Wedding Tablescapes

We live in a city with some great farmer's markets and florists. So I was very torn about going the do-it-yourself route or simply buying gorgeous and beautiful flowers to fill our tables. In the end, it came down to budget. After doing some research and seeing some sample quotes online, I knew were weren't going to get a sprawling table of flowers. I didn't even bother contacting florists for quotes in fear of offending them!

My initial vision was to keep things rustic to go with the restaurant's atmosphere. We were in what used to be a woodcutters' cottages after all. I was thinking mason jars and beautiful pink dahlias or flowers from my parent's garden. At one point I even thought I could make beautiful crepe paper flowers instead. I collected mason jars from family and friends (and ate a lot of pasta sauce myself), cleaned them, and painted the inside with white acrylic paint. I wanted the look of milk glass - without paying for the hefty price. A Pinterest idea gone wrong! Acrylic is supposed to be waterproof, but after letting the jars dry for weeks, I tested them a week before the wedding. No! The paint simply peeled off and bubbled. Water had somehow gotten between the paint and the glass - despite two to three coats of paint. It did NOT look pretty. Think mad-scientist lab with organs in a jar.

So that week, we frantically tried to come up with an alternative. Our best bet was going to Ikea for their versatile Ensidig vases. We bought six of the large ones (diameter: 15 cm, height: 16 cm) and 10 of the smaller ones that resemble milk bottles (diameter: 7.7 cm, height: 18 cm). We dropped the six larges one off at the florist where I ordered the bouquets and boutonnieres and asked them to fill it with green hydrangeas.

I had made the table numbers that would be combined with the main centerpiece. Had to insert a bit of my love for baking here. I took some wooden cake dowels, bought cookie cutters in the shape of numbers, and used a hot glue gun to stick them together.

There you have it! A visible table number - with a nod to baking - rising above a fluffy bouquet of hydrangeas.

For the milk-bottle vases, Howard and I went to our grocery store and bought green chrysanthemum buttons the day before the wedding. We trimmed them at home and had them ready to go. The venue provided candles and candle holders so they did the set up, placing as many candles that would look nice and lighted them before the dinner. They also arranged each place setting with folded napkins, menus, cutlery, and glassware. We loved how they did a little extra for our head table, using different candle holders and including some of their own greenery.

We decided on assigned seating for each table, so we got a pack of ivory tent cards with an embossed frame along the border. Here's the crazy part - I hand lettered all of the names. Yes, we could have ran it through a printer . . . but where's the personality in that? I don't even have calligraphy pens or special nibs, I did these with a regular black pen and coloured in the areas I wanted thickened. Yes, hand cramps and lots of breaks were involved.

Wedding Photography: Ikonica | Venue: Auberge du Pommier | Candles and Candle Holders: Auberge du Pommier | Florist: Ruby Florist and Loblaws | Vases: ENSIDIG from Ikea | Place Card Hand Lettering: Sylvia Chan | Table Numbers: Sylvia Chan | Cookie Cutters: Fox Run Craftsmen | Wooden Cake Dowels: Michaels