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!

He asked! I said yes!

Monday, July 9th was a very memorable day. It started off as just another Monday. Jason had to leave out headed to Indiana so I was going to carry him to the truck yard. I love getting to drop him off at work, although I hate to see him go. We decided to meet his mom and sister for lunch before he had to leave. I called my mom to see if she wanted to eat also. We made plans to meet at Chiles at noon. On the drive to Pine Bluff he was so cheerful and funny. We were singing and dancing to the 90s on 9 XM radio station. (some one remind me when the suspension goes out on the Pretty Prius that we shouldn't dance in the car). He didn't seem nervous or anything.

When we arrived his mom, sister, and niece were already seated on one side of the table. I took the seat nearest the wall, trying to be courteous to my mom and Jason. Jason likes to sit on the outside, so Mom took the middle seat. We ordered and got our drinks. Jason stood up and asked my mom to switch seats so I could sit by him. I thought it was kind of weird, but switched with her.
Then when he kept standing and looked nervous, I knew something was up. He pulled a ring box from his pocket, knelt on one knee, and melted my heart with the sweetest proposal. Of course I said YES! Then Taylor, who is 4, came around the table with a dozen long stem pink roses and asked if I would  be her aunt. I nearly started crying. Even if I could have said no to Jason, there was no way to say no to Taylor! :)

I was so happy that our moms and his sister got to see him propose! My mom was crying! And his mom and sister took pictures. A waiter came by and gave me a high five and people were awwing and smiling at us. A few clapped. It was fun :)

And then I dropped him off to go on a 3 day run to Indiana. The people in his office were laughing that we got engaged and then he left. But it didn't seem strange to me. He works hard for our little family of doggie kids and for our future big family. I feel so blessed to be marrying the sweetest, most thoughtful, doting, loving man in the world.



I was shocked!

The beautiful ring!



The beautiful roses that Taylor picked out



I gave Momma Debbie (Jason's mom), Ashley (Jason's sister), my Momma, and Taylor (Jason's niece) each a flower from my bouqet. Taylor loved playing with hers and used the long stem to pretend it was a magic wand. She is so cute!