Category — reception

Thank you all for answering my questions!  It was really interesting to see that photography came out on top as the thing everyone was glad they splurged on or wished they would have splurged on. We put so much effort and emotion into this one day and all you have for the rest of your life are the pictures! And although our photographer gave us a great deal, we still spent 1/5 of our small budget on those photos and I wouldn’t trade that for anything! So again, thanks for sharing ladies!!

On to this morning’s topic: tables!  Here are a few that I am currently loving for a rustic wedding.

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I love the idea of supplementing  with candles. Great way to save money!
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Love the rustic look of this wedding! Especially the wood table sans table cloth.

(I almost didn’t post these because I can’t remember where I got them. If you know who posted these first, please let me know so that I can credit them! Via!  Thanks Evie!)

That is all I can think of when I see this venue…  just breathe in the beauty, the simplicity.

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(shot by matthew morgan. edited by me)

We decided to go with a framed poster for our guestbook:

I bought the poster from etsy seller SparklePower, though I can’t seem to find her now! (Thanks Laura!) We bought the frame at Ikea and took the whole thing to Michael’s to get a custom matte made for $20.

We came to the conclusion that since we were on a budget, giving out favors was simply not necessary. We thought about making homemade cookies to package up for people to take with them, but decided against it as it would have had to been done in the few days before the wedding, and I really didn’t want to have to do anything on those days!  So what we decided on doing was to give away the flowers from the centerpieces.

I posted about making these bags here.

We also made little tags asking people to take the flowers but leave the jars, since they were part of our personal collection.

Going this route for the favors saved us a lot of time and money, and no one seemed to care. (Not that they would come up asking for their favor… but still!)

Images from Studio 7 Photography.

The kid’s table was a huge hit! By the end of the party there were untangled Slinkies, colored coloring books and devoured candy everywhere!

I included:
a craft paper table cloth (using this roll of paper from Ikea)
Slinkies (from the dollar bins at Target)
little wind mills (also from the dollar bins at Target)
crayons and colored pencils (placed in paper cups from Ikea and Target)
mixed candy (also placed in paper cups from Ikea and Target)
the Activity Books I made
paper napkins (from Ikea)

Kids were more than welcome at our wedding, and I wanted to provide them with something to do so that they could have fun too!  They were all old enough to be left alone by their parents at the table and to eat the food that the adults were eating.  They loved it, and I was so happy to see them all having a good time!

Images by  Studio 7 Photography

Update: I added a few food pictures. It was mmm mmm good!

I am going to start with something totally off topic: it is WAY too hot for the end of September. Seriously.

Ok, so our reception! It was fun, went by way too fast, and even though I did everything I could to eat I still left hungry! We had a lunch time cocktail and appetizer reception at Cannons Seafood and Grill in Dana Point, California.

Our reception turned out just how I had hoped it would. It was relaxed, there was great food, flowing alcohol, a fun place for the kids (to come in a later post), and an amazing view!  Suzy was amazing to work with as their event coordinator. She took care of everything, was super laid back and was just good at what she does. I really can’t recommend Cannons enough. Although having an evening event there can be a little pricy (renting out the restaurant), they are closed at lunch so the prices are very reasonable. I will do a post on food and cakes later The view is what sold us, and lucky for us July 18th was a clear and gorgeous day! And didn’t the balls turn out great!?  I was so happy that Christa agreed to set everything up for us, she really pulled the whole look off! I of course supplied her with pictures and lists and diagrams… but she followed them excellently!

Tips: Think outside of the box when it comes to reception venues.  I actually found Cannons on The Knot. I had never eaten there and really hadn’t thought of it as an option.  Of course, once I realized that was an option I started thinking outside of the box a little bit more. “well if Cannons is a venue, maybe the Ocean Institute is too?!” (It is, it is just more expensive)  Really think outside of your ‘wedding venue’ box. You would be surprised where you can throw a party! (and remember, that is all you are doing. Throwing a party.)

If you are on a budget, seriously consider doing a lunch time reception. You save so much money, it is ridiculous.

Remember, your guests are there to see you get married. Everything after the ceremony is a bonus. Back in the day, cake and punch receptions were the norm.  I feel like weddings have gotten so huge, and yes, it is ok to want the big party, to want to dance the night away and have your names projected on the dance floor and an ice sculpture replica of your dress (ok… that was taking it too far. sorry). If that is what you want, then by all means, it is your wedding. But if you don’t want all of that, if you just want to get married to the one you love and have a little celebration afterwards, then do it!  I know that we were extremely blessed to have my parents pay for the wedding and only pull the “I am paying so I get my way” card once or twice, and that not everyone can just do whatever they want while having someone else pay…  but… um… (sometimes I wish I was better at putting my thoughts into written words)

All I want  you to know is that you shouldn’t worry about what your guests will think, want, desire… They are just happy to see you tie the knot. And if you feed them something and hang out for a bit, then that is cool too. Just… just do what you want to do!  It is your day! You are getting married to the one you love! Yay!

I’ll get off my soap box now!

Oh and for those who asked, I got the H & B letters at Michael’s… I think!  They were white and Bryan painted them!

All images thanks to Miah and Mike from Studio 7.

My long time friend Jessie got married a few months back (Yaaay!) and I have been meaning to do a post of her pictures, but I just kept getting busy.  So this morning when I saw on facebook that she had put some new items on her etsy shop I figured now was a good time to do a double header!

Jessie is a Southern California girl who fell in love with a (very tall) Swedish basketball player. She travels with him and when they aren’t traveling they are in Sweden. All of this time has given her a chance to work on some side projects, sewing being one of them. And oh. my. Lord. Go check out her etsy shop before everything sells out!

A yoga mat bag.

Place mats with a built in chopsticks holder! (ok, so between this morning when I grabbed the picture from her etsy and right now, these have sold out….  I am sure you can request some though!)

She also has pillows and aprons… all in the most fun fabrics!  Go check it out!

Now on to her wedding. Want to know something cool? They got married in Sweden, so… as to not disappoint all of their family and friends who couldn’t make the trip, they had a live feed going! I got to watch the whole thing from right here in front of my computer!  It was awesome! All images (except for the shoes, which were shot by a freind, were actually shot by an actions sports photographer! Check out his site!

She was rockin the J. Crew dress (The Whitney) and shoes!!

So gorgeous!  She also has a blog , which I have a link to over on the right, Meditations of a Wallflower. She posts cooking stuff, home decorating stuff, life stuff…  She is pretty much awesome.  Congrats Jessie and Fred!!!

Our favors serve two purposes. One: for people to take flowers home and Two: for people to not take our mason jars home.

I bought cello baggies at Target.

Designed and printed out labels using labels from Stuck.

The finished project We will put a few under each centerpiece for people to take flowers home after the reception, and to discourage them from walking out with our collection of mason jars (which started waaaay before any wedding talks )

The cellar is a semi-new wine bar in San Clemente and it is one of our favorite new places. It serves delicious tapas style food, serves its water from glass bottles and poured into mason jars.

They also have an awesome looking menu.

The menu changes every few months and during the day they sell cheeses and wine out of the front of the place.  They have live piano every night and stay open late, which in San Clemente means anything open after 9pm I would totally recommend it for a small daytime reception or rehearsal lunch. The place is gorgeous, the food is delicious… it really is a win win.