Alternatives to a Wishing Well

We didn't want a typical wishing well for our wedding, but we still needed something that people could put their cards and gifts into.

I tossed up quite a few different ideas of what we could use (things like birdcages -which are also a bit typical, old suitcases, a letterbox, a rustic old crate, a box covered in pretty paper, etc etc) ...in a later post I'll share some of those pics. 

About a week before the wedding I hadn't arranged anything.. and suddenly had no time to trawl through op shops looking for the perfect item. So I ended up using the picnic hamper you see above. It was my mums.. and was actually green on the inside. It also had leather straps which held in plastic cups, plates, cutlery, etc. It was a bit daggy really.

So I set to work with a little more DIY and re-lined it using the same orange gingham that featured on our Jam Jars... and is very similar to our groomsmen's ties.

Step 1 - Cut leather straps off and discard all contents. 

Step 2 - Cut fabric to size

Step 3 - Use hot glue gun to make fabric stick

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I'm pretty sure that when you plonk 'something that looks like it could store things' at the entrance to a wedding reception... people pretty easily work out what it is there for (i.e. putting cards and gifts into). But it was one week before my wedding and I didn't want any room for error.. so I created some little tags to explain. These tags are the same ones that were tied to our invitations. 

Step 1 - Buy Tags

Step 2 - Decide they are too white and need look more rustic

Step 3 - Make a cup of coffee and dip tags into it. 

Step 4 - Once dry, write on tags

Of course i also went into a panic about whether it was ok to put 'cards' or 'gifts' on the hamper.

ME: - "Does it seem greedy? Does it seem like we are expecting people to bring gifts?"
Reality:- "But people will bring gifts"
ME:- I know, but we don't want them to think we expected them!
Reality:- "But we have a registry"
ME:- Yeah but what if someone doesn't bring anything?
Reality:- Well don't put anything on it then. People will work it out.
ME:- "But then people wont know where to put stuff. OK, we shouldnt put 'gifts'.. that's greedy. Let's just put 'cards'.

Pathetic really. Nobody tells you how much you'll worry about irrelevant details in the lead up to your wedding. Our guests probably barely registered this hamper.. nor the tags!

Hand-made Table Numbers

I had a few ideas about table numbers.

I thought about using little blackboards.

And I thought about using wood, like the bits i used on tables.

Instead, I bought some little wooden  numbers, some little wooden bases, some super glue and some orange paint.  It all cost me about $15.

The result....Ta-da!

(^ Our tables had to be numbered by row, not table. Hence the 2 numbers on one table!)

What other table number options are out there I wonder...Please share any interesting ideas you've seen!

Jam Jar Favours / Bonboniere

These sweet little jam jars doubled as favours (or bonbonierre, whatever you call them) and place cards at our wedding.

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Our 100 year old venue used to be a Jam Factory, back in the day.. so we thought this was fitting. 

Plus it fit with the overall rustic theme.

I had every intention of making the jam myself, but I soon realised that was slightly beyond me. Have you ever read about how to make jam?? Despite my expectations, it is NOT as simple as cooking fruit and sugar and bottling the mixture. First you have to find mini jars as cute as the ones above. Then there's all this technical stuff.. like you have to heat the jam jars so they are hot when you fill them wit hot liquid. Which means you have to handle them with tongs, not hands (fiddly!). And then you cant just put a lid on... you have to boil them (with lids on) in order to sterilise and seal them (messy.. and still fiddly!). 

Have I put you off making your own jam yet??

Well.. what if I tell you that you can buy ready made jam in mini jars for only $1 each? Yep, that changed my mind too! I picked up 150 jars for about $150.

Then I set to work with a little DIY. 

I removed the existing labels so that they looked a little more home-made and rustic. 

I cut little squares of orange gingham (which matched our groomsmen's ties perfectly). 

And I tied them up with string (which tied in with our invitations).

Then we attached tags with guests names. 

They looked great and the guests loved them.

I'm pretty sure our niece opened hers and ate it on her bread roll at the reception!

Mismatched Bridal Parties (again)

Back over here I talked about mismatched groomsmen - and mentioned the fact that our groomsmen and bridesmaids were all mismatched. It's a decision I'm glad we went with.

Firstly: The Girls. 
I purchased fabric (a coral coloured silk chiffon, with a deeper coral satin lining) and I gave it to each girl to what they wanted with. They all went and sorted out their own thing - using entirely different dressmakers. Here was the result:

The girls all looked amazing! They all came up with such different styles, but they still worked so well together. They also all picked their own hairstyles for the day.
The things that held them together were: (1) they were all similar length: just above the knee, (2) they wore matching shoes and jewellery. (3) they all held bouquets which helped tie them together.

And: The Boys
We didn't want to make the guys buy (or hire) expensive suits, so Adam picked a grey suit he liked, and the guys just bought the pants (except for best man who decided to buy the suit too). We bought them those fabulous ties off etsy, that I talked about over here
... then they accessorised however they wanted.

Groom wore the grey suit - with a black & white gingham tie.
Best man wore the grey suit - with an orange and white skinny tie.
GM1 wore grey pants - with and orange and white bow-tie, a grey vest and a cap.
GM2 wore grey pants - the orange and white skinny tie and some grey braces.
GM3 wore the pants with just the orange and white tie.

Here is our whole bridal party together. I wasn't sure if they were happy to be on the net, so I have "starred" out their faces (just in case!).

Bring on the comments... I would love to know what you think. And would love to see your favourite mismatched pics!

 

Colour Schemes (and reactions to them)

I've just realised I haven't even shared the basic with you - our colour scheme!

I found picking a colour scheme for our wedding decidedly tricky! When I first started planning, I thought I would just go wild with colour and have bright orange, hot pink, turquoise, sunshine yellow - everything bright and colorful under the sun.
I've seen it pulled off, like over here where it looks amazing. But if I am honest, I didn't trust myself with it. I thought it could go either way.. marvellous - or just plain messy.

So I decided to pick one colour. Pink seemed too girly (since it's also my husband's wedding!), Blue had been done by a couple of my friends, yellow.. well actually i could have had yellow... But in the end I just decided on orange.

I soon discovered that people* don't really like orange. And they aren't afraid to tell you either! I saw screwed up faces. I got looks of horror. I had people tell me that I'd regret it. And I had people ask if I was trying to make my bridesmaids look bad (dont get me started on that.. I means seriously, who does that? It is the bride that has to keep the photos. It is the bride that people judge for any awful decisions/aesthetics. People know the BMs dont pick their dresses.. so if they look ugly, it is only a reflection on the bride. So why would anyone aim for ugliness??).
Anyway, I digress...

Here is around about what I picked.
Orange (real orange) + Coral (a prettier orange) + Creamy White + Light Grey.

But of course I couldn't totally abandon my love of colour. So there were accents. Many accents. 

- Greens, pinks and maroons in the flowers

- Browns in the form of wood and hessian

- Blues, Greens, Oranges and Browns in the form of bottles and vases

- Yellow in the Kombi Van

I'll get around to sharing it all soon.

FYI - I definitely don't regret it. And the bridesmaids looked beautiful.

*by 'people', i specifically mean jerks whose opinions you generally don't care about anyway!

An oldie but a goodie.. Rustic LOVE at the ranch

There are some weddings that you look at and go "wow, that's pretty" or "nice ideas".. and then you move on. Then there are the weddings that stay with you, that inspire you, the ones that you refer back to over and over again. This wedding is one of the latter variety.
Ali & Ian got married at about the same time I got engaged. I was already planning my rustic garden party and I couldn't stop drooling over the perfection of theirs.

Maybe it is that their photographer (Tec Petaja) is super talented.





Or the fact that Ali is so damn gorgeous (almost makes me want to dye my hair red), plus seems like a super lovely girl going by her Weddingbee posts.

 

Maybe it's the pretty peachy colour scheme:

The perfect rustic venue.. (Devil's Thumb Ranch in Colarado)

Or the perfect, perfect wild flowers...

Or maybe it's the sweet-as-pie details:

...Whatever it is, it gives me true wedding envy. Even now, 18 months later, it is still right up there as one of my favourite rustic weddings. I hope it inspires another Rustic Bride out there too.

**All pics have come from Ali's own blog, but no doubt are the work of the talented Tec Petaja**

My first (and only) Inspiration Board

Below is something I created not long after getting engaged. When i say 'created' I mean I whacked a few pics together in powerpoint at work one day. I guess it was my first inspiration board.. the first time I put all my ideas on one page and the colour scheme started to come about. And I never really bothered to create another one.

Part of the reason I never changed it is because if i added every new picture i fell in love with, then i'd be adding new pics every day!

And part of the reason is because my overall vision for our wedding stayed very close to this for the next 18 months. I still love these pics now!

I'm sorry, but i dont know the sources of most of these images anymore. 

One interesting fact: the venue at top left and bottom right is where the Rustic Garden Party eventually took place!