Wedding Recaps- The Reception

After the ceremony, we spent some time at the fort taking pictures before piling into the limo and heading to the reception venue. On the way, we asked the limo driver if he would be willing to stop at a nearby post office so that we could get the marriage certificate in the mail. He did just that, and our photographer caught it. I can only imagine what the locals thought to see a limo drive through a post office.

The new Mr and Mrs!

Once we arrived to the reception venue, the reception coordinator wisked us away to a private waiting area for appetizers and champagne, while they poured everyone's champagne for the champagne toast. The DJ lined us up, and we were announced. Once everyone was seated, we went right into the speeches. Our best man and our maid of honor each gave speeches and joked with us all week that they were going to tell embarrassing stories. Truth be told, they both gave speeches that were so touching and heartfelt that I am pretty sure there was not a dry eye in the house.

The Best Man's speech

The Maid of Honor's Speech

Following the speeches, we went right into dinner. The DJ played Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, the food was delicious. We decided to have a buffet of comfort foods, and our caterer created exactly what we wanted: meatball, honey mustard chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes. Part way through dinner, our photographer brought out glow stick kits. The kids, as well as the adults, had a blast creating glow stick glasses, earrings, and necklaces.

After dinner, we had our cake cutting. This is where our baker surprised us. Our original plan was to have a wedding cake and a groom's cake, but the groom's cake was going to essentially be a single-tiered chocolate version of the wedding cake. I wanted to surprise Tom with a more custom groom's cake, but time ran out before I could really plan it. The baker came through, and designed Tom a guitar cake. We were both pleasantly surprised.

Our Wedding Cake

Our Groom's Cake

Tom and I had been discussing the cake cutting for about a year before the wedding. We both agreed that we wanted our wedding to be an adult affair, and that our cake cutting would follow suit. I went by what we discussed, and nicely fed Tom a piece of wedding cake, minus a little frosting on his nose, which I promptly kissed off.

Tom on the other hand...

I should have known better. Especially after he flashed his "I'm innocent" eyes at me. Before I could react, I was covered in sticky frosting. At first I was less than pleased, but then I realized that it was the man I married. Tom has a playful side, and our guests loved it.

Never trust a man with a handful of cake

So not amused

We took a few minutes to get cleaned up, and then started the dancing portion of the evening. Tom and I had our first dance to "Rose of My Heart" by Johnny Cash. The words fit us perfectly. Tom and I had been practicing waltzing since we became engaged, it was nice to finally have the opportunity to dance with him. Tom also took full advantage of the flow-y aspect of my dress and spun me a few times. Our wedding party and guests blew bubbles during our first dance to add to the moment.

Following our first dance, I danced with my father to "I Loved Her First" by Heartland. Tom danced with his mom to "Purple Rain" by Prince. Then we opened up the dance floor and everyone joined in on the fun.

Me and my dad

Tom with his mom

All that was left to do was the bouquet toss and the garter toss, which we dispersed throughout the dancing. The florist provided a toss bouquet for me to throw. Now, I notoriously have bad aim when throwing, and in my defense, the DJ made me toss the bouquet with my back turned to everyone. 

I say this in my defense, because I managed to toss the bouquet right over all of the ladies...

And into the groom's hands. Seriously, Tom cannot catch. He later told me that he was having a conversation with the best man and the bouquet landed in his hands. If that is not a sign of sheer talent and brilliance, I don't know what is.

Last but not least, Tom took off my garter. True to form, he opted to do it with his teeth. Again, our guests enjoyed the show. Fortunately, I did not catch the garter, although I'm sure people were questioning it. Ultimately, my bridesmaid caught the bouquet, she is engaged to be married next June. Our best man caught the garter. We need to find him a special someone.

After the bouquet and garter toss, we enjoyed the last couple hours of our reception by dancing the night away. Our last dance was to "Good Life" and my nephews requested it so they could dance with their new aunt Jenny. It was a perfect, beautiful day that was worth every minute of planning, and every dime of money.

All pictures copyright of Classic Photographers, and used with permission. 

Centerpieces and Linens

With the wedding now two months, two weeks, and two days away (not that I'm counting), I have found renewed motivation for all things wedding. My current project is figuring out the decor for the reception tables. Back in January, I started playing around with centerpieces and I am happy to report that we have finally settled on, and purchased all of our centerpieces.

Half of the tables will have candle centerpieces, like this: 

The other half of the tables will have boats, like this: 

Next on the agenda is figuring out linens. It's amazing the little details that suddenly become so important once you become a bride. Our reception venue supplies ivory tablecloths to cover the 90" round tables. Each table also has a chandelier above it. 

Tom and I were at a bridal show in February at our reception venue, and they had a table set up for us to look at. 

Don't get me wrong, the table is elegant, and I love it. I just think it could use a pop of color. We have a couple of options, both of which involve us purchasing our own linens. Whichever option we go with, we will purchase linens rather than rent them. this is because it costs about the same amount of money to purchase as it does to rent, and at the end of the day I will still have linens if I purchase them. 

The first option is to use a cloth napkin in the center of the table under the centerpiece like this: 

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The other option is a table cover, layered over the tablecloth like this: 

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Either option, we will be using plum linens. Looking at the pictures now, I definitely like the look of the table covers better than the napkins in the center. My only concern is that it might make the reception look too dark. 

Thoughts?

Favors for Our Guests

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we ordered the votive candles for our favors. Several days later, a huge box arrived with my name on it. I immediately got to work, and over the course of the following weekend and a lot of help from my mom, all 144 wedding favors are assembled. Originally we were going to give everyone a frosted glass votive holder with an unscented white candle. Ultimately, we decided to give half of our guests a frosted glass votive holder with a lavender scented candle, the other half will receive a purple glass votive holder with a vanilla scented candle. The candles are wrapped with a personalized matchbook and a thank you tag.

I am really happy with the final product:

The white glass looks like sea glass :D

And you can't go wrong with purple!

Ultimately, I purchase my candles and votive holders from quickcandles.com. I was originally going to purchase my candles through a different website, but quickcandles gave me a better price once shipping was included. I am really happy with my experience with quickcandles, and I would recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a large quantity of candles. My candles arrived quickly and securely. The votives are a nice thick glass, and the candles smell wonderful. My only negative critique is that the votive candles are slightly smaller than usual votives, 

It is a huge weight off my chest to have the favors done, next on the list is to finish up my bubbles, ribbon wands, and pinwheels!

Our Server Set

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A couple of months ago, I commented that Tom and I were looking to purchase an engraved server set that we could keep as a keepsake of our wedding and place in our curio cabinet. I am happy to report that after countless hours of browsing server sets online and in various department stores, Tom and I have finally made a purchase.

One of the first observations that I made while planning Tom and my wedding was that adding the word "wedding" to something immediately sent the price sky rocketing. To avoid this, I have made the majority of my accessories and I have been rewarding by spending a fraction of the price. To add to this, Tom is very smart with money, and did not want to put a lot of money into things that would only be used for one evening, so I have tried to choose wedding accessories that will be able to be used after the wedding. For example, I simply un-glue the bows on our toasting flutes to have flutes to share a New Year's toast, or by un-attaching the sign on the card basket, I can have a nice basket for the living room. The compromise to all this is that we would splurge a little and get an engraved serving set.

This was easier said than done. Tom agreed to an engraved server set, but insisted that it be something we could use after the wedding. We also didn't want anything kitschy, so we agreed on an all silver set with engraving on the server. There are literally hundreds of silver serving sets available online, but we could not find one that worked for both of us, and on the rare occasion that we did, the online reviews sent us running for the hills. Then the day came to make a payment on Tom's wedding band. We decided to stop into Things Remembered on a whim, and we found our serving set. It's called "Anastasia" and it's absolutely beautiful. Tom actually pointed it out. It's silver, nicely weighted, and elegant. It also happens to be on sale right now, so we were able to purchase our set for a great price.

We picked up our server set the next day. We had the server engraved with "Thomas and Jennifer September 10, 2011." Have I mentioned how much I love seeing our names and date engraved/printed together? It just makes everything seem more real. On the way home, I was looking at our set and I realized that it looked familiar. That evening, I pulled out my mother's serving set from when she married my step-father in 2005, and sure enough, she has the exact same set. To our surprise, not only did Tom and I finally find our serving set, we also started a new family tradition.

What keepsakes are you making/ having made for your wedding?

Starfish, the Not-Dead Kind

My apparent love affair with starfish started shortly after Tom and I chose our ceremony venue. We decided to go with a nautical theme, and for what ever reason, the starfish became a design element. Thus far, the starfish has primarily made an appearance in graphic form. For example, we have starfish on the belly band of our invitations, starfish are the back drop of our wedding day stationary, and foil starfish make an appearance on our personalized matchbooks.

You'll notice I didn't mention starfish in our decor. This is where I ran into trouble. I love the look of starfish, I don't love the smell of dried starfish. I also did not like the principle of decorating our reception with dead sea creatures. The reality of the dried starfish that people pick up at craft stores is this, live starfish are either farm raised or wild caught, and then kiln dried flat. That's not a very nice thing to do in my opinion. There are also horror stories online about guests contracting food poisoning and other illnesses from handling improperly cleaned starfish and seashells prior to eating dinner. All things considered, I quickly nixed any decor ideas that I had that involved starfish.

Then I went shopping, and I found these:

All the natural beauty of a starfish without the guilt of killing innocent sea creatures. These are artificial starfish made of acrylic. I'm in love. 

Made in China! Not real! 

The larger "white pencil" starfish are about six inches across, the smaller starfish are about three inches across. I bought 18 of the larger ones first (three packages of six), and I was so impressed with the quality that I went back and bought 60 of the smaller ones. The larger ones will be used through out the reception decor, possibly on the tables, on the cake, where ever. I have another plan for the smaller starfish...

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Escort cards! I purchased ivory "print-your-own" escort cards that I will print with guest's names and table numbers, then I'll pop a hole in each one and attach it to a starfish with a purple ribbon.

My starfish love is becoming a cohesive theme! I love it when things work out.

Are you using starfish in your wedding decor? Are you using real or artificial?

Our Colors

About a year ago, when Tom and I first started planning our wedding, we were still in Kansas City, and we were looking at getting married in a rose garden. We were going to have an evening event with the theme "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and we wanted our colors to be dark purple, silver, and black. Then we moved to Maine. Our ceremony went from evening to afternoon, and our rose garden turned into a Civil War era fort surrounded by ocean. Things needed to change. The funny thing is, we never sat back down and discussed a theme or colors, they just sort of, happened.



I should begin by saying that Tom and I both like purple. It's our favorite color. Tom is a bit more subtle with his love for the color, I'm borderline obsessed. So, purple was a given as one of our wedding colors. That being said, the first change I made was to the shade of purple that we would be using. Our wedding ceremony is taking place at 4 in the afternoon. I did not think that a dark purple would be appropriate for attire at that time of day, but I did not want a pastel. I took some inspiration from our venue, and decided to look for a "washed out" or "weathered" purple. I came up with a color that Alfred Angelo calls "Victorian lilac." I went dress shopping with my mom a couple weeks later and saw "Victorian lilac" in person, and fell in love. Speaking of dress shopping, that is where another color came from, ivory. I thought I wanted a white dress, but ivory just looks better with my skin tone. Subsequently, everything else that would have been white has been changed to ivory, and it is also the color of the majority of our stationary.

Celadon green became an accent color after I met with the florist and discovered green hydrangeas. I love the coloring, they are in season in September, and they compliment lavender roses nicely. We chose celadon because it fits in with our "washed out" or "weathered" palette. We also have brushed silver as an accent color for things like our cake topper and serving set, which more or less carried over from our original wedding colors. As for the dark purple, the color I was originally trying to steer away from, it sort of snuck back in, as an accent color. At first I was concerned about having two different shades of purple, but I think they compliment nicely.

What colors are you using for your wedding?

Decorating the reception tables

One of the many things that I love about our reception venue is that in terms of decor, it is a blank slate. The walls are a neutral shade of ivory, the floor is hues of gray, the chairs are a grayish-ivory, and the table linens are ivory. I do not have any pre-existing themes or color schemes to work around. Perfect. I also love the chandeliers above each table. For weddings, they lower the chandeliers over each table, it really creates a nice abiance.

I am not planning to have a lot of decorations at the reception. My budget does not exactly allow me to, but at the same time, the space already has a certain elegance to it, and we really want that clean look. Our cake baker will be decorating the cake table, the gift table more or less will decorate itself, the same is true with the escort card table, and I have some definite ideas for the guest book table (more on that later). All that is left are the guest tables and the head table. I decided to start by figuring out the guest tables, and maybe that will lead me to how to decorate the head table. If not, well, I guess I have about 8 months to figure that out.

First things first, the guest tables are huge. Each one fits between 10-12 people. On the positive side, this cuts down on the number of centerpieces that I will need. On the down side, each table is this huge canvas of ivory that needs serious attention. To start, we are going to put a Victorian lilac table runners on each table. To add to the mood, each table will also have several purple votive candles as well. Each table will also have a seashell table number.

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In regards to place settings, I have fallen in love with the picture to the left. Unfortunately, it is completely unrealistic to do this at our reception. We are having a buffet, so it would be useless to have chargers at each setting, and what would I do with 150 chargers after the wedding? For the same reason, the lavender napkins are also out. I would have to purchase them all, and I cannot think of a good use for 150 lavender napkins. So, my goal is to replicate the look, without the charger, with an ivory napkin, and a menu that I make on Vistaprint. We'll see how it goes. Each place setting will also have a candle favor.

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As far as centerpieces go, this is where I plan to mix things up a bit. In an earlier post I mentioned that we were avoiding floral centerpieces. This is what I came up with in place. Half of the tables will have wooden sailboats that look like the picture to the right. They are 9" wide and 19" tall, which is the perfect size to add height to some of the tables, but still allow guests to have conversations across the table.

The remaining half of the tables will have handmade centerpieces. I wanted a way to incorporate seashells into my centerpieces without having them out on the tables where they could potentially come in contact with food. After looking online for some inspiration, this is what I came up with. The glass vase is filled with varying shades of green sea glass, sea shells, and a vanilla pillar candle. They are really simple to assemble, and, the best part is I was able to purchase all the supplies at the local dollar store. Each centerpiece costs me about $4 to make, and I have tons of extra shells left over to use elsewhere.

They look really pretty lit up too.

How did you decorate the tables at your reception? Did you make your centerpieces?

DIY Toasting Flutes

It was my intent to slow down a bit on wedding planning for the month of December. It was my goal to enjoy the holidays and really focus on job hunting. This weekend, I went Christmas shopping with my mother at the Christmas Tree Shop. My intention was to find Christmas stockings for me and Tom, and maybe pick up a couple presents along the way. Mom and I got to the kitchen section, and we found these gorgeous crystal champagne flutes. My mother suggested using them for our wedding flutes. The price was amazing, $1.99 each. So I picked up a couple. So much for slowing down on wedding planning...

Once I got them home, I decided to decorate them a bit. I tied some ribbon around the stems into bows, and I added a seashell embellishment. It was really simple, but added the perfect little touch to our flutes. The look really pretty and elegant.

Tom expressed some concern when I initially began looking at toasting flutes and serving sets that the wedding sets are really expensive for something we would only use once. These flutes cost me just under $4 total, and we can easily take the bows off (if we decide to) and use the flutes for special occasions like New Year's Eve and anniversaries.

DIY Wedding Bubbles, or, Making the Most Out of Dollar Store Finds

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I found this picture while randomly surfing the internet one day, and I fell in love. Bubbles during the first dance. How pretty is that? I was trying to find a fun place to add bubbles into our wedding, this is perfect! As an added plus, I asked our reception coordinator if we were permitted to have bubbles during our first dance, and she gave the okay. Yay!

Now the only thing missing is, well, the bubbles. A simple Google search will tell you that a variety of websites exist that sell bubbles, and they also sell them in a variety of shaped bottles and colored bottles. I almost purchased some with purple bottles, but after reading the reviews and discovering that they were in fact hot pink, I opted to decorate my own. That's when I made a discovery, my local dollar store sells wedding bubbles! 9 bottles for a dollar! The only problem, they were a bit on the plain side. Nothing fancy, just a clear bottle with bubble stuff inside. So, I grabbed a couple of supplies, started decorating, and came up with this:

Cute, simple, and straight to the point. First things first, I made the tags on my computer with Open Office, and they are available for download under the "Templates" tab above. I printed mine out on ivory cardstock. The poem is adorable, it reads "To fill the air with a little romance, Please blow these bubbles while we have our first dance."

You will need: 

• Bubbles
• Curling Ribbon (also from the Dollar Store)
• Tags (if you want to use them)
• Scissors

What you do:

1.     Cut a 12" length of ribbon and snip down the center of each end             about 1/2 an inch. 

 

2.     Thread the tag onto the ribbon.

3.     Wrap the ribbon around the neck of the bottle of bubbles, be                 careful to keep your ribbon below the lid of the bubble bottle.                 Secure with a square knot.

4.     Using the blade of your scissors, curl each length of ribbon. 

5.     Tear each ribbon down the center, using the snips you made in               step 1.

Repeat for each guest. I have 45 of them made right now, I plan to make 150. This is a really easy project, it can just get monotonous so be sure to have a good tv program or something to keep you occupied. 

On a final note, I am storing all of my bubbles in a shoe box. I have a box that contains all of my wedding crafts in one central location, but I keep having this re-occurring thought of one of the bottles of bubble solution leaking and ruining everything else that I have made. As a sort of insurance policy, I figured if a bottle leaks within the shoe box, the mess will at least be contained.

Are you planning to use bubbles at your wedding?

Candles, The Win-Win Favor Option

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The answer to my wedding favor dilemma finally came to me one morning with the help of a DIY message board that I follow. Candles! Plain, simple, frosted glass votive candles. There is a great website, called Candles4Less that sells votive candle holders with candles in a variety of colors in a case of 72 for $35. I am going to order purple ones with ivory candles to decorate the reception, and I am going to order two cases of frosted glass candles to hand out as favors. Along with the candles, each guest will also receive a personalized matchbook. This serves dual purpose, by including a matchbook, guests will be able to enjoy the candles in their hotel rooms if they want, at the same time, for those guests that plan on keeping a candle as a keepsake, it will have some sort of personalization on it. For everyone else, they will have a simple, neutrally colored favor that can easily blend in to any decor. As an added bonus, any candles that are left behind can be used to decorate our home after the wedding. Although, I have already had several members of my wedding party calling dibs on leftover favors. 

Each candle and matchbook will be wrapped in a cellophane baggy with purple curled ribbon. I made custom favor tags through Vistaprint with our monogram and a little message of thanks that will be attached to the ribbons. To make the favor tags, I made a design in OpenOffice Draw. For my design, I used one of the monograms that I made a few months ago. I looked for a little poem to put on the tag as well, but I could not find one that I liked, so I wrote a simple note of thanks instead, with our names. I uploaded my completed design to Vistaprint as business cards, and they should be arriving sometime before Christmas.

I have had this idea for favors for a couple of months now, and I have gotten a lot of positive feedback. In addition to the candle favors, I am also planning to have a candy dish full of purple Hersey kisses on each table to satisfy anyone's sweet tooth. We are also planning to do bathroom baskets and out-of-town bags, but those will be saved for a later post. 

Did you have a plan for leftover favors at your wedding?

Starting to Think About Favors

My newest project as of late was to determine what sort of favors I wanted to give our guests. Something I did not know prior to planning our wedding day was the level of controversy surrounding the subject of favors. The wedding industry has produced a literal plethora of favor options, simply google the term "wedding favors" and you will receive a nearly endless list of possibilities. For example, it seems that nearly every trinket imaginable can be personalized, such as shot glasses, coasters, and wine stoppers; then there are the cutesy favors with their little poems; and then don't forget the endless array of edible favors, ranging from grandma's cookies to individual packets of tea. There are also the less traditional options of skipping favors all together, or donating money to charity in lieu of favors. There are a variety of arguments for and against charity favors, and it's really not something I want to get into. I also definitely want to give my guests favors, there is just something about a little box with ribbon and a "for you" tag that completes the wedding table setting. Our guests are also travelling a significant distance to join us for our wedding, so I want to do something more than feed them dinner and provide a DJ. I then got to thinking about past weddings that I have been to, and the favors that they used. One friend gave out little trinkets, that I held onto for a little while, before throwing them out because they just collected dust; then another friend handed out personalized CDs of a rather odd mix of music; finally, my cousin, who handed out little scrolls of paper with poems that looked like tampons. Yikes.

My first thought was to hand out edible favors. I was going to make cookies or brownies for each guest to take home. Then the reality of baking 300 or so cookies the week before my wedding kicked in. So I looked into purchasing chocolate lobsters or whoopie pies. The prices for both were prohibitively expensive. I also started looking into the before mentioned pre-made favors. My problem here is that I wanted to hand out a favor that guests would actually want to keep around their homes and use. I nixed the idea of anything personalized, because it increased the cost, and not everyone would want to display something in their homes with our names and date on it. I was looking at cookie cutters and bookmarks in the shape of a starfish, but I was really uneasy about that idea too. What if a large portion of guests opted to leave the favor behind? What would I do with several dozen cookie cutters?

This is definitely something that is going to require more thought and creativity than I had originally planned.

Did you hand out favors at your wedding? How did you decide what to give out?

DIY Card Basket and Preventing Wedding Gift Theft

Of all the things to stress about when it comes to wedding planning, some things are plain silly. For example, I stressed over what to have guests put their cards in at the reception. Many girls have made these gorgeous, elaborate card boxes out of stacked paper mache boxes. They look nice, but I really did not see them fitting in with my classic, nautical reception. On top of that, the budget savvy part of my brain could not justify spending $30 in supplies for a piece of decor that no one will remember. To go along with that, what would I do with a card box after the wedding? Throw it away? Attempt to sell it? Store it in a closet? I talked to Tom about a card box as well, he agrees with me completely. Again, nothing against the ladies that decided to make card boxes, they just aren't for us.

So if I'm not going to have a card box, what do guests put their cards in? A bird cage? That looks cool, but again, doesn't really fit in with our theme, and what would I do with it after the wedding? Then I visited our reception venue, and the event coordinator gave me a good idea: a basket! This got me thinking, I could get a fishing basket! That would fit perfectly within our nautical theme, and, even better, I could definitely use a basket after the wedding. Problem solved!

The next step was finding the perfect basket. I visited a couple antique shops and found gorgeous antique fishing baskets for $50+, not exactly what I was planning to spend on a basket. I visited several craft stores and found some nice baskets, but nothing that was distinctively nautical. Then I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and found the perfect nautical style basket.

All that was left was decorating the basket to match our wedding colors. I started by wrapping some left over ribbon around the basket, then I added a sign that I made on Microsoft Paint that simply says "Cards" followed by our names and the wedding date, and finally I added a left over shell for an added detail. I attached everything with minimal amounts of hot glue so that it could be easily dismantled after the wedding.

Now back to the why I was so stressed about the card situation to begin with. Wedding gift theft is a rising problem at reception venues across the country. I'm not accusing any of my guests of having sticky fingers, but problems happen when receptions are held in locations that are easily accessible by the public. My reception is being held at a hotel, and while we have our own entrance, it is easily accessible from the main lobby. In fact, any hotel guests that want to use the hotel pool will be walking past the door to my reception. I'm not trying to be paranoid, but common sense warns against leaving cards that commonly contain money out in the open for anyone to grab. For this reason, many wedding sites recommend a card box or some other sort of locking container. My coordinator suggested a basket because it would be placed at the guestbook table at the beginning of the reception when guests are arriving. This way, guests can simply drop their card off in the basket. Once all the guests have arrived, my coordinator will personally place the basket in a secure space, preferably in our honeymoon suite. The gift table will be on the opposite side of the ballroom from the door. This is just another security measure, as would-be wedding crashers would have to walk clear across my reception to get anything. I'm hoping that this is all silly and that I'm worrying about nothing, but at the very least, it's one less thing to have to worry  about on our big day!