Love Is Carried On the Breeze

My big bro got married back in May in Chapel Hill, NC to his lovely wife Lindsey.

                                

I not only was a bridesmaid on their special day but I got the chance to help my parents throw the rehearsal dinner.  Drew and Lindsey decided they wanted to have it at a restaurant called Sitti in downtown Raleigh.  My dad arranged for everyone coming from the rehearsal to ride in rickshaws from the bus to the restaurant – SURPRISE!

Sitti was the perfect place to have the rehearsal dinner as they have a large patio in the back of the restaurant and it could accommodate the 80 guests they invited!  The only problem is that the patio is brick.  All brick.

So I had to add some cute, decorative items that were sentimental and helped the patio seem not so…..well, brickish.  I really wanted a “love birds” theme but I didn’t want it to be over the top and cheesy.  For the entranceway, I made a chicken wire frame from an old Goodwill purchase and attached the saying “In Springtime, Love is Carried on the Breeze” with clothespins. 

My parents decided to go with assigned seating since we had so many guests so I decided to make the place cards into a gift they could take home with them.  My mom found these little wooden birdhouses at Joann’s for $1 each and we spraypainted them a really pretty royal blue.  Kim helped out by writing Drew and Lindsey’s monogram and date of the wedding on the bottom of the birdhouses.  They even had ropes attached so they make a great Christmas ornament and a sentimental way to remember their wedding every year.  We tied tags with each guest’s name and table number to the houses so that they could go mark their place at the table.

For the colors we decided to go with royal blue, yellow, and red.  My inspiration was the groom’s cake I made which was a Superman themed cake.  My brother has always loved the superhero comic books and movies so we had no choice in the theme.  For some reason the fondant looks all cracked in the picture but it really was a cute cake.  I made a “J” for James instead of the “S” in the logo for a more personal feel. 

We had the dessert table set up at the front of the courtyard so that everyone could grab a cupcake or a piece of cake as they were leaving.  Yes, I made like 60 cupcakes for this.  Crazy thought.  I loved the linens we chose for the dessert table.  They added a lot of texture and resembled flower petals and leaves – tying in our springtime theme again.  We put a picture of my brother as a little kid wearing his Superman costume and another one as an adult, wearing a Superman costume again for Halloween.  Definitely explained the Superman cake.  We also had mason jars filled with candy that matched the colors we chose.  We had to choose candies that wouldn’t melt since NC springs are quite toasty.  We filled the jars with Bit-O-Honey, Lemonheads, and Smarties.  Each jar had a ribbon and a label and we even offered clear bags from the Dollar Tree as to-go treat bags.  I even made two signs with styrofoam and fabric and added "Sweet Love" to designate the dessert table.

For the tables we kept it nice and simple.  We found another textured yellow table cloth with a subtle stripe in it for all of the dinner tables.  I used chalkboard paint and Dollar Tree frames to make the table numbers and filled vases with lemons and flowers.  The vases also had ribbons tied around them with their monogram printed out on labels I made.

To top it off, we strung lights across the patio to give it a chic, urban look.  My brother made an amazing slideshow for Lindsey which was displayed perfectly on one of the big brick walls.  Everyone started toasting (eek, I should not have had a microphone in my hand) and it was fun to hear the roasts and the sweet things everyone had to say.                  

All in all it really turned out to be a fun night.  I was certainly glad the stress of planning the dinner was over but it certainly is fun to reflect on how great it all turned out.  And a special thanks to Amber Byrd for taking the amazing pictures!  They are absolutely perfect.  I somehow didn't take a single picture that night - guess I was all tuckered out!