Weddingbee Blog

A quick little detailed interlude before I start talking about the reception, dancing, photo booth, and pie.

The details. Now there have been a number of posts recently out in weddingblogland about saying ‘no’ to the vintage typewriter/mason jars/hay bales/jam favours/whatevers, and talk that the plethora of wedding bloggers is maybe leading people to focus more on OMG THE DETAILS than the marriage. All very interesting posts, as are the ‘rebuttals’ (for lack of a better word). We did work hard to make sure there were nice details at our wedding, but we know that that isn’t the focus of the event. The important thing was that we got married. That was the highlight of both our days. But in the time leading up to the wedding, I had a lot of fun planning what things would look like. It’s not often I get to throw a party this big, and frankly, I like decorating. You should see our house at Christmas!

All that to say, yes, the marriage is the important part. But the details were pretty, and some were even captured by our photographers. I would like to share them not to make you feel like you have to make jam for your guests or you won’t be married, but to inspire you like the photos of all sorts of weddings all over the blogosphere inspired me.

Our ring book - it is gorgeous, and that’s why we picked it. It isn’t a special title (I think it is Mill on the Floss?), it didn’t coordinate with our wedding colours, but it is a gorgeous vintage book that is almost a work of art on its own. I’d bought lots of ribbon in our wedding colours, so it was super-quick to put together.

The jam! Mum and I made jam favours because my mum has always made jam, and once I moved out I started making my own jam. It’s what we do. Bad puns are what Cinnamon Buns and I do, so the sign (and all the labels) are very appropriate too.

The paper flowers. I love a fiddly project to keep me occupied, and I did enjoy the process of making these. I think they really helped with the vintage book motif we had going.

Some last-minute sprucing up of our ceremony area. Teal wire tables from Michaels, two ‘joy’ Christmas ornaments in our wedding colours that I’d picked up on clearance in January, two book-page runners, and two potted orchids. Oh, and don’t forget the apple green Hampen rug from IKEA that inspired the whole colour scheme!

(photo above by a guest)

(photo above by Uncle Peter)

The family wedding photographs were a huge hit! It was a fairly last-minute project and I thought we’d get just a few photos. We got almost 20! Some stayed in the frames they lived in, anything that we received digitally we printed and put in a dollar store frame with some scrapbook paper mats. People (not just our families!) had fun looking through them, and trying to spot people who were there in the room. We arranged them by date and they spanned from 1880 - 2005, with most decades in between (last photo above spans the ’40s-70s!). I ended up using just 2 types of ribbon on the name cards - even years were teal organza, odd years were apple green grosgrain. It was just random enough for my type-A brain. The two digital photo frames of Cinnamon Buns and I also provided the almost-obligatory embarrassing-photos-shown-at-your-wedding tradition without making people take time out from their conversations to watch a slideshow.

Our venue had a beautiful wooden table that we used to display the ribbon wands, guest book, card bird cage, and the RSVP drawings we received back. This was all in the ceremony half of the room, so guests who arrived early had something to peruse while they waited.

OK, these two little guys were a splurge. I commissioned them in secret from Etsy seller dandelionland. When the package arrived I squirreled it away so I could surprise Cinnamon Buns with them on the wedding day. And then in all the hustle and bustle…I forgot to get them out. One of the photos of me texting at the hair place is me giving him directions to where I hid the box, telling him to open it, and bring the contents to the venue. I’m happy they made it, and it makes me happy to see them now sitting on top of one of our bookcases.

What’s your stance on the detail debate?