Flower themed wedding

There’s many ways to describe my daughter. She’s joyful, smart, funny, sensitive, God loving, caring….. the list goes on! But if you wanted to draw one thing that illustrates her… it would be flowers!

The girl loves just about anything floral! Floral dishes, floral clothing, floral bedding, floral pillows…..and even floral couches! Welcome to her floral affair wedding!

As a matter of fact, she feels that God used a floral couch to catch the eye of her now hubby! She had noticed him and he had noticed her but they were both too shy to talk to each other!

Both were individually praying God would open the other’s eyes. She had purchased what we at the time thought was an ugly floral couch. He brought his family into the coffee shop where she used to work.

When she served them their drinks, she also showed them a picture of her “ugly floral couch” and soon after, he asked her out on a date!

So there you have it ladies. Pray to catch the eye of the man you are interested in and buy an ugly couch!

But are changing our opinion about the couch and it’s growing on us now! It’s a gem!

He proposed under a sheet and blanket fort with Gladys, the floral couch inside!

The wedding day was a full on floral affair! But it was also a Family Affair! Both families of Forget Him Knot (bride’s side) and the groom’s family added to the day in special ways.

The Wedding Invitations-

Simple. We painted the floral design. The groom isolated the artwork and created a png. to allow us to manipulate the art for printing.

The actual wording for the invitations was printed on velum so that the artwork could be scene through it. The bride wanted the artwork separate so that guest could keep and frame the floral art with Scripture.

The Mother of the Groom did the beautiful calligraphy work on the black envelopes. The bride purchased floral stamps!

The Wedding Dress–

What kind of dress does a girl who loves flowers find? A floral wedding dress! In the list of describing my girl…. did I forget to mention, “unique”?

She found the dress at a local consignment shop before it was going out of business…. actually, we purchased it the same week my Daughter in Love purchased hers! Same store!

The lace topper is from Anthropology…. to add that vintage feel to a more modern dress.

The shoes….. Amazon!

The Bridal Party attire-

The Maid of Honor… or maybe we should say, Man of Honor was the bride’s brother! She was His best man/ woman at his wedding in April…

He and the groomsman, Groom’s father as best man, and Father of the Bride wore floral ties with the dress clothes of their choice!

The bride and groom wanted to keep the overall feeling relaxed and comfortable!

The Bridesmaids wore floral dresses of their choice from Jessakae!

The Wedding Venue!

When you plan an outdoor late September wedding in Alabama, you better have a plan for not so good weather. Many venues are beautiful and have wonderful indoor capabilities, but they also come with a hefty price.

On a small budget we had to think a little outside the box. We went for a local program center with a rustic conference room and commercial kitchen over looking a lake!

The wedding guest were welcomed to find a table inside the air conditioned reception room before the walk to the ceremony site…. or maybe we should say the HIKE to the wedding site.

The Wedding Ceremony-

Guest walked across the property, over the bridge and through the woods. The ceremony took place on an island. A wood branch arch and floral swag were the frame for the bridal party.

Guest stood in a semi circle awaiting the couple’s arrival to the site. Once guest were set, a special surprise was in store.

Many years ago, when the bride was little, she had a fiddle teacher, Sabrina. We loved Sabrina so much, that we introduced her to our nephew and family to play matchmaker! Months later they were married and the now bride was their flower girl! Unbeknownst to the bride, Sabrina agreed to play the bride’s arrival.

The happy couple decided to nix the bridal party processional idea to keep things simple and more relaxed.

The groom and his father who was best man walked across the bridge to the awaiting guest.

Then the bride meandered through the woods with her father to the awaiting groom…. who was all smiles!

It’s a special kind of big brother, maid of honor, who will hold your bouquet so you can say your vows!

The Wedding Bouquet Flowers-

We purchased the flowers for the bouquets, boutonnieres and reception table centerpieces at Trader Joe’s! Seriously amazing to order from, great prices and the flowers were beautiful!

Then we played with some arrangement ideas and inspirations

from Pinterest!

Bible verse charms were added to the bouquets and of course a piece of fabric from Gladys the floral couch was added to the bride’s bouquet!

The Wedding Reception-

White clothed tables were topped with floral toppers made of fabric purchased from Amazon.

Family silver pieces were the centerpieces filled with the Trader Joe’s flowers and roses cut from the front yard bushes. When you know your daughter is getting married and she’s floral lover…. and you’re on a tighter budget, you think outside the box…..or outside the house!

We didn’t trim our front knockout rose bushes for 4 months to allow them to grow as tall as the house and keep the deer from eating them! I’m sure our neighbors will be happy when we finally cut them back to normal!

Mixed into the centerpieces were small bottle lights from Amazon to add some twinkle!

Scripture was added to the tables by folding floral card stock from Hobby Lobby with a glued printed piece added to both sides.

The plates were vintage dishes the bride has collected from thrift stores, estate sales, and family members over the years.

The gold chargers are from Hobby Lobby and are part of our wedding and events stash! You may have noticed the serving bowls of chips and the glass punch cups of salsa on the tables…. the bride and groom wanted tacos!

The Wedding Reception Food-

Tacos! Tacos have a lot of elements from the meat, rice, beans, to the veggies, toppings and salsas! But they were yummy! Some of the food was prepared earlier in the week and frozen until the day before the wedding. Most of the veggies could not be cut until the day before or day of to keep them fresh!

The Wedding Cakes-

Yes, there was multiple cakes and yes we did the very thing we tell other brides not to do…. we had several cake flavors! The more flavors you have, the more cake you need because many people want to try them all!

The bride wanted a neapolitan naked cake…. strawberry, vanilla and chocolate with buttercream icing in the layers. The cake recipe was Nina’s mom’s cake recipe. It’s a dense moist yummy cake! We ended up making 13 cakes of various pan sizes.

1 cake mix of your choice (sifted)a box of pudding mix to compliment your flavor

4 eggs

3/4 cup of oil

3/4 cup of water

8 oz. of sour cream

1/2 cup of sugar

mix all together in a bowl… you don’t even have to use a mixer!

Bake 325 convection oven for 45 minutes.

The icing is a simple buttercream of 1 box of confectioners sugar

1 stick of butter

2-3 teaspoons of vanilla

3-4 tablespoons of cold milk mix until smooth!

Because we are NOT cake decorators but since the bride wanted a messy naked cake and we had lots of fresh flowers… we were able to pull off a pretty and yummy cake even if it did lean a little!

The Wedding Decor-

Spread around the venue were verses, floral and of course….. Gladys the floral couch that cinched the couples togetherness!

Dean Martin and swing music played in the background and the couple’s first dance was to Michael Buble…..

The couple was sent off (in the newly repaired yellow mini cooper) with white glow sticks from Amazon to enjoy a Disney Cruise in the Bahamas.

The entire day was a calm, peaceful, Christ centered day….. and the over all feeling was joyful. The bride and groom had all their pictures done before the ceremony.

Their first look was first thing that morning which allowed them to be together all day. Seeing the couple together through out the day smiling and interacting was sweet because they tend to calm each other and there was no stress to cloud the day. They were able to anticipate their vows with a giddy excitement!

But we also know that the LORD was answering prayers. Prayers from before these two were ever born. Prayers that they would grow in love of the LORD, love of others and one day find the one who they would grow in love more and more! God answered those prayers!

These two prayed for each other before they met. They prayed for each other after they met but were too shy to speak. They have continued to pray for each other.

We gathered one last moment together….just us parents and these two very much prayed for loved ones, before they would say their vows.