Imagine our reception venue: the local sailing club in the South-West of England, a parquet dance floor, red velvet bench seating along the walls, peaked ceiling with a few skylights and at the end of the room big french doors leading out to the balcony over the River Fowey. OK, maybe that sounds a bit hodge-podge: It is. But the sailing club is simple, close by, (free), and it is where we wanted to have the reception. We’re not fussy gals.
Still, the issued remained of how to decorate and what to do for the tables. The ‘venue decorating’ has been left in the hands of Alex’s mum. It will probably involve something with fabric (to cover the sailing notice boards), bunting and fairy lights (very English, and awesome).
The table centerpieces I wanted to take care of, and while I set off on this wedding planning journey thinking I’d have this whole vision for everything, really it’s just come down to what we love, what’s simple, and what is eco-friendly-or-economical-or-recyclable.
Ok, let’s try again, imagine our reception venues with 13 rectangular tables and chairs (owned by the club) in 3 rows, covered in rented white table cloths (economical/reusable). There are six guests per table with a water glass, a wine glass, and a green Ikea napkin (economical) marking each place at the assigned tables with unassigned seats. Each table is named after a California city in homage to my home-away-from-my-new-home, i.e. ‘Santa Cruz,’ ‘San Francisco,’ ‘Culver City,’ ‘Mt. Shasta,’ and so on, written on the back of a random vintage postcard (reusable?) with random facts and stories about us. (It is all about us, right?)
In the center of the table will be 2 tulips in a glass jar. Simple, right? But let me tell you how I’m going to get the glass jars: used Firefly Tonic jars.
Firefly Tonics (A Review)
For those of you not in the UK (or who haven’t visited before), these drinks are pretty darn good, and I love ‘Wake Up.’ As it happens, I was sitting in my favorite cafe near work–where they sell Firefly–on the phone to a friend talking about the wedding when I noticed the vases full of daffodils looked awfully like little milk jugs. Then I looked at my (now empty, but labelled) Firefly Wake Up also on the table–same jar! You see, the labels on Firefly jars do not use adhesive; instead they provide a perforated pull-tag to pull off the label from the jar before recycling. My plan: collect 13 or so (used) jars from my favorite cafe (for free–economical!), take off the labels, wash ‘em, use them as vases at the reception and recycle them afterwards! (Can you tell I’m pleased with this idea…?)
A test trial from the past weekend:
Photo by Erica
So, 2 purple tulips, 2 bottles of Pinot Grigio Blush on the tables with the white table cloths and green napkins–and Scrabble Tiles spread across the length of the table.
Scrabble Tiles from XO Supplies on Etsy
Scrabble tiles, just because really. Letters, words, wood. Playfulness, ice-breakers, and love…. plus, we can re-use them later.
What are you imagining for your reception?
I love the Scrabble tiles! So far, I have a huge mental block on the reception decor. We picked a venue with a decor that already suits us, but we still want to inject a little personality. Hopefully it will hit me at some point. Your look is coming together beautifully!
[...] anemones, tulips, and lilies. Some of the best eco friendly wedding ideas are all about creativity. Erica’s firefly bottle centerpiece vases are really inspiring me right now! To offset the premium we are paying for some of our eco friendly [...]