Decor Obsession!

Is any one obsessed with reception décor like I am?
I look at pictures online all day long and can not get enough. There are a billion great ideas out there and I want to use them all!. Or at least afford someone to do all the hard work. I have always planned on DIY’ing as much of the décor that I can. My mom is a sculptor and works with clay and bronze so I knew we could make a lot of the stuff our selves since she is really crafty.

To give you a little background our wedding is being held at my parents’ house which is located in the country on 10 acres and bordered by woods. My mom and dad have worked really hard on the landscaping around the house and all the garden boxes to give it a really gorgeous natural look.

This is the front in the spring. I wish I had a picture of the back where everything will be but this sucky drawing I made the layout will have to do… hahah oh man this is sad ….

In all honestly it’s the most beautiful during the summer but with the humidity in PA I was just not about it because I really did want an outdoor reception. So I am hoping that being on May 21st it won’t rain (please please please PLEASE don’t rain!). We are getting a tent so if it does we will be fine. I plan of having lots of lighting. Lights everywhere! In an outdoor evening wedding I feel you can never have to many lights. I’m really hoping that the fireflies will be out that night too though I fear it will be too early.

My parents have a brick patio off the middle of the house which then leads onto a deck on the back of the house, both bordered by flower boxes. On the very end of the wood deck is a huge maple tree. I love this tree and use to climb it all the time as a kid and a little circle garden with birch trees in it and want to either string lights in it or hang lanterns in both these areas. (This isn’t our tree but it works) This Picture is a little more dramatic but I’m sure getting lights like that would be outrageous! SO pretty though.
Covering more than half the patio we have a pergola that is covered in purple wisteria. Sadly the flowers won’t be in bloom but there should be some budding. I really want to hang some small lanterns from there as well.
We are also setting up the cocktail area on the patio and deck and will have tall cocktail rounds and then on the deck we have this huge table with a fire pit in it and seating all around. I want it to be a sort of lounge away from the dancing and music in the tent where people can relax and talk.

This is not at all what it will look like but you get the idea. I think we will probably have the bar set up either on the patio or deck as well … unless it rains (fingers crossed!).

As for the tent I really wanted a more intimate setting so I decided to go with long tables, family style I guess. Anyways I love this because it allows for me and my FI to sit with our bridal party and also no one is segregated. I also wanted something that allowed for the type of centerpieces that I wanted and knew I didn’t want something tall and grand and I feel like with rounds you have to go big. Big is not in the budget and really not my style.

We are getting bee-lighting through our rental company and was also thinking about stringing paper lanterns up inside the tent as well but we shall see with the budget.
For the Centerpieces I wanted earthy and simple. Nothing high and in the way cause we have long tables and I want everyone to be able to see everyone else. I really want to do table runners and had thought about alternating dark purple and green runners and then alternating the flower colors to be opposite. So if a table had a green runner it would have purple flowers. BUT I found this picture and fell in love!

Moss table runners! OMG I know how fantastic are these!!! BUT I don’t think it will be doable because to make them isn’t so cheap. But then I found centerpieces using wheatgrass and I’m hooked.

I love the colored flowers popping out and found a great blog that showed me how to do it at 1-800Flowers.com! So simple and adorable! I want long rectangle center pieces and then have votive candles all around in random jars. The jars I am either going to purchase used on weddingbee.com or I found this fantastic wholesale site called Jar Supplier that has them SO cheap and I can get a bunch of different one and mismatch them! I am hoping my mom will be able to make the rectangular pots for the centerpieces. I think it would look gorgeous to have clay handmade pots and would just tie everything together!

I can’t wait to fly to PA and start piecing all of this together into a solid plan! I know it’s going to be hard but in the end it is going to be more than worth it!