When Shawn and I first got engaged I had already had an idea of what I wanted our wedding to look and feel like. I knew I wanted to DIY (do it yourself) most of it. At the beginning of planning we knew we for sure wanted it to be all about God and His love for us and His ultimate plan for marriage. We also knew that we wanted to have the day feel like a family reunion more than a party.
Shawn and I like to think that we are old at heart, we love old country houses from the early 1900's and anything else made in that era. We loved the look of old mason jars, especially the blue ones with mixed flowers in them, I also loved milk glass bud vases. After researching, Googleing, blogging, creeping and brainstorming I came up with this decor.
My dad build tons of wooden 'props' for us, including these amazing signs. Our wedding ceremony and reception was in the same church but there was a 4 hour time laps in between. We had people going around to the side doors, saving the middle isle for only the wedding procession, so I wanted the signs so that there was no confusion.
Shawn and I found this card box at the Rocky Mountain Antique mall here in Edmonton. We love shopping there, it always becomes at least a 4 hour excursion for us. We had been searching for the perfect card box for a few months and finally found this 'homemade toolbox'. The base box was a British Columbia Sugar Refining Co. Ltd. Rogers Syrup box and someone quite a long time ago built it into a toolbox with a tid and an wooden insert. It had very old hardware (handles) on the sides and very old nails sticking out all over. We loved the look, only $25! I made the burlap CARDS banner, super quick and easy, just to finish it off.
The isle decor ideas came very early in the game, I thought of these mason jars hanging off of the pews when Kathy came to visit me 2 weeks after we were engaged. Then they got forgotten and we decided it would be to much work to try and do. One week before the wedding my mom and I were talking about the isle and decided to try one mason jar. Before long, there were 20 done and we had isle decorations. Mason jars from mom's basement (these ones didn't have to be nice at all), small pebbles in the bottom, burlap and lace ribbon around and flowers from my mom's garden.
My dad also made us our arbor to be married under, made mostly out of old wood from Shawn's grandmothers original farm house and from my grandparents original farm house. We loved having such a significant piece of our families to stand under. To the sides of the arbor we had two blue mason jars wrapped in burlap and lace ribbon with big, beautiful dark pink peonies from my grandma Melnyk's garden, it was perfectly beautiful.
Blaine and Shawn worked very hard hanging the annoying, ripped, old
tulle behind the stage in between the stands of fabric. I was very
appreciative of it though, it transformed the sanctuary in a way nothing
else could have.
Taking communion together during our marriage ceremony was one of the most important elements of our wedding to us. We wanted to fully express that we are allowing God to run our marriage and we are willing to follow where ever he leads. We will sacrifice because He did for us. We are not only one with each other but one with Him as well. It was the most beautiful bonding experience I have ever felt in my life.
My flowers were a beautiful pale mix of hydrangeas, garden roses, spray roses, Scarlet O' Hara peonies and dusty millar. The ladies had the same but smaller and minus the peonies. My dad wore a Ralph Lauren charcoal grey suit, and Calvin Klein organic weave light grey and ivory striped tie. He looked so great!
My handsome groom wore a grey Calvin Klein 3 piece tuxedo and a Dion ivory paisley tie (which had little birds all hidden through it...love it!!). Shawn's groomsmen (from left, Jeffery, Blaine, Larry and Mike) wore grey Calvin Klein 2 piece suits with celadon green satin ties. They all wore one cream spray rose as boutonnieres, except Shawn, who sported 2! Lucky guy.
The beautiful ladies on my side of the party (from left, Maria, Kathy, Leigha and Lorriann) wore celadon green dresses by Jasmine B2, Jasmine Beloise, and Alfred Angelo. They each wore their own rendition of ivory earrings, wooden bangles and dawned matching tan Spring flats.
My dress was a beautiful lace overlay Alfred Angelo piece. Strapless and a-line. Just as I always pictured. Beautifully adorned, shallow sweetheart neckline. No necklace to complicate things, it was just so perfect on it's own. I wore 3 bracelets, one given to me by my mother after falling in love with it at Magnolia, and 2 from Aldo, one sparkly and one pearls. My shoes were dusty rose 2 inch wooden wedge sandals. A little vintage. My veil, my favorite part of my attire, was worn by my mother on her wedding day to my father 28 years ago. What an inspiration. What beauty in a love like that. I love my veil. It is a treasure, just like my mom.
I had an idea quite early on from other wedding blogs and websites of doing our table chart in the panes of old windows. It seemed like a great idea for us because we had these beautiful old windows from my grandma and grandpa Zornes old cabin at the lake. They are so sentimental and also just so gorgeous. I was leery about writing on them with my own handwriting but when I got to the middle and stood back and looked I realized I loved the 'homegrown' look of it. It turned out amazing and I am so glad we decided to do that. Got lots of great comments on it.
Our reception was much more decorated than the ceremony was. We figured we'd be spending much more time in there so we would put more effort into making it what we envisioned. Unfortunately we did not have a photographer for our reception so these pictures are before the beautiful flowers were put in the vases. My mom made us a gorgeous banner with our 'theme scripture' for behind our head table, which I just loved. So unique and special.
In the reception we wanted a couple really awesome stations for people to enjoy. We decided early on that we did not want alcohol at our wedding for multiple reasons but we know that many people enjoy that part of a wedding. So we wanted to make ours fun and exciting without it. So one thing I created was this drink station. In the two metal wash basins we had glass bottles of Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite. In the punch bowls in the middle there was grapefruit fizz punch. Off to the left was a table full of mason jar glasses for people to fill with their drink of choice and add a beautiful paper straw and an umbrella or three.
We also decided on a candy buffet for the favors for the same reason. Our wedding was a little bit different in setup and timing so we wanted there to be things for people to get up and do. The candy bar was a huge hit! I decided to collect crystal bowls and vases for the candy instead of the modern bowls and vases to stay with the feel of the day. It looked beautiful and was very popular.
I loved making the little signs for all the different candy and picking out candy that we both loved and we knew that guests would love as well. Shawn's favorite was there, peanut butter cups, and so was mine, Grapefruit Slices (sour!!). I collected old silver gravy ladles from thrift stores for the scoops to keep those vintage too.
A few weeks before the wedding on the weekend my ladies surprised me with a horseback riding bachlorette I recruited Lorriann and Leigha to help me stamp, cut and punch all 250 candy bags. We cut the tops with fancy scissors, punched the corners with a doily looking punch, and stamped them with bees making a heart and "Thanks for Everything". Our hands were very sore and red after that night! But it was very worth it!
That was our day in a nut shell. After some speeches, an amazing Ukrainian meal, games and visiting Shawn and I headed out to our little hotel room at Hotel MacDonald. Our view out our 6th floor window looked down onto the garden grounds and the river valley. But...the honeymoon story is for another day. I will probably add more to this wedding post later.
Thanks for stopping by!
-- Kaela (& Shawn)
