Our Sweet Beginning: Reception Details

After the ceremony, our wedding guests headed to the gorgeous country club where Brian and I had done our first look. Our caterers were amazing and set up the entire reception for us...so neither of us had seen the room completely finished. During cocktail hour, we got to sneak in and see the finished product. Everything was even more beautiful than I had pictured!

Most of the time I spent planning our wedding was dedicated to brainstorming things I could do to personalize the reception and creating DIY projects that would keep us within our budget. This post is dedicated to all of the little details from our reception that I worked so hard on! It was so exciting to see all of our ideas come to fruition.

Our invitations

Seating Chart

Brian and I opted to have a sweetheart table for the two of us with tables of our bridal party and their dates surrounding us. It was nice to have the (very limited) time we sat eating to the two of us.

Our reception tables had three different centerpieces: a tall and short floral centerpiece and a centerpiece inspired by a trip to Tucson. We also named our tables after places we had traveled together and included a picture of the two of us in that place on the table signs.

Our signature drinks were also an ode to our journey together: The Del Coronado Pacific Cooler (the drink I had at The Del after we got engaged), The Sunset Margarita (Brian's favorite drink from our trip to Key West), and Peach Wine (an ode to our new beginning in Georgia).

At each place setting was a jar of peach preserves, our favor to our guests and another nod to our new beginning, and a dinner menu.

Our cake and cupcakes were made by Desserts by Rita. Not only were they pretty, they were so SO yummy.

I made both the cake stand and cupcake stands but never got around to blogging about them in the last-minute craziness before the wedding, so I've linked to others' tutorials. :)

I made our guest book on MyPublisher using our engagement pictures. I love looking through it!

Beside the guest book were memorial candles celebrating the lives of family members who have passed away.

Next to our photobooth was a sign explaining that guests should leave an extra copy of their photo strip for us to keep. I painted a canvas with one of our monograms and made it into a memo board where guests clipped their pictures.

This is not exactly a reception detail, but I know as a bride I was stumped about what to get my bridesmaids as a gift. I ended up gifting them a personalized bracelet from The Vintage Pearl (love!) and a Coach wristlet to use the day of the wedding.

A last minute project (the week of our wedding and my graduation!) was the flip flop basket. I was so glad I put this together because the flip flops were much-needed for dancing. My feet were killing me by the end of the night!



When I was planning our wedding, there were so many details and projects I wanted to tackle. Of course, I didn't get around to all of them but I was so happy with how much I was able to accomplish (especially in the midst of my last year of graduate school!)

Centerpiece Mock-up

Have you guys ever tried to buy flowers for a wedding?! Holy expensive! Luckily, when Brian was home for Presidents' Day, we got to tackle one DIY project that will cut some of the costs in that department.

This story starts this past November, when I went to visit Brian in Tucson. The resort where we stayed, Starr Pass, is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I pretty much loved everything about it! But imagine my surprise when Brian was the one who pointed out these flowers that decorated the lobby....and insisted on having something similar at the wedding! Good thing I'm so agreeable! :)

After meeting with the florist, we decided to tackle creating these centerpieces for 1/3 of the tables at our reception (1/3 of the tables will have a short floral centerpiece, and the remaining 1/3 will have a tall floral centerpiece). We set out in search of supplies and came up with this:

4" Rocks Glass Candleholders from The Dollar Tree

7 1/4" Glass Cylinder Vases from The Dollar Tree

  

  10.5" Glass Cylinder Vases from Michael's

Multi-Toned River Rocks from The Dollar Tree

A couple of stems of fake orchids from Michael's


  Floating candles

(I will probably order some longer-burning floating candles from here; the ones from The Dollar Tree burned for around 3 hours and our reception, not including cocktail hour, is 4 hours).

We decided on three different heights for the vases on each table. Here is what they looked like put together!

 

I'm thrilled with how they turned out! I think we definitely did justice to Brian's inspiration, don't you?! :)