A little barn inspiration

Even though I'm no longer getting married in a barn, I still come across beautiful barn weddings that inspire me. I love this photo. This is actually one of the places Mike and I considered when we were looking for potential wedding sites.

Photo: Faith West Photography via Brides.com

Tea Tins

I would love to use tea tins for flower centerpieces at the wedding. I think it goes really well with the garden and bike theme. I have a small collection of tea tins at home that I sometimes put flowers in. This site has a great assortment of colored tins.

Photos: I Suwanee

More lantern inspiration

This is the sort of look I'm going for with the lanterns....

Photo: Paul Johnson Photography

DIY

I love this idea...Jen from Purl Soho (one of my favorite fabric and knitting shops in the city) recently got married. Since she has an AMAZING fabric hook-up, she began collecting fabrics to make linens for all the tables at the reception.

She became worried at one point when she realized she was going to be left with several orange and green napkins after the wedding. Luckily many of her guests wanted to take theirs home with them, and with the ones that got left behind...she made this amazing quilt! What a great momentum from the wedding!

The pattern for the quilt is available in Joelle Hoverson's book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts

For more details on Jen's wedding, check out the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

Photos: Purl Bee

Lantern Love

One thing is for sure, as soon as I saw the wedding location, I knew it would look beautiful at night with lanterns strung everywhere. Which is where the inspiration for this post came from. Can I have them all?!

Photos: Toast; Chiasso; Canadian Family; Gifts Unusual

Dessert anyone?

I am so inspired by the food photography on Cannelle et Vanille. I want the desserts at my wedding to look like this! So beautiful...

Photos: Cannelle et Vanille

Refreshments anyone?

Photos: Kyle Hale Photography; Squire Fox via Snippet and Ink

Our Signature Cocktail...

This is something I have been thinking a lot about. Mike and I have more or less decided to do a beer and wine bar. To make things more interesting we definitely want to introduce a signature cocktail during cocktail hour. Since lavender is sort of an underlying theme in our wedding I thought it might be fun to create a drink with lavender. I was thinking a lavender infused vodka lemonade served in mason jars.

Of course Martha has some fun lavender infused cocktails on her site. Specifically, a lavender champagne and a lavender whiskey sour. I'll have to do some more research on this and play around with some recipes to see what tastes good.


NY Mag has some great suggestions on how to serve your signature cocktail, like keeping the cocktails to cocktail hour only to keep the experience memorable and ensure that people don't get tired of drinking the same thing throughout the length of the reception.

Photos: Martha Stewart

S'mores please!

I really love the idea of "midnight snacks" during the reception.

This is such a cute idea. The house we are having the wedding at has a fire pit, so this may even be do-able!

Photo: Brides.com

Cocktail Hour

Photos: Brides.com

Garden wedding inspiration

I'm not sure where these photos came from, I have them saved in my wedding inspiration folder. I just love the look and elegance of them.

I really like the idea of having candles everywhere at the reception. I think this is a great way to spice up the look of glass hurricanes and if you are going with the whole monogram thing, it gives you a great opportunity to use it!

Photo: Bhg.com

Flowers in water

I LOVE this look. It's so beautiful and elegant, yet very clean and simple. I really like the lilies in the first photo. Usually when you see this done it's with orchids but the lilies look just as beautiful.




Photos: Geoff White, Ksenija Savic Photography via the Knot

Winter wedding...

I know I have my heart set on a Fall wedding but I also love the idea of a winter white theme like this

Photo via Coco + Kelly Blog

Candlelight

I like the idea of mixing in modern touches like these CB2 candleholders with the rustic barn theme.

Cheese and wine

Mike and I love cheese and red wine. On Sundays we will usually head over to Whole Foods (ours has a great Fromagerie) and pick out a yummy cheese and then head to our favorite wine shop for a fabulous bottle of red. We usually grab other accompaniments too like olives, grape leaves, crackers, a nice salami, whatever we are feeling that day. It's one of our favorite things about Sundays.

Of course I would love to incorporate this into our wedding, maybe in lieu of passed hors d'oeuvres. I like these set ups...



Photos: Flickr

More rustic barn inspiration

I love the rustic outdoor beauty of this wedding reception...




Photos: Pollen Atlanta

Desserts

Wouldn't these look lovely on a dessert bar, all wrapped up like little gifts...yum!



Photos: Cannelle et Vanille via Creature Comforts

Seating cards

I may already have an idea for seating cards but if that idea doesn't pan out, I love this idea, especially for an outdoor barn wedding.



Photo: Flickr via Huckleberry Karen Designs Blog

Games

I love the idea of having lawn games for people to play in the interim between the ceremony and reception while Mike and I are having photos taken.



Photos: Jose Villa Photography