A little wedding recap sharing DIY wedding decor before Pinterest was around. This budget-friendly wedding has some great ideas!
Seven years ago today on a crisp August day in Portland we said, “I do.” It was a beautiful day and I loved celebrating our marriage with so many family and friends. Since we got married pre-Pinterest and pre-blog, I thought it’d be fun to do a little recap from our wedding.
It was so much fun to sit down and go through all our wedding pictures and pull out some to show you.
Disclaimer: Let’s just say if I could do my wedding over again there’s not much that would be the same. It was still a great day, but I’ll admit I was pretty much an amateur DIY-er. It’s still fun to look back on though, so here we go…
Wedding Theme
Since we all know I love having a theme to go with a party, of course I had one for our wedding. Here’s the inspiration board I put together. Our colors were chartreuse, pink, and chocolate (of course!) and I wanted lots of roses.
My sister was getting married outdoors 6 weeks after me so I made a point to make sure our weddings were different.
Ceremony
We got married in the church my husband and I grew up in. We actually knew each other since diapers and this place was pretty much a second home to us.
With an aisle runner from Michael’s rolled down the center, tulle for dayyyyssss, and fake rose petals scattered everywhere, it was quite the first impression when guests walked in.
I designed, printed, and put together our wedding programs, made flower holders out of scrapbook paper to hang on the pillars and pews, and attached colored ribbon wherever I could to tie everything together. We tried to DIY as much as we could while still having the wedding we had always dreamed of — well, that I had dreamed of, because let’s be honest, he didn’t care too much.
Flowers
Flowers is one thing I wouldn’t change if I did things over again. I love how they turned out! The boutonnieres were stunning and I loved the grass pieces coming out of my bouquet with roses and calla lillies. Both the flower girls had hair wreaths (before they were cool) and my bridesmaids had simple pink rose bouquets.
I turned old baskets I found at Goodwill into flower girl baskets using fabric leftover from the bridesmaid dresses my mom made, ribbon, some spray paint, and a lot of hot glue.
For years I had been keeping roses from special occasions in a box. I had dried rose petals from winter formals, prom, my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, and many other events. It was fun to have those memories on this special day.
Guestbook
The guestbook might be my favorite part. We had the idea to have our picture printed onto wood and then cut out to make a puzzle. Each guest then was asked to sign the back of one piece.
It’s a fun momento to put together and our goal is to put it together every year on our anniversary to remember that fun day and remember all our friends and family that came to celebrate with us.
Reception
We had a three-tier cake from our favorite local bakery: lemon chiffon, chocolate hazelnut, and strawberry. We also served sheet cakes made by the same bakery that were cut in the kitchen and brought out.
Our cake topper we had custom made with our initials cut out of acrylic.
Please excuse the lack of excitement. I swear we were having fun. We were really focused on not missing each other’s mouth while hundreds of people watched us.Â
I turned boring I DO letters from the craft store into something a little more fun with scrapbook paper and had our names and date printed on napkins in our colors.
I’m pretty much a self-proclaimed chocolaholic, so of course we needed chocolate galore. Along with our cake, we also had three chocolate fondue fountains set up with all the fixings: cream puffs, marshmallows, pretzel sticks, graham crackers, etc.
A corner of our reception hall had pictures taped to cardstock that was attached to fishline of different lengths. We then hung the fishline from the ceiling using tacks for a fun picture display of our years together.
Wedding Candy Bar
As a parting gift to our guests we had a candy bar set up filled to the brim with candy of all kinds that were brown, green, and pink. I bought most of the candy online and just had it delivered the week of the wedding. I made little signs for each type explaining what it was.
Rather than buying a lot of glass serveware, I just borrowed from friends and my mom’s friends. We just wrote on sticky notes attached to the bottom of each dish who it belonged to so to make sure it got back to the right home.
I had cellophane bags available with stickers that I bought online that said, “Love is Sweet!” along with our names, the date, and “thanks for coming!” The stickers were to hold the bags shut after the guests filled them.
DIY Wedding Photobooth
In another corner of the reception hall we set up a tripod with a remote and hung some curtains to make a little photobooth. We had a large basket set up with props and asked all guests to take a picture. It was so fun to look through after the fact.
After we were home from our honeymoon, I went through all the pictures and placed them on a template I made like the image below. I then had two copies of each printed, one for them and one for us to keep, and I gave the guests their photos in their thank you card.
Of course, we had baskets of rose petals passed around when it was time to leave and guests threw petals at us as we ran to our getaway car.
Our wedding was such a fun celebration with our closest friends and family, but it would have been nothing without the man by my side. I’m so thankful for the past 7 years with him and wouldn’t want to do life with any other person!
