the public. The park, not the Pavilion is free. Anyway, we rented the Pavilion which meant we were responsible for the caterer, decorations and everything but the table and chairs.
To decorate the perimeter and the entrance, we went to Ikea and bought packages of their tulle-like curtains. They are so inexpensive and way better than tulle. For the entrance we just stapled one across the wooden beam and tied it back. Then I made a banner with Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla and Basic Gray cardstock. A friend of mine has a Cricut so we used that for the letters since I didn't have anything large enough for the Big Shot.
The same friend also cut the letters for the Card Basket. It is an old Peterborough (made in New Hampshire) Basket. We just added some ribbon, lace, an antique cloth and the banner. I used Stampin' Up's new Oval Accent die for the background on the letters. Once I die cut the "ovals" I embossed them and added some Antique Brads.
You can't read the note in the frame on the table but the gist is that we didn't do Wedding Favors. Instead we used that money and made a donation to Samaritan's Purse - the Kenya Project. The money will go toward food, water and education for the Kenyans. Everyone in our family except my youngest daughter has been to Kenya, Africa and we all love the people, especially the children!
One of the things we really wanted to do was line the path to the Pavilion with luminaries. The Park gets very dark at night! I was able to get the Shepherd's Hooks on Clearance - 30 in all. A dear friend of mine purchased a huge box of the old fashioned Mason Jars with lids and handles for only $3.00 at a flea market! So we filled them with play sand and a candle. I tied some strips of lace fabric and ribbon around the rim and they looked great. In between the hanging jars we had a regular mason jar on the ground - 28 of those, also filled with sand and a candle.
Did I remember to take a picture at night when they were lit? No! And I am so bummed because it was beautiful!!
I made a small white fondant cake for the bridal couple to cut and taste. The dessert was actually an Ice Cream Sundae Bar instead of wedding cake so it was no big deal to make the cake. Bethany saw a cake topper on Pinterest that was the I Corinthians 13 verse burnt into wood and made into little banners. She loved that and asked if I could make something similar. So I used the Wood Sheets from Stampin' Up! (now retired) and my wood burner to make the ones you see. It was really easy to cut the wood sheets with Paper Snips.
Because it was an outdoor reception we were afraid it would be really hot which it was! We were also concerned that guests would leave before the Ice Cream Sundae Bar was served and we didn't want anyone to miss out on that. So I made a Menu Fan and guests seemed to love it. They could read the menu, including Ice Cream, and use it as a fan which many of them did! Again, I used Calypso Coral and Very Vanilla cardstock. I printed the menu with our computer printer to save money. The stamped image is the Jumbo Wheel, Very Vintage. The Scallop Circle at the base is Peppermint Lifesaver "sandwich" that I adhered to the stick. We were VERY thankful we didn't have to make 200 of these!!
Next to the park's Pavilion is an old boarded up well type structure. Instead of a guest book we asked the guests to take a die cut tag from the basket, write a wish, and put it into the wooden bucket. I made the banner using the same coral, vanilla and gray colored cardstock. The bucket is borrowed and is actually an old maple syrup bucket! Almost everyone wrote a wish for the bride and groom so we were very pleased!
My daughter doesn't really care for "hot house" flowers - she prefers garden flowers so I grew our flowers and it saved alot of money but wow I was really stressing all summer over the flowers because of our emergency trip to Ohio, and the dry summer we had. Plus chipmunks and groundhogs were eating them!! In the end we had plenty of flowers: Cosmos, Zinnias, Belles of Ireland, Snapdragons, and odds and ends. Two dear friends volunteered to make the arrangements for me and I gladly accepted. They did a wonderful job! Again, we used old fashioned Mason jars found at a yard sale.
The table numbers were birds cut with my Big Shot and the Bird Bigz die. I trimmed the tail though. The coral thing behind the bird is a napkin. The stick was supposed to be stuck in the flower arrangement instead of the bottle but I just let it go. I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and it looked fine in the bottle. The bottles were also yard sale finds and were of various shapes and sizes. The short, squat glass thing is a Railroad Insulator that my now deceased father and brother collected. Bethany really wanted something to memorialize my dad (her grandfather) so we used the insulators. To create some ambiance we put a battery operated candle underneath each insulator and they looked awesome!
Oh and the "tray" is really a brown wooden frame that we painted and distressed. Then we added Calypso Coral cardstock over the glass and added some lace (from an old thrift store curtain) over that. The centerpieces were one of our favorite parts of the reception!
And the last creative project is the Sweetheart table. Bethany and her sisters created the backdrop with crepe paper streamers. Then they strung the tissue paper poms (left from the Bridal Shower) from the beams. The table was decorated with more bottles and a banner made from a string of pearls and die cut letters.
It was alot of stuff to haul over to the Park, decorate, and then when the reception was over we had to take it all down and haul it back. But we had lots of help and it really did look nice. Now I am in the process of going through it all, organizing it and storing it away!
I am having stamping withdrawal so hopefully I can sit down and stamp today!
