CUPCAKE Wedding Church Reception ~ Decorating on a Shoestring

I am joining Thrifty Decor Chick in her Before and After Party...Please be sure to check out my post below as well...I have 2 Before/After posts I have done the past few days.

Hello my blogging friends!

As I had promised over a week ago, I am finally getting my *HOW to* together of what I did to help my dear friends weddomg reception. Her daughters wedding was on Saturday, August 28th. This was a very simple yet elegant wedding. The bride is 32, first marriage and the groom is 41 and his first marriage. They both waited for GOD's very best in marriage and have such a neat love story. What an honor it was, when she asked me to help with the Church Reception decor.

So, as the picture below shows...this was what I was given to work with. Our bride is a very frugle girl who loves a good deal. She was decorating in Bright PINKs, and Oranges. She had purchased off Craiglist these floral bouquets that had been used as pew arrangments. Basically I was working with a 6" round styrafoam disc that I had to remove a plastic hangar, take off all the netting and ribbon and then tweek the roses and daisies already on the disc. About 2 weeks before the wedding we got together and worked out just what the BRIDE wanted.


I also was given some silk floral of Gerbera Daisy's, which were to be used as well. I gathered my collection of milk glass VASES as well. and began cutting the stems to the right size I needed. I made 6 differing sizes of bouquets. I then took 1 inch gauzy orange ribbon and tied them around each of the stems or vases.
Here's another look at what I was working with. Oh Yes..lest I forget...we had an very unusual way that we covered our tables...stay with me and I will show you the final product.
So here you see I am almost done with my vases and all of the arrangement I made. Hmmmmm where are my pictures of them all done...Oh goodness, did I forget to do that?
Here above, is that finished Disc Bouquet...lets got through the next few pictures and I will explain what I did for them.
I borrowed some shallow glass floating candle vases that were approximately 8 inches in diameter. The netting was from the original pew hangers and I softly filled 6 of these vases leaving a space in the middle for a glass votive candle that I turned upside down. Taking some left over 1.5 inch orange ribbon, and a tiny 1/2 inch pink ribbon...I created these to place inside my roses and daisy's. Gosh..I didn't realize how bright these colors are..they sure came out hard to see.

HERE's a look into the foyer showing what they looked when they were all set up. Can you see our unique table covers? We used the churches stock of white table clothes..but Susie and her daughter bought or borrowed vintage tables clothes from the 40's, 50's, 60's and even 70's to create what I think is a very UNIQUE table scape. Each of the large round tables had a different tablecloth which created a wonderful shabby patchwork affect. All in soft and muted tones.

We also had some smaller, taller tables that we didn't want to crowd with the round bouquets so that's where most of the Milk Glasses full of daisy's went. I did make a few extra for scattering around the area to help add to the affect we were looking for.
Here's my friends Susie or the Mother of the Bride. Early on they decided to have a CUPCAKE reception following the ceremony. Our church has a very large Foyer area on 2 sides. So we set up 3 large rounds and 2 smaller rounds on each side. Each side had there own Long Tables for the cupcakes and another round for Coffee, Tea or Lemonade. Very Simple but very elegant. Both families are quite large and they decided to throw a family dinner a few hours later for them.
Here's what one side of the Cupcake Tables looked like. We were trying to get a feel for how many plates to set out.

A shot of both sides, all set up and ready for guest!
On the day of the wedding I got there early so I could check on things and took a quick picture of Mom and Dad of the bride. Don't they look happy?

Then during the last part of the service I snuck out so I could take pictures of both of the CUPCAKE Table so you could see these Mammoth Cupcakes. They were the biggest ones I had ever seen..and as my dear hubs said, the BEST ones he'd ever eatten. And they were good! Don't these tables just look so elegant and fun?
Here's a shot of the coffe/punch table all set up.
This was for me a labor of LOVE. I just so appreciate my dear friend. And..her daughter over the years has become such a dear friend to me as well. Since I am so far from my own family, they have made me feel like I am part of their family. I was just so blessed to be able to be such a part of this entire Wedding Day.
Thanks for letting me share this with you...Lorena