My best friend's (and brother's) wedding

We took a break from house projects this weekend to attend my brother's and best friend's wedding.
Yes, they married each other! How amazing and awesome is that?!



It was a beautiful wedding that had a lot of DIY touches that we all helped to create.

This was on the front porch of the venue where guests entered.

The S&M buoy was an early wedding gift from friends.

As was this lifesaver. Thoughtful, right?

Instead of the traditional guest book,

they asked guests to write wedding wishes on cards cut out in the shape of fish. 
And yes, it is true. She was NOT a bridezilla :)

 I think the plan is to put all of the fish together on a jump ring or rope and display them on a coffee table. 

There were a lot of little fish for us to cut out during our wedding craft day.

But as the saying goes, more hands make less work and they were cut out in no time.

Instead of having little favors for guests to take home, the bride and groom made a donation towards a charity. My sister designed the graphic for the donation frame as well as the "fishin' for wishes" graphic.

 For guests to drop off their cards, we stationed an old-fashioned suitcase by the entrance.

 

The bride found these flags online and we used them everywhere.

Stenciling them was easy. We just used gray paint from Michael's and letter stencils.

Instead of escort cards, the bride used this decorative window that she had in her house. 

A friend, who clearly has better handwriting than any of us, 

wrote guests names and table numbers using a white paint pen. 

Do you see the paw print next to Abbey Christie? 

That's their dog, who of course was a part of the wedding. 

This "guests" sign might look familiar.
I had it on top of the shutter that held the escort cards at my wedding too!

Check out the reception area. Stunning, right?

The paper lanterns popped against the dark wood and made the room so beautiful.

Here's a shot of the porch, which was right off the main dining room and dance floor. 

The florist they used was In the Garden Florist and they did an awesome job. The arrangements were unreal and I was lucky enough to take some home with me the next day.

And each table was different. Some flowers were in the wooden boxes pictured above and others were in mason jars that we wrapped in burlap and twine.

My sister designed and made the menu cards, which mimicked the invitation. 

And if you are wondering, the lobster was ah-mazing.

 

These signs hung off the back of the bride and groom's chairs.

 If you notice, the table numbers were made from the same flags used for the banners throughout the wedding. These were pretty easy to make also. We found the wooden dowels at Michael's and used the same gray paint and stencils to paint the numbers on. Hot glue is what held it all together.

The ceremony took place on the lawn. More DIY chalkboards and flags!

 

Just a few more DIY touches that made this wedding spectacular...

My mom is a miracle worker.
She cranked out about 30 of these pillows to soften up some of the built-in benches around the venue!

I may have "borrowed" a few of these for my house...

These are all old windows that were found at garage sales.
They were filled with pictures of the bride, groom, and grandparents.

The bride really thought of everything! DIY signs for the bathroom.

The chalkboard sign below was in the girls' bathroom.
Just a cute way to say
"You're hair and makeup look fine, now get out of here, you are missing the wedding!"

At the end of the night, we lit up these sparklers.
I can't wait to see the photographer's shots of the bride and groom in the middle of all of us holding these!

 And here it is...THE dress, which was from where else but J.Crew.

And here is a sneak peek of the photographer's pictures...

 Dana, from DHM photography, was amazing as always. She has now photographed two friends' weddings, my cousin's wedding, and mine as well. 

Highly recommend her.

I have to admit, I am having post-wedding blues. All that excitement and now what?
Back to work tomorrow? Bleh...