A Presidential Themed Wedding

 

 

I thought I would start with the theme for the wedding.  Washington, D.C. is the bride's (my niece's) favorite city.  Her fiancé took her there purposely to propose.
So, knowing we were on a $5,000 budget, we decided last September to have
a theme.  The bride wanted the wedding on Presidents' Day weekend, thinking
things would be discounted in the winter.  In addition her guests would have an extra day off of work to travel.  Plans changed.  Then we tried for March.  No go.  Finally, she secured a date with her church and a vendor for Friday, April 15.  We thought that since it was tax day, the theme would still fit in. 

I used bits and pieces of people graphics to create my protestors and the secret service man.  I make these posters starting with a 14 x 27" sheet in Photoshop.
I enlarge them to 36" x 72" at Staples or Office Depot.  I used to do it at my husband's architectural office, but they hired a lot more people, remodeled, and took the machine away. (Boo hoo).  If the posters are for a client party, the firm sends them out for me and pays for them. (Yippee!) Anyway, it costs about $40 for each panel.  I used these two above taped together for a photo op background. 

 

What I didn't know was that this guy above would be the source of so much fun.
I blew two of him up to 36" x 72" and my hubby and his brother spray mounted them on cardboard science boards from Hobby Lobby.  For each one, we duct taped two red ones together to get the height we needed.  We used measuring yard sticks to support the back.  We cut him out (taking away the white) and they glued him to the red front of the boards.  The side pieces of cardboard were bent backwards to use as the stand. 

Two of the groomsmen took turns standing at the doors, in their dark suits and sunglasses, "protecting" the reception.  They even invented a GAME called "The President's Down."  Someone in the group would yell, "The President's Down," as if he was attacked.  The last person to put a finger to their ear (like a walkie-talkie) was out and got "bopped."

 

 

 

My third favorite item was the map of Washington, D.C. that I created, piece by tiny piece for the menu board.  Since the wedding was in Austin, Texas, the bride arranged for two food trucks. The first was a Texas barbeque truck with sliders, the second one was a cupcake truck.  The food was absolutely delicious. But being an aunt, I worried constantly about rain.  So I created a salad bar with Panera bread bowls placed in an antique bread bowl, ordered pizza, and was prepared to buy a big patio umbrella. It was 81 degrees and sunny.

                                     

We also ordered pizza for the kids and grownups who didn't like barbeque. It was fun.  I have a photo somewhere of the bride eating a piece.

 

 

Oh, you are thirsty after just looking at this photo.  Well, have some vodka lemonade and blueberry punch.  I cheated, myself, and had a cupcake BEFORE
I had my sliders.

                                     

 

Having to order everything long distance for Virginia, I needed a portable punch bowl, that was fairly inexpensive.  Amazon.com had these plastic acrylic ice buckets that I put to a new use.  I had another one filled with Kahlua, coffee, milk, and chocolate and vanilla ice creams.  These went fast.  We also had a bar set up with beer and wine and waters.  The venue had a kitchen, so we had apple juice in their fridge for the little ones.

The reception was in a dance studio, which was adorable.  But the low cost of renting it left many items to be ordered.  We called rental companies in the area, but they wanted surcharges on top of large fees because it was on a Friday.  Normally, rental companies will pick up the items the next day.  The venue wanted everything out by 11p.m.  So, we got silverware and napkins in bulk on Amazon.  We bought the red melamine plates (a mistake) on the Dollar Tree.  I should have bought their glass ones.  These worked well, but had to be tossed afterwards.  We bought the glasses at Target for $1 each.   My sister had to go to five Targets in Austin, but she found the 75 we needed. We also had large votive candles on wooden pedestals I bought on Etsy.

The bride folded the napkins into pockets and we placed the themed essay card you see above in the pockets with flashing rings onto each .  I will NEVER go to a wedding without bringing flashing rings.  I got those on Amazon in bulk for about 50 cents each.

Look carefully to guess which President is in this photo.

Here is a picture of my sister, the bride's mother, with her new son-in-law.  I especially wanted you to see the Prego jar with flowers.  The bride had collected over 100 jars and really wanted to use them to save money.  We used about 36 of them with salt and battery operated candles in them.  The next 36 looked like the one above.  I kept checking Pinterest for ideas and finally found one that looked like this.  But, I worried and worried about the cost and where I'd get the flowers.  I finally READ the pin and the author stated she bought the bouquets from Trader Joe's for $3.99.  So off I trouped to the store in Virginia, and sure enough, they had the bouquets.  I called the Trader Joe's in Austin.  Sure enough, they carried them also.

I am taking a flower arranging class at our local community college.  We learned how to make simple topiaries this session.  I made 6 of them for additional anchoring centerpieces at each table.  We had 12 tables pushed together to make six long ones.  We had 6 jars of flowers and 6 jars of candles on each long table.  I bought small checked cotton cloth from JoAnn's and ripped it into ribbons to tie around each of the jars.

Look at the enlarged table set-up above again.  Do you see the gold frames?
Each table had two of them.  They were pictures of past presidents and their wives on their wedding days.  I started collecting them on Pinterest, but ran out of them.  I searched and searched online for months.  Alas, there is a shortage of them.  But, through the magic of Photo Shop, I could create a few of my own.
Stop laughing when you see my favorites below.

 

 

Since there were no young Washingtons, I used computer generated heads I found on the internet.  What do you think? I did the same thing for the Lincolns.                                                             

 

Since it was a Catholic church ceremony, I wanted something special for the program.

 

 

 

 

                       

 Above is the front and back of the program.  The back explains the significance of the birch tree.  The bride didn't want to spend money on church flowers, so we build a version of one I found on Pinterest.

 

My sister  ( really my sister-in-law) had a large wooden container, almost like a huge hat box.  We cut the four 8' logs I had ordered from Amazon into varying heights, the tallest being about 5'.  We secured them in the container with the cardboard box from which they had arrived.  It packed nicely.  We hid the cardboard (I am saying we because I had a lot of help), with silk ivy and azalea which I had found at a garden center in Virginia and had shipped there.  I had also ordered birch branches on Amazon (aren't they amazing?).  We wired these between the logs at the top and hid the wires with smaller ivy we got at Hobby Lobby in Austin.  I love it.  The violinist in the photo is the groom's sister.

 

By this time, you really want to see a picture of the bride, don't you?

 

Here she is eating donuts from her donut cake.  She LOVES donuts.  She doesn't like cake.  Thank you Pinterest for the idea.

 

 

 Here she is walking down the aisle.  She made all of the bouquets from book pages.  She made one for herself, one for each of the bridesmaids, and corsages for the rest of the wedding party.

 

She was upset that she couldn't find a hair dresser to do her wedding hair.

My daughter Annie did all of her friends' hair for years for events.  She is an interior designer who just knows these things. She set up a beauty parlor in my sister's bathroom.  The bride wanted a low bun style with a clip in net on it (which she made herself).  I think Annie did a pretty good job.

 

                                              

 

Here is a picture of the happy couple the night before at the rehearsal dinner.  It was actually a "breakfast for dinner" event at their favorite coffee café, which they go to after mass on Sundays.  Their coffee is OUTSTANDING.  The owners, who know them well by now, erased the menu blackboard and wrote, "Congratulations Mary and Brandon."  By the way, I just love my new nephew. AND...his family.  They have been so welcoming to us.  His grandfather still flies airplanes.  His grandmother loves Chicos, just like me. I am now Facebook friends with his mother.

 

                                     

Groom's mom Cheryl is on right.  His grandmother is on the left.  See photo below for his grandfather.
 

 

Rehearsal Dinner

 

 

What do you do the day after a wedding?  You eat left over donuts; then you
head to downtown Austin, to a restaurant the groom has recommended, and you have delicious drinks and food; you take pictures of their capitol: and of, course, you shop for cowboy boots.

 

 

 We had quite an adventure for our week in Austin.  Now I want to go back and actually SEE Texas and float down one of their fabulous rivers.  But I can't leave without showing you my partners in crime.  Below is my hubby's brother Chip and his wife Lois.  They ran errands with us all week, help build things, glue, arrange flowers, get food, and were just

AMAZING.  But, isn't that what families are all about?  Isn't it the real reason we have weddings?