Weddingbee Blog

In the wee hours the night before our wedding I had pretty much come to terms that the barn where our reception was to be held wasn’t going to be nearly as beautiful as I had hoped. The decorations weren’t quite like I had wanted them to be, the barn seemed to have less room than it did on my spreadsheet, and I just wasn’t convinced it would be a very magical place for our reception after all.

We jumped into our mini bus after the ceremony and headed to the reception. Our driver must have missed the signage my father made, because she actually headed to another barn—our barn had not been used for weddings before! Luckily we got turned around pretty quickly because Mr. Sunbeam and I were anxious to see how things were going at the barn and if things had come together after all. Our bridal party, on the other hand, seemed so peaceful…

… until I found out our DJ was in a car behind us. Bridal melt down anyone? I have no idea how our friend who was supposed to DJ missed getting to the reception right after the ceremony. Luckily after some quick calls I found out our day of coordinator, Heather, had started the music along with our sound tech before guests arrived. Heather and her sister had gone to the barn during our ceremony to make sure everything was in place for our guests’ arrival.

As our mini bus rolled up to the barn I was anxious to see what was going on inside. Would the right music be playing? Would it look like a disaster? Did everyone fit inside??

(Photo by a friend)

From the outside all looked well. It was drizzling so all of our guests were waiting inside for our arrival.

Up to the second floor we went…

First the wedding party entered; then it was our moment of truth.

Thought bubble (Oh wow, it looks great!)

Yay!

Here are some details of what we saw:

Long rows of tables with our candles and flowers placed in the center. A groomsman’s mother and brother made chocolate covered pretzels with white and red toppings as our favors and they were such a hit.

Below is the bar with the labels we made and the “take as you please” setup we had asked for. We asked our bartenders to keep the first row of glasses filled so our guest didn’t have to wait in line for a drink. It seemed to work out nicely.

The sweet tea lemonade was such a hit! I highly recommend it. I wish I could share a picture of the entire bar, but there aren’t any. I had made pom garlands that hung over the front that looked really great, but you can catch a glimpse of them in a later post.

The three wine bottles here acted as our guestbook and we provided white paint markers for folks to sign them. We had a sign in front of them with wine bottles on it that said “Guestbook” so people would know. Unfortunately the “Book of Us” in front was moved from where we had placed it and guests were mistakenly instructed to sign it - with a white marker. So of course they scrolled all over our pictures. Luckily my mom caught the mistake quickly and our wine bottles did get some signatures! I didn’t think we’d need a sign saying “this is not the guestbook!” Oh well! You have to roll with these sorts of hiccups!

This was my last minute idea for our guest place cards. I had made the puffy accessory at the top on a whim after seeing a DIY post about it, but didn’t really have any use for it. Last minute I decided to clothespin our place cards to ribbon and include the puffy accessory I had made as a touch of homemade decoration. It’s not the best, but I think it had charm! I had an old table with grain bucket on top for guests to drop the clothespins into beside the ribbons. You can see another view of this in our entrance photo above.

To go with our idea of mixing our CA lives with our small town of PA background we used an old wine box as our card box and just nailed the lid on, leaving a small slot in the front to insert cards into.

Another fun detail was a jar of “I am loved” pins for guests to take. The pins, the guestbook, and the card box were all located on a table near the entrance of the barn.

Not only were the pins a fun and color coordinated edition to our reception - they were 100 safety pins ready to go if anything happened to my dress! But the decoration that really made an impact was the lighting along the beams of the barn.

You’ll really get a sense of how lighting can make a beautiful impact on a reception later on!

Up next I’ll share our delicious eats, including our Wendy Kromer wedding cake, we’ll make a few toasts to marriage, and you’ll get an even better view of how the reception decor turned out!

Photos were taken by RAD photography with occasional additional editing by me, unless otherwise noted.

Previously with the Sunbeams:

• The Heirloom Photos
• Sunny I dos
• Here comes the Sun
• Love, Anticipation, and a Trip Down the Isle
• The Lovely Bridesmaids
• Quintessential Portraits
• Chemistry
• Love in the Stacks
• Bride Meets Groom
• Bridebeam
• Old, Borrowed, & Blue
• Groombeam
• The Dress, Shoes, & Rings
• Let’s Get Beautiful!
• Papery Details
• One last busy night
• Dessert and an impromptu photo shoot
• Pasta & practice makes perfect
• Sunbeam final fling!
• Five days and counting