Wedding Fabric and Lanterns DIY Finale

Ta da!  Finally, a (blurry-ish) picture of the bride and groom!  Aren't they cute?  I can't believe the day has come and gone!  Healthy Chick hasn't given permission for me to share her wedding pictures.  Yet.  So stand by for a post or two of the BIG day!  This post ties up the remaining wedding decor, starting with fabric. 
Like anyone's going to be looking at the fabric-- Really(!)--while the darling bride and groom are there.  To take away from what I thought would be a black hole, sheer fabric was swagged between the pedestals (I didn't know the fireplace was going to be lit), gathering the ends.  The flames looked really quite lovely dancing behind the fabric creating a defused glow.  And, in case you were wondering, we checked:  The fabric was neither getting hot, nor beginning to melt.   This idea was inspired by looking at reception ideas on line.  On a personal note, my father, who passed away two years ago, made the wooden pedestals.  I'm really sorry for the poor photo quality, this is all I have.

After we got the decorations up in the morning, Darling Husband and I were able to thoroughly enjoy the rest of the day and evening.  (My dress is navy, by the way.)  I was appreciating the work that went into the event, but also enjoying family and friends.  Immensely.  This is a decor blog, however, so on to those details.  You can see over my shoulder, a string of bunting went on the cake table.

 photo, Chelsea Lee

It was one of those little details that looked both fun and elegant.  I'm going to take a moment and point out an OCD detail that I was extremely happy with.  See the end of the bunting at the left?  I premade four white satin bows and after I secured the bunting end with a safety pin, I pinned the bows right on top of the end to make it look finished.  A string was also draped across the gift table. 

 photo, Chelsea Lee

Easy assembly shown on bunting post.

 

One of the table runners that I first debated on.  They all got simple pointed ends--per one of my commentors suggestions.

 Photo, Chelsea Lee

I purchased a variety of glass holders from the thrift store -- one for each table -- and filled them with the extra chocolate covered espresso beans.  You can see the floral arrangement my daughter decided on, white roses and hydrangeas.  The vase holds coffee beans.  (Also shown, table numbers.)

 photo:  Chelsea Lee

This is the little seating area that compelled me to make the Mr. & Mrs. pillows.  The last scraps of the fabric were used for the pillows.  Healthy Chick was given four yards of the fabric that we were able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h into nine runners, two strands of bunting and two Mr. & Mrs. pillows.  (Also shown in basket on the floor, Birdseed Tossing Cones.)



If you missed them, here are the directions for the Mr. and Mrs. pillows.

photo:  Chelsea Lee

There were a few vignettes around.  This is the only one of which we have a decent photo.  Across from this area was a white Baby Grand piano, that had another one.  The ampersand was special-ordered two weeks before the wedding from the Shabby Chic Home.  Louie was very responsive and easy to work with. 

Lanterns

photo, Chelsea Lee

Somewhere during Google surfing for reception ideas, I saw paper lanterns and thought this may be a good addition for our reception.  I really wasn't sure if Healthy Chick would go for this or not, but she ended up liking the idea.

photo, Chelsea Lee

They made the space look quite magical and it gave the illusion that one was outdoors as the main focal wall is all windows and fireplace.  Which took emphasis away from the woodsy "men's club" look.  Darling Husand and Fun Sized Chick hung them from wooden framed light box chandeliers using dark brown craft twine.  String was hung in an X pattern between four chandeliers, then individual lanterns hung off of the X.  We did not consider trying to light them, as the bulk of the reception was held before it got dark.

I thought you'd like to see my fancy drying rack.  The paper lanterns were from Oriental Trading.  I ordered all white--six 18" and twelve 10".  Healthy Chick wanted primarily white, so I spray painted five of the smaller lanterns in two different shades of green.  For the record, we had a few shades of green throughout the wedding decor.  Part of it was "happenstance," but Healthy Chick wanted it that way since the weddings she's been to recently, she felt looked a little "flat" when sticking to the exact same shade for everything.

This is how I used the floral balls and floral corners.  The frames the floral balls were in were a little too small.  I could have used bigger frames but made all of the "matting" 11"x14", so it looked the best doing it this way.   If you look at the first "Lantern" photo, you can see one of the frames on the pillars between the bride and groom.  The groom's head is blocking the photo with the other floral corner, but you can see one of the other frames beyond his right shoulder.  In the scheme of things these were quite small elements, but they made me feel better, at least, that the reception area was dedicated to the bride and groom.

This is one of those events that all of the projects seemed itty bitty while working on them (making 100, or more, of this or that), but getting all of the elements together at the same time really made the space personal and grand.

I'm doing this final Wedding DIY post last, because I wanted to get a few photos from the photographer.  Thanks for letting me share. To see the entire Wedding DIY series, click the below icon: