The other flowers

Funchion Love.

I wish I had a better picture to show off our other flowers because they really were beautiful. We really didn't have any plan for the ceremony site and our only two requirements where that it had to be something simple and free. I had picked up the tins you see hanging on the trees last march at the Christmas tree shop for 89 cents a piece. At the time, I thought I would use them to mark the aisle so I bought a dozen and added them to the ever growing wedding pile which blocked the back door of our place for 6 months. As the date grew near, and I realized I would have to fill them with something I was thinking about ditching the idea, that's when I stated to brainstorm what I could fill them with that would be free. The Tuesday before the wedding my mother called everyone in town with hydrangea trees and everyone said "sure, come get some" and so that afternoon we spent a few hours cutting flowers and bunching them up to dry. I had seen a magazine spread with flowers hanging on tree trunks, and so that's how they ended up there. I love the look of them but my only regret is that Saturday morning we couldn't find the twine I had bought that more closely matched the tree trunk and so we had to make due and as a result the twine is a real distraction from the buckets. Oh well.

The aisle flowers were a gift from my grandfather, who shares my love for mums. Wednesday we picked these up at Everlasting Garden Greenhouse in Brewer. Not only was the price the best of all the places we had checked, but they had the best selection of colors and the best looking blooms. We ended up buying 6 small pots and 2 large pots and covering the plastic pots with burlap coffee bags I had bought last winter at building 19 for &1 each. (at the time I thought they would make good seats for around the fire). I loved the mums and I was able to give one to each of my friends after the weekend as an extra thank you for all their help.

In retrospect, I could have filled those buckets with more foliage much like the ones I used under the tent, and lined the aisle with those. I would've saved the cost of the mums and brought a more cohesive feel to the two events since I didn't use the hydrangeas anywhere else but all in all, I liked the look of the hydrangeas, I didn't lose any money on the mums, and the friends loved the gift so win-win, right??

Red Velvet

One of the drawbacks of having a wedding in a rural location is that there are no fancy cake bakers to choose from. Cake was something that was important to Jesse and so we set out to explore our possibilities early in the game. A lot of brides in northern maine choose to buy their cake from a grocery store or from a wholesale grocer like Sam's Club. Another option is to hire a cake baker from the nearest city, Bangor. We thought briefly about these two options but we really wanted a tall layered cake which was not available from the grocery store, and it was hard to arrange transport to Bangor and back for the cake (it's 70 miles from the wedding site). We started asking around and found out there was a lady in nearby Patten who made cakes, one phone call to her and we had photo album with at least 100 photos of her work. The upside of having a wedding in rural Maine was that our cake was made exactly to our specifications and cost only $140. Only the bottom two layers were real cake, the top three were styrofoam. We bought the ribbon and the topper, delivered it to here, and we loved the results.

Although we didn't ask for it, she also made us a little cake for the keeper! It's currently living in the freezer and I think about eating it often.

Dinner Table Decor

LANTERNS
I was never obsessed with centerpieces, but I knew from the beginning that I didn't want floral centerpieces due to the cost and the social economical effects. So, I cruised the knot and weddingbee for non floral inspiration and then kept my eye out in the local stores. That's how I came across these lanterns from the Christmas Tree shop, I was just browsing one day they really caught my eye and at $5.99 each I felt the need to move quickly and didn't even get a second opinion before I went ahead and bought them. Sure, I had to visit 4 locations to get enough but hey, that's a small price to pay for a bargain like this. I bought the lanterns in April, and I got the idea for the wooden pedestal from the knot's NetterB and set my dad to the task of finding a perfect tree for the job. The tea light holders and votive holders were another Christmas Tree bargin at 30 cents apiece on clearance. I also got the candles there on clearance. Cheap, cheap, cheap! Of course, now I have a boatload of lanterns to try and sell. :)


TABLE RUNNERS
The rental company we used only offered white table linens which we were not crazy about, but we couldn't afford to get linen rentals from another company. I had thought, I could buy material and make runners myself but due to the cost of the material and the fact that I ended up having someone sew them for me, the runners turned out to be the most expensive and disappointing wedding decision I made. When it was all said and done, the runners cost more than $500 and although I loved the colors and patterns and what they added to the tables, they didn't cover as much of the table as I had hoped and were so much more expensive then I had estimated. I'm hoping to sell these and recoup at least some of the money.


SWEETHEART TABLE
We didn't have a traditional head table for multiple reasons, the most obvious one being that we only had one attendant each. We toyed with the idea of sitting with our parents because we didn't want to be the center of attention (I know how weird that sounds) but a few days before the wedding we decided that having a table for just the two of us would give us an opportunity to be "alone" during an otherwise very busy day. It was a good decision for us. We had the same lantern set us as other tables and then added a few personal things to the table. The sign was a shower gift from my best friends mother and the bird statues are garden pieces I picked up at Marshall's on clearance. The other thing we displayed on the table was a heart shaped log jesse had given me as a gift many years ago. He was cutting down scrub brush one day and noticed one tree had a distinct heart shape so he carved our initials into the tree and brought it home as a gift. It's lived on our bureau ever since and it was a surprise to Jesse to see it sitting there on our table. It was such a great moment for me to see Jesse recognize it on the table.

Favor Table

We started working on our favors months ago, when the berries were fresh. We made 120 jars of jams and decorated them with a gingham topper tied with twine. We packaged the jams in regular brown lunch sacks with a personalized label from my wedding labels (dot) com. (we also got matching labels for the jam). The jams went into the bag with three shortbread cookies, a biodegradable cornstarch knife, and a napkin. My family and I spent a lot of time on the favors, and when it was all said and done, we all agreed that it was worth the time. I got a lot of compliments and I'm so happy with how they came out.

Bouquets

Being that I got married in a small town, my options for flowers were limited. I had previously contacted the florist in Millinocket and got a quote of $250 for 2 bouquets and 2 boutonnieres- that was a lot more than I wanted to spend so I decided then, that I would be making my own. I researched mail order flowers but got mixed reviews and wasn't ready to take the chance.
Wednesday before the wedding we took one finally trip to Bangor to finish up shopping and to look at bulk flowers at Sam's Club because my mother had seen nice looking flowers there for a good price a month before. Unfortunately, the flower selection there was very poor that day so we decided we would look at the local grocery store back in millinocket and if that didn't pan out, I would carry some hydrangeas. Back in Millinocket the next day, we heard that a local greenhouse had just started carrying cut flowers and so we went to check that out. JACKPOT! The selections were great and we ended up choosing three types of flowers and two greenery supplements and we walked out of there with some great supplies for less than $30. That, along with the ribbon I had picked up at Joann's brought the total to $45 for two bouquets- not too shabby! Saturday morning there were plenty of things to do and so when my friend Jackie offered to turn the loose flowers into bouquets I didn't think twice about saying yes. I didn't really care how they turned out, or at least I didn't think I did, but when I saw they finished product tears welled up! I can't believe what a great job she did and I really felt touched by the obvious care she took creating them. Shout out to Jackie! You missed your calling Chiquita!

Here's a great shot of my flowers and a poor one of Andrea's but hey, look how cute she looks with our little man!

Guest and Gift Table

It's been a long time but I'm back and I'm a Mrs!! Yee, Haw!

So, now that I've finally got some free time on my hands I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going to start by showing off the projects I took the DIY route with- because I'm so proud and pleased with how everything turned out. (All photos can be enlarged by clicked on them.)


I posted the RSVPs on a cork board covered with fall fabric and displayed it at the dinner on Friday night. I saw a lot of people enjoying it and I heard a lot of people saying they should have got it together and done some art work. Of the 90 invitations we sent out, only 40 were returned with some art work as we had requested. Bah Humbugs!





Two views of our guest book/gift table. I had wanted two separate tables for these things I just assumed I would have them, I didn't know that most people use one table for both and unfortuntly, there wasn't another table available, so what did I do? Well, I'm proud to say, I shrugged it off and went with the flow. It's a bit crowded but I think it still looks good.
We did a version of the wish tree using cards I had made. I used spare paper I had and printed out an inspiring word on each card and stamped them with the same leaf design I used on the invitations. We got a lot of great cards and I thought they looked beautiful hanging on our tree.

For the card box, I repurposed an old travel case that had belonged to my husbands grandmother. It looked great and was perfect for cards plus I was glad to have some family "heirlooms" present.

my lips are sealed

a quick blog to respond to the hundreds of emails i've received demanding my speedy return to blogging. This might be a slight exaggeration, or it might not be. You be the judge.

The projects are mostly finished but I've decided not to blog until after the wedding, mostly because I am feeling an enormous amount of stress but also because I want there to be some surprises for my guests. So, to all you demanding readers, I say, "patience is a virture." HA HA (Nelson)