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

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

Centerpieces

For our centerpieces, we used several found & recycled items to make something beautiful. Jermaine & I love spending hours in used book stores, including McKay's in Nashville. They have 'free' bins outside filled with books that have seen better days, so over several months we collected books on each trip, in addition to buying several beautiful hard cover editions. While many of the books were beautiful, there were others with spines falling apart, so we stripped those ones of their covers and turned them into something new. I love the way the pages came together in different shades of cream to blend with the muslin tablecloths and burlap runners. Each table had several stacked books with glass jars containing candles and flowers. We even posted specific books at several tables like How To Control Your Teenager, dog training titles, Harry Potter and Robert Jordan titles! We really enjoyed incorporating our love of books into our decor.

We used recycled glass for our candle holders & vases. There were lots of pickle, sauce & dressing jars in my kitchen over the past year, and several friends joined in with collecting their household items. I added different shades of yarn & hot glued them, which was a simple, quick and inexpensive way to dress up the glass. We used electric candles in many of the jars to add a warm glow to our reception space which looked wonderful all evening!

Other items used around our reception space and at the head table were from my home, including photos, birds, clocks, dried flowers Jermaine had given me, and even an Instamatic camera that was in my closet at home in Canada - purchased by my Mom in the 70's! It was wonderful to incorporate so many personal items and really made our identity shine through.

My Mom's Instamatic camera from the 70's made an appearance at our head table!

 

I'm so pleased with the way our table decor came together!! With a little planning, it was easy to look ahead to collect the items we were looking for, and adding other personal touches really made our reception space feel like a celebration at home with family & friends.

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Flower Girl & Ring Bearer

We were thankful to be able to use the ring pillow and flower basket from Jermaine's brother's wedding for our flower girl & ring bearer (his brother's son!). I wanted to add our colours to the basket & pillow, and luckily a little bit of yarn added the touches I was looking for.

Our flower basket got a touch of orange yarn to add a rustic element to it. I filled the basket with tissue paper flowers, as our flower girl decided she was ok just holding the basket and not throwing anything. We were so excited to include our good friend's little girl, and she did a wonderful job at the wedding!!

The ring pillow had some green yarn wrapped around it, which matched the bridesmaids' dresses. Our ring bearer was our nephew, normally a tiny tornado of energy. He took his job so seriously on the wedding day, and we were so proud of his ability to stay still and stand up with the big guys!

These touches were quick and easy to do, and really made these items fit in with our rustic theme. As the yarn was removable, it also allowed us to temporarily change the look (and was super cheap!) without altering the borrowed basket & pillow! We were so happy to make our wedding a true family affair!

xoxo
mrs dobbins

ps - I should also mention that their outfits were AWESOME! Our ring bearer already had the grey suit he wore, which was perfect for my nephew! We found our flower girl's dress for $17 on clearance at Target, and it had the sweetest flowers around the hem! Her shoes were TOMS (like the rest of the bridal party!) and we both had cute gold ones on - LOVE!! It felt like she was my little mini me that day with her long curls too!! We're so thankful for these little ones :)

Vendors

We were so thankful to work with such INCREDIBLE vendors for our wedding!! I'll be going into more detail on several of our vendors, but here's the rundown of who we worked with to help make our day spectacular (all photos courtesy of Five By Five Photography & Design, aside from the photo booth):


Ceremony & Reception:
Camp Marymount, Fairview, TN

Photography:
Five By Five Photography & Design

Photo Booth:
Flashtastic Photo Booth

Rentals (tables & chairs, lounge furniture):
Southern Events

Catering:
Kitchen by House Blend

Cakes:
Creative Crumbs

Bartending:
Topshelf Bartending and Staffing

Hair:
Angelica (Burdett) Stevens at Aveda Origina Salon & Spa

Makeup:
One 10 Makeup

Flowers:
CostCo, assembled with my Bridesmaids & family members

DJ:
Scott Hutten

Ceremony Musicians:
Natalie Coughlin and Kyle Bashour, Teens from Holy Family Church's Life Teen programme

Guest Accomodations:
Courtyard Marriott - Cool Springs
 
xoxo
mrs dobbins