Honeymoon Cash Jar
For many cultures it is traditional to have a Money Dance during the wedding reception.
The Many Uses for Silk Rose Petals
Never was there a more diverse decor option than silk rose petals. Silk rose petals work for weddings, receptions, engagements, anniversaries, quinceaneras, showers, and so much more.
Using Your Proposal in Wedding Décor
Your proposal has likely already become a part of your relationship story. It’s an anecdote you tell to coworkers, at parties, or maybe even on Facebook. It doesn’t matter how extravagant or crazy your proposal was, they’re all memorable. How and when you decided to make it official will be a story you will be asked to repeat for your entire lives. Your kids will want to hear it just as much as you wanted to know the story of your parent’s courtship. So embrace it! Here are a few fun ideas to give a nod to your proposal story in your wedding décor:
Wedding Stationary
Photo shoots for your invitations and save-the-dates are a great time to express your individuality and the unique story of your relationship. Think about snapping photos at the location where you decided to tie the knot for your wedded paper good. If you got engaged at sunset at a local park (even if you were wearing your workout gear), pay homage to that site by staging photos at the exact location where it all went down (sweats optional). Illustrations are a less literal way to interpret your proposal story – subtle references (such as kissing fish stamps for an aquarium proposal or twin rocking chairs for a quiet promise at home) are a silent inside nod that you and your fiancé can share with guests.
Unique Centerpieces
There are many unique and fun centerpieces that have been constructed by couples to reference their unique proposal story. A new and popular choice seems to be table number reorganization – naming guests’ tables after locations (or items) that hold some significance to the relationship. You could also integrate items into the displays that play into your tale, such as monopoly piece confetti (if the proposal happened over a friendly – or heated – board game) or small appetizers that nod to the last meal you shared before becoming fiancé/fiancée.
If you plan to go this route, think about setting up a small display that explains the significance of the unique touches of personal décor. You probably don’t want to be fielding questions all night about the stack of American modernist anthologies under each vase of white roses.
Wedding Website
Every newly-engaged couple should have a wedding website, especially if you’re expecting any number of guests from out of town. A wedding website is a great home base to organize information about your wedding, and it’s easy to find a host for a free one. Many of the sites also come with this fun little tab for details about your relationship. If you haven’t committed the favorite stories of your relationship to paper, this is your chance. There are some details you might not remember in another thirty or forty years, and writing it down while it’s fresh will be something posterity will thank you for.
This is also an opportunity for distant relatives to catch up on the special stories of your relationship that may come up during wedding festivities. After all, you don’t want anyone to be confused about your use of a science fair volcano in place of a unity candle.
Keeping your DIY Reception Decorations Professional-Looking
Working Out the Kinks in DIY Reception Decorations
DIY Reception Decorations
When you're planning a DIY wedding, some of the more technical paper goods can be daunting. Menus, place cards, and even table numbers can easily look amateurish and cheap if you aren't careful where and how you print them. When you DIY reception decorations, it's important to find a kit or a guide to keep everything on track and stylish. You don't want your DIY reception decorations to be shadowed by cheap paper goods!
DIY reception decorations can be fun, but when it comes to paper goods, I recommend a kit. DIY reception decorations kits will keep everything uniform and cohesive - the biggest issue for any DIY bride. If you try to hand-write and hand-cut your DIY reception decorations, they might not look very professional. On the other hand, if you ask a print shop to design them for you, it isn't really DIY (and where's the fun in that?). Yes, your best option is a kit that provides you with the software you need to design DIY reception decorations that you can really be proud of. The kits will come with cutouts for your menus, place cards, and table numbers, but the design will be all on you.
So have fun designing and printing your own DIY reception decorations!
Stick to the Fun Parts of DIY Wedding Bunting
DIY Wedding Bunting: Style and Convenience
DIY Wedding Bunting
For your wedding, DIY wedding bunting kits offer a fun way to decorate your space with some personal and stylish flair. DIY wedding bunting offers all of the fun of DIY without the special skill set that only serious crafters come pre-equipped with. Few of us even know what bunting is, let alone how to measure and purchase the proper amount of materials for the job. No, a DIY wedding bunting kit gives us all of the fun parts of crafting (bonding with your bridesmaids over mimosas) and none of the frustrated hours at the craft store. DIY wedding bunting is a fun mini project that will really add a bit of professional style to you wedding - but I do recommend a kit... for your sanity.
So where can you situate some DIY wedding bunting in your ceremony or reception space? While it does fit in almost anywhere, there are a few places where DIY wedding bunting really shines. Think about including some over your otherwise bare ceremony arch. DIY bunting is an inexpensive alternative to flowers and adds a colorful (and understated) touch to your photos. The dessert table is another place where DIY wedding bunting works well. It makes the table look like a part of the decor, and it doesn't look weird if that's the only place you feature DIY wedding bunting. It really is that versatile!
Andres and Andreas’ Wedding Reception
Andrea and Andres’ wedding reception was held at a private estate in the hills near the church where they held their ceremony. While the bridal entourage took pictures in the expansive backyard overlooking the beautiful California skyline, guests mingled at the front of the estate, entertained by live mariachi music and light cocktails. The wedding, from ceremony to reception, had an old-world feel that came across beautifully in the décor, food, style, and venue.
The backyard was transformed for the Muller wedding (with the family even re-landscaping part of it for the lounge), featuring a polished wood dance floor with floating pink lanterns, a lounge at the fringe of the party, and several family-style tables adorned with flowers and food. The small orange trees that peppered the dance floor, combined with the blooms floating in the permanent garden fountain, helped create a perfect setting for the laid-back, family wedding.
The white guest tables were draped with blue-green burlaps and lined with bunches of spring blossoms such as roses, ranunculus, parrot tulips, garden roses, and other similar blooms atop hunks of driftwood. Blooms were also found in mason jars that had been painted in a chic, vintage style (with a pale blue drip around the rim of each jar). Escort cards, table numbers, and menus all matched in style and color, and coordinated beautifully with the other stationary that led up to the event: programs and invitations.
The focus of the wedding was definitely the dance floor – it was full of guests throughout the duration of the evening – though most people did find time to make trips to the bar (where margaritas and wine dominated the menu) and to eat the delicious dinner prepared by famous Orange County food truck, Barcelona on the Go. Guests also indulged in one of the event’s several cakes, featuring flavors such as succulent chocolate, tiramisu, and red velvet.
The reception space was filled with color throughout the entire evening. Pinks, oranges, whites, yellows, and greens faded to a warm glow as the lanterns became the primary focus of the evening. It looked as if this backyard was meant to host Andres and Andreas’ reception!
Styling by Sugar and Fluff
Design Something Wonderful with Wedding Tealight Holders
Wedding Tealight Holders Offer Beautiful Floral Alternatives
Wedding Tealight Holders
The tealight: nothing is so beautiful in its simplicity for the decorating of your wedding or reception space. These tiny little candles add flickers of light and wonderful glimmering accents to even the most hard-to-reach places. With wedding tealight holders, you can get both the simple beauty of the tealight with the added bonus of a cohesive aesthetic unity to your décor.
If you just break open a pack of store-bought tealights and arrange them (however artfully) on your reception tables, it will often feel like something is missing; something is keeping them from reaching their maximum decorating potential. That’s when you bust out your wedding tealight holders, in whatever design and aesthetic that spoke to you as you did your wedding accessory shopping. Wedding tealight holders will allow you to keep the simplicity and sparkling beauty of a thousand little tealights while adding something special to your décor.
Wedding tealight holders come in all shapes and sizes and are perfect for the bride who might not have the budget for a room filled with flowers. Tealights are just as eye-catching and beautiful, so fill your reception and ceremony space with wedding tealight holders!
Consider diamond wedding tealight holders, or even tealight holders that you can hang from branches or verandas. If you have a head for design and style, the possibilities are endless with wedding tealight holders.
Creativity in Wedding Table Numbers
Wedding Table Numbers: Noticeable and Subtle!
Wedding Table Numbers
If you want any sort of order at your wedding, you're probably already working on a seating chart - and seating charts mean wedding table numbers. Wedding table numbers are a detail that some brides don't think about until the rest of the planning is over, but honestly, they're just as important as your centerpieces and table runners. Wedding table numbers need to be noticeable without being distracting, and you need to make sure they won't blow away! This isn't a problem for indoor receptions, but it's just one of the little details that some brides brush away until it becomes a problem.
So what are your options for wedding table numbers? There are several styles, designs, and materials that you could use to design your wedding table numbers; they're as diverse and personal as the other details of your day, and they can be fun to integrate if you think about it far enough ahead of time.
You could stick to traditional circular card stock wedding table numbers or tent-style paper wedding table numbers (both simple, classy options), but don't feel limited. Wedding table numbers can be fashioned out of anything if you have a handy-dandy liquid chalk marker at your side. The markers are washable and add a rustic, vintage feel to whatever you might be marking - wedding table numbers included. You could also include your centerpieces in your venture by option for vases with wedding table numbers personalized into them. Get creative!
The Many Shapes of Wedding Confetti
Wedding Confetti Ideas
Wedding Confetti
Decorating a blank event space on your own is often pretty scary at first. Trying to find pieces of decorative filler that don’t LOOK like filler is close to impossible for the novice designer, and trying to find emphatic pieces that don’t break the bank is even harder. With wedding confetti, however, a first-time party planner (or an expert who knows the benefit of a full, colorful party space) will find that there’s no better companion. Wedding confetti doesn’t have to be the strips of paper from birthdays past. Wedding confetti comes in all shapes and sizes and has more uses than you could imagine.
Consider diamond wedding confetti – pieces of molded acrylic that exude elegance, color, and style. The “diamonds” come in all shades and they add a great contrasting element to centerpieces and otherwise blank table tops. This wedding confetti make a space feel coherent without overpowering the more important pieces of the table and/or event.
Traditional wedding confetti is also great for decorating within an otherwise blank space, but don’t feel limited when it comes to shapes. Girlier events (such as bridal showers) will benefit from some pink butterfly wedding confetti, while mismatched circular black ring wedding confetti adds a posh feeling to your uptown space.
Also, feel free to toss some good old fashioned multicolored wedding confetti at the bride and groom as they make their entrance!
Go Green with Eco Friendly Wedding Accessories
Eco Friendly Wedding Accessories for an Environmentally Conscious Event
Eco Friendly Wedding Accessories
If you and your fiancé are environmentally conscious and you want that passion reflected in your wedding day, you're going to need some eco friendly wedding accessories. The easiest way to remain eco friendly on your wedding day is to communicate your preferences with your vendors before signing any contracts and making any plans. Most vendors are happy to accommodate vegan/vegetarian diets, eco-friendly lighting, and any other environmentally friendly needs that you may have. If you vendor can't accommodate you, and being eco friendly is a big concern, take your business elsewhere. Environmentally friendly business practices are growing in popularity; your search won't take too long.
For the smaller stuff, eco friendly wedding accessories are a fun way to show your guests your passion for the environment. Consider eco friendly wedding accessories such as invitations and guestbooks make of recycled or natural paper. These things are better than processed goods for mother earth, and they fit seamlessly into any decor. Select paper products with pressed flowers inlayed into them, or pieces of nature sewn into their lining. Eco friendly wedding accessories don't have to sacrifice beauty for practicality!
Think about eco friendly wedding accessories for your favors as well. Use that same natural paper for environmentally friendly hand fans for your guests, or find escort cards or menus that can be planted (seeds sewn into paper products are growing in popularity for eco friendly weddings). Whatever you do to help the environment on your big day, eco friendly wedding accessories are there to help!
Wedding Table Runners - A Simple and Long-Lasting Accent
Say it with Wedding Table Runners
Wedding Table Runners
Personalized wedding table runners are a unique and exciting accent that will compliment any event's decor. Wedding table runner are already a staple at party rentals, as they add depth and stylistic complexity to your table arrangements, and they're perfect for tables that are showcasing simple centerpieces. Wedding table runners highlight the centerpieces without distracting from the overall design (and your guests don't have to move them to see each other). Wedding table runners are a great way to make sure your centerpieces and table designs pop without being overly showy.
The benefit for personalized wedding table runners over traditional wedding table runners is obvious: they offer another way to showcase your monogram on your wedding day. By adding your signature monogram (or names and wedding date), you add unity to the other pieces of wedding decor likely to display your initials as well.
Personalized wedding table runners also make wonderful keepsakes after the big day. If they display your family name, they'll be a wonderful addition to the homes of your relatives - if they'll just be personalized with the names of the happy couple, they'll make a great addition to your dining room table. Personalized wedding table runners can be stored away for anniversaries and special occasions (not to mention for the eventual distribution to progeny), or they can be left out year-round to remind you of your love and commitment.