Wedding Crafts and Trends

 My niece was married over the Memorial Day weekend and I thought I would share some of the crafting I did for the wedding as well as some she did and items she purchased. I would call it a boot and burlap wedding which is popular now. The girls wore cowboy boots with their dresses and burlap was used in a lot of the decorations. I guess you would call it a distressed look for weddings. I am sure if you asked my brother if it saved much money to "look distressed" he would assure you that it doesn't! LOL! Anyway, many of these ideas came from Pinterest and ETSY.

Jackson, my two and a half year old grandson was the "ring bearer", although there was no ring involved. He wore this sign around his neck, walking in with "Ian, here comes your girl" and walking out with the reverse side showing that says "...and they lived Happily ever after!" I created the sign from wood I purchased at Joann's, stained and painted.

 On the porch of the house where the wedding was held (built in 1870), Katelyn placed a quilt her deceased grandmother had made as well as Mr. and Mrs. burlap pillows she purchased. They could easily be made also, adding the writing with a Sharpie pen.

 For her favors, Katelyn had a candy buffet, another popular trend. She purchased a stamp (ETSY I believe) which I stamped on sticker paper, edge punched with an eyelet punch and placed on the clear cellophane candy bags. I enlarged the image on a copier and painted a wooden sign with the same saying and placed it on an easel. She and Ian chose some of their favorite candies for the jars, but I did do some color coordination for front and center as it photographs well. The colors of the other candies actually looked fine with the wallpaper that was behind the sideboard on which the candy was placed.

 Katelyn used large letters on the mantel of the fireplace, including this "W" I picked up for her at Michaels. She painted it to match the color of the wedding, seafoam green. She also had their first name initials and an ampersand on the opposite end of the mantel. A large ampersand was used between the chairs at their little reserved table.

 For going away, Katelyn made these shakers (not sure what she called them) in their favorite school colors. Ian drilled a little hole in the end of a dowel and Katelyn and my other neice placed the curling ribbon through the eyehole that was placed in the drilled hole.

 Labels were made with their monogram and date of the wedding. It was late May in north Florida, but turned out to be a nice pleasant day on the river, so the water wasn't as necessary as it would have been on a typical hot and humid day! I have also decorated water bottles with mailing tape in an appropriate design (like monkeys for Clayton's first birthday party)

 Here is the ampersand between the chairs.

 For the programs, Katelyn had a file created with all the information from the wedding. They then had them printed and created fans to be made available for the guests. Again, the fans were not needed for the weather, but the programs still looked pretty.

 I found this duck tape marked down after the holidays in an appropriate color and used it to secure the candles in one of the "chandeliers" she had to hang. Duck tape is just one of those good things to have when decorating for a wedding! I saw someone post a photo of one of the balloons we used on the road that had a piece of the duck tape I guess to close up a small puncture wound! Every redneck wedding needs a little duck tape!

 I noticed Katelyn's hanger below for her dress, another trend in weddings.

 Katelyn had seen a similar sign like the one below on ETSY, I think for around forty bucks, so I painted another piece of wood to make this decoration.

 Katelyn had a couple of old windows on which she placed photos of she and Ian. I hung the two (rather heavy) frames on each side of the wedding cake on actual windows. They did not fall down, so I was happy.
She also had a small wedding cake and then had several sheet cakes in different flavors for the guests, as well as banana pudding.

 I painted some directional signs to lead guests to the wedding site as well as this identifying sign below, another idea Katelyn had seen and liked.

 The two flower girls carried these two little pails, to which a black area had been spray painted. I added their names with a paint pen.

 Here are the other initials on the mantel and a shot of the two windows with the old windows. I used fishing line and wire to hang the heavy frames, but then added the burlap ribbon to look like that was holding them up.

 The wedding ceremony was on the St. John's River and I wired lace and burlap bows on the arbor. Katelyn had purchased a couple of these chandeliers from a bride that had been married at the same venue. We added candles in the seafoam green to bring in the color (secured with duct tape). It was so pretty with the sailboats drifting by on the water. The weather was perfect even if a little breezy!

 Instagram is another big trend, so I wrote on this chalk board with the hashtag to use so that all the photos guests posted would be accessible at one place. You can see more wedding photos there if you want to see them.

 For her guestbook, Katelyn had a printed book of photos the photographer had taken back in December.

 Here are a couple of ideas from the Bridal Luncheon. Katelyn's social club color in college was purple, so I am assuming that was why a different color was used. Her mother decorated the candles, combining lace, burlap and ribbon. The placecard was created using a wine cork and string pearls.

 For dessert, cupcakes were formed in the shape of a wedding dress.

 Monogramed tote bags and personalized Tervis cups were given to the attendants as gifts.

 Katelyn had painted wine bottles in the wedding colors to use for flowers in the centerpieces. They turned out very pretty. Canning jars were also used and one was used for each bouquet so the girls flowers could be used on the tables after the ceremony.

 Here are closer looks at the fan program and the stamped candy bags. I placed the wire tie in the bag so that they were easily accessible once the bags were filled.

 Birdcages were used as decorations and for cards from guests. Katelyn had also purchased these canning jars that had been attached to what appeared to be candle holders, thus creating stemware for their iced tea!

 Here are the shakers in action. I am sure she had a different name for them, but they do make a nice photo, whatever they are called!

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of these crafted items and ideas for weddings. Weddings certainly have changed in the almost forty years I have been married. Now there are so many ideas available and items available for purchase over the internet.
Of course, one thing has not changed.....they are still a lot of work! In the long run, they are worth all the fretting and prep work!