My brother- and sister-in-law got married on May 12th, 2018 after a year-and-a-half engagement. They didn’t really know if they wanted to have a traditional wedding (or even a ‘wedding’ at all), so they didn’t plan anything until early this year. They asked me if I could coordinate and decorate their wedding for them, because I’m “the most stylish person [they] know.”

(*insert GIF of my ego swelling faster than Violet Beauregarde here*)

The challenges:
1. I had just given birth to Isla in December, so I was adjusting to parenting two little humans;

2. I was taking three classes (final semester of my double major), which required me to do homework; and

3. We were moving at the end of my semester (mid-April), which meant I had limited space for decor compilations, which would ultimately have to be packed (and quickly unpacked), anyway!

But I LOVE weddings, and I LOVE decorating, and I love any excuse to spend every spare moment at Michaels (seriously, William asks if we can go to Michaels on the regular – #craftkid), so there was no hesitation when I responded with an adamant, “YES!”

The rules:

“Please don’t make it look like we ride horses.” 

(It was a low bar, what can I say?)

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The theme that they wanted to go with was flowers and growlers with a colour palette focusing on dark purple (bride’s request), bright blue (groom’s request), deep green, silver, brown, and white. I threw some lighter blues and purples into the bouquets to make it feel more ‘spring-y’ – it was a May wedding, after all – but I still wanted to keep a rustic feel. After tossing some ideas around, we decided to go with “Love is Brewing” as the wedding slogan.  They still didn’t want to do a completely typical wedding, so the photos were before the wedding, and the ceremony and reception were at the same venue, and in the same room. Their guest list included about 200 people. They had a taco bar catered by Chipotle, a photobooth, and arcade games – including Buck Hunter. It was super fun! I also purchased two Snapchat geo-filters, which were customizable and relatively cheap; it was only about $15 for both of them for the venue, and it added a cute, personable touch.

We used custom-printed growlers (if you think it looks phallic, it’s because it is) as ‘vases’ atop natural wood slabs (Travis and his dad cut trees from our property especially for this project) for the centrepieces, and they were placed beside votive candles in mason jars with raffia bows. I managed to get all of the flowers at 40%-50% off, which was terrific, budget-wise. I looked for artificial flowers at several stores, but they looked too fake, didn’t carry adequate stock, or were too pricey for what it was. Michaels had a wicked selection, and always has flowers on sale!

We used white tablecloths on the tables with brown paper runners that were accompanied by CRAYONS so that guests could colour on their tables! Such a unique (and fun!) idea. I matched the crayons with the candles, and put them in mason jars with raffia bows – they looked pretty cute!

The bride has a pastry company (@sammyscakesbc on Instagram), which also provides custom cake toppers, dessert tables, and flower walls; she wanted to have a flower wall as a feature, which was a perfect way to centralize the flower aspect of the theme! Her friends (husband and wife team) made the flower wall and (at my request) managed to make it completely mobile so that we could use it both as a backdrop for the ceremony and for the head table. To bring the “beer” concept into the ceremony, a barrel mounted with a live-edge slab was used as a table for signing their marriage license; both pieces I borrowed from my in-laws (they have the coolest stuff).

I wanted the head table to, obviously, somewhat match the guests’ tables, but I felt that having large growlers all across the table would be too overwhelming; instead, I used two different sizes of amber beer bottles – with raffia bows tied around the bottleneck – as vases for smaller versions of the centrepiece bouquets. I didn’t want to get rid of the growlers completely, so I made lanterns with fairy lights and clear growlers for each end of the head table. I paired up candles with the smaller beer bottles, and placed them on wood slabs to tie in the natural wood; I put the ampersand on a slab, too, to add depth. Also: I LOVE these marquee letters, which are by Darice. I ordered them on Amazon – you can find them here. A purple light was added once the wall was moved behind the head table for super neat effect!

I felt that adding a lot of lights to the venue was necessary to make it more wedding-venue-esque, because it has typical gym-floor, as it’s a hall that is used for big events as well as sporting groups. I figured growler-lanterns would be a perfect way to incorporate lights into the theme. Travis found the lights (attached to a cork and everything!) on Groupon, of all places, though they also sell them in 6- and 8-packs on Amazon here. I got the clear growlers from Michaels (yes, I live there).  I have two mini light boxes from Indigo, which I wrote (typed?) “love is brewing” on, and placed on the signing and gift tables. I put more growler lanterns on each of those tables, as well. To incorporate lighting and the couple, I printed out a bunch of square photos of them, and, using these LED photo clip string lights (here‘s a similar one from Amazon for a few dollars cheaper). I hung photos of them up along the back wall of the venue.

Since I knew that the flower wall would be moving, I wanted a backup focal feature for the DJ and the speeches – since lights were a big thing, I figured a curtain of lights would be perfect. In my opinion, it was! It made for cool photographs, and also worked as a backdrop for wedding guest pictures (in addition to the photo booth, of course). The one I got is indoor/outdoor, which is super handy; it’s also 9.8 ft by 9.8 ft, so it covers a large amount of space!

For written elements, I’m a sucker for chalkboard. I hope chalkboard stays in style FOREVER. The Welcome Sign was written by the bride’s sister on a chalkboard with a gorgeous black frame, and we propped it up at the entrance. I decided that a unique guest book would be fun for a unique wedding, so I bought extra growlers from Michaels for guests to sign. I also made a “tip jar” so that guests could give their marriage advice to the newlyweds. I didn’t take a photo of the signing table (oops), but I made custom printables for it, which I will post in the DIY section, along with other things I made for the wedding.

The favours for guests were KINDER SURPRISES! I love that they wanted to incorporate nostalgia and spontaneity into the wedding; it was a very authentic reflection of them as a couple! The bride really wanted to get tubing to make egg holders, but she couldn’t find any; instead, I made custom ones using their wedding logo on card stock. They turned out pretty cute (and punny) if I do say so myself!

I was going to post a photo of the dessert table that’s been haunting me since the wedding, but I think that would be unfair; I didn’t get to try any of the mini cheesecakes, and I’m STILL craving them. If you really want to be subjected to – and subsequently tortured by – a mere image of the delectable little things, then go check out @sammyscakesbc on Instagram. In the meantime, I’m going to go eat something I probably shouldn’t in an attempt to drown my cheesecake-craving-sorrows.