Poppy Dude and I are very much in love with the simple rural surrounding that we were raised in. It was important that our wedding really reflect those values. I wanted to find a way to get Poppy Dude really excited about the wedding planning process because I know sometimes the groom just smiles and says “whatever you want, honey!” when it comes to picking and choosing wedding details. I had an idea that fit the ticket for both wishes – a touch of country.
Poppy Dude is a “country boy” when it comes down to it. He was raised on his family’s farm/ranch where three generations of men come together to make the operation a success.
When researching and coming up with ideas for centerpieces – it struck me. What’s yellow and plays a huge part in our agriculturally centered lives? Corn and Wheat. I ran my idea by Poppy Dude and his eyes lit up. We decided to incorporate corn and wheat grown right on the Poppy Dude family farm. Corn would be easy to get – Poppy Dude’s family has some stored in bins on the yard. The wheat on the other hand only presented a certain window of time for cutting at the perfect golden color. That’s usually around the 4th of July here in south-central Nebraska, but because it’s been so wet this year it was a little later – even better for us!
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I was so tore about what to do for our unity candle. I didn’t want to spend $$ for a candle that, although very symbolic, was only going to be lit for a few minutes. To add to that, I had no idea how to make this project DIY. Numerous times had I looked up ideas online, but nothing really caught my eye. Then the other day when I was writing a post about making my wedding stationary and continuing the same fonts and decorative elements throughout all my wedding items it hit me like a ton of bricks. Use the items that you’ve already picked out because you like them so much! In a matter of seconds I had a design to place on the plain ivory candles I had purchased. Here’s the finished product:
 unity candle Continue Reading
Poppy Dude and I will be setting out a mailbox for guests to “deliver” their cards at the reception. This was our solution to keeping the cards contained and safe – after hearing a horror story from Poppy Dude’s mom.
Long story short – at a family friends wedding they left the cards out on the table all night to find that someone had stolen them. One of the guests who had purchased a gift card called the store where they purchased it and they caught someone trying to use the card…turns out it was the DJ.
Anyway, Poppy Dudes’ mom was concerned that we have a receptacle and plan for the cards that evening. We didn’t really like the look of a card box (that really didn’t fit with the feel of our wedding). So we opted for a chocolate brown mailbox. Of course I had to DIY something on it. Using our decorative element from our wedding stationary, burlap scrapbook paper, and my soon-to-be last name…tada!
 you've got mail! Continue Reading
As a disclaimer: I’m not a HUGE DIY’er but I do try! Like the bridesmaid wine bottles…that was fun! So I came across an idea I just might have to try for my second wedding DIY project. I’m not 100% sure I’m going to do it but it’s too cute to pass up!
We have recently met with a few people about invitations (see upcoming post for details about this). Bottom line is I want our invites to be colorful with lots of flowers on them, just like our reception place will be. I found this idea and thought it would be super cute to try.
 Floral invite accent (Photo Courtsey of etsy.com) Continue Reading
I’m super excited to show all of you how these turned out. You might remember me talking about making flowers out of fabric and trims for the wedding party…well they are finally done – and rather impressive if I do say so myself! Let’s start with the smaller projects – the groomsmen’s boutonnieres. I think these will really pop on their khaki suits!
 groomsmen bouts
 close up The bridesmaids bouquets took a little more time because, well there are a lot more flowers in each one – nine to be exact! I tucked the tulle in between the flowers for texture. I think the blue tulle adds dimension. These too will pop as the girls are wearing navy taffeta dresses.
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Poppy Dude and I are getting married in the church that he grew up in. It’s a small town traditional church – pews and all. When I mentioned decorating the pews in the church to anyone they ALWAYS mentioned pew bows – not my thing!
 pew bow So what’s my alternative? A DIY project of course! I constructed pew cones out of burlap and accented them with ivory ribbon. Each cone is filled with silk flowers. Because of the blonde colored wood in the church, I chose to use blue flowers over our other color – yellow. Finding natural looking silk flowers proved to me a challenge! I found something that I liked – not sure what kind of flower it is, but I paired it with a dark lavender, and added a couple sprigs of navy tulle for texture.
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Designing my own wedding invites was something that I always planned on doing. And I truly enjoyed doing it! I sort of new what I was looking for before I ever started, which in some ways made it easier (like choosing fonts) but in others more difficult (like finding the perfect decorative element). Here’s the finished product…
After doing the invitations I was on a roll, so I continued with the theme of western fonts and the same decorative element and created a whole wedding stationery including response cards, direction/accommodation cards, wrap around address labels, thank you notes, rehearsal invites, reserved tables…the list goes on! (Ceremony programs are still to come)
When it came time to print everything I decided to do my research. At the local print shop I asked them about my paper choices – they could special order the type of paper I wanted (recycled brown kraft paper) and envelopes and do the the printing for $$$. I also asked for a quote if they just did the printing and it came out to $$. I had already looked and priced paper online and knew it was much cheaper that the paper the printer was proposing we use. So being the frugal bride that I am I went ahead and ordered the paper and envelopes online and dropped them off at the printer’s when they arrived. By doing this I saved $200 and got exactly what I was looking for!
I’d love to hear from the Garden…did you DIY your invitations? Are you pleased with the results?
We set off to the reception hall the day before the wedding to decorate. Fully armed with candles, glassware, beads, tulle, ribbon and chair covers that we had borrowed from my cousin because the thought of my guests entering a beautiful hall and seeing ugly metal folding chairs almost made me cry. But the other thought of paying almost $400 for chair covers or $600 to rent chairs also nearly made me cry. So the borrowed covers in a different shade allowed me to rest comfortably.
When we arrived and walked into the hall, you could have mopped me off the floor. Lined up nearly at 150 place settings were beautiful, white, plastic chairs.
After I stopped jumping up and down about chairs, we got straight down to DIY decorating business… DIY=”do it yourself” not “do with an army of completely competent help.” Every time I would start doing something someone would say, “Hey Lilac? What should this look like?”
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I love DIY projects! I’ve mentioned that Peachy Mom is super crafty, so our DIY projects usually take on an entire life of their own. After our successful engagement party lollipops, our next DIY project will follow along the same sweet path. We’re going to make our own candy bar for our wedding!! Like this:
 Just a sample I love candy!!! Let me just throw that out there. I can live without most desserts (except ice cream), but take away Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids-then we’ll have some problems. So wedding cake and the many other decadent desserts that our wedding package includes sound yummy, but I want candy!! So in addition to our ice cream bar that we’re having, we decided to do a candy bar for our guests to enjoy casually through the dessert hour and if we can find a place for it, during most of the wedding.
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Over the weekend Peachy Mom, Peachy Grandma and I successfully completed our first DIY project!!! (yes it took 3 generations of Peaches to get it done!) So a little background. This coming weekend, is our ENGAGEMENT PARTY!!! And for every special event or party that I’ve ever had in my life, my mom has made homemade themed chocolate lollipops. So clearly, our engagement was certainly deserving of the same treatment! Peachy Mom found the perfect engagement ring mold, chose delicious chocolate (I sampled a lot of it while making them), and even bought special pixie dust like powder to dust on the chocolate diamond to make it sparkle.
The finished product (drum roll please)
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