For today's weekly wedding post, I'd like to take a step back from the actual event and show you all the handmade design details.
My mom painted the directional signs on scraps of wood, similar to the ones leading our guests down the driveway. I didn't notice until halfway through the wedding that the fireworks sign was upside down! Apparently, the arrow was painted in the wrong direction, so my dad nailed it wonky on purpose. I think it adds a bit of quirky charm.
We chose simple off-white linens over long tables with natural-colored wood chairs. It was a puzzle figuring out the table layout on the imperfect lawn. I wanted a U-shaped around the dance floor so everyone could face each other, but our space wasn't wide enough. Thanks to my dad's mathematical magic, he made it all work to my liking. The layout made it feel less like a wedding and more like an intimate dinner party... of 100!
Here's where the vintage mismatched plates and antique green bottles come into play. My original plan was to have only ferns, herbs and greenery on the tables. But the flower farm dahlias were so inexpensive, I'm so glad we used them instead. I love the bright pops of color. There were a ton of leftover baby artichokes after making the bouquets (they were shipped to us in a huge batch from Pezzini Farms in California). So we peppered them around the bottles as table decor.
We numbered the tables with nostalgic vintage Viewmaster reels placed halfway inside Viewmaster viewers, spray painted gold. I collected them all year long! When our guests arrived, they were given a green ticket to match the Viewmaster table numbers and find their spot.
Remember the little plastic dinosaurs? Hal cut a slit in their backs to hold the Viewmaster reel place cards with our guests' names printed and glued to the center. If there was a reel from my collection that reminded me of someone, I used it to mark their seat. For example: Lauren Santiago got a travel reel of Santiago, Chile. Our friends from Arizona got a Phoenix reel. Outdoorsy friends got a national park reel. Our pilot friend got an outer space reel. And of course, the children received cartoon reels. I got such a kick out of watching people click through their viewers with big grins on their faces.
Our wedding favor was a CD of our soundtrack, placed inside kraft card stock sleeves. Each disc had a different engagement photo printed on the label. We burned the songs onto Verbatim Vinyl CDs to look like old 45s. If you're curious, you can listen to the entire 2G4E soundtrack on Spotify.
Wondering who the heck H+S is on Track 1? That's us! Before the wedding, I begged Hal to record our own version of "You Belong To Me", the ukulele duet from The Jerk, one of his favorite movies. Like a good fiance, he agreed. This was a big deal, people. Hal is NOT a singer and he hates the sound of his voice recorded. I think he did an awesome job.
You can hear it for yourself...
YOU BELONG TO ME - By H+S
Wish boats took the place of a traditional guest book. We provided origami paper and invited our guests to write down their hopes and dreams for our future together, fold them into a paper boat, and place them in my grandfather's old suitcase. Every anniversary, Hal and I will select one to read and sail it off to sea.
Our 2G4E marquee letters were lovingly made by Hal himself out of cardboard, gold spray paint, and small round bulbs. We hung them from the string lights over the dance floor and they looked even more beautiful as the night grew on. We kept them after the wedding and now they're hanging on the wall above our bed.
NEXT WEEK... our FIRST DANCE TANGO!
{Images by One Love Photo}
