Emily's friend is planning a December wedding and wanted to see some pictures of the luncheon and reception that we attended in St. Lous last winter to celebrate the marriage of Emily's cousin, Justin, to his beautiful and charming wife Brittany.
My amazing sister-in-law, Julie, pulled off a wedding, a luncheon, a reception AND managed to get the church decorated and cleaned up in under 36 hours. WOW! I don't know how she managed to be standing or coherent at the end of the day.
The guys went out to buy leftover Christmas trees and found a lot with a sign that said the all the trees were free! That was a definite advantage to holding the reception AFTER Christmas.
They brought the trees home and lightly flocked most, but not all of them. Then they set up little woodsy vignettes around the perimeter of the room. The one above was the backdrop for the receiving line and went along the doors at the back of the chapel. I don't know if you can see it but there is acutally a backdrop set up behind this grouping of trees. It is built out of pvc pipe and covered with a black fabric. It was a small touch that not many people would think of but it actually added a big impact to the final look.
This little scene was a charming way to fill a corner. I don't know where they found that wonderful street lamp, but doesn't it add the perfect touch?
Julie asked her husband to cut some LARGE branches off the trees that grow in their backyard. Then they set them into cans of concrete for stability and spray painted them white. Having the bare branches mixed in with the evergreens really took the decor up a notch into fabulous. Somehow adding that extra touch of realism added a sense of wonder and delight to the room.
Since they had such limited time to set up and take down instead of trying to wrap the trees with light they just trailed the small white lights along and around the base of the trees and covered them all up with fake snow. I think this was a perfect idea. Stringing the lights into the trees would have taken hours, not to mention all the sap and scratches that come with decorating real trees, and it wouldn't have looked quite as natural and charming for the way they had the room set up.
I just put this picture in because Brynlee is such a cutie and the mix of trees made a pretty background for her.
This shot was taken along the long wall opposite of where the cake table was set up. I didn't put any shots of the cake table because it was a typical set up with a round table, draped with her colors and set off by a little floral arch.
When the evening was over Jim actually knew of a place where they could dump the trees for free. They had all the trees taken care of by the time we had the kitchen, the linens, tables & chairs and the room decorations cleaned up.
The ceiling also received special treatment with lights and tulle strung from the center (it's where the DISCO BALL comes out for those special stake dances) out to the walls.
Adding this extra touch gave the effect of dropping the ceiling so the room felt cozier and less cavernous. It also added a nice element of lighting in the room since they had the overheads either dimmed or turned off.
One of Julie's friends made the beaded snowflakes that hung down from the center on fishing line (we took them down very carefully so she could save them to use again). There were also ornaments hung amongst the snowflakes which matched the color scheme.
They served hot chocolate with whipped cream (isn't that a FUN idea?) and mixed desserts which were served from cake plates that became a part of the centerpiece on the tables. You'll have to use your imagination for that because I didn't get a picture of the tables.
The room was beautiful; the food was fun, relatively easy, and tasty; and the bride and groom were happy. What more could you ask?
THIS MUCH!
I can't tell if Bryce is really excited or really nervous about going on the BIG BOAT. 
On board, Looking Fine and Ready for some Fun!
