Weddingbee Blog

I’m back with pictures of the drink bar Papa Paisley and I constructed.

We based it on this lovely wine barrel design:

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I thought I’d try to add some driftwood and a shelf to the drink bar, like in this photo:

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But while I was in the house, Papa Paisley surprised me with a new idea, and built the drink bar shelf using stacked flagstones:

I love it! The walnut burl slab as the shelf is beautiful, and the flat rock is as well. My glass beverage containers fit perfectly on it, and lifted up like that it will be easier for guests to turn the nozzle on the dispensers to get their drinks.

And it’s a big plus that this design saves me tons of time––I won’t have to glue small pieces of driftwood all over two cinder blocks like I’d previously planned to do.

On the Big Day, I plan to dress up the bar using lemons and a large container full of grosso lavender, a deep blue lavender variety. There will be 140 small mason jars (half pint) with rafia bows on the first shelf for drink jars, and of course the beverage containers on the second level.

On a side note, I think it’s hilarious that my dad kept putting this weird rock on the shelf in all the pictures he took.

He was so proud of that rock. He found it with a piece of mud dried onto it in such a way that it made a little stand for the heavy rock:

A close-up:

Haha, my dad’s so cute.

And, yes, those are blue mason jars I scored at a tiny antique store in Kelseyville from a super sweet lady for $20. A total of 25 jars plus the dusty, neat old chest they came in. They had been untouched since the ’70s and were covered in so much grime they were black until I scrubbed them clean. But, hey, you can’t beat less than a dollar for antique blue mason jars!

While we were at it, we made a recycling receptacle. Or rather, Papa Paisley made it. By the way, I LOVE that to do this project, he took one of his tractors (he has over 100–he owns a farm equipment repair business), went across the street to the vineyard owners who have some extra barrels, loaded them up and brought them back all before I woke up that morning.

To make the wine-barrel-recycling-receptacle I had dreamed up, it took him all of three seconds to cut a hole for the cans and bottles to be tossed through:

My dog Trixie really liked it:

I’m thinking next we’ll make the dinner buffet tables (our caterer says we need three of them in a row) using found wood and wine barrels.

Have you constructed any major elements of your wedding like a drink bar or maybe dance floor? Do tell!