In no particular order…
1. Our toasting flutes & Door County wines
The flutes we chose were Waterford Crystal Wishing Achievements. They’re pretty tall and unusually heavy for toasting flutes, which gave them a grand and regal feeling. They sparkled beautifully in the light and the etched markings on them were so unique that they were clear winners as soon as we saw them. To go in them, we provided around 60 bottles of locally grown Door County fruit wines. The flavors were Swedish lingonberry, peach, black cherry, red raspberry, honeycrisp apple, cranberry, and cherry chardonnay. As cherry growing and wine-making is such a rich part of Door County’s tradition and economy, we’re glad we were able to treat our guests to a true Door County experience by opting to use delicious local wines made at the winery right down the street. We’re not sad that we have leftovers either :-)
2. My personal effects
Okay, so I know I’m totally cheating by lumping five details into one slot on my top 10 list, but there were just too many favorites so I had to do it! As a little girl, I’d always imagined my wedding would be in the Texas hill county, where I was born and raised. The cowboy boots were my little piece of Texas. The eyelet garter was made for me by my mother since I love eyelet and I distinctly wanted something simple and non-froofy – which, by the way, is nearly impossible to locate in the wedding world. The hair piece was an Etsy find and the essence of earthy autumn chic. It’s colorful and playful nature appealed to my sense of the anti-traditional. The little envelope clutches were custom made from another Etsy seller for myself and my bridal attendants to hold our day-of necessities. Clutches are classically functional and are much more original as a “down the aisle” hand prop than a bouquet of flowers. Most of my jewelry was a gift from Ted – he has amazing taste! I adore the simple, understated elegance of the square cut diamonds. The best part is that I can, and I do, wear them often!
3. Mason jar candle centerpieces & wood slices
Yes, another two-for-one. Might as well take advantage of the opportunity to squeeze in as many favorite details as possible, right? While I certainly like flowers, I’m not a huge lover of flower centerpieces. They’re expensive, expected, and will die in three days. Instead we picked up a case of mason jars and some pillar candles and made our own ambient-lighting centerpieces. To spruce them up I added a copper satin ribbon and baby pine cone from my mom’s pine cone collection to each jar. They were theme-appropriate, easy to make, unexpected, budget-friendly, and we have plenty left over to enjoy for years to come. On the tables they were surrounded by orange and white mini pumpkins and larger pine cones. Ted’s friends, a husband-and-wife team, engraved two large oval tree bark slices with our married names and wedding date for us. They sat on the entrance table at the reception and they now decorate our house as well.
4. Our ring bearer
You know the story. Ted proposed in a pumpkin patch at Uncle John’s Cider Mill in Lansing, MI with my ring atop “the perfect pumpkin.” The year before that he searched freezing Michigan in November for a pumpkin for me to carve after a raccoon ate mine. Pumpkins have always been special to us. Since we opted not to have a flower girl or a ring bearer, it seemed fitting to give the honors to the one who got us into this mess in the first place. Not only was this detail very personal to us, but it produced a pretty hearty laugh from our guests during the ceremony when our best man presented it. Humorous, festive, and personal is always a winning combination.
5. The flowers
Ever the one to shy away from the norm, I didn’t want traditional flowers either. Instead, we opted for mostly plants – specifically succulents (in the cactus family) and pine cones. We ordered a small bunch of cream and sunset colored mini calla lilies and 50 different waxy succulent plants from a farm in California. I used a glue gun to stick some baby pine cones to plant wire to include in the bouquet as well. My mom designed and assembled the three bouquets, two mothers’ corsages, and all the men’s boutonnieres the night before the wedding. She’s a fantastic flower arranger! We tied the bouquets together with mustard yellow crushed velvet ribbon and attached a T&L bouquet charm that I had custom made onto mine. I was always drawn to a more colorful wildflower looking bunch over a perfectly full, manicured bouquet and I’m very happy that I was able to include the succulents I’ve always liked and exclude super-girly flowers in the process.
6. I Spy cards
I saw the idea for this online somewhere and fell in love with it! A fun, clever way to keep your guests entertained and a sneaky way get some killer photos in the process? Count me excited! Ted had already mentioned putting a disposable camera on each table for guests to capture candid shots with, and this just fit in too perfectly to ignore. On the entrance table we placed a bushel basket of disposable cameras, a sign identifying the purpose of cards, and the cards themselves – printed on heavyweight card stock with our leaves motif. Add a kitchsy little explanatory poem and list a few jazzy things for your guests to spy on and you’ve got instant wedding fun! As a guest I know I’d be stoked to see something entertaining like this at a wedding, and as the bride I can say I definitely appreciate some of the awesome pictures that resulted!
7. I Like You banner
Have you ever read the short children’s book I Like You by Sandol Stoddard? If you haven’t – get on it! It’s unspeakably adorable (as would be anything that features black and white sketches of bonnet-wearing crocodiles dancing). The text’s choppy, rambling structure captures the giddy feeling of loving someone – friend, sibling, parent, or spouse; the message is universal. The words and thoughts are simplistic, yet strikingly honest and truly heartfelt. The illustrations are sweet and eclectic. It really is just one of those lovely whimsical books that makes you smile really big and immediately plunk the book into your shopping cart at Anthropologie, not caring about the 75% markup because you need this book immediately. I gifted it to Ted once and the literature so accurately described our relationship together that we decided to incorporate into our wedding decor by photocopying each page onto beige card stock and stringing them together with clothespins onto a line of twine to create a sweet, meaningful book banner. You can read the full text here.
8. Kids’ activity booklet & welcome booklet
I think some the most fun I had during the wedding planning process was creating these two babies! I really got into designing these booklets and loved the result! I had all the creative license in the world to do what I love – write creative, informative, and fun booklets to welcome, guide, and entertain our guests – both big and small. The welcome booklet was attached to the Out-of-Town guest gift boxes with twine. This booklet contained a welcome & thank you letter, a weekend schedule of activities & events (including a winery tasting & tour, a welcome party, sightseeing at Peninsula State Park, a pizza and gelato picnic, seeing Guys & Does at American Folklore Theatre, a family & friends night, and Sunday brunch), directions, contact information, a who’s who guide of guests, a list of places to go, things to do, area restaurants, a little Door County information, a Sudoku puzzle, a personalized “about the couple” wedding crossword puzzle, an answer key, and a few funny wedding comics. The kids’ wedding weekend activity booklet featured autumn & wedding related coloring pages, a word unscramble with a secret code, a scavenger hunt, a word search puzzle, a maze, a tic-tac-toe sheet, and a family tree. The hours upon hours of work these took to produce was so worth the outcome!
9. Save the Dates
The credit for these little beauties belongs entirely to Ted. I envisioned the initial concept and mentioned to Ted that I wanted leaf shaped save the date magnets. He immediately informed me that I was crazy because cutting 75 leaves out of thick magnet paper would be unbearably excruciating at best. I persisted and whined long enough that the poor guy probably got tired of listening to me and eventually gave in. Using all kinds of software programs, Ted created the leaf, the internal pattern and marbling shading effect, and together we agreed on the wording. Once it was fully designed, Ted set to work purchasing glossy magnet paper, going through a lengthy trial and error process with his printer until he achieved color and quality perfection, printed them, and using a pair of scissors he cut out 75 leaves with their microscopic stems, twists, and curves by hand. I think it took him three days and his hand was permanently cramped. He did all this work for us and our wedding. He is a truly awesome, talented guy!
10. Our cake topper
I adored the concept of our cake topper, and in the end, I did love it and I thought it was a neat personal touch. However, the actual receiving of the cake topper was less than ideal. I ordered this custom-made cake topper back in early July from an Etsy seller and it was supposed to be finished at the beginning of October. In a nutshell, this completely wonderful seller with fantastic talent and excellent reviews fell pretty far short of our expectations. I’m sure this was just an isolated incident because all her other reviews were stellar, but we received only half of what we ordered (missing were two additional mini cake toppers in the shape of our logo helmets, and a replica of our wedding rings on the mossy grass in front of the pumpkins on the main topper that she “ran out of time” to make – she had 4 months) and I received it via overnight mail the day before our wedding. I honestly didn’t believe it was going to come at all. But in the end, it was still a beautiful, unique topper and I’m so glad we went with something more original than the standard-issue bride & groom topper.
Honorable Mentions: First off, if you’re still reading – congratulations! You’re either a real trooper or really bored; I know I’m long winded. There are so many more favorite details that I could go on for days. But that’s not the point of a quick photo recap. Instead of boring you with more details I’ll just quickly list the honorable mentions because they were all lovingly designed and handmade by us, so they deserve some credit! Doing everything yourself is no small task and we’re really proud of our work. In no particular order honorable mentions go to our postcard invitations, the envelopes & wrap-around labels, the ceremony program, mass song sheet, day-of schedules for the wedding party, signage, “just married” car banner, “Mr. & Mrs.” sweetheart table banner, the cherry sours in galvanized buckets for favors (another tribute to Door County) and the Out-of-Town welcome gift boxes for all our guests when they checked into the resort that included apple cider packets, gingersnaps, water bottles, and caramel popcorn balls – all autumn goodies! Our customized guestbook platter, the Door County coffee table guestbook, and totally awesome cutout and pop-up thank you cards for our family and wedding party were not made by us, but they were all were custom orders and truly great details. Another big hit was the glow sticks. I’m not quite sure why I was so hell-bent on having them, but I was. In my mind they were necessary. I’ve always loved glow sticks and had so much fun playing with them and apparently our guests did too! They were a hit!
Tune in tomorrow for my Top 22 Favorite Wedding Photos!
I promise it will be 95% pictures and only 5% words! :-)
