As people walked in, this is what greeted them. There were chalkboard signs all over the place, but the one above welcomed guests alongside a heart marquee. To help guests figure out where they were sitting, I remembered we had an unused shutter that I’m pretty sure I bought in Texas and has just been stashed in our basement for a few years. So, I painted that and added some fun decor items and photos to it, and in the middle portion attached some printed, gold-leafed pages that had everyone’s names and table listed. We also had a map that you can see at the beginning of this post. We requested people put three pins in the map: one for where they were born, one for where they are visiting from, and one in every place that there is a warrant out for their arrest.
Matt and I had a lot of fun creating the seating charts. See, our venue, Wild Basin Lodge, has two floors and the whole night was set up so that the cocktail hour happened on the main floor, then everyone went downstairs for dinner before finishing the night that included toasts, cake, and dancing back on the main floor. Because of this, we knew that our guests were only going to be at a table for about an hour out of the evening, so we took the opportunity to mix them up. Our hope was to seat our guests with other people that they didn’t know but would probably get along with. I might be biased but I think it worked out pretty well. We also incorporated a fun icebreakers to encourage mingling that started back with our invitations. On each RSVP, we requested that everyone send back two truths and a lie, which we then put on the back side of their name card on the table. My favorite story that evolved from the tables was that one of my aunts and one of Matt’s aunts were both at a mall performance by Michael Jackson decades ago. So crazy!
One of my favorite touches of the night was how we did the table numbers. I think those tiny little easels were the first wedding purchase I bought early on at the Target dollar bin area. We came up with numbers that were meaningful to us and assigned those to tables. I was inspired by a friend who used locations to name the tables at her wedding, but really wanted to make it work numerically. I’m so happy with the results.
Another proud moment was the globe. I cut a slot in the top of it big enough for people to put cards into. I had bought a basket for cards, but felt so passionately about this globe project that I scrapped the basket.
Our cakes were made by Kim & Jakes, a 100% gluten-free company based in Boulder, Colorado. For an extra charge, we were able to have the everything make vegan, AKA “Matt & Shauna friendly”. The cake in the middle was our main cake, their “Vindelicious” cake, a ginger-vindaloo spice cake iced with salted Thai curry caramel and black sesame seeds. Yummmmm. Our secondary cake was called “Hummingbird” cake, banana pineapple pecan spice cake with cream cheese frosting. We picked one of the two to have an apricot filling as well. I adore that we had some unique cakes.
Instead of having a photobooth, I wanted to create spaces for photo opportunities. I sewed this lace tipi from a tutorial I found online. Matt sanded the poles and worked on the stools that are inside. The “fire” is made from sticks, aluminum foil, lace, rocks, and a battery operated copper wire string of lights. I’m so happy with how all the little DIYs from our wedding turned out. I definitely went through a withdrawal after the wedding and projects were over. Hahah!
Love, Shauna
All photography by Katie Rivera | Fine Art Film Portrait and Wedding Photographer. See more of her work at www.katieriveraphoto.com