wedding wednesday: inspiration for a midcentury summer camp wedding

As I simply stated last week, camp is home to me. Not just my own childhood summer camp, which truly is my second home because it's so full of memories, but the whole idea of camp in general. Even though I'm not outdoorsy, there was a place for me among cabins and campfires, and I learned more about myself in those weeks than I did the other 360 days of the year! Last year, I rounded up inspiration for a rustic, craftsman-style summer camp wedding. This summer, I'm turning my muse toward a more traditional view of camp: think Moonrise Kingdom. I love checking out wedding photos from camp weddings because the camp is so often a special place for the bride and groom - their second home.

"Merit Badge" wedding invitation from Minted

Acqua Photo via Amorology Weddings

For this classic take on summer camp vibes, a saturated color palette is a must - sky blue, gingham red, sunflower yellow, and pine green are all welcome! Antique stores can be a great place to score vintage finds like merit badges, thermos canteens, lanterns, picnic blankets, and even camp furniture.

Our Labor of Love via Green Wedding Shoes

Acqua Photo via Amorology Weddings

Our Labor of Love via Green Wedding Shoes | Morgan Bayard via Rustic Wedding Chic

Hand painted wooden guest book by Amanda G Designs on Etsy

White Rabbit Studios via Glamour and Grace | Nikki Ritcher via Anthology Magazine

Acqua Photo via Amorology Weddings

 Martha Stewart Weddings | Summer Street Photography via Rustic Wedding Chic

Our Labor of Love via Green Wedding Shoes

Our Labor of Love via Green Wedding Shoes | Little White Dress

Love is a Big Deal via Green Wedding Shoes

Have you ever attended a camp wedding? What was your favorite detail?

Real Wedding: Rustic Elegance at Explore Park

This past weekend I had the pleasure of helping with a wedding in an absolutely beautiful location: Virginia's Explore Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The wedding was extra special to me because the bride is my BFF Breeze's younger sister and since I've known her for 20 years, I love her like she's my own sister too. She and her groom actually met at Breeze's wedding and everyone there could see that it was love at first sight.

Photo by my sister-in-law Autumn

The wedding ceremony took place in Mountain Union Church, a reconstructed Greek Revival church and schoolhouse from the 1880's. The bride was given away by her grandfather, who later said in his toast that it was the happiest day of his life because both of his granddaughters are so happy. Special touches included vows written by the bride and groom and a tree ceremony with readings from both of their mothers. The couple became homeowners last year so knowing that the tree will be planted on their homestead was a sweet touch.

The reception was held in the Chestnut Ridge Room in the Arthur Taubman Center, a modern building designed with 18th century style in mind. The bride and her bridesmaids filled the room with special touches including a puzzle guest book and chalkboard relationship timeline. The wedding colors were coral, cobalt, and gray, and everything came together through the use of repeated textures - "tree cookies," chalkboards, burlap, and lace. Photographs were also a major decorating theme for the reception.

We created this sweetheart table with antique chairs from the couple's home. The drink holders are from Kirkland's - I couldn't resist picking them up when I saw the burlap!

The bride's best friend is a photographer who created this "LOVE" art on a hike through the woods. The bride adores owls, so we had to get a few feathered friends in on the decor!

The centerpieces included a "tree cookie" cut from the bride's grandfather's farm, a cobalt wine bottle from a local vineyard wrapped in lace and filled with baby's breath, a burlap-wrapped glass soda bottle filled with cobalt and blue flowers, and a tiny Weck-style burlap-wrapped canning jar filled with an LED light and glass marbles. Each table also had photos of the bride and groom at similar phases in their lives (and in poses that basically proved they are soulmates).

The couple are known as avid environmentalists who love hiking, camping and attending music festivals, and their plates and cutlery were 100% compostable. The dinner buffet included wraps, veggie slaw, and fruit salad from a local café. 

This rustic, elegant wedding at Explore Park was one of the most unique and creative weddings I've attended - it was certainly a labor of love for friends and family, and the bride and groom have never looked happier or more in love.

Our Wedding: Prelude

Your soundtrack for reading this post:  the "prelude" playlist I created for our guests to listen to as they found their seats.  The theme for this list was classy Southern - traditional music with some modern bluegrass-inspired tunes thrown in.

As guests arrived at the War Memorial, they were invited to take a program, 

and could take a few minutes to sign our photo frame guestbook or leave us a wish...

Our Wedding: I Heart Crafting!

As you all know, I was inspired to design and create a lot of our wedding decor.  Here are some of the finished products in all their glory on the big day.

The table numbers were one of the first craft visions I had when we decided that our wedding would have a vintage theme.  I was inspired by book page table numbers I'd seen online using the ubiquitous white Ikea frames, but there is no Ikea near us so I got my frames from the Dollar Tree.  I chose 15 wedding and love-related pages from some of my favorite books, scanned them onto ivory cardstock so they'd be uniform, and stamped numbers and flowers onto them with purple ink.  The finished product was very close to what I'd visualized!

 I thought a birdcage card box would go perfectly with our vintage theme.  I ordered the set of two birdcages from Save-On-Crafts.  I lined the bottom with moss by setting the cage on top of a piece of cardboard, adding a few dots of hot glue, and adding sheet moss from Michael's.  Then, I wrapped a purple ribbon around the cage and added a "cards" sign made with cardstock from our invitations that I trimmed with my paper cutter and pearl stickers.

I knew I didn't want a traditional guest book, and Mr. Spin had mentioned that he liked the picture frame guestbook we'd seen at a friend's wedding.  We found a black picture frame with a white signing mat on sale at Michael's, but I was at a loss for what to do with the small cage until I saw some wish boxes online.

Guestbook Options

There are so many options for couples who want to give guests the opportunity to leave wishes for them on the big day!

1. Photo mat or gallery wrap- I've seen several of these at real weddings. My friend K had her photographer print one of their engagement pictures onto a canvas gallery wrap for everyone to sign with a metallic pen. I like the more traditional version, the signing mat, because it can be used to display a wedding-day photo in the home later on. This one from Exclusively Weddings has lots of signing space and you can get an engraved plaque to attach to the frame. It's elegant, yet still more unique than a traditional guestbook.

2. Wish box/vase

But what if the guests want to leave more than just their signatures? I got really excited when I saw a Weddingbee post about the Anniversary Box and began thinking about ways to incorporate something similar into our wedding.

I like this monogrammed vase from Invitations by Dawn; it's 28.95. The vase is 8 3/4" tall. This would be a nice way for guests to leave a wish, and the vase would look nice on display in the home.

Finally, I had a burst of inspiration! While searching for a card box, I kept coming back to the Antique Style birdcages at Save On Crafts, but I'd been questioning the value of the purchase because I didn't know what I would do with the smaller birdcage. Here's my plan: as shown in this picture, I'm going to use the larger cage as a card box, and use the same rubber stamps I'm using on our table numbers to decorate some "wish cards" for the smaller cage. I may paint the cages either black or ivory to match our other decor items...

I am looking forward to working on some DIY projects over spring break next week, and can't wait to share the process and the results with y'all. I am so appreciative of the community I've found via the wedding blogosphere, Weddingbee boards, and weddingplans community on Livejournal- it's so nice to be able to commiserate with ladies who are going through the joy and stress of wedding planning as well!