Wedding Day!

Flowers

 Dorothy and her Mom ordered the flowers from  a local farmers market to be picked up the day of the wedding.  They were absolutely gorgeous, but a little big.  The boutonnieres were bigger than my hand so I took out most of the greenery focusing on the single thistle and a few leaves and tied the stems up in sapphire ribbon.

The bride and bridesmaids bouquets were a little on the large side as well so me and a few of the bridesmaids took them all apart and redid them in smaller groupings.  It was fun the get in there and arrange the flowers ourselves plus we had a bunch of left over flowers for table arrangements!

We finished the bouquets by tying pretty ribbon around the stems.

(these are before photos of both the boutonnieres and the bouquets - I wish I had gotten better after photos - because we really had to fix these a bit - but you can see the final results in some of the wedding day photos below) 

Set Up

big box - o - pom poms!

 Hanging hundreds of tissue paper pom poms by fishing string... great idea in theory... not such an easy task.  Thank goodness for helpers!

We used outdoor "cafe" lights inside to add to the "sparkly" ambience. 

So pretty.

Tom has monkey arms.

Starting to look almost ready...

Tables were lined with tiny ferns, floating candles, and wood scraps (aka "Folly Wood") acquired from the re-roofing project of Tom and Dorothy's newly purchased, but very old house.

The ugly unremovable paintings in the venue were covered in left over tissue paper and snapshots enlarged at Costco of Tom and Dorothy (including a staged photo of the hasmat suited proposal) adorned the walls.

The moss covered T and D foam letters found a spot over the dessert table.

Hundreds of ferns were brought in by Dorothy and her Mom as wedding favors.  We hand wrapped each fern in burlap and attached a tiny tag with the date.

The paper pinwheels up on the wall in the background look awesome!

All Done!  And we're ready for the party!

Pre-Wedding Photos

Tom and the girls of our family.

Mom and I with BJ looking dapper in the background.

The bride and her bridesmaids.  I love the shoes! (Tom's shoes - our bridesmaid gifts)

Reception

 from left to right:  Dan Smith (groomsman), Steve (brother/groomsman), Me (bridesmaid), BJ Smith (best man)

Not a very good picture, but the cake and dessert stands were made from tree limbs and flat wooden plaques bought from a craft store.

 Tom and BJ with BJ's mom, Donna.  Such handsome men!

Tom and Steve, my little brothers.  So cute!

and the party begins...

 best - wedding - ever...

Wedding Stuff

The Garter

I made this myself - super easy, just bought white chiffon trim and beaded scallop trim and sewed them together.  I then made a blue satin elastic strap (from left over fabric from her Mom's corsage), and added a silver airplane charm (for Tom) and the letter "M" (for Dorothy's new last name). 

The Suits

 Tom's suit shirt on the right, the groomsmen on the left.  This was before we opted for bow ties and suspenders - Tom in white and the groomsmen in black.

The Dresses

Sapphire bridesmaid dresses all in a row (mine is on the right).  I love how Dorothy let us pick out our own dresses!

Mother's Corsages

I made the flower pins for my Mom and Dorothy's Mom and Grandmother.  I layered light aqua satin and sheer fabrics cut in scalloped flower shapes, and added a rhinestone button to the centers.  These were so pretty and something the Mom's could keep after the wedding.

Decorations

Pom-Poms

cut cut cut, fold fold fold...

The pom pom making process - what a mess...  I found a pom pom making tutorial online and went from there - I think I had about 4 different sizes.

 Steve and Abbey happily helping "fluff" the tissue pom poms - there were probably about one hundred...

Paper Pin-Wheel Backdrop

First, I made pinwheels from various scrapbook papers in the wedding colors. (The scoring/folding tool I used to make the invitations saved a lot of time and tired fingers on this project!  I just placed a score line at one inch intervals and then folded the papers like a fan) I hot glued them individually to 2 large canvases and they were hung behind the front main table where bride, groom, and wedding party sat creating a unique and easy, yet beautiful backdrop.

Each circle was made from 2 or 3 folded fans (the bigger, fuller circles, like the one at bottom left were made with 3 sheets of paper - accordion folded and then folded in half)  I used staples to connect the pieces.  Create variety by cutting shapes into paper or creating a scalloped edge by cutting a curve through all thicknesses of the fan edges and then open up.  I layered a few of the pinwheels on top of each other and cut circles out of coordinating papers with a craft punch.  Remember to keep sizes varied; texture and depth is important as well.

Cake Topper

I made the cake toppers from a little kit I bought on Etsy from Goosegrease - so cute!  I hand painted each piece to look exactly like the bride and groom on wedding day.  Tom and Dorothy had a small cake and these looked super cute!  (ignore the lip venom in the background - kind of an unintentional, yet funny, way to show scale...)

Final result on the cake.  I like how simple, yet absolutely personal these are.

 Moss Covered Initials

I started with foam core cut to make the "T" and "D" and glued the pieces together where needed.  The ampersand is more delicate so I just cut it out of cardboard.

I went outside to work with the moss - it was VERY messy.  I bought some "sheets" of craft moss online.  I had never worked with moss before so it was a little bit of trial and error.  I tore off chunks of moss from the sheet and cut up one inch sections of craft wire to create "U" shaped tacks.  I then tacked the moss down by pressing into the foam core.  When it was all tacked down I then wrapped the entire letter with clear fishing line - I wrapped it quite excessively, but it didn't show and stayed together well this way.  The ampersand was a little harder because I didn't make it out of foam so I stapled as much moss as I could straight to the cardboard, and then wrapped it with fishing line as well.  I then attached hemp rope tacked to the back to hang the letters.  The back side was left moss free, as it was going to be hanging against a wall.

 The final result looked great and it really wasn't too time consuming.