mr & mrs

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

Crafting the chair decor for our head table was a simple & inexpensive way to personalize another detail in our wedding. Using card stock, 3x5 note cards, letters printed in our 'wedding font' and twine, this project was put together quickly.

To add some detail to the flags, I measured 1" up from the center of the bottom of each piece of cardstock, then cut a straight line from each corner up to the center mark. For more stability, I affixed plain notecards to the cardstock, and glued the individual letters onto the notecards. Each letter was printed on regular white paper and I left enough space between each letter when printed so that I could cut out an area that was as close to the 3x5 card as possible.

If you look closely on the detail photos, you can see the outline of the printed paper, but from a normal distance in person, this was not noticeable. Having the notecards behind the letters also ensured that the colours in the cardstock didn't show through and the white areas popped out from the cardstock, as the weight of regular paper isn't very thick.

Using a hole punch, I placed two holes on either side of the letter and reinforced the holes from the back. Twine was woven through the openings to connect the letters into our 'mr' & 'mrs', which allowed us to use the signs as props, as well as providing the easy ability to tie them onto the backs of our beautiful cross back chairs.While I would have loved to use these chairs throughout our reception space, we couldn't afford the extra expense, so we went with some lovely fruitwood folding chairs for our guest tables. I'm so glad we splurged on having two for our sweetheart table, and were able to use them during the ceremony as well!

::side note:: trying to sit down while wearing a giant dress with t w o crinolines underneath it, on a smooth cement floor almost caused a catastrophe during our ceremony! Thank goodness my Aunts were right behind us and stopped the chair from sliding during my second attempt, but I spent the first few minutes of our wedding listening to beautiful scripture readings while 1" (literally) of my body was touching the chair! Yay yoga training & good posture for keeping me upright!!

the fateful chair. i thought ahead & the pillow did help to give me some support since i knew i wouldn't be able to reach the back of the chair, but the dress was so huge i could barely sit down at all without the chair sliding!!

doing my very best to stay upright!! also, don't those girls look lovely?! post coming soon on their outfits :)

just before we were first introduced as mr & mrs dobbins!!

I made several other signs similar to these that were used around our reception room, including 'sweets' at our dessert bar, 'cards' on the briefcase we used at our gift table, 'drinks' at the bar and 'december 1 2012' to be used at our photo booth, draped across the burlap backdrop the photographer provided. I love the idea of being able to use the 'december 1' banner to decorate at our anniversary each year!

Photo by Flashtastic Photo Booth

I've already re-used several of the signs to decorate at home and as part of the decor for a friend's wedding. The darling 'sweets' sign just might be seen if you visit the delicious Creative Crumbs in East Nashville for one of her sweet creations!

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Fireplace Feature

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

One of Camp Marymount's big features in our reception area space (and my absolute favourite part of the decor) was a huge stone fireplace. We set up our sweetheart table directly in front of the fireplace and it served as a stunning backdrop. The mantle space gave us lots of room to hang beautiful handmade paper flowers, bunting, globe lights and flowers, and there were several built-in areas that allowed us to display photos and hang more lights which came together gorgeously.

One of my favourite photos of the decor! I have the paper flowers and bunting up on our mantle at home now!

These incredible paper flowers were inspired by ones I had seen on Pinterest. Hannah Barker, one of my former youth group teens, is a very talented art student, and she made these flowers by hand using craft and scrapbook paper. After living in a bag for several months, the flowers were hot-glued to a sturdy piece of hemp cord the week before the wedding, and the garland was the pefect length to drape across the mantle.

I had several sections of the bunting shown here, and it was displayed around the reception space in several areas. I made it using brown card stock (to match several other crafts I had put together) for the base, and unbleached craft paper found during the back-to-school season. The sheets were cut into two sizes of pennants and I used an edge punch (purchased on clearance!) to add a fleur-de-lis detail to the edges of each piece. Each pennant was glued together and then hot glued to a piece of wide ribbon. I was very thankful to have several friends help out with the punching process, as it was certainly time consuming! This detail was very special to me, as the fleur-de-lis is found prominently in Louisville, where Jermaine is from, as well as in Quebec, where my Mom grew up. Atop the substantial mantle, wicker globe lights nestled in with small stems of baby's breath.

There were several shelves built into the sides of the fireplace, and these nooks were a perfect place to display photos of Jermaine & I. We found lots of picture frames at Goodwill and they were spray painted champagne to give them a cohesive look. Globe lights (purchased on clearance from summer patio stock) added to the ambience, and baby's breath was interspersed with the frames, continuing with our pastoral theme.

The large scale of the fireplace allowed it to provide a gorgeous backdrop for many photos, as it was visible from almost any angle. This huge feature fit perfectly into the large reception space and the vaulted ceilings allowed the area to feel open and airy, while still being warm and inviting.

Posing with my lovely flower girl!

I'm so thrilled with the way the fireplace added such a large impact on our reception space! While the total cost of the decor, flowers and lights used amounted to less than $50, the crafted items certainly required some time to prep. It was amazing to see the many details I had collected over several months come together in this area, and I'm thankful for the friends & family who helped to bring my vision to life! The flower garland and bunting has a new life on our mantle at home as well :)

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Munchies

We loved the food served at our wedding! From popcorn to dinner to dessert, we worked with some wonderful chefs and even imported some snacks from Canada!!

Being HUGE popcorn fans, it was really a no brainer when we decided to have a popcorn bar during our cocktail hour. In Canada, there's a place called Kernels that makes delicious flavoured popcorn. It was always a treat to pick out our own little bags of popcorn when I was growing up, and dill pickle was ALWAYS my favourite!! Jermaine worked at a cinema growing up and also had a weakness for popped corn, AND he met my maid of honour Jennifer at this cinema, who would introduce us many years later!! Popcorn certainly seemed fitting to share with our guests. I hand stamped brown paper bags with a few friends, so there was one for each of our guests to mix their own concoctions. We had three HUGE gold basins to serve the popcorn in and several flavours for our guests to customize their own bags. It was definitely a hit!!

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

For dinner, we went with Kitchen by House Blend. We ended up hiring them at the last minute (think two weeks before the wedding!!) which I certainly would not recommend, but was necessary in this case. I had met Holly at a wedding show about a month before our wedding and their food was DELICIOUS! I didn't think we could afford to work with them, but Holly worked with us to create a menu that satisfied not only our budget but our appetites. Being a vegan, I've been at many weddings where I've only been able to have rolls & lukewarm veggies, so I definitely wanted to have an entree that I could enjoy. We served chicken, BBQ, mashed potatoes, veggies, baked beans & rolls, and had a vegan quinoa option that made me VERY excited! 

For dessert, we had a cookie bar containing lots of different options. I spent the weeks before the wedding baking from some family recipes, and my Mom brought several novelty brands from Canada. The more traditional chocolate chip, shortbread & gingerbread met Fudgeos (a favourite import of my coworkers!) and maple leaf cookies and allowed our guests to create a plate that was all their own. Hand stamped signs beside each plate let our guests know what they were choosing. We also had delicious chocolate cake & Viennese torte baked by Creative Crumbs.

I'm so thankful that we were able to incorporate so many delicious items into our menu, especially at our mini-budget's price point. We even took some leftovers with us on our honeymoon and had our own popcorn bar all week, with a few pieces of cake! Talk about sweet love :)

xoxo

mrs dobbins

Bridal Attire

Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

As a budget bride, I had long thought that my 'dream' dress would be out of reach. After watching 'Say Yes To The Dress' on many a Friday evening, and scouring the pages of bridal catalogs, I knew that my tastes were slightly (!!) higher than what I thought was reasonable to spend. I was thrilled when I found this dress with a sweetheart neckline and a full, layered tulle skirt on the David's Bridal website, well under my $1,000 pricepoint. With only a five-month engagement, and a rush needed for a petite order, I made my decision on this dress VERY quickly - less than two weeks after we were engaged! While my Mom wasn't able to come down from Canada before our wedding, I was very thankful that Jermaine's Mom was able to be with me when I said yes to my dress! With an aggressive workout strategy, I took the risk of ordering my dress several sizes smaller than I was measuring at my fitting, despite strong objections from the staff. While it may not be for everyone, I knew that especially with my 5'1" frame, losing any weight would result in a drop of several dress sizes. I was thrilled when my dress arrived and needed only slight alterations - and it was too large!! I used two separate full slips underneath my skirt to increase the fullness, which also meant I didn't need to have the dress hemmed. I'm so happy with my decision and loved wearing my dress on our wedding day!

After months of searching, I found this gorgeous gold sash on an Etsy shop Love Like Style several weeks before the wedding. I love the intricate designs of the gold lace, and it ties in the back with lovely tan ribbons that cascaded down. I've worn it on several occasions since and love having that element of our wedding day to accessorize with.

Another Etsy find, la Boutique Isabelle provided my lovely lace headpiece. The simplicity of the lace was something that I loved, and I was happily surprised to discover that the ribbon ties on the headpiece exactly matched the gold sash I had ordered. I'm so glad I could find items that were unique and fit not only into the vision I had for my bridal attire, but the small $50 budget I had allocated for these items.

One evening last fall, Jermaine & I were driving through Louisville and happened to go past a bridal shop I hadn't seen before, Afterglow. I let out a very loud GASP when I saw this veil in the window and then had to quickly reassure Jermaine that he wasn't about to hit something! I went back a few weeks later with my sister-in-law and found that it was not only still there, but on sale! The veil is cathedral length, slightly off white, and has a darling ruffle along the edges. I opted to keep the extra length as I loved the extra volume it added.

 

My shoes were gold herringbone TOMS. I have been in love with these shoes since the day I saw them (several years ago!) and knew I wanted to have them for my wedding. Being stubbornly unwilling to buy ANY wedding items before we were engaged, I almost missed out on having these shoes, as they disappeared from the TOMS catalog one month before Jermaine popped the question. Imagine my delight when they reappeared one month before the wedding!! I ordered a pair immediately - and then the post office lost the package. A second pair was ordered, which DID arrive in time, so I was able to walk down the aisle in my dream shoes!

PS - how CUTE is my little flower girl and her dress?! She had matching gold TOMS too!! Love her!!

xoxo mrs dobbins

J&J

 Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

I'm still in LOVE with these yarn letters that I made for our wedding. Super easy, almost free, and a lovely pop of green in our cocktail hour space. I simply traced the letters and ampersand out on some thick cardboard, then cut the shapes out. The 'J' letters were quite easy to wrap with the yarn (which was leftover from the jars I had made), only needing a small amount of glue on the backside to hold the ends.

The ampersand was another story!! I actually had to cut out the small portion in the middle, and then made another cut along the top left side of the loop to make it easier to line the yarn up. After wrapping with a mixed beige yarn and gluing the ends underneath, I took a popsicle stick to join the pieces back together along the back side, tucked the ends of the popsicle stick into the yarn and glued everything in place.

We have these fun letters up on our mantle now - along with several other wedding goodies!! They're another reminder of the wonderful day we had celebrating our love for each other.

xoxo mrs dobbins

Our Decor - Advice Cards, Guest Book, Card Briefcase & Place Cards

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

The advice cards I made were a fun, easy, CHEAP idea from Pinterest. Using an online template I simply used cardstock to print the cards out and we had a colourful box nearby for guests to put their completed cards in. We had SO much fun reading these cards after the wedding and seeing similar themes and responses come up...apparently people were really ready for us to get married!! So good to have these as a keepsake as well!

To contain our cards and bring some colour to our gift table, I took a $4 briefcase from Goodwill and gave it a quick facelift. Some burlap covered the bottom and a 'cards' sign made from cardstock and twine dressed things up (and I hid a few dryer sheets in the pocket for the month leading up to the wedding, to get rid of the musty smell it had from being out of use for so long). One of my favourite parts about this briefcase was that at the end of the night, we just had to close it up and everything was nicely contained inside, with no worries about losing anything!

Jermaine & I both grew up loving Sade, and even danced to her song "By Your Side" for our first dance, so using her albums Promise & Stronger Than Pride, along with The Ray Charles Singers' Something Special for Young Lovers, as our guestbook was a perfect fit! We found scratched up vinyl copies at yard sales and used book stores, and bought vinyl display frames to hold each record - this was one wedding errand that Jermaine really enjoyed!! With scrapbook paper lining each frame to add some colour, we put out several metallic Sharpies at each record to do the trick. As vinyl collectors, we now have beautiful art work to display on our walls among our featured records, and can see a daily reminder of the amazing family members and friends we have in our lives.

For the name cards, I knew I wanted something simple that would make a larger visual statement when together. Using cardstock, I printed out each guest's name as they RSVP'd 'yes', and then punched a hole in the corner, either above or below the name. Using spare edging from the burlap table runners I made, I took two or three short pieces and tied them through the hole to add a bit of interest. Clothespins held each name to some twine we hung in one corner of our cocktail hour space and I loved how they looked! Our friends also made a game out of clipping clothespins to the backs of guests' shirts or dresses all night, and at one point I had about 7 on my sash!!

What fun ideas have you found for your decor?

xoxo mrs dobbins

Servingware

Whew!!! It turns out that going straight from planning a wedding into planning a green card (involving thousands of pages of paper and photos and documents and...) makes for a VERY busy year!! Throw in Jermaine's brother getting married in Florida the week after my happy Canadian self received said green card, and you've got a blog with a ton of drafts and no posts in months. Sorry for the delay, and I'll get back to posting more fun details from our December wedding!

We went with higher end disposable options for our plates, glasses and cutlery. This option worked best with our budget on many levels, especially as we did not have to keep our serving staff to clean the dishes afterwards and only had staffing there for the meal portion of our evening. I found recycled paper plates & recycled plastic glasses on sale and we used faux-silverware that was also purchased at a discount. The green napkins came from Ikea and were the exact shade of green I had been looking for! I wrapped the cutlery sets ahead of time with some friends and tied each set with twine to keep them in place.

Photo by Five By Five Photography and Design

Since we had a buffet style dinner, we placed each cutlery roll at the place setting as the plates were at the serving table. The pops of green on the muslin tablecloths I made looked great!

To make our set up quick & easy, I arranged things up at home and took photos so that our family and friends could see how things were to go. As we had about 20 people help us the night before our wedding, things were finished very quickly!!

We bought PLENTY of supplies and were able to return several unopened packages afterwards, which was great. The opened sets have been well used at our home when guests are over, making clean up a breeze while living with a broken dishwasher!

xoxo
mrs dobbins