Camels are the Best Decor

All along I thought centerpieces would be so easy to come up with. The venue itself is so gorgeous that the tables didn't really need anything, so I kept telling myself that while I procrastinated figuring out exactly what it was I was going to put on 20 tables. Of course I had a Pinterest board dedicated to the brainstorming, but as per usual, none of those projects turned out as cute as the pictures.

Luckily, the talented Amanda & Lee Ann threw us an amazing wedding shower two weeks before the wedding that was full of cute, fun décor that Tyler and I stole at the end of the night. I think we took every piece of decoration they had come up with and then just added to it to have enough for each table.

Décor we confiscated from the shower

 

These shepherd's hooks with the cute yellow & gray fabric strips we took to use for the entrance of the ranch.

As ranches usually are, it was out in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't much to draw your attention to it if you didn't know exactly where you were going. Also, for some strange reason, the iPhone maps were sending people to the wrong place, I never had a problem going right up to the gate using the GPS on my android, but iPhone's just dropped the ball on that one. So, in order to attempt to draw some attention, my Dad stuck all those hooks in the ground around the front so that the bright colored fabric blowing in the wind would catch people's eye.

These next two pictures were the rough prototype of the centerpieces, there's got to be a picture of the final product from the wedding, but I'll have to ask around.

 

One view of the actual arrangement

 

 

Underneath the burlap we stacked 2 bricks in a T shape, then placed the lanterns (12 of which were lent to us from my aunt who then used them the next weekend at my cousin's rehearsal dinner. The remaining 8 my Mom & Sister picked up from Hobby Lobby at just the right time because they were on sale for $8!) with lemons inside on top. On the lower level brick we placed the gray painted mason jar (at the time of set up, I noticed that the yellow jar in front of the yellow lemons was too close and swapped them) and on the table next to that went the yellow jar and we put a handful of Baby's Breath in them. Next went the vase, of which we had many different shapes and sizes, half of them I wrapped with a net-style burlap ribbon with a lace ribbon bow on top of it, the other half I wrapped with a gray lace skirted-style ribbon with a yellow tulle ribbon bow on top.

Sorry for the peephole, I was just trying to find a backdrop that wasn't messy counter space.

 

Most of my vases had been in storage in one place or another for a long while so I made sure to wash all of them first to get the glass nice and clear, that's why the pretty bleach-spotted towel is present.

Continuing around the table, the blank wooden square was there just to show where Lee Ann's plaques would be. She offered up these gorgeous wooden, ceramic, etc plaques that she's accumulated over the years and has placed all around her house with quotes about love, family, & friends. These, like the vases, were all different shapes and sizes, both of which helped make the tables look not quite as uniform. I was overly obsessive about the jars being in the right order and the ribbons being just right, but I liked that there was some variety.

Lastly, I placed a gray painted wine bottle, that I had also coated with chalkboard paint and placed a stick of yellow chalk for guests to draw and/or leave notes on. Unwrapping these when we got back was entertaining, we found some with sweet messages and others with creative drawings. This one was a front runner but we had no idea whose handiwork it was until a few days later this picture (the uncropped version) popped up on Facebook, turns out one of Tyler's cousins was the artist. I sprayed it with a clear sealant in hopes that the chalk won't rub off and it's used as a vase on one of our nightstands now.

 The shelf in the garage where I stored empty wine bottles for months before I decided to only put one on each table.

The project table one weekend that Tyler was gone where I painted ALL WEEKEND LONG. The wine bottles took multiple coats, drying time in between, and then 2 coats of chalkboard paint. (the cans were vetoed from décor and since gray chalk doesn't seem to exist in boxes of it's own, the yellow bottles weren't used either)

 

 

There's probably something I'm leaving out, but that's all the pictures I have of decorations so when I get the professional pictures back I'll post her pictures of decor to update this post.

 

However, one of my favorite decorations that I had no part in whatsoever, was this guy and his/her BFF (the other camel). I have no idea if they were holding photo shoots quite this awesome as guests were arriving, but they were napping off in the distance when we got there much earlier that morning. Luckily, they were up here next to the fence the first time I saw the venue and then once again when I took Tyler out to show him the place. How can you not love that sass?! 

:)