mr. and mrs. chastain: part 4

right outside our church building is a beautiful grove of trees.  i have always thought it was so beautiful, and i just knew it would make the perfect location for a wedding reception! after a little bit of persuading, and a lot of prayers to the LORD for a sunny and non-scorching, i was able to convince everyone we could make it work.

and boy was it a perfect fit! :)

i painted crate lids with phrases to greet guests throughout the day.  my dad put them on stakes and put them along the red carpet path down to the celebration in the trees.

i also painted a few additional signs on canvases , just incase the 1/2 dozen crate lids weren't enough to get my point across.

i even included one "whoop!" for my aggie-lovin-hubby to be! :)

this photo is just so fun.

i know it's just the bridal party walking down to the reception,

but i  just love the blue sky and green grass and red carpet and the beautiful sunflowers the girls are carrying.

at the reception, we served mini cupcakes, popcorn, of course we had sweet tea!

duh.

we displayed everything using palates, crates, and coke bottle crates.

[check out this post for the story of the crates.]

we also used a lot of wood cuts of all shapes and sizes.
the flowers at the reception, solidago and stalk, were displayed in burlap and lace wrapped tin cans and mason jars. 

the woodcuts held menu cards, displayed signage and also served as bases for jars of flowers.
i've never been so thankful for spring storms and a daddy with a chainsaw. 

my mom and i (but mostly my mom!) made several strands of bunting, but one of my favorites was the let's celebrate banner!

my dad strung the banner high between two trees at the entrance of the grove of trees, so everyone would know where they could find the party!
in case the red carpet and crate signs didn't get the message across... :)

we collected antique window frames and my dad rigged a few of them to stand up on their own to give them a floating effect.  the idea was to create invisible "walls" or partitions between each food and drink station.  they also set a few of them around at the base of the trees, which you can kind of see in the background of the photo below.

one of the best decisions we made was to have a receiving line.  this was the perfect way to greet all of our guests and thank them for coming to celebrate our special day with us.  bub-hub and i stood under our "mr. and mrs. chastain" sign and prepared to shake hands and hug each one of our beautiful 400 guests. :)