One Year Down!

Just this past week we celebrated our one year anniversary in Orlando, Florida. It had me thinking about all the time and effort put into our big day. I wanted to share with you some ideas I think you'll love and some tried and true traditions and tips.

Programs

For Your Happy Tears!

Don't be afraid to get creative with your programs! We designed each member of our bridal party into fun and adorable characters. We are added a handkerchief to our programs for happy tears. These were a lot of fun and a great detail for the ceremony.

Menus

To New Beginnings & Sweet Endings!

I wanted to make sure guests with food allergies had a full list of ingredients for our dinner selection. I also took this into consideration when choosing a menu. I made sure to stay away from peanuts, shellfish and even opted for a gluten free appetizer. I designed the menu myself, as I am very particular, but my venue would have supplied them had I not. The best part about my venue was that they came around with seconds, a la cart style! So, if you got the fish, you could try the chicken or the steak or reverse! I used Vista Print to print these.

Guest Book

Best Wishes to the New Mr & Mrs

I cannot stress enough how cool this came out! I found this frame in Home Goods and was obsessed with the idea of having our guest book be mini Polaroids. For a small fee I hired a few start up photographers to photograph our cocktail hour. They even shot the formalities on Polaroid as well! It was great! I have our guests, our ceremony, our first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, entrances and speeches!

Hangers

It's all in the details!

If you don't plan on getting personalized hangers as gifts for your bridesmaids, as I did, make sure you have matching hangers to hang your girls' dresses on! This creates uniformity for photos and let's you focus on the dresses and not the mismatched hangers. Same goes for the bride's dress! Grab or pack a wood hanger for photos, if you opt out of the trendy personalized hanger!

Ring Box

If you like if then you should have bought a ring box!

Beyonce might stress putting a ring on it, but I'm stressing a ring box! Keeping your rings safe is soooo important! Making sure they make it down the aisle is kind of a very important part of the ceremony. Keep it simple and find a ring box labeled for easy access during your ceremony! Plus is makes for great photos! I found this ring box at Home Goods.

Champagne Flutes & Cake Cutter and Server

Cheers to a Life Filled with Happiness

Whether you're buying personalized champagne flutes, regular glasses or getting them as a gift on your registry, I highly recommend you bring your own for your toast! Not only can you choose the style you'd like to match your day, but you get to bring them home and keep forever! I also opted for a matching knife and cake server set. These are from Things Remembered.

Cake Topper

Let them eat cake!

I ordered this cake topper off of Etsy for our wedding! I loved the wood look and I was able to cut off the stakes at the bottom and frame our cake topper on display.

Table Numbers & Seating Cards

Where am I sitting?

There is nothing more confusing them finding your seat at a wedding! Make sure your table numbers contrast with the table setting! All too many times, people choose numbers that blend with the table cloth! Make them pop! I made out table numbers with an 8x2 piece of wood from Home Depot. I stained the blocks we cut with a dark walnut stain and used a white vinyl on my Cricut for the script numbers. For my table cards I hand wrote half and used the writing feature on my Cricut to move along the process. This helps hold seats for people who are paired in groups.

Signs

Signs and decor were very important to me at my wedding. I always wanted my guests to know what is going on and to add a little piece of us to every moment.

The sign above is very important when holding a non-traditional wedding at a venue. Guests who come from religious backgrounds tend to sit on the bride or grooms side, but when you're family is as big as mine, you need to be able to seat everyone. I found this heart shaped sign at Home Goods.

I made the sign above to welcome our guests and give them a little background on the moments most precious to us. The silhouette is actually from when we got engaged.

Adding a sign for a signature drink is always a nice touch to personalize your event more. I obviously have red hair so my drink was "The Redhead" and Stephen loves a good whiskey drink, so he chose "The Manhattan". I made this sign with my cricut and the chalkboard is from Michaels.

Our venue let us choose up to five beers we'd like to have at our wedding. Letting guests know whats available is a smart way to avoid the bartender being asked with every guest that approaches the bar. This helps move the line along. I made this sign with my cricut and the chalkboard is from Michaels.