With this Wreath...

Even though we are having a semi-Episcopalian ceremony and our officiant is an Episcopalian priest, as you know we are not getting married in a church. Which means, no altar. Our venue is set up kind of like a dog bone if you are looking at a cross section of it from above. There are two tower turrets connected by a long bridge way with windows. One turret has a stair case up to the main event room, while the other (closest to the ocean I might add) has a small balcony with large french doors leading out to it. That my friends, is the spot we are getting hitched.

My dilema was: how do we make that spot visibly special? With no altar, no chuppah and definitely no archway, what's to do? I looked at a bunch of inspirational pictures, but nothing really wow-ed me until I saw this:

Image via Style Me Pretty

Even though that quote is not from Shakespeare, it was a Shakespeare-themed rehearsal dinner. And the books are hanging from an archway! As you know, I am a Shakespeare-nerd, and we are already incorporating Shakespeare table numbers, and a sung sonnet (you'll hear more of both very soon) as well as other small Shakespearean-flourishes into the wedding. While I'd like to replicate that gorgeous picture, I am not sure I can (I may attempt to). But in the meantime, I have created something smaller, and something that I think really fits with our wedding style that is slowly but surely, coming together.

Behold! The Wedding Wreath!

It was such a quick project, and I think it came out really nice. So, I went to Christmas Tree Shops and found a wreath covered with GIANT pink roses and tons of greens (Sorry, no before picture -- bad blogger!). I had wanted the woven branch look, and for $3.99, I didn't mind hacking off the faux blooms. 

Check out the floral carnage!

Next, I took this pretty lace ribbon I bought months ago, and had been dying to use, and wrapped it around the wreath. I secured the ribbon with small dots of hot glue as I went. And made sure that the ends of the ribbons met cleanly on what would be the wall-facing side.

Here's my favorite part: I cut out small bits of pages from my extra copy (yes, I have extra copies) of Romeo and Juliet. Specifically, the famous balcony scene. And then stamped the last line of our sonnet with my blue alphabet stamps. I played with different arrangements, but this just seemed right.

I thought I was done, but there was something still missing. I remembered I had three white peacock feathers left from when I made my hair flower, and used them as extra flourishes on the wreath. Here's how it turned out!

I'm thinking of hanging it about the doorways out to the balcony, or on the doors themselves or maybe I can use fishing line to hang it above us. All in all, I think I found a beautiful solution to my decor issue!

Want to find out what else I'm thinking for the ceremony? Stay tuned!

Best,

Micah