The Reception Decorations

I can't take much credit for the reception decorations. I made most the the elements, but my awesome friends put it all together that morning. It turned out fantastic!!! I am so thankful for them!

The tables were covered with white table clothes. The centerpieces are more sunflower, mason jar, and burlap. The clear plates were set on top of sunflower yellow doilies.

The head table with these cute signs and yellow linen table clothes draped diagonally.

The guest book table: We put one of our engagement photos in a frame made of weathered barn wood. The Guest Book sign is wooden and made by a friend. The basket contains the bird seed packets that I made.

I stamped plain brown mini bags with sunflower and love bird stamps. I purchased the stamps and bags at Michael's. I used a tiny piece of tape to seal the back of the bag.

The gift table had a cute white basket for cards and had another engagement photo displayed. It also had a larger flower arrangement. This was placed one one side of the front door, opposite the guest book, so that our guest could unload the gifts without having to carry them across the room while greeting family and friends.

The cake table had the same yellow linen that was on the head dining table. We also served after dinner mints and chocolate mints along with the cakes. We displayed another engagement photo here. The toasting glasses were tied with jute and we toasted with sparkling apple cider.

The beautiful cake was so perfect for our wedding. I loved the detail on the cake and then the sunflower and burlap around the center section.  

 

The groom's cake. We are both huge Walking Dead fans so we both liked this. Jason's comment to everyone was, "We are married until one of us turns to dust. Luckily I married a clean freak!" :)

Our menu featured beans and cornbread, mini corn dogs, cheese balls and crackers, veggie platters with dip, and little cocktail wieners. Jason made the beans and they were the best I have ever had. He got many compliments on them.



We made favor bags with tulle and candy corn. I thought that was cute for a fall wedding. These were put into small metal buckets and placed on each table.


 

I am so happy with how beautifully the reception hall turned out. It was a great time to visit with our family and friends and celebrate our marriage. 

Wedding Decorations

We got our wedding pictures back and they are fantastic! I wanted to do a post about some of the decorations that I made. Maybe this will spark ideas for other brides to be who are working on a very limited budget and want to DIY the decorations.
Our theme was sunflowers and burlap. We wanted to do a rustic, simple, country wedding but didn't want it to go to far into the rednecky country way.
Here is how it turned out:

This was the setting for the ceremony, to give you some perspective. It is a little wooden chapel on land owned by Mr. Bob Abbot in Rison, Arkansas. He was kind enough to let us use it for our wedding. The chapel is surrounded by trees and has a lake behind it.

I made the wreath above the door by hot gluing sunflowers onto a vine wreath and hanging the letter with jute. The B is my new last name initial :) Looking back I should have wired them on so I could change them out easier for other flowers for different seasons. The idea was to use things that could then be reused in our home decor.

We used sunflowers arranged in mason jars and hung them on shepherds hooks along the brick walkway and on the picket fence. A friend of mine made some of these for her daughter's wedding and was kind enough to share with me.

 

 The groom wanted to showcase his "ostrich of love" in the courtyard of the chapel. So I added a cheap veil and bow tie to them. It added a touch of whimsy :)

 

 

For the inside of the chapel I kept it very very simple and minimalist. The rustic chapel was such a naturally beautiful place to me. And the view of the lake through the picture window at the front was amazing! Since the chapel has no electricity, the window and the double doors being opened provided natural sunlight on the chilly October morning.

This is a stunning view.

The wooden pews were fabulous so I just alterenated a candle arrangement and a flower arrangement on the floor at the end of each pew along the center.

The candle arrangement is a quart mason jar, wrapped with a piece of burlap and a sunflower. The candle stick holder is an antique design and fits onto the mason jar. The sunflower arrangement is just a pint mason jar with burlap gathered around it and tied with twine.

 

 

I made this sunflower ball by low temp hot gluing sunflowers to an 18 inch Styrofoam ball.This was probably the single most expensive thing I made due to the cost of the Styrofoam and the flowers.  I glued a small loop of twine to the top and we hung it with more twine around the rafter right above where we stood to say our vows. It added a beautiful pop of color. It was almost like standing under mistletoe when we kissed :)

 

We used a simple white isle runner and the flower girl tossed yellow flowers. I bought cheap yellow flowers and took them apart to make her petals because I could not find yellow petals anywhere! Turns out this way was much cheaper and they fell really well.

 

Our unity candle was another thing that I made because I could not find what I wanted. I bought an inexpensive candle set and decorated them to the theme of the wedding. I wrapped each taper candle with a strip of burlap and then wrapped the unity candle in burlap. I glued a wooden heart to the burlap. Voila! I also made the stand the unity candle is sitting on by taking the same type of taper candle holder and using E6000 glue to attach a glass pillar candle plate. I think it turned out cute!

 

 

The bouquets were sunflowers with greenery and tied with burlap bows. The beautiful young lady next to me in my baby sister and Matron of Honor. You will see more of her in another post about our wedding later on...

 

 

I hope our ceremony decorations helped to spark some creative ideas for you. I will be doing a separate post on the reception decorations soon!

My Aunt Kathy is still missing. Please help.

This is my Aunt Kathy. She is my mother's sister.  She hasn't been seen or heard from since February. She went missing from the home she shared with her boyfriend in Houston. She is orginally from Clovis, New Mexico. Houston Police Department Homicide Division is actively investigating her disappearance but haven't yet made any arrest. Please help us spread the word by sharing this poster or a link to this webpage. My grandparents, Buddy and Joyce Wasson, live in New Mexico. My grandpa is in ill health and I know this stress is making his condition worse. Mamaw Joyce is very worried and upset about her daughter. Kathy's 7 brothers and sisters, her children, and many many friends are praying for her return. Please Please take a look carefully at her picture and see if anything looks familar to you. Perhaps someone saw something and didn't realize the significance at the time. 
There is a YouTube video with more pictures of Aunt Kathy. Please view and share it as well. Kathy Lawson Arrendondo Video

Thank for you taking the time to read this. All prayers are welcome on behalf of Kathy and the family.

Best baseboard cleaner, ever!

I tackled my kitchen baseboards today. I have been needing to do it for a while but putting it off. I found a floor grease cutter cleaner recipe on Pinterest several weeks ago and was pretty excited to try it out today. I decided to mix up a batch and clean the baseboards before I started on the kitchen floor.
All I can say is WOW!!!!  This stuff works great! Best baseboard cleaning session I have ever had the pleasure of enduring :)
I also used it to mop my kitchen floor and have mixed results. I made a fresh batch for the floors and think that I might have gone a little heavy on the dish soap because I had mega suds and needed to rinse the floor afterward. But it still did a pretty darn good job on cleaning my old vinyl kitchen floor!

Here is the recipe:

• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon liquid dish soap
• 1/4 cup washing soda
• 2 gallons tap water, very warm

Place all the ingredients into a bucket and mix well until sudsy.

Not recommended for waxed floors--it may make the wax gunky

Give it a try and comment below how it worked for you!

Busy, busy October

I can't believe that it has been a month since I updated! It has been super busy around here.

On October 27, 2012 I married my best friend. This is an event that deserves its own post, so I am only mentioning it here. I will post details and pictures once we get the photos back from the photographer.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. I didn't get to decorate the yard and porch as much as I usually do due to the wedding preperations, but I was able to get a few things set out.  Jason was able to be home that night, but wasn't feeling that well. He observed from the couch. I love handing out candy to all the trick or treaters! We usually get a lot of kids in our neighborhood.  I wish I had a picture of Jason's face when I came in from the store and started preparing the buckets of candy. He thought I was nuts to have that much candy ready. But when the night was over we only had part of one bucket left.

 

 

I am getting really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will be going to the Bradley's for Thanksgiving and then we are hosting Christmas Day at our house. My sister and brother in law should be in town for Christmas and I am so happy! Now to get the deocrations out of the attic and the lights onto the house.....    :)