It's a wedding party

Stephanie over at Angelic Accents is hosting a To Have & To Hold Wedding Blog Party today. And you know how I love to party. And to think that I almost forgot about it. And I also love to party with Cindy over at My Romantic Home for her Show and Tell Fridays.

June is known to be the month for weddings. So of course I had a June wedding. At least this time around.

The first time I got married, it was in November and was a small family affair. I didn't have a wedding dress or a reception. I was lucky that I even had a wedding cake.

So for my final time getting married I actually got to have a reception. It was still a small affair, but more than I got the first time around. This time I wanted something more.

Too bad I didn't plan this post better as most of my wedding photos are on my home computer & I'm at work (don't tell anyone). Plus my son was suppose to be my photographer & he didn't take as many photos as I would have liked. I never did get any photos of my tables before everyone was sitting at them or of the food tables. Oh well, if we ever renew our vows, I'll make a list of everything I want photos of. That, or hire a real photographer.

Hubby & I got married in our backyard on June 3, 2006. It had to be the hottest June on record that year. We normally get June gloom here in southern California in June so the temps are usually pretty mild. But in 2006 it was 105 degrees on the day we got married. Luckily we didn't actually get married until 7pm. So it had cooled down to about 90 degrees.

We had about 60 people at our wedding. We were married by my brother in law. In California, anyone can be ordained to perform weddings for 1 day. You just have to fill out paperwork & pay a fee. I'm sure you can probably do this in most states. It made it so much nicer to have someone we know & love marry us.

This was our wedding cake. We also had a huge flat cake for serving to the guests. Wedding cakes are sooooo expensive. Much cheaper to get a small one for the cake cutting ceremony & a flat cake for serving. I wanted my cake to look like it had lace on it. The wedding topper we used wasn't my first choice. But my first choice ended up being too big for the cake. So I had to use this smaller one. I wish I could show you a better close up of it, but that photo would be on my home computer.

I wanted a Victorian theme for our wedding. Which it was, but we also called it our eBay wedding. Most everything I purchased for the wedding came from eBay. We even went to an eBay convention in Las Vegas for our honeymoon. I was totally into selling on eBay when we got married, so you could say that eBay paid for our wedding & honeymoon. Even my dress I got off eBay for less than $200.
This Lenox wedding couple was what I had intended to use as my cake topper. Isn't it the sweetest? I just adore how the groom is barefoot. It was a limited edition and I got it for $25.00. And you guessed it, off of eBay.

I made these little votive candles with our name & wedding date.

I purchased about 5 different bride & groom figurines for our wedding. I placed the ones I didn't use for the cake on the bride & groom table for the reception. Too bad I don't have any photos of the table (this photo is of a different one of the five sitting on my table inside the house). We never actually sat at our special table at the reception. We were too busy visiting with everyone who came. I only have 3 of the original 5 bride and groom figurines left. I sold the other two on eBay.

For food we had ham & turkey croissant sandwiches, veggie trays, fruit trays, cheese trays, mini quiches, Oriental chicken salad. These items were purchased from Sam's Club. We also had chicken wings & bread sticks from a local restaurant Pat & Oscars. Besides cake for dessert we also had a 2 chocolate fountains and stuff to dunk in the chocolate. One fountain for milk chocolate and one for white chocolate. We don't drink alcohol so we saved a ton of money there. We did have my favorite almond punch made with orange juice, lemonade, sugar, almond extract and 7 up.

By the end of the evening our reception actually turned into a pool party. It was still pretty warm out. All the kids ended up throwing each other into the pool so they all changed into their swim suits and had a pool party. One of my nieces was pretty upset about this as she had spent a lot of time lighting all the floating candles that had been in the pool. All in all, everyone had a good time. I was happy how it turned out (even if I didn't get a lot of photos). And the best part, it only cost us less than $2000.

You really don't have to spend a lot of money for wedding decorations. I mostly used stuff I already had around my house. I had lots of birdhouses, fairies, cherubs and candlesticks. I decorated each table a little different. Each table had candlesticks and flowers. I just made a different theme on each table. And because most of my stuff is in the same color family, it all worked.

Thrift stores, friends, family, eBay are great sources for finding things cheap. Also you can actually use Valentine's Day decorating stuff. Or you can use your wedding stuff for Valentine's Day.

For Valentine's Day I printed out all these "Love" sayings off the computer. I think they would work for a wedding as well. And they are cheap.

Here is another easy & cheap wedding decor idea. I printed out each letter to spell "LOVE" and them framed them in frames from Dollar Tree. So for less than $5.00 you have a table decoration for your wedding or your mantel for Valentine's Day.

Or how about using "XOXO" letters for a table decoration. Works for both a wedding or Valentine's Day.

Even the Dollar Tree had bride & groom figurines last month.

I still love collecting wedding figurines. Hubby got this one for me for Christmas. I actually picked it our from a trip to an antique store. It was 40% off. So I think it was around $10.00. It even came with the glass dome.

I have a thing for bride & grooms that look like children.



Last month I found these vintage Bride & Groom glasses at the thrift store. My niece is getting married in August and I thought these would be perfect to give her. But now I am feeling kind of stingy. So I'm not sure I can part with them. But I will, cause I am a nice Aunt. I did use them on my anniversary tablescape this year as candle holders though. Plus I do have a set that says "Happy Anniversary" already.

That is the nice thing about anniversaries. You can reuse some of your wedding stuff again each year.
Here is a my anniversary table from 2009. I used my Lenox bride & groom and my personalized wedding votive candles. Here is where I used the "Happy Anniversary" glasses I spoke about. And hubby gave me a special Lenox anniversary box in 2009 as well. You can see more about this tablescape here.

This anniversary table is from earlier this month. I used my newest bride & groom for this table as well as the "Bride & Groom" glasses that I'm giving to my niece. You can see more of this tablescape here. We (as in hubby & me or should I say I) have now been married 4 years. But we've been together for 15. And hopefully (knock on wood) we will be together forever.

I hope that you have enjoyed my contribution to the wedding blog party, even if I am a bit late. Now be sure to hop on over to Angelic Accents to see who else is partying. Stephanie has quite the collection of wedding stuff that you don't want to miss. And then be sure to stop by My Romantic Home to see the different ways that Cindy has decorated using shells.

And next week I'll post about my 4th of July decor. I have a few things left to finish up and then I'll be ready to share. Hardly seems worth the time and effort for just a week or so of decorating. But you know me, I love to decorate.

Tai Pan Trading

On Saturday I was invited to go shopping with my SIL & one of my nieces to Tai Pan Trading. This was only my 2nd time to this store, but it definitely won't be my last.

For those of you lucky enough to live in either Southern California or Utah, this is a DO NOT MISS store. There is only one store here in southern California. It is in Rancho Cucamonga, which is about 40 minutes from my house (without traffic). So when my SIL said they were going & invited me to come along, I did the happy dance.

We went to get ideas for an upcoming family wedding. Here are some of my favorite things from this trip.


I loved this color combo of red & green. Normally you think of Christmas with this color combo, but not here. I loved the fairy. But then I love fairies. But alas, no fairies will be allowed at this wedding reception (per the grooms request). But she would look fabulous in my yard. But I had to leave her at the store. I only allowed myself at $25.00 shopping budget and I had other things in mind.

I loved the Adirondack chair, the flower ball & the large daisy like flower.

Hanging birdcages with flower balls. I love it!!!

I just adored this tablescape. I think I love pink & green combo more than the red & green.

I loved the tall flower arrangements on this tablescape. They sat on top of this tall glass vase. The bottom of the vase was filled with nest like stuff & eggs.

I almost bought one of these flower balls. But for $12.95 I figured I could make my own for less (if I use Dollar Tree flowers), so I passed. But I love this green.


Another idea I want to try is putting an arrangement inside a tall glass vase.

They had a nice selection of apothecary jars. I love apothecary jars. But I think that I already have too many. So I didn't get any on this trip. But we may get some later to use at the reception.



When we first walked into the store they had this huge mirrored table. It was fabulous. The photo doesn't do it justice. But it was $1200. A little out of my shopping budget. They had the top filled with mercury glass apothecary jars, candles, vases filled with flowers & mirrors.


Above the table was this huge iron chandelier. They had placed branches across the arms and then hung greenery, moss and candelabras.

I wish I was better at taking photos. This was really fabulous in person.



I also loved this iron gazebo that was covered in grapevine, greenery and huge sunflowers. But sunflowers were nixed for the wedding as they are "too country". But I thought they were fabulous.

We got lots of wedding ideas from our trip to Tai Pan Trading. We were thinking of a Enchanted forest/garden theme for the wedding. Sort of like Edward & Bella's meadow in the middle of the forest from Twilight. But the bride & groom have yet to really chime in on what they want & they could take us in an entirely different direction. At least they are open to ideas.

We loved the idea of an old iron gazebo with hanging greenery, vines & moss. Only problem, we don't have an old or new iron gazebo like the one above. However, I do have the one below. But the canvas top and the side screening has fallen apart from the weather. So all I have left is the metal frame. Picture the above with just the metal frame. We think it will be perfect to use at the reception to hang greenery, moss, lights, etc from.

I really enjoyed our trip to Tai Pan Trading. I can hardly wait to go back. Hopefully in the next week we will have a wedding date & colors. That will make planning a wedding so much easier. I'm just thrilled that I get to help.

The only direction we have been given so far is: No Fairies, no Victorian, no Shabby Chic, no Pine trees. Other than that, we are good to go.

And what did I buy? I'll show you later in the week. Nothing exciting. Just a couple of things to spruce up my mantel and hutch.