Wednesday, October 26, 2016

making a wedding







This past summer our daughter was married and, since someone asked me to share more about the wedding,
and, since some of you might have an interest in some of the details
as well,
I am sharing a bit about it here today.

All the beautiful photographs were taken by Lydia Maybee Photography.

Welcome sign hand-lettered and painted by the bride.
It was decided early on that this would be a very hands-on affair, as in the bride had a lot of ideas for decorating, etc. that we could make and do ourselves.
The setting was a beautiful old barn that is now a venue for weddings and receptions.  


Pom pom garlands were made with lots of help from the bridesmaids, friends, and family on both sides.  A good tutorial can be found here.




They made a lovely back-drop for the wedding ceremony.





The loft railing was decorated with a bunting I sewed using fabric scraps...




The bride and her attendants made all the bouquets and boutonnieres as well.
Flowers were sourced locally and many were ordered from Blooms By The Box.
I really loved watching all the girls as they carefully put together their bouquets the day before.









Some old sap buckets were painted, filled with roses and baby's breath, and placed at the end of the rows of chairs...

Of course this special Golden was part of the big day, bow-tie and all.




My large supply of canning jars came in handy for the table arrangements,
lace-wrapped and filled with flowers...


The father-of-the-bride cut log slices, which the bride numbered and glued together for the tables.





The Cake

Although I lost no small amount of sleep worrying about making this wedding cake, I am happy to say that I DID IT!!  
{Right after assembling the layers and receiving some much appreciated help with the decorating, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then I found out that, in my haste to get said cake layers to the venue, I had forgotten my bag packed with my dress and shoes to change into.  As guests were arriving, I was frantically driving home to change my clothes...}
At the bride's request, the bottom tier was chocolate and the top two tiers were vanilla--for the vanilla layers I used the Basic 3-Layer Yellow Cake recipe from Simple Bites; the chocolate cake recipe is from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.  Both these recipes are delicious, and I appreciated that they were simple to put together.  All the layers were filled with homemade chocolate ganache and raspberry filling.  Because the cake was to be under a tent on a sunny, 80-some-degrees day, I chose this Crusting No-Melt Vanilla Buttercream.  It uses a combination of butter and shortening--I never use shortening--but when I found some non-hydrogenated, organic all vegetable shortening at the store, I decided to give it a try.  I ended up very happy with this recipe, which held up perfectly.  







The world-traveling couple fittingly chose a globe for their guests to sign.



Succulent favors also served as table assignments for the guests.  I was able to order these on Etsy from SucculentPartyFavors.  Shipped all the way from California to the east coast, they arrived intact!  We wrapped them with kraft paper, tied with twine, and added flags that had each guest's name and table number typed on using my vintage typewriter.




The bride made a CARDS banner and used a decorated, vintage wicker hamper to hold wedding cards on the gift table...



I am so thankful to have been a small part of making their wedding day special.



28 comments:

  1. Beautiful perfection!! All of it. This is the type of wedding my daughter (almost 21) and I prefer. Thanks for sharing.
    Kind regards,
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Linda for such kind words!
      Deb

      Delete
  2. OH wie schön ich heirate ja nächstes JAHR auch
    da kann ich mir schon ein paar EINDRÜCKE
    bei dir holen

    wünsche noch einen schönen ABEND
    bis bald die BIRGIT aus TIROL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your visit--best wishes!!
      Deb

      Delete
  3. Ohh, so lovely. It's nice when others are involved in the details of a wedding, makes it more special for everyone. And it looks like it was a beautiful day too! Just curious, how did the guests sign the globe? Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, and yes, the group effort made it very special! {Just sharpies to sign the globe.}
      Deb

      Delete
  4. I would say just perfection and so wonderful. I think you all did such an amazing job and I love all the handcrafted details. The memories will be glowing for years to come. ~Darby

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So kind of you to say--thank you!
      Deb

      Delete
  5. So many good ideas! Thank you for sharing their special day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laurie, thank you--glad you stopped by!
      Deb

      Delete
  6. Such a lovely wedding! My older daughter was married in June 2014. She also made her bouquets along with her bridesmaids. Such a special memory! I have attended several weddings since then and this type of wedding is my favorite. So much more personal! I have one more daughter to plan a wedding for someday. Thanks for sharing! And kudos for even doing the cake! Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Pam! You are right, it makes it very personal and special.
      Deb

      Delete
  7. What a perfect wedding....everything looked amazing...simple and elegant. Exactly how it should be. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Suzie, I appreciate the kind words.
      Deb

      Delete
  8. Thank you for sharing this! My daughter is engaged and planning a fall wedding for next year and we are more than excited to be helping make many of the decorations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Carol! Wishing you and your daughter the best with the wedding planning,
      Deb

      Delete
  9. Just perfect. I love the pom pom backdrop. The cake looks wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jackie, I appreciate that.
      Deb

      Delete
  10. Wonderful memories of the most perfect day. Thank you for sharing the details with us. The cake looks amazing, the flowers are so beautiful. The most special part is all the people who all came together to make this day so heartwarming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly right about all who helped! Thank you!
      Deb

      Delete
  11. I have been waiting for a post and am very pleased to see a wonderful wedding, you have been very busy! My daughter also got married and like you we did everything ourselves. if you are interested take a look at an English country wedding. - http://amytaylorimagingphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/laura-and-jamies-village-hall-wedding.html
    I hope we get more news about your lovely new home soon. Sandra x

    ReplyDelete
  12. Everything looks absolutely Beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous3:01 PM

    So pretty! I appreciate you posting this as my daughter is marrying next July. Andrea

    ReplyDelete
  14. What lovely photos. A handmade wedding they will cherish forever. Thank you for taking the time to share with all of us. Mary Lea

    ReplyDelete
  15. All absolutely beautiful! I especially love the simplicity of the cake, the beautiful flowers and the succulents, perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  16. It all looks so lovely. Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to leave a comment--I love reading each and every one! I will try to answer any questions you have in the comment section. Due to the amount of spam, I am sadly no longer able to accept Anonymous comments....Kindly, Deb

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails