Centerpieces: Eiffel Tower Vases

I live and die for centerpieces. I love them. I don’t know where my fascination began, but now when anyone says the words “party”, “meeting” or “reception” my mind immediately jumps to what we will do for the centerpieces. So, knowing this, it is no surprise that we will have 3 centerpieces. Our reception hall provides us with large, round tables, which I was thrilled about. (Centerpieces are so much more fun on a round table rather than a rectangular table.)

All of our centerpieces will have some sort of peacock feather incorporated into them. Nothing over the top, but just a little flare. 

This is my inspiration for centerpiece A. We have 30 tables, plus the head table to work with. Since these are so dramatic, I am only going to do 10 tables on the floor with these arrangements… I might also put one on the guest book table too, we’ll see.

Eiffel tower vases are on the pricey side ($10 for one at Michael’s), so I will be checking out Hobby Lobby, keeping my eyes on classified boards and scouring whole sale website and eBay. The feathers should be fairly inexpensive, I have found them reasonably priced on a lot of different websites and the curly wood things I have seen reasonably priced on saveoncrafts.com. 

I apologize, but I can't find the website where I got this picture, so if this is your picture, let me know and I will gladly give you credit.

The Maids

When it came to the dresses for my girls, I knew I wanted all 7 (yes, I said 7) of them to feel comfortable and I wanted the dress to fit their budget. I also faced the challenge of bridesmaids literally, all over the country. (I have one in Phoenix, one in Chicago, one in Minneapolis, one in Kansas City, two in Des Moines and one where I live.) I also loved the idea of different dresses, but I wanted some consistency. So, I gave the girls the color "Lapis" from David's Bridal and am going to let them pick any knee length or tea length dress that they desire. That way, each of them will be able to pick a dress they feel comfortable in and maybe (fingers crossed) be able to wear again.

Here are some examples:

Aren't they adorable? I would be totally lying if I said I hadn't been trying to think of a reason why I need to get one of these dresses...

Uplighting the Head-table

The place where we are having our reception is amazing. It has a stage in place which will be perfect for the head-table. Better yet, there is a drop-down screen which we can use for free to show our little memory video. (More on that another time...) The only issue is the drop down screen is right over the head-table. We are not planning on playing the video until we are done eating, so that is not the issue, but it will be a little difficult to get pipe-and-drape behind us without it getting in the way of the video. Additionally, it would be hard to put anything with any sort of height behind us. So, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out something to put behind us. Then it hit me: uplighting! 


I love uplighting, it can really add a lot to a room, take this image for instance: 

(image from presentations2go.com)

or this

(photo from mdmentertainment.smugmug.com)

Since our color palette is purple with royal blue, teal and lime accents, I am thinking the table will be covered in purple table cloths and skirting and we will do two sets of blue, lime and teal lights behind us. I think it will look really elegant throughout the night and really add a lot to the room.

M.I.A.

Many apologies for my unexplained absence! The past two and a half weeks have been somewhat of a blur... Between our dog getting some weird skin disease, the fiance traveling for work, me traveling for work, both of us traveling for the fourth of July holiday, landscaping and company, I have neglected many areas of my life, including my blog! Good news though, I think my life is going to slow down for the next couple of weeks so I can get myself back on a workout schedule, a cooking schedule and writing more frequently. (Applause!)

In the midst of everything, I have gotten a bunch of great ideas for the wedding and made a few decisions. Here's a sneak peak of some of my upcoming posts:

• Head table decor
• The guys' tuxes 
• Invitation ideas
• Program Ideas
• The girls' dresses 

and.... Drum Roll...

MY DRESS!!! Yes, I found it this weekend. So, stay tuned and I will post some pictures. :)