Thursday, November 20, 2008

Tying the Knot: Reception Details


I had 10 months to plan our wedding. 10 months were spent buying ribbon in juuuust the perfect hue of raspberry, agonizing on the dilemma of escort cards v. a seating chart display, and how to bypass the white card box with the tacky tassels that every venue provides. Before I knew it, ten months was gone and there we were standing in our reception hall on our wedding day. It was at that moment that I saw all of my hard work presented before me...and I loved what I saw.


We had two variations of centerpieces. One was reminiscent of the bridesmaids bouquets and featured a small gathered arrangement of plum dahlias and raspberry asters. The taller centerpieces were vases from Ikea filled with four floating candles. The candlelight reflected the light coming from the two beautiful chandeliers in our ballroom, it was perfect. I hand-tied each of the vases with raspberry ribbon and was ecstatic about the results. Plum table runners graced each table and brought our colors into the room.






(for some reason, blogger has distorted the true colors of these pictures. our colors were a rich plum and a bold raspberry.)


I loved our engagement pictures so much that I incorporated them into our table numbers. An engagement picture was mounted to one side of a plum cardstock. The table number, along with a variation of our monogram, was displayed on a piece of white cardstock which was mounted to the other side of the plum cardstock. The guests loved seeing our engagement pictures and wandered around to other tables to see some of our other pictures!

This, was my pride and joy....our Blurb guestbook. Every "left" page had one of (or four of) our engagement pictures. The right side of the book was blank, for guests to sign. The guests loved the concept and we now have a book to put on our coffee table!
I threw out the idea of the traditional card box early in the process. I was going to attempt to make something, but then I saw this beautiful vase at Ikea and I knew it would be a gorgeous holder for our cards. Our bar was adorned with 150 white cocktail napkins, with our monogram in plum, from etsy seller Designs By Tine. It was just another personal touch that brought in our monogram. I loved them. The seating chart was displayed in the hallway leading to the ballroom (right before the guest book). The concept of our monogram flowed through to the designs of the cards. Each card displayed a table number and listed all those seated at each table number. It couldnt have turned out more beautiful. Stay tuned for my posts on lessons learned where I'll share things like...diy tips, where I bought my shoes, lessons I learned and things I wish I knew while planning my wedding! previously in the series "tying the knot": we did it, a preview, our honeymoon, our candy bar, lifesaver, getting ready, our first look, the bride and groom, bouquets and boutonnieres, the shoes, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the bridal party, the sock shot, favorites, the ceremony, the bubbles and the get away, rawry, toasts and dancing, the cake all pictures by: nicole green. please link back to tying the knot when posting any of these pictures.

19 comments:

  1. jessica, I've been reading your blog for a while and love it. You have great ideas and I'm trying to remember the advice you offer when I plan my wedding.

    anyway, I just wanted to tell you how much I love your guest book idea. It's awesome and the best idea I've seen for a guest book. Thank you for sharing.

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  2. i love your seating chart, did you do it all yourself? i picked up a business card for someone who makes them, but she charges a couple hundred bucks and i'm almost positive my mom andi could make it. if you did it yourself, could you please do a post on it?! thanks!

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  3. You are freaking me out! I was JUST researching those IKEA vases last night, and the ribbon from save-on-crafts! Seriously. Good timing, I love how yours turned out!

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  4. Beautiful centerpieces and seating chart!! love them! your recaps are awesome because even though you talked about alot of your ideas.. you didn't necessarily post alot of the finished projects before the wedding... so it's so fun to see how it came together!

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  5. I love all of your details, everything turned out so pretty and it is so nice to see how everything turned out :) I love your guest book too!

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  6. thank you for the quick response. i love iitt! i can handle that.. hah!

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  7. o wait, one more question.. then i promise i'm done! where did you get the easle that's holding the seating chart?

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  8. I love your centerpieces. How did you do the bow? It does not look like a traditional bow...I love the way it looks, really classy.

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  9. Ikea is a veritable GOLDMINE for great deals on wedding decor. Great post!

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  10. Absolutely beautiful, Jessica! You did such a beautiful job of tying everything together! I'm loving these recaps:-)

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  11. I absolutely LOVE your centerpieces. They are gorgeous! And I love how everything you did had a personal touch to it.

    Oh yeah, I love your cake too. It was simple yet fun.

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  12. Your seating chart was ROCKIN!!! Will you do mine?!?!!??!?! AH.... Seriously.. that was SOO awesome!! I am SOOO jealous of it!!
    You need to have your photographer send your wedding over to Southern Weddings!!
    PS.. I love your cocktail napkins.. Did you just send that etsy seller your monogram and she print them on napkins? I have been searching for someone to print MY DESIGNED monogram on napkins.. most all sites try to make you get the corny designs they have!! I e-mailed the etsy seller to ask her about them!!!

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  13. I love the Blurb book. I did the same thing for my sign in book. Great minds think alike!

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  14. You've got some great ideas. Designs by Tine did my napkins too! How funny! And I love the table numbers! Great idea! I'll be taking that idea with me for my wedding! ;)

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  15. I love all your ideas and colors and I hope you dont mind if I copy some ideas ..I have a few questions thought where did you get your ribbon at and what were the colors.. how did you tie the knot around the vase and last but not least I checked out the monogram website that you used but Im not sure I understand what you are buying when you order it (the print rights??) Thanks so much (o by the way I have never "blogged" before but I assume that if you see this that you will respond back to me on here??)

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  16. Great ideas. what size is your seating chart ?

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  18. Lovely pictures! I actually found your blog when I was searching for wedding details and noticed "Jessica & Chris". I am a Jessica Lynne who is marrying a Christopher (and purple is our main color as it is my favorite color). In fact, my very soon to be future sister-in-law is a Jessica Lynn. Your wedding looks beautiful!

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