ashore: the wedding planner.

Right now my real life is half-way packed into cardboard boxes. I’m moving out of my apartment on Tuesday and flying to San Francisco on Wednesday, to begin festivities for Laura’s wedding! It’s the sparkling light at the end of my bubble-wrapped tunnel. Boy do I ever have her big day on the brain. So, I put together three days of wedding-themed posts. Let’s call it Wedding Week!

First up, we’re going back in time to last summer (it’s amazing the things you find in the moving process!) when Tessa and I planned a wedding. Yes, the title of this post is a reference to the Jennifer Lopez movie. What young girl didn’t watch it and think to themselves: that’s what I want to be when I grow up! We already had a habit of throwing extravagant parties – mostly for ourselves – so we thought we’d give it a go.

The venue was the Surf Sand Resort in Cannon Beach, and the Oregon Coast is notoriously overcast. So, we planned the wedding in tones complimentary to gray : turquoise and sea-shell pink.

the design elements we included ...

Carnation Pomanders : hung on the aisle chairs for the guests of honor (video how-to)
Flower Cones Made of Map Paper : lined the rest of the aisle chairs
Alter Curtain : The coast also gets windy, so we wanted something with a lot of movement. We dip-dyed white sheets and thrifted for coral-colored floral sheets, which were torn length-wise and tied on a ribbon for hanging.
750 ft of Bunting : We thought that dip-dyes and color gradients would really create that washed-out ocean look. So the bunting was done using four different shades of each color in succession.
Peaked Edge Dip-Dyed Round Table Runners: We cut the pattern using this Martha Stewart How-To, and dip-dyed the outer edges using a clothes line and buckets of RIT dye. It was placed over standard banquet linens. (here’s a close up of the dye-job … it turned out so pretty)
Floral Cake Centerpieces: Each table had its own gluten free cake from Sweet Pea Baking Co in Portland. They were set with a cake-stand and cake-cutter which was tagged with the words “wait, wait – cake cutting at 8:30”. The floral cake toppers were done by a family-friend, using mums, hydrangeas and garden roses.
Hand Painted Driftwood Signs : we collected the driftwood when we came out for the menu tasting with the caterer, the Wayfarer. The signs – for the guestbook, the reception, and the present table – were hung with vintage lace ribbon.