Wedded Bliss: Reception Decor

(Note: As you can see, I started this post a couple weeks ago. I've been so busy with school that I'm just finishing it now-enjoy!)
I discovered something today: I like talking about my wedding plans. Today was the first day of school after Labor Day for me and so many people that I hadn't seen in a long time wanted to know about what I was doing for the wedding. That made me think of my lovely blog readers who might be interested in knowing a little more as well. Thus, I give you, The Reception Decorations.

1. Paper Lanterns
Our reception venue is big and beautiful. It has a high slanted ceiling that, although is gorgeous, needs a little something from us. It's so high that we'd like to lower it a little in order to make it more cozy and give it a romantic feeling. Our thought is to hang paper lanterns throughout the entire room. We're going to need a lot. Our colors (pink and orange) will be used for the majority of the lanterns, but we'll also have some white in there. These pictures are our inspiration:




{all found at the knot-additional credit within the site)
Luckily, I've found a website that sells them and another place for even more inspiration. In addition to the paper lanterns, we will have strings of twinkly lights all around the perimeter of our venue (thank goodness, the Christmas season comes before our wedding-we'll be able to stock up on so much!)

2. Mason Jars
The next element that we'd like to feature at our wedding reception are mason jars. And, we don't want to just feature them, we want to stuff the reception with them. Ideally they will be used for everything that needs a holder; from the flower vases to the candle holders to the pen jar and more. We want to have them be a part of everything.




{1.cattales 2.apartment therapy 3.Once Wed 4. the knot}
*this is almost exactly what we want to do with the flowers

3. "Love is" Notes
When I saw this post over at Once Wed, I immediately put it in my 'must-do' virtual wedding file. They had such a wonderful idea and instead of putting the notes on clothesline, we will probably find a glass jar (big surprise) and set everything on a table.


4. Husband and Wife Silhouettes
For the head table, we'd like to have 4x6 or 5x7 framed silhouettes of our profiles right in front of where we are sitting. Thankfully, the unbelievable Marta once showed us the simple way to make a silhouette. I also saw another way to make them from Norma.


{second photo found here}

5. Ancestors Wedding Pictures
We are also tracking down the wedding pictures of all our ancestors, as many as we can find. We are hoping to display them in frames on some of the tables with a note saying who is in the picture and how they are related to us.

6. Our Favorite Lyrics
We also plan on putting some of our favorite lyrics on some of the jars that we will tie on with ribbon. We spent a couple nights this month scrolling through both our iTunes and thinking back to the early days when C used to make me mixed cds. Planning and writing all those lyrics down was so wonderful because it was all about us and how much we've grown as a couple. That was by far the best time I've had doing something for the wedding. It was us, thinking about committing ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives and trying to incorporate as much of ourselves into our wedding.

That's about all we have planned right now. I've really been trying to think about things other than the wedding. If I don't-I become way too overwhelmed with the planning process. So for now, since we have roughly 8 months until the wedding, I'm just organizing the day. I'm not thinking too hard about the details (and when I slip up I simply think to myself "I have plenty of time to decide that".)

I'm excited:)