Everything about the wedding of Brian and Jade spoke of who they are… The ceremony was such a wonderful reminder of what marriage is meant to be and the entire reception was so “them”, and especially so Jade. She is one of the most creative people I’ve met and is so talented at implementing the ideas she sees online. This adorable sign greeted all the guests as they arrived at the reception.
Here is the happily married couple as we showered them with loose lavender, like I said before, Jade is just so thoughtful of every little detail, lavender went perfectly with the loose lavender that she had surrounding the candles in the teacups they gave as favors.
Back to the reception, and to Brian and Jade’s love of books… There was flag after flag, made of book pages, lining a path towards the tent.
See all the flags on the fence in the photo above? This is what they looked like up close:
Instead of a more typical slide show Jade and Brian opted to post their engagement photos on old doors that Jade had painted. She took apart books and did an amazing job of choosing book titles representative of marriage or love, like this one: Marriage: A Life Long Honeymoon (okay, it’s not a realistic title but it’s completely perfect for a wedding day. :))
Here is a photo of the doors… even the vintage-y shabby chic way Jade painted the doors was well thought out to blend with her vintage theme.
This could, quite possibly, be one of my favorite parts of the wedding: a card catalog that she found for $32 at an antique store. She placed cards in each of the drawers with phrases to start the guests thinking, for example, the card I took had the phrase “always remember…” at the top and I needed to fill in some marriage advice or something that could be helpful to Brian and Jade in the empty space. The top of the catalog was a display of teacups with old Scrabble like tiles, thread and candles.
After I oogled their gorgeous photos and her out of control creativity at the card catalog table it was off to the table to find out where all the guests were sitting. I lucked out and got to sit at the head table because my date was the Best Man. 🙂 Jade found a vintage frame, covered the back with fabric and made each table look like a card out of a card catalog and then the matching card would be at your table, all the table numbers were actually names of old books.
I love this sweet display with the roses, old vases and bottles and the vintage crate. And see that fabulous ball in in the front covered with pages from a book? Jade didn’t like that. I was in love with it and now want her to teach me exactly what she used to make it so I can fill an apothecary jar on my coffee table with them.
It wouldn’t do to have a simple box to put the marriage advice card we picked up at the card catalog… but a vintage suitcase would be the perfect item to blend with the theme.
Now onto the table decorations. Below is a photo of the pie table. Don’t even get me started on how absolutely delicious that pie was… seriously, I could eat an entire blueberry pie by myself, and would have thought about it if I’d even thought about going running in the past two weeks (bad sciatic nerve, I’m not just a lazy bum). Anyways, don’t you love that spoon holder?
Each table had a mix of antique books and bottles on them.
Okay, if you were even doubting Jade’s incredible craftiness let me stop you in your tracks. She hand made each of the napkins and dyed the lace on them so it wouldn’t be a bright white. THEN she and Brian scoured antique shops and yard sales for vintage dishes and silverware. She said it was cheaper than renting them. Jade, don’t forget I like the blue set if you are going to get rid of it. 🙂
Each guest got their own mason jar for the evening, can you read the tag on each glass?
A photo, which unfortunately turned out blurry 🙁 of the entire table. Each toasting glass was unique as well as all the plates, teacups and silverware.
Last but certainly not least, the happy couple. And folks, I do mean happy… I’m pretty sure Brian’s face was going to fall off if he smiled any larger. 🙂 And Jade, well, she’s basically a super model and looked like a gorgeous character out of Pride and Prejudice.