Wedding Tablescapes

I can't believe how quickly summer has turned into fall. Within a week of the wedding (which was on August 30th) the leaves started turning, a chill came into the air and I've already had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. In the two weeks post-wedding, I've been busy organizing gifts (most are still stored neatly - we're saving most of them for when we have a kitchen worthy of them), cleaning and re-organizing our house, posting wedding stuff on Kijiji and starting Thank You cards. The wedding already feels like months ago even though we're only coming up on our two week anniversary this Saturday.

One of my favourite parts of wedding planning was visualizing my tables. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted and didn't want.

Centrepieces

I knew I wanted rustic wooden table boxes. I love how they showcase flowers and succulents. I found boxes like this on Etsy.

Pinspiration:

Via Pinterest via Style Me Pretty

Via Pinterest

I personally love what we ended up doing with the table boxes. We got rough pine and cut them into three and a half foot boxes - what we determined to be the perfect size for a six foot table. We built them high enough so that you could still see the top half of the antique mason jars. We chalk painted them with Annie Sloan chalk paint, sanded them rounding the corners to create a weathered look and then waxed them with dark wax.

The boxes drying after they were waxed

The finished product

I bought over 100 antique mason jars for the wedding!

Flowers 

I wanted peonies, cabbage roses and garden roses; none of which were in season at the end of August. I also wanted Dahlias but our florists had worked with them before and found they wilted almost instantaneously in the direct sunlight. I found this amazing blog post from Life of a Vintage Lover about peony alternatives that are available in August which helped me discover my favourite of the wedding flowers: Rununculus. I had the most amazing florists. They were actually just two friends of my mum's who are amazing gardeners. They took my favourite looks from Pinterest and gave me the soft, romantic look and feel I wanted on my budget. Our centrepiece bouquets had two bunches of baby's breath on the end and one beautiful centre bouquet of Rununculus, two types of Wax Flower, mini white Carnations and pink Lisianthus and pink Alstromerias. Baby's Breath is a great addition because it's so cost effective yet soft and romantic and looks great alongside other flowers.

Costco is a great place to order bulk flowers

In the workshop....

Linens

I knew I wanted white linens and I was shocked to find out how expensive they were to rent. In our area they came at $17/tablecloth. I knew there had to be a more cost effective way and ended up ordering them online for $7/tablecloth from a discount wedding website. They came quickly, looked amazing and fit the bill for what we needed. If you're looking for luxurious draping linens this may not be the course of action for you but they worked for our outdoor setting. I'm now selling them to another bride for a great price so that she can save money, too! These were only used once and cleaned up perfectly without any stains or damage. 

I wanted table runners from day one. Originally, I thought burlap would be nice. I'd seen these gorgeous burlap ones trimmed in lace on Etsy - they were to die for. 

Via Pinterest Via Etsy

We went on a shopping trip to our local fabric store and ended up finding two rolls; one navy blue and white chevron and one coral pattern that we loved. We used the blue and white to make table runners. A change from 8' to 6' tables meant we only have enough for every other table but I ended up being really happy with how they turned out, anyway!

Table Runner Fabric

Fabric for the head tablecloth overlays

Thank You Notes

I bought this printable thank you note from Twirly Designs on Etsy. She was lovely and customized them exactly how I wanted getting them to me within hours of my purchase. I printed them on kraft paper instead of white cardstock to fit with the look and feel of our wedding. I placed them on each place but because it was windy I had to put it between the salad and dinner plates so they wouldn't fly away. Since we didn't have a menu, I thought the thank you notes added a nice touch to the place settings and reminded people how much we appreciated them being there!

I swear I didn't place these places so crookedly!

So, what's my advice for planning your table settings?

• Start on Pinterest - find out what style you like and run with it!
• DIY as much as possible - we made everything we possibly could
• Budget - I had no idea how expensive fabric is and went way over budget on table runners
• Add a personal touch like a custom menu or thank you note
• Book your linens and tablewear in advance so you know your table sizes early on