Weddingbee Blog

Vintage. It’s the word used to describe old things that aren’t quite precious or old enough to be called antiques. We seem to throw it around a lot in the wedding world, don’t we? I never put a name on our wedding’s aesthetic and we don’t really have a theme, so I don’t use “vintage” very often. At one point in gathering inspiration, though, I realized that I had quite a few pictures of vintage furniture being used in weddings. I was inspired to go on a little treasure hunt to find a few tables.

I was looking for real junk that I could rehab. Most of the antique and vintage shops in the Charlottesville area had pieces that would work, but they didn’t present a DIY challenge and I wanted to have a little fun. Just an hour away in Richmond, there are some real junk shops. The kinds of places where you have to climb over piles and get a little dirty to uncover a prize. One Saturday morning, I set off with this picture as my inspiration:

From Marry You Me / Design by Luna and Chloe Weddings

I won’t bore you with the play-by-play, but I found three tables that pretty much matched the table in my inspiration picture.

The first two had already been rehabilitated by others, so they looked exactly like the table in the picture. I found them at shops that seemed to cater to the shabby chic crowd. They were selling for $85–$100, which didn’t seem like a great deal. At my very last stop of the day, Diversity Thrift, I uncovered the perfect little table. It needed some love, but unlike the others, it had a glass top. It wasn’t a fantastic deal, but Diversity Thrift has a charitable mission, so I was happy to make the purchase.

When I got home, I went to work cleaning, sanding, priming, and painting. I splurged on some knobs from Anthropologie and my ugly duckling turned into a little swan…

Photos by Miss Mink

I thought the vanity might make a nice table for the top of our aisle. I got the idea from a Weddingbee member whose wedding was featured on 100 Layer Cake and photographer Jodi Miller’s blog. I’m not going to out her since her real name is used on the blog post.

With the vanity at the top of the aisle, I thought a small table might be nice for on the other end. It could hold programs or fans and a little welcome note. I had a picture on my inspiration board that seemed perfect.

From Style Me Pretty / Flowers by Petal Pusher / Photo by Diana Rothery

I didn’t have to go far for a close match. I’m not proud of this, but I found a broken table next to my little condo community’s trash compactor and decided to work on it. The legs and shelf need to be reattached. I had to strip a few layers of paint off it before I started to build it back up again. After a few days of working, I added a pink, glass Anthropologie knob and felt as though the broken table was about to start a new life.

Only after finishing these projects did I realize that my little table has similar lines to the vanity. Isn’t that a happy coincidence?

Photo by Miss Mink

By the way, my best kept secret for finding paint that will work for wedding related projects: the “oops paint” shelf at large hardware stores. When the customer doesn’t like how a paint turns out or doesn’t return for a paint they asked to be mixed, it often winds up on an “oops” or mistint shelf and is sold for a fraction of the original cost. For some reason, white and gray paints often wind up on the mistint shelf.

Have you used an inspiration picture as a guide for any of your DIY projects?