Wedding Week: Our Wedding Details

Our wedding was full of little personalized details; from the save the dates to the welcome bags, the table linens to the waiters uniforms. We wanted our wedding day to have a classy but also party fun feel. We wanted it to feel like we were hosting a beautiful dressed up dinner party and not too much of a stuffy affair. Frans and I love to entertain, I have been working in events all of my life, so of course I wanted our wedding to be filled with little detail  here and there to make it a little more special. I thought I would create this post to inspire other couples to add a little bit of you as Mr. & Mrs. to your wedding day. The places you have lived, travelled, drinks you love, favorite restaurants, what country you are from, what restaurants you love to go to together. There are so many ways to incorporate these things into your day and I think it made it feel so US, that was the best detail of all! So here goes, photo overload with lots of little details...

Welcome Map - I was beyond lucky to work with my good friend from Florida, Laura with Make Merry!. Laura created a custom welcome card and map for all of our guests, pointing out the rehearsal dinner, welcome party, wedding venue and some London landmarks near by. We provided directions, a welcome note and itinerary for the weekend. 

Welcome Bag - My feeling is that when guests are traveling from out of town for your wedding, and if it is the majority like our guests were, nothing is nicer then arriving to the perfect little gift in your hotel room. We decided to keep the bag minimal but nice, not an abundance of local brochures. We infused an English Strawberry Gin and bottled it ourselves for all of the bags. With a Sir Oliver cookie, a map and a Big Ben gold key chain {with a pink velvet ribbon of course} guests felt special as they checked in, or that is what I thought;) 

A Locket on My Bouquet - My oldest sister was not able to make our wedding because she was over eight months pregnant. My grandmother is 92 years old and could not want to make the long flight from the states. It broke my hurt {and still does!} that they couldn't attend our wedding. I bought a vintage locket at a fair in London and placed both of their photos in it and had my florist tie it our the bouquet so I would kind of have them by my side.

                

The Grooms Tux - Mr. Beau is from Holland and is a very proud Orangeman. He had his suit professional made and I love that he added an orange lining to the inside of his coat. 

A Flower Wreath - We got married on a Sunday and our church had rules about flowers and when you have to have them delivered. Being that we would have had to set up our flowers on Friday for Sunday, we decided to scratch them all together. I wanted something near the church, so I had our amazing florist Jay Archer create a wreath and then had Berinmade make a scroll for it. The wreath was beautiful and simple outside of the church and later moved into our marquee. It was a perfect little detail to incorporate at both spaces. 

Confetti - oh the confetti! It is such a British tradition to throw confetti on the couple and I have to say, I loved every second of it. Mr. Beau and I spent months punching out tissue confetti in all shades of pink and gold. I think we STILL have enough for another wedding! 

The Car - We hired a vintage Bentley that drove me from the hotel to the church with my dad and then after we left the church. The little sign on the back was by Berinmade. 

Ribbon Streamers - My girlfriends from London came over for a DIY day and helped me make ribbon streamers with bells that we passed out as guests left the church and walked to the ceremony. It was a little bit of celebration on the way to the reception. 

Waiters Uniforms - I ordered striped bow ties from Amazon and had the waiters wear them to coordinate with our decor. I think they looked quite fun. A coloured tie, special apron, it makes the event more personalized for you. 

Specialty Cocktails - We served two speciality cocktails; The Sir Oliver - a whiskey based drink and The Floridan - a lime basil gimlet I use to make often at our house. I bought trays at West Elm and added liners to the trays to go with our stripe and glitter theme for the evening. 

Table Linens - I made black and white table runners for the drinks reception out of IKEA fabric. I bought the iron on tape so I didn't even need to sew them, so easy and I loved how it looked. 

The Escort Card Display - The escort card display was a labor of love. I found the screen online and then had Jay our florist add flowers all around it. Originally I wanted it to look like airmail envelopes but after a lot of back and forth ended up having Laura create the place cards with a small stripe border to mimic the envelope and hung them up with ribbon. Mr. Beau and I were nailing in gold tacks way last minute the week of our wedding but I think it turned out perfect and I cannot wait to use it on another event. 

Guests Wedding Photos - We framed wedding photos from our guests big day and displayed them on their way to dinner. It was a fun thing to share with other guests and I think our guests really loved seeing their wedding day framed. We spray painted frames from IKEA, Butlers, Target, you know it, we had a lot of gold frames! I found guests photos on Facebook and through sorting through my old images, it was a fun touch. 

The Marquee! - The dinner table! I knew I always wanted to have my family and bridal party sitting at one long table in the middle of the dinner. Originally we wanted to have dinner and dancing in one space, but after a long search for a venue that had that option that we liked, we decided to host dinner in one room and dancing in another. Our dinner table was a long table that fit 24 guests, it was the focus of the space. I ordered a table runner custom made from a hire company and had a wonderful company Oatmeal LaceDesign embroider our crest on both sides. 

Sigh! The floral chandelier! I loved this detail, I wanted to sleep under the beautiful creation! After a lot of back and forth with our budget and ideas of how to jazz up the marquee without spending a fortune, I asked Jay about a chandelier, one big feature. With a few back and forth thoughts, we added in some carnations {eeeek! But who knew!} and had a fabulous centre focus to the room! 

Table Numbers - These were all places we have lived together or travelled together that were important to us. Erin at Berinmade painted them and I loved them SO much that they are now framed in our living room! 

Sweets - We served cookies after dinner at the tables before heading to dancing and dessert. My sisters and I have always baked and decorated sugar cookies at big holidays since we were little. My middle sister Katie makes some works of art, seriously a beautiful baker! Katie made and decorated the sugar cookies and we had Frans mom bring over stroopwafles from Holland to add to the finishing dinner touch. 

Chairs - I do LOVE a beautiful flower chair back! If every chair could have looked like this, amazing, but for me and Frans they were our special beautiful chairs. 

Table Decor - We added sequin linens to half of the tables from my business Glimmer and Threads and did the other tables in half light pink cotton to change up the room. To add a little more gold and sparkle we hired gold cutlery from Helene Millot and loved the small addition to every table. She was SO great to work with! The place cards had a small little pink velvet bow glued to each setting for a bit of pretty. 

Photo Booth - Every party has a fabulous photo booth, right! We used a fabulous take your own photo booth from The Photo Emporium which we are SO glad we did. Whenever we want a good laugh it is fun to flip through the book that we had guests sign for us. The back drop came together with over sized flowers I created over weeks and hot glued to an old bed sheet, fab huh! 

Champagne Tower - Yep, I was PSYCHED to have the champagne tower at our wedding, I REALLY wanted one. Right before we cut the cake, we gathered all of our guests, toasted, said a few words and drank some bubbly. I LOVED the old coupe glass tower! 

The Grooms Bar - Frans loves a nice whiskey, during dancing we added a little Groom's Whiskey bar to the main bar, which was a HUGE hit. 

Dessert Table - I love a little sweet! Who doesn't right? I knew I wanted to have a dessert station with beautiful and yummy pink and gold desserts. We mixed in our amazing wedding cake by Little Boutique Bakery with some other local suppliers and had a beautiful mix of delicious sweets. 

It was a day of so much fun and so many little details! Take some time to think about what little details you would like to add/or incorporate. Do not feel like you need to add 101 of them. Working on projects together and seeing them come to life can be so fun! It is YOUR day so make it yours to remember! 

xoxo - Becca