Our DIY Wedding Accents

Here’s a little documentation of our wedding crafts/personalized items/added touches :)

As I previously mentioned, I spent a few months diy’ing things for our wedding. It’s funny because looking back on our wedding day, I don’t even remember seeing all the things that I HAAAAAD to do… table #’s, signs, centerpieces, etc. The day was a complete blur like E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E says. It’s been fun to look through the pictures to see how things turned out and if things were executed/displayed/hung correctly or not ;)

-Ceremony-

Our ceremony was originally supposed to be at Redwood Circle in Balboa Park. I had some major reservations about Redwood Circle since it’s “public property” and we couldn’t tell the “public” to leave even though we paid for the area. Super lame. However, we couldn’t find another place that we really liked for our ceremony, so Redwood Circle it was. Matt wasn’t stressed about this at all. He would try to reassure me. And by reassure I mean “roll-his-eyes-and-tell-me-everything-will-be-fine-there-is-nothing-to-worry-about-stop-stressing-about-it” reassure me. And of course that would start me on my whole rant about the public interrupting our vows. What if people didn’t care that we were having a ceremony? What if someone was setting up a large picnic/bbq? What if the public KNEW they could be there at the same time as us and that it was public property so they wouldn’t leave when the coordinator asked them to? What if they gave us a hard time? What if they ruined our ceremony?? At this point it should now be obvious that Matt is the optimist in this relationship and I am the pessimist realist.

Well, as luck would have it, when we went to the city offices to pay for the Redwood Circle permit, we saw that the Administrative Courtyard was now open.  Hallelujah! Someone had reserved it, but didn’t pay for it in their specified time period. Bummer for them. We promptly paid for the Administrative Courtyard and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders (probably Matt’s too, since he didn’t have to constantly reassure me that everything would be fine).  Although this area was/is still considered “public property” and we couldn’t tell anyone to leave, it was remote enough that not much “public” would be walking through. I could now sleep at night :)

{“Happily Ever After Begins Here”…. so people knew where to go!}

{Wishing Wands}

{yarn pom-pom and glitter garlands}

{our programs}

{my bouquet… I had a picture of each of my grandparents that have passed away}

{“Here comes YOUR bride” sign made with burlap, felt and gold braiding- carried by the dashing LeBel boys}

-Cocktail Hour and Reception-

Our cocktail hour and reception were at the Spanish Village Art Center. Again, another “public” place where we couldn’t tell anyone to leave. We heard that a couple homeless people wandered through the cocktail hour, but apparently everything was fine and we had no issues (that Matt and I were aware of) during the reception. Heck, if they would have walked through during the reception I probably would have invited them over to have a drink. It was a celebration, after all!

{“Celebrating Ever After Begins Here”…. so people knew where to celebrate!}

{our welcome table}

{Matt’s mom made all of the succulent potted plants and centerpieces}

{The escort cards were strung from a tree and clothes-pinned with mini-mini clothespins. There was a “Find Your Seat” sign in the planter box and a small bowl to collect the clothespins.}

{one of our centerpieces*}

{back of table number**}

{ombre “W”}

{I decided to say “we did” because we already did, so it wouldn’t make sense to say “we do” ;)}

{in case you wanted to know where the bar was}

*Our centerpieces were comprised of a few items. Old, wooden boxes filled with a variety of succulents (we collected wooden boxes for months and Matt’s mom planted all the succulents!); bouquets in canning jars from the florist; we brought back the “disposable cameras at weddings;” frosted jars filled with rocks and battery-operated candles (SVAC didn’t allow real candles); table number; burlap.

**Table Numbers- we had very unusual table numbers. Instead of your typical 1, 2, 3, etc. we decided to use different numbers- numbers that reflected something about us. For example: our address, the number of states we’ve been to together, the number of miles we biked on a very long bike ride in Colorado, the number of miles we drove on our longest road trip, etc. The front of the table number was the number then the back was a picture of us (pertaining to that number) and an explanation. I used cardboard cardstock as the backing, glued them to paint sticks that my mom had painted gray, tied the sticks with a little raffia, then stuck them in the frosted jars to go with the rest of the frosted jars on the tables.

I need to put a little side-note in here…. When I talk about the wedding there’s a lot of “I” and not a whole lot of “we” :) Matt truly did help with things. I tend to be a control freak and have a hard time delegating things and I like things to be perfect, or as perfect as they can be. He definitely helped when I needed it. He did whatever I asked him to do. In fact, it turns out he’s really good at ironing burlap :)

All of these pictures were taken by our photographers: Mike Newton and Rachel McFarlin Photography. Both are fanta-bulous!!! If you’re looking for a photographer for anything, call them :)