What's your wedding day vision?

Rustic Wedding Inspiration- DIY

It's important to have a clear vision for your wedding day to help build a cohesive look from start to finish. Before designing save the dates and invitations, I always ask brides to describe the look and feel of their wedding. This typically includes color palettes, wedding dress, venue, time of year etc. Today I decided to get my inner "Style Me Pretty" on and made a collage of some of the inspiration I used for our wedding.

1. Birdcage veils are the perfect, understated, yet feminine accessory for those who don’t want the traditional long veil. I purchased mine through Etsy.

2. Perhaps my favorite decoration and DIY project: string chandeliers were hung in the ceremony and reception locations. You can keep them white or spray paint them in the color of your choice.

3. 3-teired tree dessert stand- try saying that 5 times fast! If you have a handy family member and access to some tree trunks, this is a unique way to serve cupcakes (or whoopie pies in my case).

4. Vera Wang peep toe flats are great for brides worried about the combination of heels and grass or are looking for comfort AND style throughout the night. 

5. "Tree cookie” centerpiece stands help to add a rustic look to each table.

6. Use tinted jars to add pops of color throughout the reception setting.

7. Did you spot the pine cone detail in the boutonniere? It's a wonderful wonderful way to add a rugged touch to the groom’s accessory. Having beach-side nuptials? Try adding sea-grass as a backing to the flowers.

8. Farmers tables are the epitome of rustic and add additional color and texture to the reception decor.

9. Wedding invitations: a mixture of lace and paper bag envelopes helped to incorporate the lace detail on the wedding dress and tied in the rustic/diy feel of the day.

[Photo compliments of Hobart & Haven, floragrubb, theblacktieco]

String Chandeliers- DIY wedding decoration

One of the DIY craft projects my parents and I worked on for my wedding was string chandeliers. It's the same idea as the popular paper lanterns (but without lights). I thought it was such a cool decorative element for a rustic looking wedding. I received so many compliments and thought I'd share the instructions below. I've seen people make these for their homes, girls rooms, table decor etc.

String Chandeliers (without the light)

Rustic DIY Wedding setup with string chandeliers

Instructions:
1. Inflate multiple sized balloons to a medium size so the shape is roundest.
2. Grab a tarp or old blanket to cover your work area. This gets VERY messy. Mix corn starch, glue and warm water together until it has a smooth texture.
3. Smear Vaseline all over your balloon until it is completely coated so the yarn wet with glue won’t stick on the balloon after dry.
4. This is ideally a two person job at minimum. I recommend one person feeding the yarn through the glue mix and giving to another person to wrap it around the balloon.
5. Start wrapping the balloon vertically, slowly changing to horizontal wrapping. For a seamless look, tuck the ends of the twine under one of the wrapped strings.
6. Wait 24 hours until the balloon has completely dried before popping the balloon.
7. Spray the string chandeliers with clear fast drying spray paint as a sealant. You can even spray the yarn a color.

Ingredients:
Colored balloons (this will allow you to see the pattern of the wrapped string better) - I recommend sizes 9", 16", 24" and 30" for a variety of sizes
12 oz Elmer's glue, 
White cotton yarn 
Tray or bucket for glue mixture
2 cup of Corn starch
1 cup of Warm water 
A Stirrer
Clear fast drying spray paint
Fishing line to hang balloons from  

*you may have to double/triple recipe based on the amount and size of chandeliers made.

The finished product is totally worth it :) I promise.

Packaging your wedding invitations

There are so many special touches you can add to your wedding invitations. One of my favorite jobs of the summer was this navy and green wedding invitation set that we tied up nice and pretty with matching green and white twine from Divine Twine (they come in a variety of colors and have so many uses). This bride also splurged on calligraphy from the talented Jenna Hein from Love, Jenna. I could stare at her handwriting all day long. It's just gorgeous. I also created matching wine bottle labels and escort tags that I'll be posting soon after the pictures come back. They were a hit!