The Ceremony & Reception Decor

 

This was one of my favourite parts that I organised for our wedding. I came up with loads of great, unique ideas to include in our big day on Pinterest. Although it was a lot of hard work finding the right decorations and putting everything together, I definitely feel it will be worth it when I see it all set up on the day.

 

 

The Ceremony

Apart from the pedestals and buckets of flowers lining the aisle (as mentioned in ‘The Flowers’ post), we will have a few other pieces to pull everything together. I bought cream coloured lanterns and filled them with shells ( bought from a shop), two silk red gloriosa flower heads (the national flower of Zimbabwe- my fiance’s home country) and a single white candle in the middle. I will use these to line the aisle, and then have them moved to be the centre pieces for the tables at the reception.

Hanging in the background of our ceremony venue, will be white paper lanterns in the trees and a variety of white, turquoise and light blue hanging lanterns of different sizes at the reception dinner venue above the tables, similar to the photos below. We will also have floor candle paper bags scattered around the dance floor, reception and garden area.

The chair ties for both the reception and ceremony venues are turquoise ‘kanga’ – a material from Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar worn by the local people. The particular kanga we have chosen to use as our wedding chair ties (and that I spent hours sewing into chair ties!) is a typical Zanzibar wedding kanga. I also created ‘MR’ and ‘MRS’ chair ties using the same material, and a white organza fabric. So as not to overpower the venue, we will alternate the chairs with white organza chair ties, and the turquoise kanga ones.

Tying in the blue beach theme of our wedding, we will end the ceremony with beautiful light blue dried hydrangea confetti ( The Real Flower Confetti Company) in hand made confetti holders that I made using white paper doilies.

Due to the extreme heat of Cyprus in July we also decided to provide white silk and wooden hand fans that come packaged in elegant boxes, and we have added a personalised label onto each of them. We  also bought seven white silk parasols that can be used by some of the guests if the heat gets to be too much for them ( and one light blue parasol, so that myself and my bridesmaids can use them for our group photographs afterwards). Both of these were bought from Ali Express.

The Reception

Moving on to the wedding reception, I created a table/seating plan using a mirror and a white chalk marker – an elegant, beautiful and easy way to present your table plan to your guests. The best part ( which came in very handy for us!) was so easily being able to rub out and rewrite guest names when there were last minute cancellations and additions! Each table will have a silver (spray painted) 3D number on it, so that guests will easily be able to find their table, and locate their name using a wedding favor/name place.

In Cyprus, it is traditional to present sweets to your guests as a gift. We wanted to embrace Cypriot tradition, whilst giving it our own twist. Our wedding favors are made from small glass jars with cork tops (and I have loads of extras that I plan to use as spice jars!), a white ribbon label, white mint heart sweets and an individual love heart sweet. It is difficult to cater for everyone when you are trying to choose a wedding favor that everyone will enjoy, so we felt that mints would be the best idea, with a cute added touch of an individual love heart with a sweet little message on it, different for each person.

My colour scheme to tie the day altogether:

The Wedding Cake

Update: Since our preliminary cake choosing, we had to change our cake design due to some technicalities (unfortunately this cake design wasn’t going to withstand the heat in Cyprus and would have to be made using  fake (plastic) tiers). We decided to settle on a simple, yet very beautiful and elegant cake. To top it off and add a little more detail to the cake, I chose to look for a cake topper that showed off our personalities (so many wedding cake toppers can be so bland and don’t have anything special about them that reflects the newlyweds). My fiance is yet to see our cake topper (in fact I have not even told him we have one – it is going to be a surprise so I hope he won’t read this), but I opted for two grey elephants (matching well with the grey band around each tier) reflecting our African backgrounds and an added All Blacks rugby ball, as my fiance is a ‘die hard’ All Blacks fan – so I am hoping he will love this added detail when he sees our cake! I found a wonderful lady, Kate, on Etsy.com who makes personalised wedding cake toppers, and she was fantastic and the end result is exactly what I had hoped for. To find Kate on Etsy, please click HERE, and check out our cake design and topper below!

 

 

 

In this day and age there are so many unique and beautiful cakes on offer, which makes it really exciting when choosing a cake for our wedding. I used Pinterest A LOT to search for wedding cake designs, as well as bridal magazines and Google. A simple white cake is always beautiful, but you only get married once (hopefully) so why not choose something a little more daring and unusual?

After much decision, I finally chose a rustic cake that fits in with our aqua/mint blue colour theme, and I have also included a portion of my wedding cake portfolio below, to help you find your perfect cake design.

More Designs….

This design was a close contender…

As was this design…

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The Flowers

Update: After our last meeting with Jayne Pugh (Flowers By Design) we decided that the bouquets for the 7 bridesmaids was going to go over our budget. We have since decided to MAKE our own bouquets. Yes, we are going to D.I.Y the bridesmaids’ bouquets as well. I found a garden centre here and I have ordered 7 bouquets of crisp white carnations (my only hope now is that they have actually been organised!). I ‘googled’ and ‘youtube’d’ how to create your own bouquets and what you need to put them together. I don’t love carnations ( I feel like they are better suited as funeral flowers) however, they are surprisingly cheap, and have a lot of volume which will help in creating a very full looking bouquet.

I then ordered various bouquet equipment from Amazon, with the hope that it is all going to be the right stuff! Aside from the fact that the parcel is yet to arrive in Cyprus (and the wedding is in 15 days), I am confident that we will be able to make beautiful and, hopefully, well -lasting bouquets for the bridesmaids. Luckily one of my family members has some background in floral arrangement, which is certainly going to come in handy on the day!

Here is a list of what I have determined is necessary to create your own bouquets ( and what I have ordered for mine):

White Satin Ribbon

Pearl Headed Floristry Pins

The Complete Guide to Flower Arranging by Jane Packer ( thought this might come in handy!)

Cut Flower Liquid Food

Florist White Ribbon (a different width to the other one)

22 Gauge thin floristry cut wire

Elasticated Lace Ribbon

White Stem Tape

How I am making my bouquets:

1. Remove any leaves attached to the stems

2. Cut stems to desired length using a sharp knife or florist clippers/scissors

3. Sit stems in the ‘Cut Flower Liquid Food’ and water

4. Individually wrap stems with the ’22 gauge wire’

5. Build the bouquet by adding stems individually

6. Using the ‘florist tape’, wrap the tape around the stems (starting from the top – near the heads of the stems – downwards, leaving several inches of stem at the bottom)

7. Wrap the 2″ white florist ribbon around the stems (leaving several inches of stem at the bottom – so the bouquet can sit in a vase of water) and secure with a couple of pearl pins or glue

8. Wrap the elastic lace ribbon over the middle section of the white ribbon, to create layer and texture, and secure from top to bottom with pearl pins.

9. Finally, (I am undecided if I am going to use this step yet) add the 1″ ribbon underneath the top of the bouquet to create draping ribbon, and place in a vase of water until needed.

And this is what I am hoping my bouquets will turn out to look like:

Draping ribbon….

I  feel that flowers really make a wedding ! Whether it be bridal or bridesmaid bouquets, church flowers, or reception decorations; they create a very romantic and elegant feel to your day, making it extra special.

I would have flowers EVERYWHERE at our wedding if I could, but we have the high cost and the hot weather against us – so, we are opting for a selection of flowers at the ceremony (and of course the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets) and more of a beach theme at our reception ( see my blog post on decor – coming soon!).

We have a wonderful florist, Jayne Pugh – Flowers By Design, who has been so helpful and enthusiastic throughout our planning so far, and I would definitely recommend her (she works from the UK as well as Cyprus).

Due to the extreme heat in Cyprus in July, we have tried to choose flowers that can withstand the heat – for awhile, until they are placed in their respective vases at the reception – and we have tried not to go overboard with our amount of flowers – even though I would love to!

Jayne helped me come up with a bridal bouquet for myself, which is beautiful and consists of  Avalanche roses, hydrangeas and other white flowers. I had my heart set on white peonies, but Jayne was quick to suggest an alternative that has the same affect as peonies – due to peonies being out of season in July. We have also chosen simple white hydrangea bouquets for all of the bridesmaids that, although don’t withstand the heat too well, are beautiful and fill out into a lovely bouquet. We also plan to have two pedestals of flowers (incorporating the white hydrangea theme) at the altar, and rustic buckets on either side of the aisle with another selection of white flowers, that we have yet to decide on.

Below is my beautiful bridal bouquet, followed by some ideas we hope to use in the other bouquets, pedestals and buckets, and some other bouquets I love: