Wedding Recovery

The blog once again took a backseat while a summer of wedding craziness unfolded. It was all about printing, DIY-ing, thrifting and a whole lot of planning and organizing. So many lists!

The wedding day was perfect; the weather was beautiful until after dinner at which point it down poured on us forcing everyone into the barn for the reception and dessert. The guests were all wonderful and the mood felt happy and relaxed. It was exactly what we wanted and hoped for.

I'm going to post a couple blog posts about the wedding to make up for lost blogging time. It would be impossible to cover everything in one. I'll start with the lead up to the wedding and a few shots of some of my favourite DIYs. I'll do a few posts specifically about doing the DIYs for other bride-to-be's.

The two days before the wedding were spent at the venue preparing. We brought in everything  from the barn beam arch to the barn board and steel bar and the antique claw foot bathtub for drinks. We had a lot of help from family and friends - we truly could not have done it without them. The venue was on the lake with a large farm house turned cottage, a beautiful beach, a sauna and a rustic barn. We had the ceremony outside, dinner outside in a beautiful meadow and the reception in the barn. It worked out perfectly and we're lucky that the rain held off for as long as it did.

I'll start with my favourite DIY; the favours. As you may know from reading the blog, our wedding favours were succulents in teacups. We stole the idea from Pinterest and ran with it. They were adorable and I love that the incorporated my love of vintage with living breathing plants. Other than the pots the succulents came in they were totally eco-friendly and upcycled, too!  Succulents are so on trend and people were obsessed with these favours.  Each favour was unique and wedding guests got to select a teacup that suited their personal style.

We don't have any professional photos back yet so please excuse the quality of the images they're mainly iPhone pictures and stolen off of Facebook from our guests but I couldn't wait to share :).

Succulent Planting Pre-Wedding

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Display of Succulents

Succulent planting happened on the Wednesday and Thursday before our wedding. My mom, new mom-in-law and new sister-in-law got things done and had everything organized when I came out after getting pampered at the spa. Luckily we got into the venue early so we could plant and set up our favours before doing the rest of the wedding set up.

The finished product and one of my favourites!

Our display case is a wooden casing that was purchased out of a century home in the downtown of our city for $50 by Brad's mom. It is totally raw and people actually thought it was part of the barn it matched the decor so seamlessly. We found an antique chandelier in the basement of the barn that hung beside it completing the look.

In the days before the wedding I started getting all of the finishing touches together. The programs were one of the most time consuming but rewarding DIY's. I will do a blog post solely devoted to them because I love them so much. They were cost effective, vintage and rustic inspired and 100% handmade. Just like our favours each program was unique and I hope that people selected a cover that matched their individual style and taste. See the Intimate Weddings Blog that inspired by programs.

Programs drying on our deck

Program Display

I relied on the internet for some amazing free printables. My favourite was our "please sign our guestbook" sign.  I will find the link to this printable and post it here. 

For my flower girl I wanted a basket that matched the grey ring bearer's box. For the ring bearer I bought a simple box from Michaels and stained in a beautiful grey. I made a pillow for the rings using a beautiful worn pillow case from my grandfather's house. Unfortunately we gave the box to our ring bearer and I'm not sure if I ever got a picture of it. For the flower girl my bridesmaid Amanda and I were to Michaels and bought two cute baskets. We bought grey spray paint and painted them to match. They looked lovely with pink and white rose petals in them. 

Our flower boxes were another highly time consuming DIY that were well worth the effort put in. We got rough pine from the lumber yard and Brad built the boxes with one of his groomsmen. We chalk painted, sanded and waxed them with dark wax to get the beautiful rustic look we were going for. 

DIY Stage

The Finished Product

Another DIY that was a great success was our chalkboards. Brad's mom and I bought them at thrift shops and she chalk painted them for me using Annie Sloan chalk paint. They were perfect for our bar menu, seating memo, instagram sign and dessert bar. 

The venue was in bloom with gorgeous flowers. It was a nice surprise because when we visited two weeks prior it had been looking a little weedy and overgrown. We couldn't be happier with the bright wall of yellow flower behind our ceremony site that popped up just in time.

It was a perfect day and a wonderful weekend. We had family come from across the country and got to catch up with so many of our friends. Now we're focusing on getting back to normal, married life. So much organization and cleaning to do!

We're married!