Reception Centerpieces

Oh, planning a wedding. So fun. Both flower and catering meetings last week got me a little overwhelmed, so I spent the majority of the weekend working on my reception decor. The fun stuff! It was great. It took my mind of of the stressful things.

I was able to finish up my tassel garlands, and I got more planning done for my reception centerpieces. We're growing a lot of our own flowers for the centerpieces, but we'll still need more to fill all of my vases.

The centerpieces will be all assorted milk glass vases, in groups of 3, with mis-match China plates in the center. I made a few arrangements to get an idea of how many flowers I'm going to need.

I cut some flowers from the garden, and used some other little flowers around the yard, like my Dusty Miller, Alyssum, and Black eyed Susans to fill in space. I also used some of my faux hydrangea blooms, since I'll be getting some of those from the florist, too. I didn't have quite enough hydrangeas to fill all of my vases, but it looks like I'll probably be getting lots of them!

I love the bright and colorful, vintage garden look. I have so many varieties of Zinnias out there in the garden, and they are so colorful.

The dahlias might be my favorite, though. I love these flowers! They're so pretty.

It looks like I'm going to need quite a few extra flowers to fill in my vases, but I can't wait to see them all on the table. There will definitely be an abundance of color.

I found that it was pretty easy to arrange them, and the medium-to-large vases probably need about 6-10 flowers, while the smaller bud vases only need 1-2. Now, the hard part is actually figuring out which flowers I need to order and how many of each!

My living room has definitely been taken over by wedding decor. Trent loves it. Ha.

I actually counted all of my white milk glass vases (which are all gathered upstairs), and I have 68. The problem is I think I might need a couple more of the larger ones, since I have too many of the tall bud vases and not enough large ones! I don't think I have a problem in the plate area though...

I have plenty of those! I wish wedding planning was all decor related. It would be pretty fun if that were the case. :)

Exactly ONE MONTH to go! Lord help me!

Antiquing and New Wedding Finds

Another Sunday, another beautiful day for antiquing! Today we did some more antique shopping in Galesburg. We hit two new shops we'd never been to before. And we came out with a few goodies. (I did anyway!)

First we went to the Antique and Craft Depot in the Galesburg mall. You would never think the tiny mall there would have a cool store like this one. There was so much stuff! Especially the smaller, knick-knack type of stuff. I saw lots of bronze statues that I thought were pretty awesome (I have a thing for bronze and ceramic animals I guess). Like this Pegasus...$40 was a little much for me, though.

Then there were these. I really wanted these giraffes - and only $18..not too bad. But it was really tarnished - lots of green in all those cracks. I thought maybe I could clean it up, but I don't want to ruin it. So...I passed. But I still think these guys are pretty awesome.

What I did end up getting from this store was a cake stand to add to the wedding collection...it's pretty unique - square, and the glass is heavy! This guy was only $15. One of the cheapest antique stands I've seen lately. So I had to pick it up.

I also got this small plate, which was only $3. It can be used for the wedding to put a smaller bud vase on.

Then I got these earrings which I thought were pretty, and I like the style of...only 2 bucks! Can't go wrong. For the most part, that store was pretty cheap and had a really large variety of items. I think I'll be going back in the future!

The second store we checked out was called Second Time Around. We'd never been here either, but discovered it the other day..it was closed then so we came back today during business hours. They have mostly used and antique furniture - a lot of really nice oak pieces. Most weren't really our style. But they had some smaller antiques too.

And I ended up finding the final cake stand to complete the collection! The second I saw it was $25, I was sold. We've seen so many antique cake stands but a lot of them were upwards of $50, which is more than I want to spend for using it really one time, on our wedding day.

We now have a total of 5 large cake stands, which I think should fit both our cake and all of our cupcakes. I really have no idea, but it seems like they all would, right? Maybe we'll get some cupcakes and test them out! :)

Along with the cake stands above, we also have this one below, which is hanging out in the kitchen at the moment....

I set most of them up on the bed upstairs just to see what they look like together, and it seems like we have a nice eclectic mix of both antique and modern looking stands...I'm really excited about how the dessert display will turn out!

So today was a good day to find the last of the cake stands we needed!

And I think we have plenty of milk glass vases and vintage decor for the reception...

My ever-growing collection of mismatched antique dessert plates will also help to create that vintage, eclectic look for our centerpieces.

I mean, my China hutch is pretty much overflowing these days due to my plate obsession...

But I think with all of our DIY flowers too, the reception is really going to have that feel of "Vintage garden elegance" that we're going for! It's definitely been fun to start to see everything coming together. And I have another wedding flower-related post for you tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Day Out and Antiquing in Galesburg

Hope everyone is enjoying their week! I had a pretty nice weekend. Saturday we had a few errands to run. We went to the bank in the morning, then headed to town for lunch and a little shopping. Cherry Street Restaurant and Bar is one of our favorite places to eat in Galesburg. I dream about the veggie pizza with alfredo sauce! Plus the walls and ceiling are pretty eclectic. Old fashioned tin tiles on the ceiling with playing cards everywhere, and exposed brick walls. And the occasional Moose head here and there.

It was nice to get out and eat a yummy lunch. We totally almost devoured the entire pizza.

After lunch, we did a little of one of my favorite activities...antiquing! First we checked out the fairly new vintage shop downtown called Dig. I'll admit, there's not too many "hip" places in Galesburg these days, but this shop is one that I'd been wanting to go to and it was pretty cool! They had lots of unique vintage items. It was a pretty small store though, and I didn't snap any photos while we were there. Nor did I take anything home with me. But, it was fun to look!

We then stopped by an old favorite...the Antique Mall. This place is huge. If you can't find anything here, you're not looking hard enough!

I always find a couple things when I come here. There's multiple rooms and floors full of every item you can think of. So fun to look around. I did take home two small items I'll be using at the wedding:

A pretty little serving plate and a mini white milk glass bud vase to join the extensive wedding collection. I had to, it was 2 bucks. I think the plate was $4. Adding these to my wedding centerpieces!

See how pretty?! It's pearlescent! :) So those were my finds of the day. It was a fun little day antiquing...and then we ended it with grocery shopping and a couple of movies at home. The Liam Neeson movie, A Walk Among the Tombstones, and The Theory of Everything. Two great movies!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing my taxes (yuck..but it's done!), and posting things for sale online! Yep, I started putting my clothes up for sale on Ebay and Threadflip! I had never sold anything on Ebay before, and last week I started putting some old clothes up there, and I've sold two items so far. Slowly but surely, I'm starting to sell and learning the whole process! It's pretty fun. I hope to blog about it once I get a little more experienced selling things online. Cleaning out my closet has been a long time coming, and with spring right around the corner I've been starting to do that.

We're thinking about having another yard sale early this summer - maybe in May when it gets nice out. And before we're scrambling to get things done right before the wedding! I've added a link on the sidebar to my Threadflip closet if you want to check it out. Basically cleaning out my closet majorly, and this is just the start. C'mon, shop my closet. You know you want to!

Look, We're Antiquing Again!

My beloved month of July has come to an end! This is a little sad, not going to lie. It feels like summer is ending soon! But August is still summer, right? Anywho, we went antiquing again. This time it was downtown Galesburg, at the antique mall. It's been a long time since we've been here, and it felt like a long lost friend! This is one of my favorite antique stores. I always find a few goodies here.

Including this milk glass vase that is exactly the size that I want to use for our wedding centerpieces! I'm just hoping I can gather enough similar ones to use for the wedding, a year from now.

Trent found this pretty pink flowery plate. Just kidding. :) This was actually my find! Along with these two, I also got a new wooden crate for the porch. Woot!

And here's a little close up of my two new beauties. 

I rearranged the contents in my hutch a little to make room for my new plate.

I'm getting quite the China collection. And I'm pretty sure my hutch is full now! Time to think of another way to display my plates. Wish I had more space.... See you in August everyone!

Newest Antique Finds...and a Chandelier Story

It's been a few weeks since I got them, but I'm finally sharing my newest antique finds on the ol' blog. I picked up 3 pretty plates and a milk glass bud vase at the Antique mall in Galesburg:

Whether I can use them in my wedding or not, I'm still going to collect my pretty plates. I have a feeling I am going to find a way to incorporate them no matter what. I would love to have them for dessert plates to serve cupcakes on. We shall see...

And another recent find I am particularly excited about - this was a team effort - we snagged these two matching vintage chandeliers at the antique flea market in Alpha a week or two ago: 

Awesome right?? They're porcelain and made in Italy! There was originally only one laying there - I spotted it, and thought - 'that would be perfect for the wedding!' I told Trent. He agreed, it would be amazing. I thought, hang it from a tree, rewire it...it would look perfect with lights strung everywhere. But it was $40. I only had about $35 in cash (Trent had some too), but we asked the lady - would you take $35 for that? She then said, "Oh, did you want the other one, too?" (Umm...there's a SECOND one? Yes please!) And her husband went to the back and pulled out a matching chandy. She was actually really hesitant about letting them go at first, but we assured her they would be put to good use. And we ended up getting both for $65. A good deal, considering one was marked $40. I can't wait to hang them at our outdoor wedding!! My first major wedding decor purchase! Score! :)

Labor Day Weekend Antiquing Adventures

Happy Friday night! Unfortunately I'll be working tomorrow, so my weekend will be starting a little later. But I wanted to post my finds on our trip this past weekend, so here is a quick post before I call it a night.

First on our way to Missouri, we stopped at an antique store called "Yesterday's Treasures" in Good Hope, Illinois.


It was different than a lot of antique stores I've been to, because it wasn't separated into "booths" - it was more laid out like a huge yard sale in one big, open space. It was full of stuff though, and like items seemed to be grouped. I found myself spending too much time at the table in the back looking at bunch of plates...of course. :)

I ended up taking home two small plates:

The purple one was only $3.00, and the pink one was $12.50, but I loved it so much I splurged. :) Every once in a while you have to!

I love them, especially together. The pink and purple have a really vintage feel. More to add to my collection!

We also stopped at a bunch of shops in Jamesport, Missouri, which was an Amish town we hung out at for a little bit on our way home.

We spent at least a good two hours at antique stores, candle and gift shops, and even did a little wine tasting in downtown Jamesport. We ate lunch at a little family restaurant called Gingerich Dutch Pantry. It's a homestyle buffet / sit-down restaurant with a bunch of homemade goodies - it was really busy when we went! I think it might have been the only restaurant on that street! Either way, it was really good.

I snapped a few photos in the antique shops, but not too many since a lot of the people working at the shops were Amish and apparently it's against their religion to be photographed, so I was a little scared to take pictures the whole time! Haha.

One of my favorite antique shops there was called "Gas Buggy Antiques:"

I didn't buy much at these shops, but we did do a free wine tasting where Trent and I bought a couple of bottles of Missouri wine.

I also went a little crazy and bought a bunch of candles from the Jamesport Candle Co. - They had TONS of scents that smelled really yummy....like Buttered Maple Syrup. YUM. I love scents that smell like food, what can I say?

Last but not least...I had to pick up a postcard for .50 cents at one of the shops. We saw tons of those horse and buggies.

Well, that's all for our Antiquing/Missouri shopping adventure. Hope everyone else has fun sleeping in tomorrow...I won't be! Ha.