If I were to describe my wedding day, I’d call it magical. I am sure I’ll have additional more coherent thoughts on the subject in the future but for now, we’ll call it magical. I am going to start by showing off my details, and we’ll save a few other photos for future posts. I will also mention right from the start though that I did not touch my phone the entire day. I did not take one single photo after my initial arrival at the home we got ready in. I concentrated solely on participating in the day without being distracted by photos and posts and so on. As such, I have to rely on those who did take photos and those are still coming in. The professional ones my sister in law did will be up in the future as well.

Anyhow, on to the detail photos and my explanations behind them.

On one of the walls were these three wooden arches, so I figured the ceremony could be centered around those. Mr. Ink wanted to use maple trees in the decor. He called around and found a place where he could get maples delivered, 4 of them, that were coming from far enough south to have already grown leaves. That wasn’t going to be possible from our area. He made absolutely certain that the place he chose could deliver them before the wedding date and that they knew that he would be using them in wedding decor. Those 4 trees arrived. Three with leaves and one without. Mr. Ink actually thinks it may be diseased. We were disappointed.

Meanwhile, I’d spent all this time thinking about how I was going to make trees in landscaping buckets look wedding appropriate. I had thought to wrap the buckets in fabric, with more fabric wrapped buckets to give them height. After a while, the idea just didn’t thrill me. Until a point at which I had the brilliant idea to find weathered-looking wooden crates. If I made absolutely certain the crates were large enough, I’d be able to use them for height as well as turn them over and put the fabric wrapped bucket in the crate. With a little floofing, the fabric would look great, and the entire thing should have the vintage vibe I was going for right from the start. I called my mom and asked her to bring some fabric for the buckets and she was able to find teal/turquoise colors which fit the theme.

I did a dry run of the crates once the trees came in and decided I could also use some of Mr. Ink’s latest evergreen collection acquisitions as well. Then, I’d tossed in a couple doilies and thought that the empty edges could have doilies and vases.

Back to the trees. Mr. Ink had to go last minute tree shopping to add another tree to the mix. He could not find another maple with leaves, again, too early in the season. But, he’d been wanting to purchase a bougainvillea for his collection. This would be an indoor/outdoor tree, one which stayed out during the hot months and would come inside and overwinter indoors. So, in the end, a bougainvillea was purchased as the final tree. It all looked quite lovely and I am glad I was able to think of it and settle on something.

Right from the start, I knew I’d be using mason jar vases with recycled sari silk bows. I pulled out all my mason jars and then was able to add to that collection with mason jars from Marja’s mother’s collection. I had originally ordered bulk flowers from the same shop that was doing the bouquets. She had warned me that I should not purchase Costco/grocery store flowers because they wouldn’t last as long. But, with the additional mason jars, I knew I’d need more flowers. I did end up purchasing flowers for the rehearsal dinner from Costco.  I am here to tell you that you need not fear about Costco flowers. I purchased my Costco flowers on Thursday before the wedding. The ones from the shop arrived on Saturday, day of the wedding. It’s now Wednesday and the Costco flowers are holding up better than the ones from the florist.

Mr. Ink’s sister in law rallied her troops (The significant others of her sons) to do the floral work and they turned out so beautifully that I teared up looking at them. They did such a nice job!

We ended up with so many mason jars of flowers they were just added anywhere they would fit, and this made things look so fantastic!

I had looked through my own stash as well as Marja’s mother’s stash of vintage linens to find a number of dresser scarves to use during the wedding. Once beginning to set up the tables, my mom realized that crossing them actually looked better than having them individually on the tables. Very cute! I also had an assortment of vintage and store-bought vintage feeling salt and pepper shakers for the tables.

Included with the venue was a large farmhouse table. I loved the wood and the chipped paint and didn’t want to cover that in linen. So, Marja and I went antiquing. We found a number of vintage linens that could double as placements. We then found more in Marja’s mother’s basement, and then a few more in my stash. I supplemented that with a few from etsy, and I had cute vintage mismatched placemats for my farmhouse tables.

Once the flowers and the candles were added around the room the entire thing was just about as pretty and magical as could be. My vision realized by all the hard work of those attending.

Mr. Ink’s sister in law, who really did spearhead the directing of traffic and making my vision happen, took one look at the outdoor patio and had Ideas. She put a bar out there as well as some appetizers. But, what she really loved was the space and she went out and purchased multiple live plants to decorate the area. I hadn’t thought about the outdoors at all because when I’d viewed the venue it was snow covered outdoors. When we viewed it right before the wedding I just couldn’t add anything to the plans. But she could, and she did, and it was beautiful.

Now on to the candy bar. Miss Butterfly wanted a candy bar. I don’t care about candy. So, I told her I wasn’t doing one. But, Marja decided a candy bar would be fun so she decided to take that on. It really did turn out lovely and she seemed to have a fantastic time putting it together! She and her mom also made the mints, which were very delicious!

The cake was something I was quite worried about ahead of time. I wanted a very specific cake from a very specific baker. I knew the cake would be pretty and delicious. But, the ordering was very difficult and I wasn’t sure I trusted the order to get to the baker. I must have confirmed that order 3 times after the fact, and they assured me everything would go as planned. We had agreed that I would purchase red flowers for the top of the cake, and that in doing so, the baker would add the flowers to the top of the cake during set up.

At some point upon my arrival, I looked over at the cake and realized no flowers were on it. I asked Mr. Ink’s sister in law. She said “Baker is gone, he didn’t do it.” But at that point, I found I didn’t care. Not even a bit. My mom stepped up to the plate and got those flowers on the cake making it look quite pretty. See? No worries at all.

One final sweet and unexpected detail. There was a chalkboard provided at the venue. we attended that Alabama wedding last year, you may remember? Well, the bride at that wedding had learned a little lettering for her wedding, and she was willing to put that to use for ours.

There you have it, all the tiny details and associated photos that I have so far. These were all taken by my mom I believe. I am so glad she took the opportunity to get them. More to come, of course. This could be a rather lengthy process.