Stephanie and Vaugh are such a sweet couple! One of the many reasons why I love them is that they were very open to my ideas and pretty much let me fly with it. ^_^ They had a tight budget and their reception was held in the church dining hall. This was where the fun begin! The true excitement came from the task of converting the plain dining hall into an area that fit for a wedding reception.
When you have a tight budget, you definitely have to be smart in tackling your decor. Simple things that give the most impact is what we were looking for. The color of the walls is kind of like "robin's egg". I actually like the color a lot, but it also posed a challenge because Stephanie was going for black and white/silver theme.
A quick solution would be to do drapings, however, due to the space limitation (depth and height) and budget, that idea would not work out too well. So my thought was to embrace the wall color as it is and work around it. We brought in the black and white theme by covering different sizes of canvases with patterned fabrics. Ideally, you want to do push pins and/or nails to hold these on the walls to make sure they stayed on. For this event, we used the 3-D Glue Dots and we put a lot of these on the back of each of the canvases. For any events, before you decide on using this fabrics on canvas idea, you have to make sure that the venue would allow nails/push pins onto the walls (most likely not...but hey, you can always ask, you'll never know). To soften the look, we used simple uplights throughout the room and lotsa tealights.
A little side note: The type of uplights that I have work only for smaller room such as this, but if you are looking to do bigger room, I recommend that you contact Synergetics Sounds and Lighting. They specialize in high quality, professional uplights and lighting effects for bigger venues.
As for centerpieces, the tables were a little narrow, so we decided to do simple but striking designs. We used a combination of fresh and silk flowers. Half of the tables were decked with silk casablanca lilies in a cylinder glass vase and black boa around the vase and we put two smaller vases filled with black river stones mixed with silver glass fillers topped with silk phalaenopsis orchid heads.
The other half were decked with dried birch branches painted in black with silver glitter, fresh white dendrobium orchids and different sizes of pillar candles.
I thought that was fun! ^_^ The fabric-wrapped canvas idea is certainly DIY-friendly. All you need is fabrics, canvas, and staple gun. If say, the venue does not allow you to attach anything on the wall, you can still use this idea for place card table even on guest table centerpieces. Just adjust the size of the canvas to fit the needs.
Speaking of fun, I definitely had a lot of fun creating Stephanie's bridal bouquet! She let me used the black boa as the backdrop of her bouquet! YAY!! I also put white feathers in for the bridesmaids' bouquets and the boutonnieres! ^_^
The lovely bride and her father...and the bridesmaids...
It was certainly a perfect day for a wedding! Gorgeous weather, gorgeous bridal party and I am certainly honored to be a part of this wonderful day!
Stephanie and Vaughn's Wedding Vendors:
Married 2 Events - Catering
Megan Kennedy - Wedding Planner
Alakija & Co Photography - Photographer
TLKreations - Favors
Stephanie's Purchasing Sources:
Silk Flowers - www.afloral.com
Vases - www.flowersandsupplies.com
Dried Birch Branches - www.driedflowersrus.com
Black river stones, pillar candles - Dollar Tree store, AC Moore
Boas, canvases - AC Moore
Tealights and holders - IKEA
For more pictures from this wedding, please visit Papertini's online album.
Congratulations, Stephanie and Vaughn!!!
Many happy wishes for you two always!!!
Thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity!