Lovey Dovey Stuff
Post-Haste
Here’s another cute collection-related idea akin to our vacation jars and our framed key art, and it costs around 50 cents tops. Of course it came from the mind of my creative (and cute) hubby. See, on one of our first vacations together he suggested as we were writing a few postcards to our friends and family that we save one and write it to ourselves. He thought it would be a nice way to highlight a few of our favorite details of the trip (that we’d likely forget after a while).
And we liked the idea so much, that over the past few years we’ve continued the tradition. It’s super fun to look back on our travels together and relive everything from our favorite meal to our sightseeing hijinks. And my contribution to “project postcard” was to suggest that we display them in an old vase (leftover from our wedding- it was actually where everyone dropped their sentiment cards) so we don’t have to file them away in the closet in some old box. Regularly seeing them in our space reminds us to look at them from time to time and keeps us excited for our next big trip.
So next time you’re on vacay, all you need is a quarter for the postcard and another one for the stamp. Bon voyage!
Chris & Caitlin’s Spring Wedding
When this adorable couple wrote to us in search of some natural, spring-y ideas for their nuptials next April, we couldn’t wait to brainstorm some fresh and memorable wedding details. Here’s their letter:
Woohoo!! I am so excited that you guys have started doing wedding consultations! We’ll be getting married next April a church and then holding the reception at a luxury hotel called the Westin. It’s gorgeous and fancy, but in a modern casual elegance type of way. We don’t want it to feel super stuffy or formal, that would be so far from our personalities. We actually wanted to do a themed but not themed “green” wedding. Like sending people home with seeds since it’s a spring wedding. I love the favors at your wedding, so perfect. Chris thought that we could also plant a tree in honor of each of our guests or send them home with a potted plant. Useful and eco-friendly. With the flowers, I pretty much know that I want greens and whites (peonies, hydrangeas, and white tulips are my favorites). Also, we’re are both very Irish, so I was trying to find a way to incorporate our heritage in there, too. Thank you so much! Can’t wait to see what you come up with! – Caitlin & Chris
We love C & C’s idea of a green and white color scheme along with some spring-like touches that are natural and elegant (with a splash of Irish). So without further ado, our wedding mood board chock fulla fresh ideas:
*Images courtesy of The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, Google Images, & Flickr.
Here’s the mood board breakdown.
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Wedding Week: Food For Thought
All this wedding week chitchat must be making you hungry, so you’re cordially invited to sink your teeth into a few of our delectable wedding day dishes.
Perhaps our most daring DIY feat was completely nixing the idea of a caterer in favor of taking on the entire wedding menu ourselves. I know we sound cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs, but there were a few major reasons behind our seemingly insane decision. A lot of catering companies require a separate prep area and our modest rancher just didn’t have the space. And we also thought strangers dressed in black peddling hors d’oeuvres in our backyard might be a little odd for our intimate affair. But most of all, we’re just hopeless DIYers with an unhealthy attraction to seemingly impossible challenges- so even though feeding 75 people sounds like quite a job, it really wasn’t so bad thanks to thoughtful planning, a few make-ahead components and some pretty crafty delegation (in the form of pre-prepared offerings with a gourmet spin).
We made our lives much easier by carefully designing a menu that didn’t require any heat (other than our entrees which were cooked up on the grill) and called for nothing more than a single fork (when it came to side dishes and hors d’oeuvres, upscale finger food was the name of the game). Keeping our offerings simple (fresh fruit, cocktail shrimp, rotini salad, lemon pepper potato chips, etc) and adding an upscale twist when we could (like an unexpected ingredient or delightful dipping sauce) really seemed to work with our informal backyard wedding theme.
Another example of our “simple with a twist” approach to the menu was demonstrated in our main course choices, which we wrote out on a chalkboard hung above the grill for all to see.
Our guests approached the grill and ordered up their choice of a blue cheese angus burger with parmesan caesar dressing, sweet apple chicken sausage with honey dijon, or a tomato and cheddar veggie burger with basil ketchup. We actually made all the blue cheese burgers ahead of time (by adding chunky blue cheese dressing to ground beef and freezing the meat into patties to be defrosted that morning) but purchased the sweet apple chicken sausage along with the tomato and cheddar veggie burgers in bulk from the grocery store a few days in advance. Of course we splurged on some gourmet buns and added a little flair to the toppings (like a dash of fresh basil worked into the ketchup and the caesar dressing that topped the blue cheese burgers). A few fun twists on some old favorites really seemed to satisfy, and we purchased more than enough to go around (so people could try more than one entree if they so desired).
And even though we didn’t have a moment to taste a thing, the overwhelming consensus was “mmmm” as demonstrated by lots of seconds and hardly any leftovers.
Another adorable detail thrown together by my hubby in the final hour (unbenownst to me since I was inside getting gussied up) were the extra lemons that John used to accent a big tin of ice cubes. Somehow the 10 cent lemons added so much more to the $8 galvanized tin of $2 ice… a true testament to something becoming far greater than the sum of its parts (and to my hubby’s genius eye for style).
By far the most popular menu choice was the decision to keep it simple and serve Richmond’s famed Ukrop’s cupcakes. For those not in the know, Ukrop’s is a local grocery chain, which just happens to have reached celebrity status for its heavenly vanilla cupcakes. We considered swankifying the cupcakes with green and yellow spinkles or lemon candies, but realized that to mess with perfection would be a mistake. And when served en mass the seemingly simple cupcakes transformed into a sea of creamy confections that people literally couldn’t get enough of (several people confessed to downing four or five of ‘em). And we can both agree that feeding each other cupcakes was a fun take on the ceremonial cake feeding tradition as well.
Another fun touch was the s’more roast we had at the very end of the night. After some of our friends and family had moseyed on home, the remaining guests had fun bringing the night to a close by gathering around our firepit and cooking up a melty treat for the road. Marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers are hardly budget busting extravagances, but the s’more roast was just another one of those memorable details that really stuck with people far after the embers went cold.
And just as all good things must come to an end, This Young Wedding Week must now come to a close. We hope it was as good for you guys as it was for us. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm throughout the exciting matrimonial extravaganza, and don’t be too sad that it’s over. After all, we have some pretty amazing before and afters in the hopper for the upcoming week so stay tuned…
*Drop in on our Wedding Album tab below the header to check out all the details of our big day from start to finish!
Wedding Week: The Devil’s In The Details
Y’all ready for me to break down more details about our DIY backyard wedding? Good, because here comes more wedding week straight atcha…
Any of you who’ve planned a wedding or other big event know you can score major points with your guests by thinking of the little things that suggest that you’ve thought of everything. And for us that included offering up complementary flip-flops for guests whose shoes were a bit too ambitious for a garden wedding. And of course Sherry wanted the dollar store flip flops to look as sweet as the sentiment, so she tied pairs of them with rustic twine and stuck ‘em in a burlap basket for easy access.
We also came up with a practical and budget-friendly twist on the traditional wedding slideshow (since a big projector wasn’t in the cards for us). We created a clothesline version by stringing twine between two 5ft garden hooks and using charming wooden clothespins to clip the photographic story of us growing up, meeting and falling in love. This project was less than $20, but it really made a lasting impression and kept people entertained while they waited for their turn in the photobooth. And people still mention it to this day. To see the cute & cringeworthy photos for yourself, click here.
We even carried a few personal twists on tradition into the ceremony. After struggling to find a wedding reading that we liked, we gave up and decided to write our own. And in a moment of genius (or utter weirdness, you decide) we pulled out our high school yearbooks and began collecting a combination of sweet and silly notes written by our old friends. The sentiments ranged from complimenting Sherry’s artistic ability to poking fun at my band geekiness, but actually showed some surprising similarities and perfectly captured our personalities far better than a generic reading or age-old sonnet. Thanks to my younger sister and Sherry’s younger brother who expertly shared our collection of yearbook anecdotes, it turned out to be one of the ceremony’s most memorable moments. That and the part where we said “I do,” of course.
One detail we couldn’t overlook was the lighting. We knew having the right amount of light in the right places would take our event from backyard barbeque to elegant outdoor gathering, so we went all out. There were votives on the tables for soft lighting. There were a few tiki torches for fun around the perimeter. There were even candles placed in old jars that served as mini hurricaines filled slightly with sand lining the entire driveway (we saved jam, pickle and pasta sauce jars for close to a year).
We also added some accent lighting in the form of paper lanterns hung from a pair of trees in the yard near the ceremony site. They provided a touch of interest while we said our vows, but more importantly created the perfect backdrop for all of our family photos. The lanterns (also from Target) were battery operated so we didn’t even need to worry about wiring. Instead, we could focus on keeping smiles on our faces for all that picture taking.
And speaking of picture taking, I’m reminded (thanks Stacie) that we owe a HUGE thanks to our photographer Todd who is responsible for almost all of the beautiful photos you’ve seen this week. Todd just happens to be a famous professional photographer around these parts and while I’m sure he’s delighted to have our wedding on his resume, he usually prefers to talk about all the national print ads and magazine covers he shoots on a daily basis. We were able to snag his services for free because he also just happens to be our brother-in-law (you’ve toured his new house here). Thanks for marrying a great photographer, sis! And thanks for the great photos, Todd!
You may also be wondering about attire. Clearly we went more casual than the typical wedding dress code in part to fit the relaxed atmosphere and also because Virginia is so hot in July. I chose simple khakis, a white button down and flip-flops. It’s mere coincidence that my best friend Kevin (left, our musician) and my cousin Travis (right, our officiant) wore practically the same thing. We dubbed ourselves the “Khaki Brigade” and things stayed informal until Sherry surprised us with these babies…
Yes, those are tuxedo t-shirts we’re wearing. Good thing we don’t take ourselves too seriously, eh?
But you’re probably wondering about Sherry’s outfit too. It’s an $190 dress she bought at Arden B (of all places) a mere 48 HOURS BEFORE THE WEDDING. No lie. She purchased another dress months beforehand – actually the first one she tried on – and counted her lucky stars that she fell in love with a dress so easily. Until July 5th when she was out having girl-time with her BFF and spotted this dress and fell even more in love. At about a tenth of the cost of the average wedding dress, we didn’t mind the unexpected expense (her first dress was also purchased on the cheap so the change of plans hardly broke the bank). And two days later she wore her new find down the aisle and couldn’t be happier about the last-minute switcheroo. I must admit I’m pretty happy too. I mean, c’mon, look at how stunning my bride is!
Sherry’s bouquet was another DIY project in itself. The morning of the wedding she picked up three large hydrangea blossoms from the grocery store’s floral department (for something like $12). She then tied them together using green floral tape, wrapped thick satin ribbon around the floral tape and then trimmed the stems at the bottom for an even appearance. Some straight pins with pearl heads secured the ribbon and finished it off- guaranteeing it’d make it to the altar in one piece. She also wrapped a tiny necklace from a dear family friend around the handle of the bouquet (carefully securing it with more pearl-topped pins) for a meaningful and sentimental detail that only she was privy to.
But I digress – weren’t we supposed to be talking about lighting? Possibly our most impactful wedding decor detail was the dramatic garden lighting that we swagged over the entire reception area. To create this effect, we purchased six sets of string lights from Target – the ones with the big, round, clear bulbs – and created three long strands using clear fishing wire for reinforcement (we didn’t want the tension to snap the thin cords). Then we tied carabiners to both sides of the three long strands and hooked one end of each to our sunroom while the other ends converged at the peak of our garage (where they wrapped around our weathervane and plugged into a hidden extension cord). The effect was incredible… and nothing fell on any of our guests (a reoccurring nightmare of ours). Victory.
Part of me wanted to leave those lights up year-round (it would make coming home from work very dramatic) but Sherry pointed out that a thunderstorm could send a tree branch crashing down on them. Details, details…
*Drop in on our Wedding Album tab below the header to check out all the details of our big day from start to finish!
