While you might have thought my last post on the woodsy-themed decor details of our wedding was a lot, there are still more details to our wedding! I wasn’t kidding when I said I went all-out on the decor details! But I did know when to draw the line on DIYing vs buying. And boy did I buy a lot of stuff on Etsy!

Altar

Although I can’t take any credit for this detail since our wedding planner designed and set this up all on her own, I had to point out that our altar was my favorite detail of the entire wedding! She used a wood ampersand that I purchased from Etsy and some rope lettering I DIY’d to decorate with, but the whole concept was totally hers and totally amaze-balls!

Bridal Hanger

My wedding dress hanger was my very first wedding purchase, even before I purchased my dress. When my bestie was married in 2010, I had searched high and low for a unique wedding gift and came across wedding dress hangers on Etsy that could be customized with the bride’s new last name. Little did I know, that these super cute hangers also take up to six weeks to make and I was just barely figuring out a gift for her a few weeks before her wedding! Although I was unable to gift her this item, I knew that I HAD to have one of these for my wedding dress instead of some tacky plastic one. It was a detail I was not willing to overlook.

I scoured all of Etsy for the perfect hanger and settled on one from this Etsy seller. Although her hangers were priced much higher than others, the lettering on hers was impeccable! I received my bridal hanger in March, the same week my dress and our invites arrived. It was an exciting week!

Pup Attire

Ok, so I might have lied. I said our altar was my favorite detail of the wedding, but truly, it was our pups. Then again, our pups were not decor, but these are details you just can’t leave out of a wedding since Dog truly is man’s best friend.

Our dachs are so darn cute and they did not disappoint on our special day. I wasn’t about to leave them out of the fun while the adults were dressing all spiffy. So I purchased Roxie a flower collar and Banana a tie.

Cake Topper

I knew early on that we were not going to have a cake at our wedding and we would have a cupcake tier instead, but that didn’t stop me from having this cake topper that I had drooled over before I was even engaged. The Etsy seller custom creates them to look exactly like the bride and groom.

Lighting

When we had finally picked a venue, one of the first things I began brainstorming was how we could pull off some kick-ass bistro lighting. The rental company quoted us a few hundred, if not a few thousand, to do bistro lighting in the tent for our reception. My dreams of having romantic, mood-setting lighting to eat dinner and dance under were crushed.

Not only that, even if we could have afforded the lighting, it was complicated by the fact that our reception dinner in the tent would intentionally last until 8pm at the latest to avoid the sun setting during dinner and our guests getting cold. Even if we could have afforded to have lighting in the tent, it would have not been noticed before our guests retreated to the house to huddle by the fire pit.

One day, when I had just about forgotten and given up on the idea of putting up lighting, I was sifting through Target’s weekly ad (love Target!) and came across outdoor light strands that were only $10 a strand. Problem solved! We could purchase 10 strands at $10 a piece and have more than enough lighting for a cheap DIY job and as a bonus, it would be our lighting to keep to decorate our own house with later. Unfortunately, we realized we would have to play it by ear to figure out how or if we could even hang up lighting on the house we had rented for the venue.

With the help of four of our awesome friends, the day before the wedding we created the best ever DIY bistro lighting for our reception. And it only cost us $100!

Escort “Cards”

Our succulent escort cards rocked! While it wasn’t the most original idea to have small succulent plants double as wedding favors and escort cards, I really loved the fresh green color they brought to the wedding. Using these super cute swirly-wire garden markers as inspiration, I created small kraft cardstock hearts to hang from wire to display the names and table assignments.

Rope Decor

Using this tutorial (and jute twine instead of yarn), I created two rope-lettering decor items that were probably the most time-consuming DIY projects, besides the wood-burning. I wasn’t sure how we would use the rope decor in the wedding, but our wedding planner did a fantastic job coming up with the idea to put the “love” rope at our altar and our photographers had us use the “just hitched” rope in our photos.

“Happy Tears” Envelopes

This was a totally unnecessary detail, but one that I couldn’t help creating. I had seen a few ideas of laying out a basket of tissues or handkerchiefs with a sign saying “for your happy tears” and I thought it was such a cute idea!

I commissioned the help of the Etsy seller who created the stamp for our save-the-date wood slices and had her create a stamp that said “for your happy tears”. I used that stamp to create 50 glassine envelopes that each had one tissue in them.

Guests actually used their tissues during the wedding, thanks to my wedding planner for her brilliant idea to put the tissue envelopes on each of the chairs as opposed to a basket that no one would have grabbed from.

Burlap Bunting Banner

You might actually recognize this burlap bunting banner from our engagement shoot. We brought this guy along for the wedding because it was too cute not to and it fit in with all the kraft brown hues we used in the wedding. Our wedding planner used it to decorate our ceremony chairs with.

Conversation Bubbles

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? I don’t think so. That’s why I created these!!!! These conversation bubbles summed up our day in four perfect words. These were the best photo props ever and totally (for once) an original idea that hasn’t been pinned a gazillion times on Pinterest (it’s hard to create original wedding ideas with everything already out there already)!

I searched high and low for some conversation bubbles on Etsy and finally found these. I used black adhesive sheets to cut out lettering to adhere to the bubbles and it was just that simple to create such a fun detail for our photos.

Wine Charms

Next to our cake topper, the wine charms were one of my favorite splurges off Etsy. I still use mine to this day! We purchased a wine charm for each person sitting at the main table with us. Each wine charm was custom-made with the person’s name, with the exception of the bride and groom. Ours said “Mr” and “Mrs”.

Kid’s Activities

We did not exclude kids from attending our wedding and definitely didn’t want them to feel left out at such an adult-type event, so I made sure to include some details to let them know we hadn’t forgotten about them. This included activity coloring boxes, crayons, bubbles, and candies.

Smore’s Bar

What is a woodsy wedding without a s’mores bar? We raided Costco for all types of chocolate to include in our s’mores bar. Roasting marshmallows to make s’mores was the perfect way to end a perfect (and chilly) day!