Wedding Wish Tree

We're doing something like this: Wish Tree

I found a gold tree sculptural piece at Target the other week that would work wonderfully. When I brought it home, I realized that the giant leaf paper punch that I had been using for other decorations would work perfectly to make leaves to hang from the tree for people to write their well-wishes on. : )

Lanterns!

Lanterns!

My best friend from High School, Carrie, came to visit me today from NY! How sweet of her! She will be my Maid of Honor at the Wedding. We did her Bridesmaid dress fitting, but mostly just chatted about life. It was such an amazing time. It's good to have friends, especially those that you share so much in common. I showed her Rock Ford, where the Reception will take place, and she had this BRILLIANT idea to hang Lanterns from some of the trees that line the walkway. I love Lanterns, Candles, and Fire in general. Can you have too much of it at an evening party? I think not.

So, here are a few of the inspiration pictures that I have saved over the years. Many of them are from books like Martha Stewart's 'Weddings' book.

We both liked the look of eclectic lanterns but also ball jars...

And, here are a few links that I just found on how to use Ball Jars (Carrie's awesome idea!) as Lanterns.
How-To Make a Ball Jar Lantern to Hang
A Little More Complex

I like the way they made the wire hooks for these...it seems pretty simple...maybe more secure than the rubber band way?

Non-Lanterns

So Sweet!

Lanterns

Lanterns

Aren't they DIVINE!!!

Non-Lanterns

These are not Lanterns, but aren't they AMAZING???

Lanterns

The Lantern looking very stunning.

Lanterns

So Romantic!

Lanterns

I LOVE this table and the sweet Lanterns! It's so perfect!

Just Because...

Isn't this cute? And Oh So Romantic!

Urns to Decorate...?

I have two giant urns like this with candles that I must use somewhere at the wedding. I'll just have to figure out a good place. :)

Tent Curtains

Here's an idea for the tent curtains between the 'cathedral' windows. The fabric would be knotted at the top and attached to a hook that could easily hook onto the rope at the top of the tent. It would fall to the floor and pool at the bottom...something like how these curtains pool. But in a soft gold-taupe fabric. I also have white fabric that could be used.

?

Cake Sketch

Here's a quick sketch of the Wedding Cake Design.

The squigglies are roses around the base and on each tier.

The tiers also have antique rhinestone brooches and ribbon around the bases.

The top has a heart cake topper with rhinestones. Found on the Clearance table at The Bon Ton. ; )

Tent Decorations

These decorations are for the corners inside the tent.

It's hard to see, but the silk flowers that I made are used in there to add color. They're made of the burgandy silk.

Cocktail Hour Decorations

These are for the tables during the Cocktail Hour inside the Barn.

Table Numbers

Table "Numbers"

These are the table markers that I made for the reception. Each table will have a different pearl letter. I was fortunate to find these adorable letters at Michael's in their $1 bin. I attached scraps of the burgandy satin to some gold poster paper that I had lying about and hand stitched the letters to the paper. Well, a few more steps than that, but it was pretty simple.

Mom's Wedding

My mother and father's wedding. They had a lovely Spring wedding. My mother made her dress - she's an excellent seamstress. The veil was her something borrowed - borrowed from her sister.



















My parents and my grandmother, Florence. She's my father's mother and was a strong woman of Faith that I looked up to when I was young.

Gift Card Box

I'm thinking maybe something like this but in the wedding colors. I was going for something a little different but now that Dad is helping on that project, I'm not entirely certain that it will get done in time!

We were planning to fix up an antique cracker box that my parents inherited with our old house from previous owners. It was painted a spring green and I had planned to repaint it the same color or gold. But it is currently on the work bench. :)

Wedding Stole

I finally found a fur stole that I like. Downtown at Mommalicious. It has a lovely burgandy satin lining, too! I just have to determine if I'll wear a brooch like this one has to add a little 'sparkle'.

Flower Arrangement

Faux Flower Arrangement for Reception

Here's an image of a flower arrangement that my mother and I made recently for the wedding reception. We plan to have mainly real flowers at the wedding and reception, but we did do paper flower wreaths for the church doors and this one faux flower decoration to display on one of the food tables or in the corner of the tent at the reception. We also made some really fun decorations for the corners of the tent using silk flowers, fake and real dried fruits, and some lovely silk flowers that I made with silk in the colors of the wedding. Eventually I will get pictures of those! We still have a few things that we wanted to finish up on them. :)

This flower arrangement uses beautiful velvet sunflowers that I found at Michael's - in the Burgandy wedding colors. And I really love the feathers that we added. It will go with the different textures that I love so much about fall. The ivory peacock feathers I found downstairs in our costuming area! What a great addition! I may purchase a few more of the sunflowers to add to it for a little more color.

Invitations

Whew! I just finished the majority of the wedding invitations, and boy do I feel good! I'll be sure to take pictures to post. : ) I think they turned out really well, and I'm just oh so happy to have them finally finished!

Wedding Vest Research

Original 1860s White Silk Vest

Vince's Wedding Attire

Researching The Vest

Vince decided long ago to have a Victorian tailcoat made by our friend Kara Bartels of Corner Clothiers to wear on his wedding day. Kara has been doing an excellent job of creating the tailcoat for him and we've really enjoyed travelling to Gettysburg together for the fittings. : )

However, Vince is going to need the perfect vest to wear under his new tailcoat for the wedding day. And I'm in charge of that!

No decisions have been made about it yet, I'm still in the researching stage. But, here area few of my research pics for cut and style of the vest. The fabric is already picked out but I'm not revealing what it looks like. : )

Bridesmaid Dresses

Bridesmaid Dresses are finally almost underway! My mother has kindly agreed to sew the Bridesmaid dresses for the girls if I see to it that they fit properly. Since two of the girls don't live locally, we'll be doing all of the fittings through mailed muslin mock-ups. The style of gown that I had originally planned on was very similar to this gown but without the gathering at the front. I decided to change to this pattern though because Vogue patterns offer more structure in their evening gowns than Simplicity patterns. I also like the style of this gown.

The dress will be strapless and will not have the sleeves or lace detail. It will be made of burgandy satin fabric that I purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. The fabric was just perfect and exactly what I was looking for, so we purchased it early on in wedding planning and have gone off of that for the other colors of the wedding.

I'm so excited to see these dresses on the girls when they're finished! I'm so thankful that my friends are able to join me on my wedding day. What a special thing to be surrounded by supportive friends. I'm sure they'll all look so lovely!

We plan to make matching (rectangular) wraps for the dresses and I will also loan them some of my brown fur stoles - I happen to have three that are very similar in color and style - to wear if the weather is chillier at night. I'm sort of hoping that we'll get to wear furs. They look so lovely and glamorous and the texture will be a welcome addition to the scenery.