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Friday

When a bride calls for a rustic wedding reception in the basement of a church, what do you do?

Panic?  Worry?  Go without sleep for a month?

Well... you gather burlap and lace and old windows and lights and mason jars and...
get creative of course!


I've already shared a few of the wedding reception creations,
but I'm finally ready to share all the pictures I captured.  


Before:
A big church basement.


During:
This is what my house looked like as I planned for the wedding!
My family called it the wedding bomb.  It truly looked like a wedding had exploded in our home.



After
A sweet and beautiful, rustic wedding reception.


There were so many little details that went into this reception.



Check out just a few...




A little overwhelming, isn't it?
Let's back up a bit.
You'll remember from this post, that I made over 50 burlap wrapped jars.




Some of these jars were filled with flowers, others with candles.


The flowers were a combination of store bought pink carnations
and flowers collected from my friend's garden.
The bride was proposed to on the beach, so special shells were set out
as well as framed engagement photos of the couple.

You'll remember from this post, that I made vintage sheet music wreaths and fans.


The big fans were hung around the room.
The tiny fans were glued onto wood skewers and placed in the flower arrangements.



The wedding happened to fall on the hottest day of the year, so we needed lots of drink stations.


The chicken wire frames looked quite rustic next to my old window.
Remember the window from this post?
No nail or tack holes were allowed on the church's walls, so I used Command hooks to hang everything.

The wreath was a labor of love, complete with vintage music titled
Thy Wedding Morning.



You'll remember from this post that I made a bunch of burlap banners.
The banners were hung everywhere, adding the rustic look to the basement.



The vintage suitcase was perfect for collecting the cards...from this post.
A banner was hung on the table for the gifts.



Here's another drink station using an old wooden gate as a backdrop and another burlap DRINKS banner.





White lights, burlap ribbon, pink ribbon and white tulle helped pull it all together.
Notice I gave the water dispenser a little burlap treatment as well?


The food was placed in the center of the room.


The caterer is a super talented church friend.
I learned so much just by watching her work.



She made levels with wood boxes and covered them with tablecloths.
I decorated around her amazing food!



I'm sure you noticed the incredible veggie tower?
It was quite the centerpiece!


 I printed out the little chalkboard signs for the dips.


On the far wall was a fun area to write notes and make cards.
The bride is an elementary school teacher and beloved babysitter.
So naturally, there were lots of kids there.




The old windows were from the caterer.
They came from a Seattle school that was being torn down in the 80's.
I pulled the windows out of her shed and told her that she better hang them up in her house,
or I'm not returning them!  They were so beautiful!



White lights and tulle helped illuminate the kids' area.


The large autographed frame was a gift to the bride from her 3rd grade class.

Blank cards with colored pencils and crayons were set out.
I printed out a word bank to help the kids make a wedding card.
(Their teacher's new name is a hard one to spell and say!)

An old screen was used to display the kid-made cards.




A vintage milk crate (decorated with burlap and ribbon) housed the colored pencils.



Burlap wrapped baby food jars held the crayons.




On the other end of the table was the Wisdom area.
(Think 'kids table' for adults.)



A large glass vessel was placed on the table with instructions for the guests to write the new couple notes of encouragement and wisdom for their 1st anniversary.
The notes were to be written, rolled up, then tied with twine and placed in the vessel.
The couple plans to display the vessel in their home, but not read the notes until their anniversary.


On the other end of the room was the cake area!
Remember the old door from this post?
I added a ladder on top with burlap, tulle, lights and ribbon.



The bride's florist decorated the cake with fresh flowers.


It was gorgeous!


You probably remember the glass vase banner from this post,
I fancied it up with more tulle, a mini-burlap banner and lights.


Next to the cake area was a photo booth.


I captured a few guests as they made a stop at the photo booth.
I set out white rustic frames and a love banner for props.
The couple had an instagram hashtag for the guests to upload their photos to.




Whew!
There were so many more details I didn't even get pictures of!
-Lots more banners and lights were everywhere.
-8 burlap wrapped posts with lights, ribbon and tulle.
-A punch station set up with 6 punch bowls!
-A special quilt that was made for the bride was hung on a wall.
-Outside was more banners with a covered tent area.
-and on and on and on.

Later I received a message from the bride that the reception was everything and more she had hoped for.

Wishing Alyssa and Matt a wonderful marriage!
Congratulations!


 



Linked up to: Tatertots&Jello, ShareYourCreativity, SerenityNow, CraftOManiac, SundayShowcase, TuesdayTimetoSparkle, LilLuna, GingerSnapCrafts, LifeInspired, WowMeWednesday, HouseOfHepworths,
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Tuesday

I recently made some vintage music page wreaths and fans for my friend's wedding reception.
You'd be so surprised how easy these are to make!  I was!


I found the vintage sheet music at a thrift store.  I bought two books of music for about $3.
If I had really been thinking I would have bought out their entire stock.  Later when I went back it was all gone.  Apparently, vintage music is hard to find.




I was delighted when I unwrapped the music and found that one of the books,
Rose Maiden had a song titled, 'Tis' Thy Wedding Morning'.  



Perfect for a wedding wreath!

Make A Vintage Music Wreath




Can you believe how pretty it turned out?  I was so surprised that rolled up paper could look so sweet.
There are many tutorials on the web to make a vintage music wreath.
I was in a hurry and didn't take the time to look at them.  If I had, I'm sure it would have doubled my time.
I like to make things fast and easy...so here's my not perfect, but super-quick version...

Rip out the sheet music from the book.  Be sure there is music printed on both sides.
Take one sheet and make a rolled up cone.
It took me a few tries to figure out how to make each roll look even with the point at the top of the cone.
You want to try to make each roll look exactly the same...or close.
I ended up tucking the right side in and the left side over.
This gave me the title showing on the top of the cone.

(don't mind the glitter in this picture--glitter is the last step!)

Once I figured the cone making out, I got into a rhythm that was hard to stop.
After making each cone, place hot glue on the underside sheet to hold the cone together.
Hot glue is the quickest adhesive--ever!


Make lots and lots of cones!
Don't even start gluing a wreath together until you have a least 20 cones or more!


Now, here's where I wished I would have taken pictures.
The tighter the cones, the more you need to make a wreath.
I didn't think my cones were that tight, but it took 25 cones to make the first layer!
Start laying them out in a circle (touching each other) with their tips pointing in towards the center.
Hot glue the side of each cone sticking them together one by one in a circle.
Once bottom layer is completed, go back and fill in holes with another layer of cones.
Just hot glue them on and you won't believe how a wreath appears before your eyes!



Because I did a fast version, my center tips didn't all line up perfectly,
so I covered the center with a little music fan. (scroll down for the fan instructions.)


And of course I added glitter to each edge.
I brushed on Elmer's glue to the ends and sprinkled on fine silver glitter.


I also hot glued a strip of burlap and lace to the back of the wreath and hung it over an old window.

Don't look too close...this was my first one and there's some spaces I wish I would have filled.



Make A Vintage Music Fan



Making paper fans is incredible fun...I'm not sure why I haven't made them before?
The best, most precise way (and the fastest) is to use this amazing tool from Martha Stewart.

You simply line your paper on the board and score each place where you want to fold the paper.
You could score them every inch, half inch, quarter inch--whatever you choose.


Of course the first few I made I didn't want to take the time to find my score board, so I did without.
They turned out OK, but my folding got thicker and thicker as I went.
With the score board, every fold is the same size...very helpful.

However, don't press too hard with the bone folder on the vintage pages.  They'll rip!

Once the paper is scored, fold it up like an accordion.  Over, under, over, under.
Stand up your pages and make a circle.



To make the circle you'll need to hot glue the seams together,
so all the sheets are connected.

Now, here's the fun part...
Squish the standing accordion circle down in the middle.
The pages will flare out and the center will bunch in.
It will look like this!  Isn't that cool?



Put a dab of hot glue in the center and hold the center papers together until they stick.
Add glitter to the edges with brushed on Elmer's glue.



So pretty!


The great thing is that you can make these fans any size!
Fold your page up in an accordion, cut to the size you want and glue the seams together
With the small fans I hot glued a skewer to the back and added a lace bow.

What a great touch they added to the reception.






Linking up to: AtoZebraCreations, GingerSnapCrafts, LilLuna, 52Mantels, GetYourCraftOn, TheFrugalGirls, Tatertots&Jello, MadeByYouMonday, MondayFunday, CreativeCorner,
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