hoping to take the chill off...

Long ago, in the sultry days of summer and sunshine, I attended the most beautiful outdoor, backyard wedding reception I’ve ever seen.  It was the type of reception that made me want to go back and redo mine (even though mine was beautiful and perfect, mom).  I snapped plenty of photos, because really, it was too perfect not to, and as I walked away with the gorgeous, dappled sunlight filtering through the trees, I fully intended to go home and blog about the prettiness of it and how I got all these great ideas for future party goodness.  And that, of course, didn’t happen.  

But it’s going to now.

Maybe it’s the temperature outside that finally dipped into “frigidness” and made me wish for one more warm summer day, or the fact that I haven’t seen sunshine in about two weeks now (because starting in October the sun is scarce around these parts), or the fact that I’ve been crafting up a storm with many projects - none of which I feel ready to share with you yet but I’d still like to leave you with a bit of homemade goodness... but whatever the case, I decided tonight is the night.

First, I’d like to preface this by saying the bride (and her family) are super good friends of ours, but she has no idea I’m making her event public.  I tried to make things as anonymous as possible for that reason.  Maybe I should have just gotten permission first.  Hm.  Easier to ask forgiveness than permission right?  (but I’ll take it all down if you want me to, KC!)  Soooo, the bad news is, I did not include any pictures of the bride and groom, who looked uh-may-zing - so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  She had this cute cute tea-length dress and an adorable bird cage veil.  It was lovely.  She also handmade all of the boutonnieres and headbands for the bridesmaids - which I could have taken a picture of and didn’t.  They were wonderful, though.  Simple and tasteful and very pretty.  Imagine it now before we move on.  OK.

So as you drove up to the bride’s grandparents’ house (which is obviously where the said reception was held) you were alerted to arriving at the right address by this:

Hello?!?  Cuteness!  This antique bike held yellow flowers in the front basket and had white and yellow balloons tied to the handlebars.  

Then you walked around a cute little pond and found the gift table, which I have to show because of the card box -

or rather, ridiculously cute wire birdcage that I wanted to take home with me.  And right next to that, the guests signed in.  With a book?  No, no.  Of course not!  Nothing but the cutest for this couple!  The had a large poster-sized tree drawn in pen and ink and some tiny fall-esque colored ink pads that matched their colors perfectly.  A little sign in a cute frame told you to stamp your fingerprint (as a little leaf!) and sign your name.  They’d even decorated a wipes box for everyone to wipe their inky mess off!  Again, cute.

Walk through the arbor,  

admire the sunshine and find:

Yes, taste bud goodness.  I absolutely loved the homey atmosphere this little cafe chalkboard created and all the food was handmade and delicious.  Look at where my drink came from:

I wanted to take that home along with the bird cage.  

Your eyes could not help but be drawn up above, where a white awning was festooned with white pom poms a la Martha Stewart style.  

And here’s some more pom poms, just for good measure.

After I loaded my plate, I walked further into the backyard where the tables were set up - intimate round tables that sat about 6 to each, covered with a yellow fabric and brown burlap over the top.  The centerpieces were... well, I was going to describe them, but I’ll just show you.

I love the mason jars.  I love the simple flowers and the cute little details - like the lemons and that every ornate frame and picture of the couple is different.

I was tempted to relax here:

(who wouldn’t be?) and they even had a place for bug to hang out:

which made him happy as a clam.

And with this backdrop:

You really couldn’t get any more beautiful, could you?

When it was time to cut the cake, I had to check it out.  And it didn’t disappoint.  How fabulous is that?

On the way out, you were encouraged to grab a favor from what I’ve nicknamed “The Favor Tree.”   The favors were CDs filled with the happy couple's favorite songs.  Adorable.  And simple.  And perfect.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

The company was great, the eye candy was incredible, the setting and atmosphere couldn’t have been better.  And the happy couple was beautiful.  

Just writing this post made me feel a little warmer.  Could be the fleece pj’s I put on, too.  I know it’s not polite, but I’m only admitting the truth - I will be copying ideas from this party.  Hope you got a little inspiration and warmth out of it too!