Beautiful Bride and Groom!My little sister got married on November 15, 2014. She went to my parents in September to let them know that her and her fiance had decided to get married… in 8 weeks! My Grandfather had been diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy and she really wanted him to be able to be at her Wedding, so rather wait a year or two like they had already planned when they got engaged, they bumped up the date.  It was originally suppose to be a really small affair, but it’s hard to do small when you have a large and super close family, so we ended up with a total of 56 guests. We got together for a planning session and found a space at a hip local restaurant, Twiggs – An American Gastropub. After we found the space, my sister Courtney, my Aunt Reney and myself started sharing ideas via a group text. Once we figured out what direction she wanted to go with her wedding, we set up another planning session with my mom, sisters, aunt and my sisters BFF. We pounded out a lot of details in that one session and gave everyone a small job to do and I was set up as point person. So what was the end result? A beautiful event that was perfect for Courtney and her new husband, Ion.

Red, White and Black Reception TableThe colors of the Wedding were red and black, so we chose white table linens, a black table square and red napkins. It really set the mood for the tables.

DIY Glitter RosesI must give a huge shout out to FloraCraft, of which I am a part of the Make It: Fun Design Team. Once we decided on the centerpieces we wanted to create, I contacted FloraCraft because they had ALL of the supplies we needed to make them spectacular.

DIY Centerpiece with Roses

The great part is, these centerpieces are 100% DIY and just about anybody can make them! I’ll be sharing a quick tutorial with you soon.

DIY Hurricane Vase CenterpiecesWe decided on two styles of centerpieces – these second ones used hurricane vases and Diamond Wrap candles. I simply hot glued Diamond Wrap around an inexpensive pillar candle. The hot glue did not like sticking to the candle wax so this took a little bit of finagling. Once that was done, I stuck the candles inside the vases. We layered those on top of a circle mirror and spread rose petals around the base to tie in with the other centerpieces. We also placed three votives around to complete the look.

DIY Table DecorThe head table had a smaller version of the square vases and a beautiful metal “A” (for Courtney’s new last name) that I spray painted glittery silver to match the rest of the decor.

DIY Lighted Tulle Wedding ArchWe had some pretty big plans for the decorations of the space that included tulle and Christmas lights, however there were only a few plugs in the room and NONE were centrally located. We ended up just wrapping the pillars with tulle and creating an arch for the ceremony with the tulle, lights and three oval picture frames that I suspended from the ceiling with black ribbon. This didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted, but the guests all commented on how much they loved that feature.

DIY Foam Cupcake StandDIY Foam Cupcake StandI also created the cupcake stand for the mini cupcakes which looked so sparkly and superb! I will share a tutorial on how I made it soon, I promise!

DIY Wedding & "Punny" FavorsDonut Ring FavorFor the favors we came across several fun donut rings and knew it would be the perfect favor for this bling-filled wedding! I recreated the idea by cutting diamonds with my Cricut Explore, gluing them to toothpicks and inserting into mini powdered donuts.

DIY Donut Diamond FavorsWe bagged those up and tied with a ribbon and attached a tag that said “We DONUT know what we would do without you!” Courtney is the queen of puns so this was the perfect favor for her Wedding! I also designed the programs – since the Wedding was a bit unconventional, we wanted to make sure the guests had an idea about what they could expect.

DIY Wedding PhotoboothBecause the space was tight we waited until after the ceremony while the couple were having their pictures taken to set-up the photo booth. I made a bunch of props and people really got into the spirit of it! We got some really great pictures of the guests which I shared on Facebook the following day. No joke, I was seeing those pop up in my feed for a week and tons of people turned them into their profile pictures. It was so fun to see and I know my sister enjoyed how much everyone had fun with it! You don’t need a full on photo booth if you are on a budget – just add a fun back drop hung with a curtain road and set up a camera on a tripod. I had my camera remote, but it wasn’t behaving, so others would simply step up to snap a picture whenever someone was in the “booth”. It was no fuss and really gave my sister some fun photos to remember her special day.

DIY Wedding CardboxBlinged out wedding inviteWe had a table set-up when people first walked in for the decorated mailbox I made for cards and the escort cards. We also added one of the centerpieces to the table and my mom bought a blinged out frame that she placed the DIY Wedding Invite (even the wedding invite was blinged out with glitter!) in and set on the table as well – and BUMMER! Neither I nor the photographer got a photo of the whole table.

Father and BridgeAs I mentioned the space was small for the amount of people we had, so we did not have a DJ. The venue had an awesome sound system and my sister set up a play list for dinner music, a play list for the first dances and a dance play list for once the party really got started. She appointed a friend as the MC and I typed up a schedule and exactly what we wanted her to say. This all worked out beautifully and saved some dough. The room did come with a beautiful Grand Piano and we had a pianist playing from the time the guests arrived, through the ceremony and afterwards during the appetizers/cash bar, which really set such a nice atmosphere.

I was the contact for the venue, so if they had questions, needed to talk with someone or any issues arose, I was the person to talk to. I kept everything on track and made sure that all the vendors had what they needed and that we stayed on time. It was a busy day (and prep day the day before) but it was tons of fun and I loved having such a big part of my beautiful little sister and her handsome new hubby’s big day!

FOR LOCAL PEEPS:
Venue/Caterer: Twiggs, St. Albans, VT

Photographer: Behold Photography, Franklin County, VT

Cutting Cake/Cupcakes: Eastman’s Bakery, Fairfax, VT