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Awhile back I was approached by Heidi, a dear friend of mine whose daughter, Emily, was getting married. She asked if I’d be willing to help put together a celebration for the bride and groom. Of course, I said yes!  Not only do I adore Heidi but I had been a youth leader at church for Emily a couple of times. It has been so fun to see the beautiful young lady she has grown into!

Heidi and Emily really allowed me a lot of freedom in planning. They basically gave me the wedding colors and said go!  I recalled a few special memories that Heidi had shared with me about her family that I used as inspiration for the garden party theme.  Here is the foyer where the guests first enter. I always love to make sure that the second you enter a party, you can sense what the theme is.

After passing through the French doors, this lattice backdrop covered in enormous blue and purple flowers greets you. I also collected metal patio furniture from Craigslist and garage sales and refurbished the pieces to match. They turned out perfect!!

I parked a cute vintage bicycle with flowers in the basket to bring a quaint feel to the entrance, like a guest might have ridden over to join the festivities.

Welcome inside!

Let’s start with the ceiling covering.  These patio lights were a great way to give an outdoor feel and ambient lighting. I also bought a roll of the plastic tablecloth in ivory that we cut using a handsaw to get these individual rolls to decorate our maypole-style centerpiece.

The maypole was set atop the food table. That “barrel” is actually a plastic bucket with a hole cut in the lid to hold the pole still and then covered in planks of reclaimed wood. We secured the planks with wire. You’d never guess that was an ugly bucket underneath!!

We used vintage produce crates to display our fresh fruit selections. These darling fruit baskets held the different varieties.  And in case you didn’t want to be too healthy, we also had yummy fruit dip!

On the other side of the table, we had a display of fresh veggies. With two sizes of fruit baskets, we were able to display all the veggies perfectly.  We also used cleaned up thrift store baskets that we lined with sandwich paper to house the carrots and broccoli.

And just in case you’re starting to wonder where the treats were, we also had mini cheesecake bites and mini chocolate covered eclairs.

Oh yes, we can’t forget… we had cream puffs as well!

We used these sweet apple baskets to display the plates and napkins as well as fresh flowers.

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the bride and groom opted to have these lovely cupcakes decorated in their wedding colors. We displayed them on one of the refurbished patio sets. Pictures of Emily and Michael from their bridal photo shoot flanked the table.

Look how delicious these look!!  I assigned myself the tough task of trying both flavors just to make sure they were good. And yes… yes they were!

This piece was used as our drink station as well as housing the party favors for the guests.

Each table had these beautiful gingham tablecloth squares (fabric found on Etsy ) and flower-filled baskets to give a bit of a picnic feel. We also had lanterns and a picture frame with a question that the happy couple answered to help guests get to know them as a couple better.

Each table had a different question and answer.  (Can I hop in their suitcase for the honeymoon cruise??  It sounds amazing!!)

We had these lattice backdrops around the main room with patio chairs in front of each. It made for a great place to take photos with the guests.

This was definitely such an honor to plan this reception!  Heidi and Emily are such special people to me!  And when Heidi first came in and I saw tears in her eyes, that was all I needed!!  I wish all the best to both Michael and Emily.

                    

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