Planning A Homemade(ish) Wedding

Growing up I would occasionally purchase wedding magazines and cut & paste the dresses I wanted into a little book.

Fast forward to my twenties and I became the opposite.

I didn't plan or have a dream wedding idea.

I didn't know what style of dress, location, colors, wedding party, or even what I wanted my wedding to look like.

I would be lying if I said I didn't dream of a Prince Charming. 

But I never pictured myself in a extravagant to lush wedding - think Kim Kardashian.

In fact, I seemed quite the opposite on the idea of marriage.

I'm not sure what or why the reasoning - I guess because I knew my mind changed often, that my style & idea of a "dream" wedding would too.

Didn't really give it much thought until this year after he proposed.

When Lonny proposed in February I started my hunt for my version of a dream wedding.

Let me tell you...it was harder than I thought.

I had NO idea of what type of wedding I wanted.

As organized as I am, I didn't know what my budget was nor did I know if we could afford a wedding.

I knew I wouldn't use a wedding planner book.

So no trips to the bookstore.

I followed all my friends advice and signed up for The Knot & Weddingbee.

However, I didn't find much help as I had decided our wedding was going to be non-traditional.

Frustrated because I didn't know where to start, both Lonny and I sat down one night and figured out our wedding type & style.

Agreed it would be a sunset ceremony with an evening reception.

I wanted a glowing, sparkly and twinkly romantic feeling.

Wedding location was still up in the air due to budget and what we could afford but I had said I didn't want a golf course nor did I want a destination wedding.

Something in our same city was preferred and easy for our family & friends to find.

And most importantly - The Date!

When would we become husband and wife?

We were crazy and decided it would be as soon as possible.

At one point Lonny said we should elope toVegas in April.

(remember we got engaged on Feb 4th!!!)

That thought didn't last long with us and we decided it would be a wedding wedding.

We set an August date but that didn't pan out because of the venue availability.

Finally after we found the dream location (haha - a golf course, I know!) we settled on a date, Sept 7th.

Which made decoration planning fall into place.

Simple and rustic was my theme.

Yellows, burlap, beige, and lace were my color and design.

What ended up happening was I heavily relied on Pinterest and Etsy for wedding planning. 

Thank goodness for both these sites.

I'm not much of a crafter but the pictures & some DIY websites helped a lot.

To be honest we didn't have a lot of decoration.

The wedding venue pretty much had the look we were going for and set the scenery.

It was a lot of little things that gave the feeling and incorporated our theme.

In a previous post (click here) showed you some decorations via our candy table.

TABLE SETTING

Yellow napkins, silver utensils, white plates and white table clothes.

A simple table with not too much fuss.

I emailed this picture to our wedding venue coordinator and she picked out yellow napkins in the color butter-cream.

I got lucky with our chairs.

I inquired about white Chivari chairs but had to pay an extra $6.50 per chair!

Well, at 140 guests that did not sit well with our pocket book so we nixed the chair idea.

Instead we went with the regular chairs and rented white chair covers from the venue.

The week before the wedding the venue called & asked if we would be interested in Chivari chairs.

Apparently the wedding the following day had rented Chivari chairs & there was a mix up on dates.

So we were able to rent the chairs at the same price we were going to rent the covers!

I took them up on it.

I didn't want to choose the same color as the napkins so I went with a latte shade.

They turned out really cute.

Our final table during sunset.

CENTER PIECE

Alternating tables between candles & manzanita branches/trees.

These pictures from Pinterest were my inspirations.

The lace around the candle holders didn't pan out.

I couldn't find any lace patterns that didn't look grandma-ish or elegant.

So we did a very plain look with some fake flowers scattered on every other table.

Candles purchased at Save on Crafts: Click Here

48 candles for $25 in glass holders that burn for 8 hours?

SOLD!

Sola Flowrs purchased at Save on Crafts: Click Here

These little flowers are made out of tapioca wood and you can string them together to make a garland or throw on the table for decoration.

I choose two different types. 

The Manzanita branch & hanging votive were gifts from my wedding coordinator.

I'm not sure where she purchased any of the items but I do know Save on Crafts sell everything pictured.

One of our amazing wedding coorindator Anna holding the branches.

Our final table looked like this...

THE ARBOR

At first I wasn't going to decorate the arbor.

However after pinning away and seeing this picture I knew I should do something for pictures.

Our ceremony arch was so cold feeling that I'm glad I came across this picture.

Again, my resourceful wedding coordinators helped find the burlap sheet as well as fake flowers.

They arranged the flowers into a bouquet to slip between the sheets.

Burlap & Ribbon cost $75

Flowers cost $48

I'm not sure about the burlap but the flowers were purchased at Michael's Arts & Crafts.

ASSIGNED SEATING

Because we served buffet style we didn't bother assigning our guests to specific spots.

You would only do this to help servers know where to place the guests meals.

Instead we assigned them to tables and they could choose who they wanted to sit next to.

A great idea found on Pinterest was DIY easy seating chart.

I'm gladly to share this link with any one planning an event: Click Here

Once I had the seating chart done I had to figure out how I was going to display the escort table.

A couple cute ideas I pinned...

But ultimately I decided I would incorporate a part of Lonny since this is Charlotte AND Lonny wedding.

And thus Star Wars came into play.

It's not as fancy or rustic like I had wanted but it did the job.

We set out on a photoshoot with a bunch of Star Wars toys, Barbie and mini props.

My favorite one is table 9's.

Sweet Tooth Confection Bakery was nice enough to let me use their store for that scene.

We snapped pretty much all the pictures ourselves but scenes 4, 12 and 14 were purchased cards.

We bought 20 white standing frames for only $.99 cents each from Ikea: Click Here 

The fuzzy numbers and gold stock paper came from a local crafting store.

While the large white board from is from Michael's Arts & Crafts.

JUST THE LITTLE THINGS...

Pinterest gave me the idea of giving out paper fans in our wedding colors.

The picture that gave me the idea for a basket of yellow fans.

I purchased yellow fans via Koyal Wholesale - Click Here

I wanted a little something posted on each table for our guests to know how thankful we are for them.

This was a bit of a search.

I loved the exact saying of the thank you on the right but didn't have means of printing or time.

Most of the vendors I found sold the style but you would have to buy your own paper & print it yourself.

Finally through an Etsy seller I found one that was great to work with & quick to ship.

Etsy Seller: That Pretty Invitation

Our guest "book" ended up being a poster.

I knew I would never look or display a book on our coffee table and wanted to find an alternative.

Etsy Seller: Fancy Prints

The grey brown frame came from Michael's Arts & Crafts

Card & gifts table was very simple.

A friend let me borrow her bird cage she used in her wedding for cards.

She purchased it from Save on Crafts: Click Here

I went to Michael's and purchased some wood letters, jute string and yellow paint to make the sign.

My new sister in law introduced me to Save on Crafts when I started planning.

I literally made 5 different orders from them and have not been disappointed.

They have reasonable prices and quick shipping.

A few random items that added to our wedding decor.

Tall Birch Wood Candle Holders: Click Here

Natural Preserved Soft Caspai Green Bundle: Click Here

Apothecary Jars: Click Here 

Pick Your Nose Cups: (for the kids): Click Here

White basket for our yellow fans: Click Here

Our wedding had a lot of personal touches that we enjoyed creating.

I made sure the items I purchased would be re-used in our home for the future

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this post.