Happily After All: The Church Details

I decided to do a quick recess from the order of recaps, and instead of jumping right into the processional and ceremony, like I had promised, I'm going to take you on a tour of all the church details.  This way I can go into depth about them a little before you get a chance to glance at them during the ceremony recaps.  I gave you guys a glimpse into the decorations when I set up the week of the wedding, but there were things that weren't quite finished yet, and detail pictures always look better when taken by a professional with great lighting =]

We'll start with the outside of the church and work our way inside.

The wood sign I made pointing our guests in the right direction.  You'll see this sign again in future recaps...

The new wood sign a member of the congregation made just a couple months before the wedding.

The wreaths and painted letters I made.  These wreaths recently underwent a transformation and were used for the wedding of family friend.  She added some purple flowers into the mix and took off the letters.  They were gorgeous, and now the work is done for me for my cousin's wedding in October.  I was planning on adding in purple for her, and now I don't have to!

The "Quaker Marriage Certificate" that I designed and had printed through UPrinting.com  They offered me a poster print when I hosted a giveaway awhile back.  I touched on it briefly here.  You can get a glimpse of it fully signed in the picture below.  It was a nice alternative for a guestbook at the church.

This picture worked out nicely too, since we don't have any pictures of us signing our marriage certificate.  Our pastor had us sign it the night before at the rehearsal and we didn't think to take any pictures.  I really wish we would have done it on our wedding day, all dressed up, and gotten a couple pictures.  But that's okay!

 Here is the finished program.  Even though I hated them at 2 o'clock in the morning the week of my wedding, I'm really glad I put in the time and effort to pull off what I initially wanted.  Our guests loved them, I got to keep one, and the back page actually ended up being extremely helpful in getting through our family portraits.

These are the two baskets of bubbles we used for our exit.  I bought all of the bubbles from the Dollar Tree and tied little green bows around each one.  The baskets were on sale from Hobby Lobby and the ribbon tied around it was left over from other projects.  It was very easy, just a little time consuming!

These reserved signs were another last minute project in the week leading up to the wedding.  I think I might have done them on Thursday possibly?  I stuck them on the first four pews on each side of the aisle.  Since the church was so small and we were expecting such a large turnout, I wanted to make sure that all of our family members got a good seat up front, and didn't end up standing or in the balcony.

And here is the altar with our unity candle, altar arrangements, and the "table runner" I made as well.  I never did do a DIY post on that, but it was very easy.  I printed out the design on my printer and laid it under a piece of white material.  Then I traced and painted the design.  Then it was just a matter of hemming the white material and attaching it to the green material, and then hemming those edges as well.  I actually used Heat N' Bond instead of sewing it together.  It held up wonderfully throughout the day, but it never made it to the reception hall like I was originally thinking.  It just wasn't worth the hassle of taking it over there and finding a spot for it.  Anyone have ideas of what I should do with it now?

And as a sneak peek to our ceremony, here is a picture of the whole church decorated and filled with our friends and family.

Next up:  This time I'll actually do the processional!

Unless otherwise stated, all pictures are by Brandy Swartz of Photography by Brandy.

In case you've missed anything...
Heading To The Church
Slipping Into My Dress

The Flowers

Getting Pretty
A Crazy Lady The Morning Of
Decorating the Reception Hall
Honoring Our Family
The Rehearsal