The Reception Hall
Our reception will be held down the street from the chapel on in a community building of a local park - I was hesitant about having it indoors at first, but soon warmed up to it when I realized that hey - we’re on a park. We can walk outside (weather permitting) whenever we want - and don’t have to deal with the stress of inclement weather forcing us to move everything inside. These photo’s are from when we signed the contract with the manager there (that‘s FI and the manager in the center pic). It’s not the classiest place (and it‘s bare-boned)…but it could be a whole lot worse, especially for having to change venues 5 months out (it's a VERY long story...).
Guest Tables
We are creating two different types of centerpieces - half of the tables will have one, the other half the other. One version of the centerpieces will consist of either an amber goblet with a floating candle inside along with a dozen different votive and tealight candles (also in amber, ordered from Candles4less for a VERY good price), and the other will have amber hurricane vases with the same tealight and votive candles, also with a floating candle.
The goblets/vases were bought at JoAnn Designs on clearance - regular 35/25 dollars each, we got them for 10/7 dollars each (they were on sale and we had a 50 percent off entire purchase coupon).
We bought 13 14inch round beveled mirrors from Micheals (thank God for their 40% coupons) for a total of about 60.00
The bags upon bags of metallic gold flat marbles came to about a total of about 7 dollars (it was a buy 2 for 1 dollar deal)
And for all of the votive/votive holders, we spent 93.00.
Not too bad, even more so since I'm hoping to sell these after the wedding (if you are interested, just page me on the October 09 Board)
The goblets/vases were bought at JoAnn Designs on clearance - regular 35/25 dollars each, we got them for 10/7 dollars each (they were on sale and we had a 50 percent off entire purchase coupon).
We bought 13 14inch round beveled mirrors from Micheals (thank God for their 40% coupons) for a total of about 60.00
The bags upon bags of metallic gold flat marbles came to about a total of about 7 dollars (it was a buy 2 for 1 dollar deal)
And for all of the votive/votive holders, we spent 93.00.
Not too bad, even more so since I'm hoping to sell these after the wedding (if you are interested, just page me on the October 09 Board)
These are the centerpieces on the chiffon table clothes and satin table runners we bought. I can't decide if I want to do a monochromatic look for each table, or contrasting. I'm kinda leaning towards contrasting...
Sweetheart Table
Here is the centerpiece for our sweetheart table. We bought some metallic copper marbles from Micheals for .99 when they were having a sale, and are laying them around the center and in the cone for weight. The stand came from JoAnn Designs, and we are going to spraypaint it either copper or black (its a weird gray shade now). This picture was taken with the Silk Bouquet, which I am no longer using - however, the idea remains the same, and my wedding bouquet will go inside the cone for display. Talk about multi use ;-)
Scattered across the room on windowsills and in the bathrooms will be glass jars full of acorns, leaves and maybe some portpurri, along with some more cinnamon sticks (we bought a lot of those on clearance…we’ve got to use ‘em somewhere!)
We bought most of our linens from tablecloths factory, but ended up renting 3 tableclothes from the rental company (Our table, the cake table, and the music table) since they were custom ordered. Our sweetheart table will have an chocolate silk tablecloth with champagne swirl work with these cool raised flowers. The music table will have an champagne pintuck taffeta over it, and the cake table, a chocolate pintuck taffeta.
All of the dinner tables will have a ivory linen as the base, but half of the tables will have a champagne chiffon overlay, and the other half will have a chocolate chiffon overlay. They will all have alternating satin runners along the center…I’m not sure which color will go with each table yet, so I included all 4 scenarios. The guest book table, gift table, cake table, and punch tables will all have copper damask table clothes. We bought them because they were actually cheaper then renting, and we can always try to sell them afterwards. All the chairs, which are white, will have copper satin sashes. Not my idea, but my mother hated the chairs and wanted to switch them to chavari chairs, so this was a compromise- i still figure both are wastes of money.
We bought 57 feet of this gold leaf garland, which we will hang from the ceiling around the dance floor. We also bought 100 gold leaf christmas ornaments, with silver accents, which we will hang from the ceiling at varying heights. They don't look like Christmas ornaments though...they are just really pretty Victorian style pendants, IMO.
It sounds a little odd at first, perhaps even a little tacky, but the atmosphere it provides is worth it. And when put together with the mixture of romantic (the candles) and festive (the ornaments, the garlands) decor, it looks like perfect. Eclectic without being tacky. And sparkly!
Blast From The Past
At one of the tables, we’ll have frames full of different wedding portraits of family and friends that have been taken over the decades - it’ll add a bit of whimsy to the event, and people might enjoy looking at the trends throughout the years. We are also having a table full of photo’s of us throughout the years, including a few scrapbooks that I have made, for people to look through and inevitably laugh at.