Home Sweet Home

If location is everything, then what better place to have a wedding than the place of your sweetest childhood memories? I know, we've already established the when and where and I've gushed about it plenty since, but Christmas just passed and winter is the time for sentiment. So here are some pictures of Jeyko and I at my favorite place on earth. I wish I actually had some old photos of this place from when we were kids (although Jeyko wouldn't be in them), but these from summer make me just as happy:)

That beautiful lady in silver is my Grandmommy, by the way. <3

 Because the orchard has been let go over the years, some of the fruit trees are now home to other plants and vines which have more or less taken over, like these wild mucadine grapes that the birds have spread. However, sometimes it is good to let nature take its toll (to an extent)...these wild beauties are as tart and delicious as they are ethyreal looking.



There are many more pictures like this one of Jeyko holding the kitties...or the puppy...or kids, but I will refrain from flooding this site with images showing off my fiance's ability to be utterly adorable. For this picture, I have the excuse of using the background as a reference to the general area where our ceremony is going to be.

Unfortunately, some of these trees will have to be removed. The rest will need to be cleaned up big time. The orchard has definitely fallen to disarray in the last several years, but most of the trees still produce in the spring. We've got our work cut out for us, that's for sure, but it will be so worth it in May.

This is the little church across the street that my Papaw helped build long before I was a thought, and where I watched him preach for years.

I just like this picture:)

Now we're headed down to the pond, where we are thinking of doing the reception.

And I had to finish on a feel good! This is one of my favorite photos of all time, even though I look like I have crazy happy feet. lol. On the gazebo with two of the most wonderful people. I can't wait to marry that man!

Wafoo Love

Suddenly it has become a very chilly winter in North Florida, but nestled here inside wedding-land, it's warming up to become quite a lovely spring with snippets of craft ideas here and sweet posies there. Once again, I've got wafoos on the brain, but without a garden in sight, flower forms are getting a bit more creative. So, here are some of my absolute favorite diy faux-flower-creations from my favorite places on the web. Enjoy!

All pictures above I found on Martha Stewart website. She also has a tutorial on how to make all of these, of course. For that, click here for shaped crepe flowers, here for tissue flower bouquet, or here for fabric flower roses and peonies. For many more fun fakey flower ideas simply click through the slideshow and make sure to visit the "how-to" links.

These are such cute paper flowers that I found right on the home page of The Inspired Bride, a little way down.

And this is an absolutely beautiful chiffon flower tutorial that I looked up on Project Wedding. Clicking on the link above will take you right to it.

And these little beauties above I found in some older diy posts on Primadonna Bride. The link at left will take you to the tutorial for the last two pictures. The first of the three can be found under Forever Flowers.

All Things Country

Grandmommy and Papaw's place was a farm in Mama's time living there, but by the time I was born it only held some chickens, a few of my uncle's horses and a beautiful orchard of apples, peaches and pears. Besides the decent sized garden planted once a year, the farm I knew was home to tall grass and wildflowers, prickly blackberry bushes with the sweetest fruit to this day, a pond that flooded or evaporated according to the weather and the season, and an old barn housing piles of building materials that my cousins and brother and I used to our amusement to build bridges or reconstruct the monuments of our earliest childhood. Summers were Grandmommy's pots and pans filled with fruit or sometimes with pondwater and minnows. There was usually a homemade pie and peach icecream, football games and running off into the woods to see what critters or trouble we could find. Never was there any kind of elegant tea or dinner party under the pinetrees, but there was many a picnic stretched out on quilts made by Grandmommy's kin or the ladies from church. So, to have a wedding out on that property and not incorporate some of those sweet and wild country memories, just wouldn't be right. Here are a few pretty ideas I love for reception.

Using quilts or vintage looking fabric, or even gingham as a picnic table cloth. Of course, the wine glasses and candles are a bit much for something so casual in the summer. I prefer the look of mason jars. I saved this picture so long ago, I forgot which site I got it from, but I know it was a wedding by Joy Thigpen. You may come upon it in one of the sites listed on here to the right.

Quilts are such a sweet way to add color to a country event. They remind me so much of the beautiful quilts and crocheted blankets both of my grandmothers always made. The pictures above and the one below on the right, I believe I found on Primadonna Bride under DIY. The beautiful cluster of pictures below to the left I took from Live. Love. Lipstick..
 

 The red gingham pictures are also from Primadonna, and though red-red is not really one of my colors, these pictures are adorable. Now for a nod to things handmade...

I love this one just because of the apple and bunting!

This one from Primadonna Bride gets me with the soft earthy tones of burlap and not-th-flowers-you'd-expect bouquet. The one below was found on Primadonna as well and is a super-easy diy project that can be done using paper doilies. I think the project originally comes from Papermash.

And now, just because I found these along the way and I can't leave them out, here are a couple more Primadonna diy projects. One for the flowergirl (which I really want to use) and another for the bouquet.

 

Hair and Flowers

After more than a month of down, what better way is there to get back "up" again than with flowers? Here are some of my favorite pictures of country gals who ditched the veil for head full of wafoos. The first image came from Wedfully. The others can be found under the blog "Flowers in Her Hair" on Once Wed. Ofcourse some of my absolute favorites are in the Summer issue of Southern Brides, the prettiest wedding mag ever.

Starting Out

Yay! I finally have this page up and running! Here are some beautiful images I have found that, at the moment, are super inspiring....

I love the combination of these two ideas instead of a guest book. I saw on another site (I've browsed too many to remember which) where someone else mixed the two as well in order to create a guest tree poster where guests fingerprinted a branch in the color of their choice and signed their name. The poster on the left came from The Ritzy Bee. The other I snatched a week ago and forgot to copy the site where it came from.

Another cool guest signing idea I have is for guests to sign and write messages on small pieces of paper and hang them from one of the (unfortunately) dead apple trees in the orchard with ribbon, to add to the overall decoration.

This diy vintage suitcase idea is so cute! Since the wedding location is out in the country, our style is mostly shabby chic. I've really loved dabbling in vintage themes as well though. Believe it or not, Jeyko loved this image as he felt that it reflected one of our favorite things to do together, which is travel and seek adventure! This image I lifted from Ruffled.