As a regular reader of wedding blogs and recap posts around the web, details posts are usually my favorites. It’s only fitting that we put the most time and effort of our wedding planning into our reception details. Decor is generally pretty pricey, but being on a strict budget, Erick and I set out to bring our vision to life for a fraction of the cost by doing almost everything ourselves. It was a LOT of work–but totally worth it. I would say it was all Erick, and Erick would say it was all me, but the truth is, this really was a team effort, and I’m actually pretty proud that we pulled off as much as we did. It gave me a lot of confidence in our ability to work as a team together, and we definitely can see both of us in all these projects.
First off, the show stopper–our wedding cake. When Erick first came up with the idea of making our wedding cake, pretty much everyone told him he was biting off more than he could chew with this project–wouldn’t he be too busy the week of our wedding to bake and decorate anything worthy of displaying at the reception? Um… has anyone met Erick? Don’t ever tell this guy he “can’t” do something. :) That will just give him all the more motivation to go out and show what he really can do. I showed him a picture of the fondant ruffles I had in mind, and this is what he ended up with.
I mean, it’s pretty awesome, right? :) Erick baked a beautiful red velvet cake and hand-rolled the fondant for all the decorations. I absolutely love how it turned out. Cannot write this post without writing a HUGE thank you to his sister and brother-in-law, Emilynda and Michael, who saved this cake from a near disaster. Apparently having a huge group in the kitchen where this was being stored raised the room temperature too high, causing the top layer of fondant to melt slightly and start to slide off while Erick was out enjoying his bachelor’s party. Em and Michael whipped a new top layer of fondant up, and it was just as pretty as ever the next morning.
Here’s a peek at one of the many chalkboard signs we made for the reception. We scoured thrift stores for inexpensive frames, painted them white, and then painted the glass with chalkboard paint to transfer designs I made to match our decor.
The floral arrangement on top of our cake was by Rebecca Fitzgerald of Forget Me Not Florist–just love how it turned out as well!
Speaking of beautiful flowers, Rebecca also put together our floral centerpieces in the planter boxes we provided. I was so happy to see these arrangements when I walked into the barn–they were exactly what I had envisioned, complete with olive branches and seeded eucalyptus (we were going for a rustic Italian theme with our decor).
The planter boxes were one of my favorite elements of our decor. They were made out of reclaimed pallet wood that my dad got for us (for free), and all 20+ we did were made by Erick in just one afternoon down at the Harrises during our Christmas vacation. At first we whitewashed them to give them a distressed look, but after adding the text embellishments, we completely changed our minds (and the design element, haha!). My mom was amazing and repainted all the boxes a solid white, and these were sooo much better. We transferred the new design element showing our names and our wedding date on each side of the boxes, which is harder to do than it sounds!
Our next major project was the mercury glass long-stemmed votives–we had two clusters of three on each table (that’s a lot of votives!). We painted and distressed each piece by hand to allow the light to shine through.
Much of the credit for our favors goes to my wonderful mom. I bought all the bottles wholesale and had them shipped to our house in New Hampshire to save us from having to haul more things (yes, we transported all the votives in Erick’s car, somehow, without breaking anything!). When I arrived the week before the wedding, she already had poured all the olive oil and attached the labels I had already made (months earlier). Wonder woman! We spent an afternoon that week attaching raffia bows and name tags to each one. Under each olive oil bottle was a “coaster” with a recipe that used olive oil and a note about why we chose olive oil as our favor. It was important to use to give our guests something that was useful, that tied in with our theme, and that would also represent the spiritual element we wanted to bring to each part of our day.
In the Bible, the olive branch is a symbol of peace and new beginnings, like the dove bringing back an olive branch to Noah after the Flood, showing that new life had begun. Similarly, olive oil represents the Holy Spirit’s light and guidance. We choose this as our gift to you as a symbol of our commitment to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives to speak to us, comfort us, and lead us on this new journey together. We will carry the Holy Spirit with us as a light burning in the lampstands of our sanctuary at home, as we wait for the coming of the true Bridegroom.
The rest of the table decor included burlap runners made by my mom to give it that rustic element, dove gray napkins, and paper products designed by me (our menu, with reception events outlined on the reverse side), and table numbers.
Even the table number holders were a DIY project. Erick used galvanized wire to created a stand for each of the two table numbers per table (these things would have cost several dollars each normally, and they definitely aren’t as cute as our infinity symbol ^_^).
Our sweetheart table was decorated similarly to the main tables so I don’t have any detail shots from that, except for our chair signs!
Oh, and here’s one more little detail that was really just a little secret between me and Erick. :) After watching the movie Life is Beautiful together while we were dating, Erick got into the habit of saying “Buongiorno, principessa!” (Good morning, princess!) like the main character says to his wife. And since our “theme” was subtly Italian, I couldn’t help but making the typical Bride & Groom signs our own by making them say princi and principessa. After all, when else can a girl feel like a princess more than on her wedding day?
It was a pretty amazing feeling to walk into the reception area (Erick and I were the first to arrive after the ceremony) and see how all our work had finally come together. Jenelle Denehy, the coordinator at Quonquont Farm, was absolutely WONDERFUL at setting everything up for us. I e-mailed her so many drawings and diagrams to try to convey my vision (that’s what I get for planning long distance) and I could not have asked for any better execution! It was all we had hoped for and more. So–a very special thanks to her, to my mom and dad for all their help, and also to Jeff & Kim for stringing those awesome light garlands that pulled everything together!
Coming up next: Portraits at the farm!
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