Our Joyous Day: reception revelry

Our reception revelry entailed celebratory bliss amid a bevy of handcrafted and antique details at our lovely venue. All décor was either handmade, or vintage goodies that came from the collection at my apartment or borrowed from dear friends.
Our guestbook area had yellowed novel heart garlands and quaint weathered frames suspended from the tree branches above. A vintage green drawer served as a card container, and a nicked cherry red shelf displayed our engagement photos amid a plethora of time-honored ephemera. I particularly loved the wooden calendar that indicated Saturday, March 10th!

For our guestbook, lovely ladies and genial gents signed vintage novel hearts pasted on a blown-up engagement photo that featured plenty of negative space. We also made a horde of chalkboard frame signs to situate throughout the reception area.

To adhere to our vintage book-inspired theme, we invited winsome guests to write witticisms, warm wishes, and words of wisdom for us. They scribed them on library cards I designed and printed on cardstock from here, and stuck them in library pockets from here that we attached onto an aged chalkboard bulletin board.


I nabbed a worn vintage map of the western United States at a thrift store for a buckaroo, and transformed it into a timeline of major milestones in our lives as individuals and as a couple, including when and where we were born, lived, went to school, worked, where we met, where he proposed, and of course, where we were tying the knot.
Our guestcards were displayed in revolving book stands that indicated to guests that "love is sweet, so take a seat!" To align with our theme of the Joyous Day, each guestcard package comprised of a bitty booklet for the furtherance of our guests' joy that we stuck in recycled taupe envelopes from here. The miniature envelope on the outside held a manila tag that revealed to guests their table number. The pretty parcel was sealed with a personalized graph paper label.





Our centerpieces were haphazardly charming - a compilation of vintage lovelies I had been rounding up over the years, so no two reception tables spotlit identical centerpieces. Each centerpiece comprised of an endearingly nicked vintage tea tin brimming with cheery flowers arranged by my dear bridesmaid, Ruby. To accompany the floral arrangement were an assortment of large and small time-honored mason jars that served as photo frames for our engagement pictures. They also held a table number we made from sticking handmade nostalgic stationery numbers and corresponding Bible verses onto striped paper straws. Crocheted cream or tan colored doilies, vibrant vintage handkerchiefs, a stack of time-honored novels, vintage teacups, and other aged wares further accentuated the buttercup yellow tablecloths. Each table setting exhibited a doily-esque china plate, a feedsack-reminiscent tea towel napkin, and a perfectly tasty pastry favor within a kraft box from here wrapped with baker's twine and labeled with a personalized thank-you message to the guest. Why pastries? Enjoying dessert together was one of the first ways the Mister and I bonded!
Our appetizers and drinks table was layered with vintage tablecloths in our wedding color scheme. My lovely momma-in-law prepared all of the fruit, cheese, and cracker hors d'oeuvres, and we created levels for the finger foods by utilizing well-worn wooden crates draped with vintage hankies. The dear Navales family created sweet drink concoctions and hot tea refreshments. We labeled the glass drink canisters we purchased from here with chalkboard labels made by painting wooden circles with chalkboard paint.

I painted our dinner menu onto a couple of vintage windowpanes with acrylic paint. When we were contemplating reception dinner options, we had three requisites: 1) highly budget-friendly yet generously proportioned, 2) creamy mac n' cheese per my preference, and 3) meaty heartiness per the Mister's proclivity. Therefore, one of our favorite restaurants catered our reception, and the exceedingly delicious buffet-style portions did not disappoint.



Our dessert spread consisted of a mishmash of sweet tooth gratifying cookie-filled cupcakes baked by Food Network's Cupcake Wars winner and dear friend, Dorothy. We also had decadent cookies from here to reflect my Bruin heritage, and buttery and delicate madeleines from here. Our cake was a teeny yet moist red velvet cake from here, and I crafted a cake topper from a couple of vintage novel hearts along with a stamped "Alex & Helen" on a red heart. The dessert table was dotted with whimsical vintage teapots and time-honored trinkets, while all sweet treats were displayed on cake stands that we made, and served on dainty vintage dessert plates amassed over the years.
We set up a games area beneath a majestic hundred-year-old sycamore tree. We spread handmade quilts circa the 1930s on the grass, and decorated the space with feedsack throw pillows I sewed some years ago, olden doodads, decades-old picnic baskets, and brilliant floral arrangements in vintage milk glass vases and rusty vintage tins. We scattered classic board games around, as well as a vintage wooden ring toss game, and a wooden croquet set from the 40s, all for our guests' entertainment during cocktail hour.
Adjacent to the games area was a photobooth lounge. The same handy friend who crafted our wooden ceremony arch helped to make our photobooth wall that we gussied up with yellow damask wallpaper from here and upon which we hung colossal chipped wooden frames that I scored at the flea market. Guests could not only pose through the empty frames, but also on the vintage yellow couch we found here. Piled steamer trunks and suitcases served as a coffee table.

Dear friend and talented singer/songwriter Jarell Perry sang "You and I" for our first dance as husband & wife.
Our reception area twinkled with Italian café lights that we rented from here, and hundreds of yards of vintage hankie bunting that we made during crafting parties. Our wedding was truly a testament to the love that the Lord has kindly surrounded us with. Our wedding party, friends, and family spent countless hours at weekend crafting parties with us pre-wedding, and helped to set up and clean up post-wedding. In the midst of wedding planning mayhem, our church families encouraged us to seek the Lord above all else, for He is truly what our relationship is about. We were so touched and thrilled that our most cherished family and friends journeyed from near and far to celebrate the Joyous Day with us. Putting together the wedding taught us that our relationship is lovingly shaped by the community we have around us, and we cannot cultivate a thriving marriage without them in our lives. Our Joyous Day was truly a celebration of love all around, and to them we raised a toast!
All photos primarily by our talented photographer and dear friend, Christian Cruz, along with some personal pictures.  Our awe-inspiring videographer and dear friend, Cakeflix, also captured the Joyous Day beautifully via this breathtaking cinematic masterpiece: Happy Friday, friendly folks. Thank you kindly for perusing through this week of wedding posts!

In case you missed prior posts on the Joyous Day:
+ much-awaited ceremony
+ greatest wedding party of all time
+ first look
+ getting ready to tie the knot
+ wedding invitations
+ save the date & engagement photographs