You've heard the saying "It's all in the details"? I think that's very true when it comes to weddings. I believe the details really make the whole day personal to the couple. Although, looking back, I don't think J cared much about the details. As long as he didn't have to wear a purple tux, he was okay.
The Flowers + Decor
Ceremony:
I think flowers are gorgeous, but man, can they be expensive. I wanted pretty flowers for our ceremony and reception, but I also didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on flowers for one day! That's the part that got me the most, these flowers were only for one day!
I used a local florist that did the flowers for my friend's wedding. I gave her a budget( $2,000) and told her the general look I was going for. I wanted something light and springy, not too formal. I gave her swatches of my bridesmaids dress colors. I also tore out pictures from magazines of looks that I liked and mailed them to her. I told her to use whatever was in-season to keep costs down. I was so pleased with the result!
For the wedding party, I originally thought I wanted my bridesmaids to carry ivory/neutral bouquets and mine be the only colored one. In the end, I went with all color because we used the bouquets at the reception for decor. For the guys, the groomsmen wore ivory rose boutonnieres with purple accents while J's was a purple flower. Our mom's wore pin on corsages and our dad's matched the groomsmen. We also had small wrist corsages for our readers.
I wanted very little decor for the ceremony for 2 reasons: 1) my church is beautiful, so it didn't really need to me fixed up, and 2) The ceremony was less than 30 minutes long. Why spend a big chunk of my budget to fix up the church when we spent more time at the reception? Our florist marked the pews for our families with a simple baby's breath arrangement. We had an ivory arrangement at the altar; we donated it to the church to use the next morning in memory of our grandparents. There were a couple of candelabras in the choir loft and a memorial candle in the foyer. That's it!
The Reception:
This is where she blew me away. As I said earlier, I really didn't specify what I wanted. I didn't demand certain flowers or anything like that. I told her some things I liked, but what was important was staying in budget and following the color scheme.
I knew one way to save money was with the centerpieces. We had 23 tables in our reception room! This included 15 tables in the main room and 8 in the "covered patio". To cut costs, only 8 of the main room tables had floral centerpieces. The other 7 + the covered patio tables were candle arrangements. We did not decorate the buffet tables or the cake tables. The guestbook/gift table was one of my DIY projects (more in a minute). She also made a small toss bouquet for me. I don't have very many straight-on shots of the arrangements, but I loved all of them.
Isn't it all pretty? And she provided all supplies + labor for....$2,095. That's a damn good deal if you ask me!
Details + DIY
I followed the old tradition of "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue". My something old was my Mawmaw(paternal grandmother)'s engagement + wedding band and my Nanny's (maternal grandmother) necklace that I attached to my bouquet. Something new was (clearly) my dress + accessories. For something borrowed, I put my DG Big Sister(and Matron of Honor)'s Delta Gamma pin on my bouquet; she wore mine in her wedding. Something blue? Blue Hanky Panky underwear :) I also had a UGA garter, but didn't actually wear it the whole time. I put it on before the garter toss.
I made our programs using Microsoft publisher. I just designed them as a brochure and printed them out. I tried to match our invitations, using a mix of script and roman font. The cover was just a slightly heavier stock, metallic silver paper. I punched holes in the sides and tied them with a ribbon. The outside cover was stamped with a pretty flourish rubber stamp I found at Hobby Lobby in purple ink. My maids of honor and I worked on these for the two days leading up to the wedding(unfortunately, they didn't photograph well!). I think I spent a total of $60; purchasing programs to match my invites would have cost $250!
I also made the tissue paper pomanders for my flower girls. All I needed was a 5" Styrofoam ball, purple tissue paper, florist's wire and silver ribbon...and a lot of time! They took forever, but I loved how they looked.
I knew from day 1 I would make moss covered letters to hang on the church doors. Our initials (L & J) ended up being the "theme" of our wedding. These were super easy to make with cardboard letters, moss sheets and spray glue.
Our wonderful photographer (who's pictures I've used in all my recaps) put together our guestbook using our engagement photos. He posted a fun animation of it on his blog.
We placed the guestbook on a table that I decorated (well, collected items for and left instructions with my reception coordinator to decorate). I bough zinc letters from anthropologie ( L & J) that were placed on the table along with all the bouquets, the guestbook, buckets of bubbles and my bridal portrait.
I had a great time adding personal touches to our wedding. I really admire all the 100% DIY brides out there...my few projects took it all out of me!
A few more posts in the series...our pre-wedding parties & the Honeymoon, plus some of my favorite pictures!
All photos in this post were done by William Massey Photography.
