A Pinterest-y Wedding

Two weeks ago, my friend, Jennifer got married and I am so happy for her. Alex, her husband, is a very lucky man. 

Weddings can be exceptionally busy and stressful but I find that they are also a way of bringing a community together. My sister and I really felt that while we worked alongside a lot of other people who played a role in Alex and Jen's big day. The ceremony was intimate and elegant and everyone pulled together to ensure things ran smoothly. 

My sister and I, along with Emily, Amy and Tracy were responsible for the bulk of the decorations. I say "the bulk" because as charming as that sign is above, we didn't make it. The sign itself is the handiwork of a church friend, Eugenia and the floral arrangement is thanks to Jasmine. Most of the other things though, we did make. We spent A LOT of time on Pinterest and there were so many ideas we wanted to try. We left it to Tracy, our fearless leader, to ensure everything was cohesive.

Jen is the type of bride who doesn't want to put undue demands on the people helping her. It's because she's so nice though that all of us are more than willing to put in that extra mile. She gave her decorating team pretty much free reign in what we wanted to do. Her one real request was teacup flower arrangements - so we made it happen.

A mixture of crepe paper, tissue paper, cardstock and dollar store flowers. I thought the arrangements looked delightful. I played the florist after all ;) Each arrangement was put on a wood slice pedestal. That was Tracy's idea and it was just the right touch!

Actually, the arrangement is the only thing I can take credit for. The orange roses were the work of Amy and the white flowers, blue buds and green paper leaves were thanks to Allison. We bought some dollar store flowers at the last minute because we ran out of time to make more by hand.

Jen bought thirteen adorable, miscellaneous teacups and we ended up filling nine of them. 

I had never done flower arranging before but for this wedding, I suddenly became a florist and discovered skills I never knew I had! (And remembered bits of random articles and crafting books that I had flipped through in the past.) One element we used that I really liked was putting baby's breath in decorated mason jars. These jars lined the pews and the effect was simple but beautiful. If I ever get married, I would consider doing this as well. 

We hot glue gunned the ribbon and lace to the mason jars. The jars were secured to the pews with wire.

Arranging the flowers involved branch clippers and a lot of I-hope-this-will-look-good.

When you are decorating for a wedding, your focus is in the details. We team-shopped every dollar store in Ottawa looking for just the right supplies.

We created a Date Night & Food Suggestions board for the guests to write down their recommendations. We found cute flower and bird buttons at Dollar Tree. 

The vases and branches were Jen's selection; the fabric roses were Emily and Allison's creations.

We are familiar with most of the Fabriclands in the city now and are still debating whether one of us should get a membership. :)

This was definitely a last minute creation. The table on the stage had a table cloth which was too long so we had to fold it. We needed something to hide the center fold, so I took a scrap piece of tulle and a bit of ribbon and ta da! 

These burlap flowers were one of the first things we made. Originally, they were supposed to go on the mason jars but when we tried them out, it looked too busy. In the end, these went on the window sills of the reception room.

This was drawn by Allison at 10:00 pm, the night before the wedding. We had this big white board that we couldn't get rid of and couldn't quite cover. I personally, liked the cartoon sketches she made of Jen and Alex before this particular drawing but she wasn't too happy with their eyes and so simplified things to silhouettes. A doodler is invaluable to any decorating team. 

Although we agonized over minutia at times, we did try to keep the big picture in mind. Things that are cute in a small setting can look very different in a larger setting. In this case, our little things looked awesome :D!

Not too sparse and not overpowering - I thought we struck a nice balance.

I have no idea how Tracy, Amy and Emily pulled together these ruffled burlap curtains the night before the wedding.  The whole food area set up came together beautifully. It helps that the food from Art Is In Bakery looks so appetizing :P.

It was a lot of work but the day was wonderful and the couple looked so happy. I wish them many blessed years together!