Long-belated Post: Sara's Wedding!

I have been meaning to write a post about Sara's wedding, but never remember! Well never fear, because today it's here! 

Just two months later...Man time flies by! 

Sara and Aaron wanted their wedding to be simple, lovely, and have a relaxed, but elegant feel. They were married in our family church and then had the reception downstairs in the church basement. 

She had been 'pinning' away for a couple of months different ideas that she wanted to incorporate on their special day. Her idea board consisted of several vintage components, lace, mason jars, pendant banners, simple bouquets of flowers, chalkboards, photo booths, doilies and coral and grey. Even her dress was from an idea that she saw off of Pinterest.

Twinkle lights were strung from the ceiling with lanterns from IKEA and tissue balls in yellow, pink, green and blue hanging among them.

Faith's husband cut an old tree stump into thin smooth pieces for part of the centerpieces. Daisies in mason jars and candles finished up the simple, but beautiful centerpieces. 

A photo booth was made with colourful streamers and a pendant banner made out of scrapbook paper.

Sara had stick on mustaches and props that were printed off this website, laminated and then stuck on bamboo sticks. It was a fun way to get pictures of the afternoon! 

Faith was an amazing sister and made all the cupcakes for the reception from this recipe that she found awhile back. So. Good. 

It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun helping Sara and Aaron prepare and then celebrate their wedding day! 

Want more wedding reading? Click the following links to read about Faith's wedding, Melody's wedding, and my wedding. 

{Sara and Aaron's photography was done by Lumbers Photography and some of these pictures were from our Aunt Dorothy too.) 

The Mayhem is Over

Life is getting back to normal around here. We had a hectic last couple of weeks trying to finish all the last minute details for our little sister's wedding. We hope you enjoyed getting some glimpses of our wedding's and some of the little details that went into them. If you didn't get to catch those posts, you can see them here.

Since I haven't really done any of my own DIY projects, I thought I would give you some of the pictures from last week. We don't have a lot of pictures from the wedding yet, but I'm sure you'll get to see them soon!

Our fifth anniversary was on Friday. This was the only picture that we got of ourselves that day!

Waiting for the wedding to start

The first kiss as husband and wife!

Seth and Bella posing at the reception. 

Our attempt at getting a shot of the cousins. They were not impressed!

The best photo we got of our family that day

Sisters!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! As we head back into somewhat "normal" life, we have a lot of projects that we are going to be starting soon. One of my projects involves ripping off trim, repainting, and cabinetry. Can you guess??

Do you have any good projects that you've started lately? We'd love to hear from you! 

All the Little Details

Well, today is the last day of Wedding Week.

We are really glad that you joined us this week as we went down memory lane, reminiscing about our weddings, as we looked forward to our little sister's wedding (who is getting married this morning!).  

Yesterday I spent the day at church, chopping up vegetables, making veggie trays, and doing what else I could to help get the meal ready for today. There were family members everywhere in the church - both from my family and my sister's fiance's family - decorating, scrubbing potatoes, icing cupcakes, and just making sure all the last minute details were all ready. 

Seeing all the family members and close friends working together to make this day special for Sara and Aaron, got me thinking about what a blessing it was when family and friends worked together to make our day so special, six years ago. 

I showed you pictures on Wednesday about my wedding, but I want to show you some of the behind the scenes pictures.

 Melody making the beautiful centerpieces with wild flowers; my best friend from college who flew out to be my maid of honour and was simply amazing that week; my brothers, brother-in-laws, and close friend (and Jesse's best man) husking corn for the meal; and my brother making sure everyone had their bouquets (how thoughtful).

  My dad who made sure that the yard looked beautiful AND renovated the bathroom AND made sure the little details were getting done (he's a good deligator) AND worked on preparing the meal; my brother-in-laws who did a beautiful job on the music; the meal being eaten on the back deck (we did it buffet style). 

I don't even think I could tell you about all the people that helped make our wedding day run so smoothly and look so beautiful. All the DIY projects that my mom worked so hard preparing and setting up, the gorgeous cake that our family friend made for us, the chairs that were set up that morning, the dishes that were washed and brought back to church after the wedding...all those little details were done by family and friends. 

 Sometimes when I look at the weddings on "Rich Bride, Poor Bride" (I love that show), I think it is somewhat sad that they hire people to do this and to do that. Now, I understand that not every family gets along or is gifted in the area of throwing great parties, but I think one of the things that made our wedding day so great, was everybody who helped make it so great. 

{Jesse's family}

 {My family}
(Sara, the one who is getting married today, is the one on the left,
next to Jesse)

Today as we celebrate my little sister's marriage to her wonderful fiance (who we all love very much), we will enjoy the love that you can see so clearly between the two of them. 

Happy Wedding Day, Sara and Aaron! 

  

 

Click here if you missed Day One, Day Two, Day Three, and Day Four

A Very Small Wedding

Welcome to Day 4 of our Wedding Week series. You've already gotten a few glimpses of Faith and Heidi's wedding and I thought I'd show you what mine looked like.

All of our weddings were extremely different in taste and style but all of them were complete DIY projects. For my wedding, I invited immediate family only. I'm sure I offended quite a few people but I loved it and it was exactly what my husband and I wanted! In total, there were only 30 people there. We had it on a Friday night at 7pm and it was held outside on the same pergola that my dad built for Heidi's wedding.

We had red roses for the flowers and did all the arrangements ourselves for the tables. My sisters helped me with my make-up and hair and I like to think that I looked pretty good! :) 

We had it catered by friends of the family and they did an excellent job with the whole meal. Since it started pouring rain right after the ceremony, we had our food inside and because it was such a small wedding, everyone fit perfectly! 

Thinking back, there were a few things I would have changed like getting more professional pictures, but the important parts I would keep exactly the same! 

As for our sister's wedding this weekend, we were busy all day today and will be busy tomorrow finishing the decorating and all the details that need to be done. Since I'm in charge of doing her make-up for the special day, I've been pinning some different tips and tricks for making perfect wedding make-up. Check out my pins on Pinterest for some good tricks!

{Day 3} Wedding Week!

When I was planning my wedding six years ago, there was no such thing as 'Pinterest' {gasp here}. While sitting in my dorm room at college, my friends and I would pour over bridal magazines, dreaming about the day that each of us would plan our own wedding day. 

That day finally came for me, and I had to plan our wedding while at college, thousands of miles from home, making hundreds of phone calls to my mom. She was seriously the best because she did a lot of the organizing and getting things together. (Thank you mom!!) 

 My dream was to be married at home in my parent's backyard. My dad went to work and built a beautiful pergola for the ceremony. 

  From the stainless steel buckets filled with wild flowers picked that morning that lined the aisle, to my bridesmaid's and my bouquets, to the centerpieces, and the meal (which my parents and some friends from church did an excellent job with!), almost every single part of our wedding was a DIY project.

 The centerpieces were wild flowers in old mason jars with a simple ribbon tied around the top. The wedding cake was a gift from our family friend and it was delicious!

It was a beautiful day, filled with love, laughter, family and friends. There wasn't a cloud in the sky (which led to a sunburn on my shoulders). 

We didn't spend a lot of money on our wedding. We didn't need to spend a lot of money on our wedding. We may not have had all the other things that weddings these days have, but it was our day and we loved it. 

 Remember to stop by lots this week for some great wedding ideas! 

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Click here to read Day One and Day Two of our Wedding Week.  

 

Day 2 Wedding Week: Simple Decorations

As we look forward to this coming Saturday, which is our younger sister's wedding as previously mentioned here, I can't help but look back and remember the different details, decorations, and flowers that made my wedding day special. 

My husband Jason and I were wed on a quiet beach with our closest friends and family to witness our special day. 

We decided to go for a very simple, rustic themed wedding, with a bunch of DIY projects tossed in there. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, and said our "I do's" with the sound of waves crashing in the background. 

The reception was held in an old barn, which presented a challenge when it came to decorating. I had a vision of white lights hanging from the ceiling, large white lanterns, and lots of flowers for the table centre pieces. Since I was going for a very simple look, it wasn't too difficult for it all to come together.

Even though I couldn't tell you all the names of the flowers that were used for the centre pieces, I can tell you how easy it was to arrange them together! Basically we had around 8 different types of white flowers, and a small variation of clear vases and jars. We grouped the flowers together in small arrangements, and placed them in the vases to create the look we wanted. Simple, but unique. 

Hope you are enjoying our wedding week countdown here! Make sure you check out our blog the rest of the week to see what other wedding ideas you can get from us! 

Wedding Week Countdown!

This week on our blog, we've decided to do a full week of wedding. You might be wondering why and the answer is quite simple. Our little sister is getting married this week! Yes. There is another sister (actually two more plus a sister-in-law!) and she is getting married. After four wedding in our family, we're getting quite pro at throwing showers, making flower arrangements and anything having to do with weddings and we thought we'd share! Hopefully you can use some of these ideas for yourselves.

On Saturday, we had a bachelorette party for Sara which was hosted at my house. We invited some of her closest friends, had some great food, music (Zac Brown anyone?), and an awesome time! I decorated for the party the night before and in total, it took me about 2 hours to decorate everything and make the food. We decided to keep it simple so that we weren't rushing around at the last minute trying to get things done. We like to enjoy our parties! So without further ado, here are some of our best tips:

• If you're hosting a party in your house, don't be afraid to move furniture into another room. It can free up a lot of space and you can always move it back later! In the picture below, I moved all the chairs away from the table and moved a bookshelf into another room. It allowed me to push the table up against the wall and make it my food/display area. 
• Pick a few colours for decorating and stick with them. I tried to unify things by using white platters and bowls to hold the food. I also used a pale yellow table cloth. I added colour with the pennant banner, the flowers, the food and the pictures on the wall. 

• For the food, pick a few foods that are simple and can be put together beforehand. I chose to make mini strawberry shortcakes and pizza crescent rolls. I had Faith bring her famous cupcakes (get the recipe here) and we served everything with chips, popcorn, veggies, and pumpernickel bread with dip. Everyone enjoyed the food and was full. There was still lots of food leftover!

• Make some cute little signs for the food so that everyone knows what everything is. This saves a lot of confusion and people standing around the table wondering exactly what everything is. I made these chalkboard signs by cutting out some squares of chalkboard paper and putting them onto matching scrapbook paper. 

• Don't forget to add personal touches to the decorations. I printed off some pictures of Sara and Aaron and placed them above the food table and also had them rotating on my iPad. It's another touch that doesn't really cost anything, but makes it more special for the bride. 

And lastly, but definitely not least, remember to sit down and enjoy yourself! 

All of us girls!

Remember to stop by lots this week for some great wedding ideas! If you don't want to miss any posts, like us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed.