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