How about a little wedding design?

K guys, so this isn't exactly interior design but it's decorating and I know there are a lot of people that like wedding inspiration so we're just gonna go with it. (plus, it's my blog. So I'll talk about what I want :) man the power feels good) just kidding. But really. This is our wedding reception.  If I could relive one day over and over, it would be my wedding day. It was so perfect. The only thing I would change is that it went too fast and my dress was too tight. That last one is a pretty big one actually haha

Let's start with some of the pretty people we decorated our room with.

The bridesmaids

The wedding party without parents or grandparents

The groomsmen

My family

My new family

Pretty people, huh?

Now let's talk decorations. All of these were made by me or borrowed from extremely generous people.  My colors were ivory and champagne with gold accents. Call me plain jane. I just didn't want to look back on my wedding in 25 years and hate how dated it was. Plus, we got married December 28th and I wanted wintery but not Christmasy. Last minute I threw in some blush with my florist to add a little depth.

I thrifted all of my frames and vases and painted them. Tutorial here. I made enough vases for 13 tables and some extras for putting around. I think I figured out it cost about $35 dollars total for vases and about $20 for the frames.

I bought large ceramic planters at a boutique that was going out of business. I used these for large arrangements and when it was all said and done I gave them to my sisters as a thank you.  And they were beautiful at the wedding.  I love flowers and pictured them all over the room. Which is what I got. My florist did such a great job.

Here are my center pieces. I had 3 vases that were small medium and large. One vase on each table was dipped in gold glitter.  Once I was done painting my vases, I arranged them how I wanted them on each table and put numbers on the bottom with a sharpie according to table. (a small, medium, and large with number 1, and so on) That way my florist knew exactly where I wanted my vases to ensure I achieved the look I wanted in all of the chaos of setting up.

Of COURSE there was a giant table filled with bowls of candy.

I love the idea of a candy display as a thank you for your guests. That way you don't have to spend hours putting together a thank you. The guests can put their own together with the treats they want.  I decided not to go with a color theme because I just wanted good candies that people would want.

I found these frames at Hobby Lobby on clearance for like $2 each. I printed out some labels for the not so obvious candies and we set them next to them. I like to label things.

You want to know a secret? A 17 year old made my wedding cake. You heard me right. My cousin who was a senior in high school at the time works at a bakery.  She is an amazing little cake decorator and I knew I wanted it simple so it was do-able.  My mom baked the cakes so they tasted amazing. We had carrot on the bottom (because it's heavy), chocolate in the middle and coconut on the top (that I'm honestly excited to eat on our one year)

This was our sign in table. I originally wanted a photobooth but guess what. Didn't happen. You know the saying "there's not enough time in a day?" well I would personally like to coin the phrase "there's not enough time in an engagement" But really, long engagements are miserable. I just wish there was a way to have my cake and eat it too.

I didn't stick strictly to vases. I used anything pretty that was glass. To make this mug not so mug-ish I added gold glitter on the handle.

I printed this sign and framed it. It quickly was covered with presents so not much came of it. It was a nice thought though. In hindsight I would have had it set on the sign in table.

I have no clue what that drink is but it's pretty, isn't it?

We had a hot chocolate and hot cider bar.  This is another sign I made for that table.  For fonts, I use dafont.com.  They have THOUSANDS of pretty and unique fonts you can download for free! I used it a ton for the wedding.

Now for the most important part: FOOD. Let's be honest. When you're going to a wedding, what do you look forward to?  Let's just say we went a little crazy here. I'm not big on typical reception center food so we paid our venue a little extra so we could bring in our own food and it was so worth it. Okay, enough talk.

My main request was donuts. I just love them. I didn't get any but if I went to a wedding that had donuts, I wouldn't leave.

This is chocolate mousse.  It's light yet rich and really delicious.

My sister and mother-in-law are food geniuses and I just let them run wild with this part.  And wild they got.

This is called russian creme.  It is like a mix of vanilla bean creme brûlée and cheesecake. But in a pudding texture. Sounds weird. just trust me.

Veggie sticks. My sister in law spent hours chopping celery, peppers, and carrots the day before and bless her heart. I think she got some blisters out of it. We filled the cups with a little home-made ranch and viola! veggies and dip.

We had artisan breads...

and meats and cheeses

Not pictured: shrimp in cocktail sauce (same concept as the veggies and dip), my mother-in-law hired an Argentine neighbor to make authentic meat empanadas, we had assorted sushi and spring rolls, smoked salmon cucumber cups, spring salad, a fruit display, and caprese skewers. Did I not warn you we went all out? Some people came with the expectation of saying hi and going out to dinner and ended up staying for the food. Now that's my kind of wedding.

I mentioned my dress was too tight... well by the end of the night my stomach hurt so bad I couldn't eat anything. Talk about disappointing.

I am so grateful we had all of the help we did. Neighbors and friends came early and stayed late and kept the food stalked and looking pretty the entire time. A neighbor put up all of my decorations for me and did such an amazing job the venue offered her a job.

A view from the balcony.

Before we cut the cake

Groomsmen lighting sparklers

Leaving

He's not excited or anything... ;)

As a wedding gift our neighbor loaned us his limo for the entire day.

We were so blessed with our day.  It was so amazing and I wish so bad I could go back and relive it- at least walk around and enjoy all of the hard work!

Photography by: Chantel Marie Photography