Nella Vita di Wedding Details

I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but also a bit of an unrealistic dreamer. In my mind I will see a project or get an idea of how I want something to look, but when it comes to executing that idea reality has a completely different idea. Getting the two to find common ground is often a frustrating battle. The details of the wedding proved to be one such a battle. I had a vision of what I wanted my wedding and reception to look like, but pesky little things like budget and time just didn't want to cooperate. I must admit I spent a ridiculous amount of time agonizing over such things as type of name card and wedding favors. I think I weighed every option available, even the most ridiculous and elaborate ones (a rotating photo cube as a centerpiece anyone? strategically placed pinwheels?). Even the night before I was still stressing over how everything would look, how it would come together, would it look cheap? And then the big day arrived and suddenly there were a million other things to stress about (like the fact that my shoes were the perfect ivory cream indoors and suddenly became stark white and horribly clashy outdoors or the fact that the heat index was over 100 and grandfathers were getting faint!) But in the back of my mind I was still worrying about how things would look, and then I arrived at the site getting ready for the ceremony and got my first glimpse into the reception hall, and everything was more perfect than I could have hoped for! It really did all come together and looked great. It was pure relief and a wonderful feeling...all that hard work had paid off, my wedding was beautiful. The rest of the evening was just one big extension of that wonderful feeling of just sheer happiness.


The two biggest ways we were able to keep the costs down was buying things in bulk online and doing things ourselves. For the centerpieces, fresh flowers were not in our budget; plus I hate having a large floral arrangement blocking people's views and conversation. Researching alternatives though so much just seemed sub par or cliche. I was super excited when I found a lot of these lanterns on ebay for a great price. The glass in the lantern was pale green so when lit with a tea light they were beautiful. To dress them up a bit I bought scrapbook paper in coordinating greens and purples. At the end of the wedding people were fighting over taking the lanterns home. In fact, I was left with none, and had to steal some back from my mother!

Early on the hubs and I decided we didn't want to use table numbers...where's the fun in that?! So instead we gave each table a unique name that somehow related to either us individually or as a couple. On each table we made table markers out of purple and green card stock that had the table name and also a sentence explaining the name. One of the best things about doing our tables this way is that it got all the guests walking around to each of the tables to read about their name, so it really helped family and friends mingle. The seating cards were simple tent cards decorated with a green paper flower. It was simple but the flower really gave them a fun feel.

Favors was an aspect of the wedding I spent a ridiculous amount of time agonizing over. But the more I looked and debated, the more disgusted I became with what I was finding. So many would just become some dusty chotchkie or find its way right into the 'goodwill' pile. It seemed like such a waste of money. So instead, after being inspired from some other weddings we attended, we decided to make a donation to the cancer society. To let our guests know, we made little cards explaining that a gift had been made to the American Cancer Society. Each card was decorated with one of five ribbons in coordinating purples and greens (see the theme).

We ended up outsourcing our wedding programs to a company because we just ran out of the time and energy to make them ourselves and found a place that did them for a great price. We had them made in the same shades of purple and green used throughout the wedding and they tied in beautifully.


In the end, if someone was looking to do a lot of their wedding details themselves or is stressing as much as I was, one of the biggest pieces of advise I could give is to not worry about getting your exact colors. Have a general range of acceptable shades. In my case it was darker purples or lavenders (no fuscia!) and earth tone greens (nothing bright or lime!). Having a range gives you much more flexibility and it helps everything to blend in together.

I truly couldn't have pulled it all off without the help of some wonderful women who I am so thankful to have in my life.