A Cocktail hour full of DIY!

With the holidays and our honeymoon behind us, it's time to focus in on the DIY aspects of our wedding. From the moment we were engaged, my mind was full of ideas and planning for the big day. It was the ultimate party to plan. The planning process focused on several different unique parts of the wedding: the ceremony, the cocktail hour and the reception. Although each venue and feel was different, the colors and signature fabrics tied all the events together. Today, let's focus on the Cocktail Hour: the light hearted, fun part of the evening!

  

 The Cocktail Hour took place in the Old Stone Mill, a large open building with rustic granite brick facade and large windows inside. We wanted the Cocktail Hour to be interactive and allow our guests multiple ways to be entertained and mingle. 

Before:

After:

 

The most dramatic part of the decor was the fabric pennants strung across the space. We had over a 300 feet of pennants all sewn by my mom and I. They add great color to the space and coordinated with the fabric used throughout the wedding. The room also had large round lights strung across the room which added a great effect once it went dark. I wanted it to feel like a country fair and the pennants and lights certainly helped created that feel! 

Throughout the wedding, we used free standing chalkboards to help direct guests and share important information. On the back, we had quotes that conveyed the sentiment of the occasion. The chalkboards were built by my dad and I hand painted the quotes and details.

    

In the far corner, we had games! Two sets of corn hole boards for guests to play. My dad built the boards and we added the zig zag stripes and silk screened wedding logo. The silk screen logo, cut by my sister, was great to incorporate our logo throughout the decor. My mom sewed bean bags and we added rules to a chalkboard. 

  

We created a casual seating area with two adirondack chairs, a carpet, afgan and basket of books. The books were picture books about weddings and children's nonfiction books about the Shakers. The chairs were made by my father-in-law and the afghan and sign by my mother-in-law. Guests enjoyed sitting and posing for photos in the chairs.

 

  

By the door, we had a wagon full of cow bells, one of our favors for the wedding. My husband does a lot of bike racing where cow bells are rung by the spectators. Our guests all rung their bells when we were announced into the Stone Mill for the first time as husband and wife.

 

On the large doors, we hung two quilted banners in coordinating fabrics with our silkscreened logo.

 In the back corner, we had a photo backdrop area which came out just the way we had hoped! My husband and I search antique stores for the perfect tandem bicycle. We then refinished it and painted it yellow. My dad built the three sided backdrop and I painted the quotes. A few photos props, a basket of flowers and it was ready for guests to pose! It was so fun to watch everyone climb on and smile for the camera. Check out more shots here. 

 

 

 Our guest book was a quilt sewn by my sister and I. Guests were encouraged to write us a message on the write strips between the squares. It will be a wonderful momento of our wedding and the guests that we shared the weekend with.

 

We rented two large farm tables for guests to sit and chat at. The centerpieces featured shaker baskets and boxes made by my mom, painted mason jars with fresh flowers and balloons. We had two tables with appetizers and the flower cart from my shower full of mason jars to enjoy the drinks with. The bar was set up by the door and the DJ along the wall for ambiance. 

 

It was the perfect setting for an hour of mingling and visiting with our friends and family!

Good night!  

Location, location, location!

We were married at the Shaker Museum in Enfield, NH and couldn't be happier with the location. When we first shared the location with friends and family, we had quite a few different questions ... Where is that? What is that? Do they allow alcohol? But by far the most common question we were asked was how did you choose that location?

I had dreamed about planning a wedding for many years and had been an avid reader of wedding inspiration blogs and wedding Pinterest boards so when the planning actually began, I was ready to write a list of potential venues. I knew I did not want a traditional hotel banquet hall, so we were looking for something with character and something that would serve as a simple and elegant backdrop to our own decor elements. Our spreadsheet compared over 12 different places and was a mix of rustic barns, elegant halls and bed and breakfasts. We also felt strongly about a location that our family and friends could stay on site. With a tentative November time frame, we also needed an indoor ceremony location and we hoped for different spaces for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception (more decorating potential!).

I had seen photographs from a wedding at the Enfield Shaker Museum on a blog several years ago and it quickly went to the top of my list. It was the first place we visited and when we first stepped into the chapel, my fiance exclaimed "this is exactly what I imagined for our wedding!" The rest of the tour fulfilled the rest of the points on our wish list - separate spaces for elements of the wedding, 20 guest rooms for our family and friends and a simple, but beautiful backdrop that we would really customize with our vision! (On our first visit, there was over a foot of snow of the ground so we actually snowshoed to the Old Stone Mill!)

Let's explore ...

First, the Great Stone Dwelling, the six story main building on campus, was our home base for the weekend. Some of us arrived Thursday afternoon and settled in. The guest rooms are simple but comfortable with private bathrooms and lots of Shaker character. The twenty guest rooms are located on the third and fourth floor. With the place to ourselves it was our home away from home for the weekend. Guests lounged in the rocking chairs at the end of each hall way and mingled freely from room to room. It was the perfect feeling and reminiscent of summer camp or a college dorm.

  

On Friday night after our Rehearsal Dinner, we (our younger guests and those young at heart) went "Trick or Treating" from room to room.

 

The Mary Keane Chapel was the site of our marriage ceremony and it was spectacular! The chapel was originally built as a Catholic church but is no longer consecrated and therefore available for any type of ceremony. The giant organ played wonderfully by a local organist was beautiful for the processional music and hymns.

 

Our Cocktail hour was across the street in the Old Stone Mill. This was one of my favorite places when we first visited - I loved the high ceiling, exposed granite walls and lights strung across the room. It was one of favorite places to decorate and plan. There were lots of different elements and will certainly be a post of it's own.

 

The reception was back in the Great Stone Dwelling in the second floor meeting room. We set the tables up in long rows leaving half the room for dancing. The space held our 105 guests well.

Wedding Rock!

One of the element's that I dreamed of incorporating in our wedding from the beginning of our planning was "rock". For those unfamiliar with this nostalgic British seaside treat, "rock" is a candy stick with words or pictures down the length of the stick. It comes in many flavors, but peppermint is the most classic. It's sold in beach resorts along the English coast and was the quintessential souvenir from your summer holiday. It was a favorite treat when I visited family in England or brought back by visiting friends. As my family is English, I incorporated English traditions throughout our wedding.

We started with a few companies in England but the cost of shipping was prohibitive. We were excited to find an artisan in Florida practicing the craft of rock making. Raley's Confectionary produced our rock and even sent great photos of the process. As you can see above, the large pieces of sugar in each color are pulled into long rods which are shaped into letters. The letters are then wrapped in more sugars before the log is pulled into long thin sticks. 

We placed the rock into tent cards which served as place cards for each of our guests. Our names throughout the rock were a sweet little surprise for our guests!

Let's go for a ride!

We got married and what a grand celebration it was! We enjoyed a fabulous weekend with friends and family. It was the perfect culmination of nine months of planning and preparation and the perfect way to start our life together as husband and wife. I didn't blog with many details while planning to maintain the surprise factor for our guests, but look forward to sharing some of the behind the scenes details and decision making now that the event is complete.

When initially dreaming about our wedding, I knew I wanted it to be a representation of David and I and our love for each other. To me, this meant the wedding should incorporate details that shared the things we both love and be a symbol of the joining of our two families, histories and traditions. One of the most noticeable signs of this goal was the inclusion of bicycles throughout the weekend. My husband loves cycling and has been riding and racing since middle school.

We decided early on we wanted a tandem bicycle for guests to take photos with. We searched for a tandem at antique stores and on Craig's List. We were lucky to find one at a great price and in pretty good shape. We took it apart, sanded and sprayed it yellow. With new decals, polished seats and a shiny new chain it was ready for the big day. My dad built a three pieced background which I painted as a chalkboard with quotes. My mom wove a basket for the front which we will filled with flowers.

It was the perfect addition to our wedding and so much fun to see our guests enjoying posing for photos on the tandem.

I'm looking forward to sharing more details from our wedding in the next few weeks!