On June 6th, 2020, we celebrated the wedding of my sister, Caitlyn, to her husband Jack on her original wedding date. It was not the wedding she had been planning for the past 2 years. After giving up event after event because of the cornonavirus, my other sister and I decided to surprise her. We decided to have a small wedding reception in my sister’s backyard in Michigan. With the help of my best friend, we went all out, and everything turned out so beautifully.
Caitlyn and Jack were married in a lush park in Toledo, OH surrounded by huge peony bushes. Only immediate family and her two best friends attended. It was an intimate and touching ceremony on a gorgeous June afternoon without a cloud in the sky.
I’ve had multiple people reach out to see how we pulled off this mini wedding so I decided to post the details of the backyard reception. (Food from the wedding will be posted separately!) To create this beautiful backyard garden party, I started with the tabletop. I wanted to go with a wildflower theme, adorned with gold and rose gold accessories.
I’m obsessed with florals, and in my mind they are the most important part of decorating for a wedding. I designed 3 large centerpieces for each table, with a matching bridal bouquet and boutineer. Mixed tones of blush, ivory and white were used to fill the lush bouquets. Since its peony season (my favorite time of year!) I had a large focus light pink peonies. Scattered mixed loose greens in-between gold and rose gold votives added to the “wildflower” feel down the center of the tables.
My sisters new Mother-In-Law, who is just as obsessed with florals as me, got flowers the night before for the mini rehearsal dinner. They magically matched ours perfectly and we were able to recycle those flowers the next day for extra decorations. I also did this for my wedding. The more blooms the better! The florals are from GardenView Flowers in Grand Rapids, Ohio. If your event is near the Toledo, Ohio area I highly recommend. Jenny was wonderful to work with!
I went with a white scalloped plate with a rose gold rim for the dinnerware and matched it with rose gold silverwear and crystal glasses. The menus and place cards are custom made with handmade paper from Fringe and Rose. For my own wedding last year I SO badly wanted to use handmade paper for the menus but I did not think my printer would be able to handle the bulk. Since this wedding was much smaller I decided to take the chance and it worked! I just had to feed each sheet in individually.
I foiled the edge of the menus using a Nuvo Glue Pen and Gold Gilding Flakes. This technique I learned from Brown Fox Creative. She has great Youtube and Instagram videos on how to guild. The texture of the gold foil against the handmade paper was so pretty! The place cards were written with a gold foil pen.
Now finally for the food! (posts coming soon!) We made 2 big lasagna dishes and served them with salad and bread. I made a summer roasted vegetable lasagna. My sister’s fiance made a lasagna with a bolognese and beschemel sauce. For the cake I made a strawberries and cream wedding cake. The cake, with vanilla buttercream frosting, consisted of 3 layers with sliced strawberries in-between each layer. I added matching fresh floral to the top. The cupcakes are flourless and already on the blog here.
Now for the fun part, the bar! The bar was found in my sisters basement, left from the previous owners. It was straight out of the 80’s with a green top and wood bottom. At the last minute we spray painted it black and gold and it really turned out looking good with the theme! We made 2 signature cocktails, a Blushing Bride and Something Blue. The menu I downloaded from Etsy here and I added some floral graphics from this set.
The guest’s loved the late night smore’s bar. We set up a campfire and it was the perfect way for them to wind down the night. It was such an easy addition. All we needed was a campfire and supplies.
My friend Travis did all the calligraphy pictured by hand, including the sign below. Talk about talented. He frequently does restaurant menus around Chicago. Personalized notes around the event really added to the intimate feel. He even made mini signs for the hand sanitizer so everyone stayed safe before touching the food.
When the sun started to go down Caitlyn still got to have a first dance, bouquet toss and garter grab. We danced with all her best friends until we couldn’t dance anymore. It’s definitely a day I won’t forget, and I’m so glad we got to make it as special as possible, despite the current state of the world.
