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!