Because I’m on the ‘Bee all the time, I’ve gotten used to seeing some pretty amazing things at weddings. Some of you all are pretty fabulous DIYonistas. (I don’t think that word is going to catch on…) It’s easy to forget that not everyone is browsing the wedding section of Pinterest on a daily basis. So it really surprised me when so many of our guests complimented our decorations. (It’s not like we did anything life-changing. But apparently, they liked it.) It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (Actually that could have been my love for Mr. Whale. Or the champagne. Who knows.)
When guests walked up to our venue, they were greeted with several hand-painted signs.
The signs led them down to the ceremony site.
I actually painted the “Happiness Here” sign for my mom to put in her flower garden. Then she brought it to the wedding. So we put it up! I like the idea that it will live in their garden after the wedding, so I get to see it when I visit 🙂
The “Best Day Ever” sign didn’t turn out quite as good as I thought it would… But it didn’t make the day any less awesome 🙂
My favorite sign! This one will live at our house, if we ever get a house…
The sign fun continued at the reception. As guests approached the barn to enter the reception, they saw this.
And I guess they all got to walk through the bubbles! I have no idea, because I wasn’t there for cocktail hour. But I hope they walked through bubbles… because that’s awesome.
Once inside the barn, the guests picked up an escort card to find their table.
(I’ll tell you a little secret. That display of escort cards was way harder to put together than I anticipated. Just fair warning in case you want to do something similar.)
I think my centerpiece vision came together beautifully!
And Mama Whale deserves a big shout out, because she helped me glitter the table numbers while my wrist was broken.
On their way to a table, some guests might want to drop off a card or a gift.
Or maybe they felt like doing some mad libs!!
Of course, the sweetheart table had a few extra decorations.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I have a teensy weensy obsession with Hello Kitty. And for the record, I was going to have them on the cake table, but it was decided (by whom? I’m not sure… whoever finished up decorating the day of) that they looked better on our table. Mr. Whale was (and always has been) a good sport about it. (Just so you know, I’m writing all this while wrapped up in my Hello Kitty snuggie.)
And let’s not forget the Mr. and Mrs. signs I made for the chairs!
For the record, the letters were SUPER EASY to make. And it was practically free. I think the “Just Married” banner and the chair signs cost less than $10 altogether. (And I used the glitter in lots of other stuff, so it was a total win.)
Throughout the reception, our guests had the option of hanging out in the photobooth!! And we had a TON of props!
And that’s just the first table. We had so much stuff we had to pull in a second table! (Good thing we had so many, since guests didn’t want to take them off!)
And last but not least, we had a few sweet treats for our guests. Of course, we had to have cake.
OMG the cake was so delicious. We have two friends who recently opened an upscale restaurant, and they raved about them. If your chef friend likes the food, I think it’s safe to declare success.
And finally, the item that I had to have at my wedding: the infamous candy buffet.
Somehow there are no pictures of the buffet before people actually started eating from it. (Notice the half-full jar of Reese’s with no lid and the stray Skittle on the table?) But at least I know it was well-loved.
The craziest part of the candy buffet is that I somehow never saw it. I mean, at one point, I remembered that it existed and I looked at it from the other side of the room. I remember that someone was filling up a bag of candy. But I cannot believe that I literally never visited the candy buffet during the evening. What was I thinking??
Such is the life of a bride. Spend eternity obsessing over something. Never look at it on your wedding day.
Right now you’re asking yourself, “Why are those hearts so far above the candy buffet?” Le sigh. I had big plans for my polka dot glitter hearts. They were going to hang around the candy buffet table. But for some reason, that particular table cloth wasn’t ready the day before the wedding. So the table cloth wasn’t going to get there until a few hours before the wedding. And I wasn’t going to ask someone else to spend all that time putting the hearts up. There was already a piece of twine hanging on the wall. So… I just put the hearts on the twine and called it a day. Could it have looked better? Yep. Do I care? Nope.
And there you have it. All the fabulous details of our wedding!
*All photos by the stupendously talented Brenda Upton Photography
If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…
- My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
- We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
- I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
- I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
- My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
- After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
- The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
- I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
- The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
- I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
- The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
- We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
- I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
- The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
- We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
- We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
- We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
- Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.
- Mr. Whale and some of the guys had an impromptu singalong to “Piano Man”.
My Big Colorful Wedding 