Wedding Post #2 - The big set-up

Saturday morning we rose fairly bright and early and headed off to breakfast at the Sugar Shack with Tim, Meredith, Julz and LeAnn. One of the best things about Tybee Island is that it is only about 2-3 miles long, total. So EVERYTHING is nearby. The Sugar Shack was right up the street from both of our cottages (they were staying about 6 houses away from us).

After breakfast we went to the Guard House, where the reception was being held, to get the keys and set up. Donald, Kristen (my new brother and sister in law) and Chad (friend) met us there to help.



It was more beautiful than the pictures could ever convey. It's well over 100 years old, pressed-tin ceilings, etc. It has two large rooms (one for eating, one for dancing), 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. It was the perfect size for us and had the perfect 'vibe' for what we were trying to convey on our special day.

First of all, this is the second (and last!) marriage for both of us. We didn't want anything fancy. We wanted good food, happy flowers, fun people and a really laid-back feel. I think we accomplished it!

So, in keeping with that vibe, the flowers were just a mix of sunflowers and other wildflowers for filler. They were arranged in mason jars, with simple yellow ribbon tied around them. Kristen and Meredith did the flowers and they did an amazing job!



Josh's mom made us some monogrammed wine bottles and we put flowers in those, too, and used them on the cake, craft, and drink tables.

A couple of the boys cut burlap into runners for the tables. For each centerpiece we had a jar of flowers, monogrammed candles, and a frame with a quote about love or marriage in it (the one in the picture below says: "To keep your marriage brimming/ with love in the wedding cup/ whenever you're wrong, admit it/ whenever you're right, shut up"). We bought the frames at Goodwill, spray painted them, and then distressed them with some sandpaper, printed out the quotes on some heavy paper from Michael's, and voila!



Here are some photos of the drink table before the reception. You can see some frames in front of the drink dispensers, they had the names of the drinks in them (one was a raspberry vodka/lemonade/grenadine mix, and the other was a lemonade/sweet tea/Jack Daniels mix. Both were a hit).



The metal tub was for the personalized Jones sodas we had (root beer and orange cream soda). Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the drink table all set up with the actual drinks. We were too busy having fun!





Instead of a guest book (since we only had 20 guests!), we opted to have a 'craft table' - we supplied the paper, glue, stamps, ink, markers, etc., and asked the guests to make us a card with well wishes, marriage advice or whatever struck their fancy instead. I have not taken pictures of the finished results (I will!), but they are priceless!












And of course we had to have matches, since we met on match.com!




Like the frames, the baskets were from Goodwill. We just spray painted them, printed out the tags and tied them on with ribbon we found at Michael's for $1.00.


We were just so pleased with the little details! It was wonderful to see it all come to life. I mean, we bought everything to decorate with just a vision in our head - we had never seen the place in person, nor did we actually know how everything would look once we got it together. Our style fit the venue very well, I'm pleased to say.

Then we went to Sting Ray's and had a late lunch. I had a crab cake sandwich with a dill sauce, and it was out of this world. Man, I sure do miss the food there!



Next post - cake, bouquet, food and ceremony details!