Weddingbee Blog

After a long day at work earlier this week, I came home to be greeted by a wonderful surprise:

(personal photo)

Mr. Husky built me an arbor to marry under! After the wedding, it will find a home in our back yard, keeping the tree branch from messing up my hair every time I walk under it.

Sometimes I think I don’t give him enough credit. Way back when, I asked him if he had any thoughts about what our altar should look like. He told me he wanted sweet autumn clematis, but that was all he really had to say on the subject.

(source)

The topic never came up again. We purchased a couple of clematis plants, and they were quickly swallowed by the jungle of weeds growing in our flower beds (but they didn’t die – thanks drip irrigation!). Fast-forward many months. The Husky-in-Laws came for a visit on the way to greet their very first grand-baby in Iowa. FMIL Husky (remember I said she’s a master gardener?) was so bored thoughtful and pulled almost all of the weeds from our garden! And the clematis plants were exposed in all of their neglected glory.

That was last week. This week I came home to a beautiful hand-built arbor! There were some, um, measurement miscalculations with the middle beam, so Mr. Husky will be fixing that in the coming days. Eventually the middle beam will sit evenly with the two outer beams. He also bought the trellises for the clematis, which will be staged on either side of the arbor:

(personal photo)

We’ve also been thinking of doing a fabric backdrop. I’ve loved this photo for what feels like forever:

(source)

But the entrance to our barn is a sliding door, and I think the draped fabric would just look “off”. So we’re thinking about doing the fabric-drape behind the arbor.

Our next step is to figure out what color the arbor should be – painted? Stained? Left natural?

(personal photo – why yes, this is a sneak peek of our flowers)

And one more of Mr. Husky admiring his handiwork:

(personal photo)

Have you come home to any unexpected surprises, or discovered any hidden talents your fiance possessed? Outdoor brides, what are you using for your altar?