I stuck pretty well with my inspiration photo. My venue did have pale green drapes that weren't part of my original plan, but I think they complement the other colors well. Also, to keep the bright yellows and teals from looking too tacky or '80s, I tried to use them sparingly and keep the rest of the décor in neutral shades like white, black, and gray.
Photo 7/16
Centerpieces: The Inspiration
This was tough, because there are thousands of ideas for centerpieces floating around online and in magazines. At various stages in my planning I thought about doing an all-candle tablescape, but I didn't think that would fly with a bunch of kids running around. Then I wanted to use flowers from all shades of my color scheme -- but teal flowers don't exactly exist in nature. When flower fatigue set in and I felt completely overwhelmed by all of my options, I thought mini-wedding cakes in the center of each table would be perfect. (I still love this idea actually, but it just didn't fit in my budget).
Photo 8/16
Centerpieces: My Version
One of my wedding pet peeves is a too-tall centerpiece. I hate it when I'm at a reception and can't make eye contact with the people sitting across from me. So I kept mine low and used two types of yellow flowers: sunflowers and tulips. Sunflowers because I really like them and they worked with the yellow in my color scheme; I chose the tulips as a small homage to my fiancé's family's Dutch heritage.
The chalkboards were my brief foray into the crafty wedding world, and thankfully they were actually pretty easy to pull off. First, I went to the dollar store and picked up about 20 plain wood photo frames. Then I bought teal and light blue paint and chalkboard spray paint from Michaels. I separated the glass from the wood frames, then my sisters and I painted all the plain wood teal and blue.
I then enlisted my future-mother-in-law to help me douse all the glass with chalkboard spray paint. I'll admit, it took awhile -- you have to let the chalkboard paint dry between coats, and we ended up doing about three or four coats -- but I was pleased with the final results. Once everything was dry I bought chalkboard pens and had my bridesmaid Catie (who had the best handwriting of any of us) write the table names.
Photo 9/16
Bouquets: The Inspiration
The last time I was a bridesmaid the flowers were beautiful ... but crazy heavy. I literally could not hold the bouquet with one hand, which made walking in a floor-length gown downright dangerous. So I was looking out for bouquets that were on the smaller side, but would still have some drama and make a statement.
My advice: Think about the overall look for you and your bridesmaids when you head to the florist. I brought pictures of everyone's dresses and the venue so she could see what the rest of the wedding would look like. Also, do a little research on flower pricing. Some, like peonies, are ridiculously expensive most of the year and can jack up the price of an otherwise-reasonable bouquet. But there's almost always a cheaper alternative that's just as pretty.
Photo 10/16
Bouquets: My Version
Sunflowers were an obvious choice for my bridesmaids. They worked with the color scheme and matched their black dresses. Bonus: sunflowers are one of the cheapest flowers you can buy, which was great for my budget. For my bouquet, I wanted something a little softer, so I used pale yellow lilies and a few gardenias (pricey, but they're my other favorite flower and were also in my mom's wedding bouquet, so they were important to me).
Some women dream about their weddings, gather inspiring wedding pics, and practically plan out every detail of their big days from the time they are little girls.
I was not one of those women.
It wasn't that I was anti-marriage or anything, but outside a fleeting desire to end up with Leonardo DiCaprio after I saw "Romeo + Juliet" in junior high, I just never daydreamed much about weddings -- and I certainly didn't spend my downtime dog-earing photos in bridal magazines.
This wasn't really an issue, until, eventually, I got engaged. Suddenly, everyone from my future mother-in-law to strangers at the grocery store were asking about the minute details of my pending wedding. And I had no idea what to say.
To the rescue: The Internet and all its wedding blog glory. I gorged myself on beautiful inspiration pics of every type of wedding imaginable until I gained some sense of what I liked -- and more importantly, what I hated.
Once I had gathered my own arsenal of wedding inspiration, I had a tougher task in front of me. Most of the photos I loved came from weddings or wedding photo shoots that were professionally done -- or done by amazingly crafty people who had (I'm assuming) far more money and free time than I did. How was I going to make this wedding a reality?
Keep reading to see how I pulled it off -- and get some useful tips for planning your own wedding without losing too much of your sanity.
