Throw A Pinterest Wedding for Under $5000
I took a short break to share some other goodies with you. It's possible I have issues with focusing on any one thing for a long period of time. It's also possible I've self diagnosed some mild ADD. Luckily, I didn't think I needed medication; unless you consider the occasional margarita medication. Either way, I am returning to my previous series on getting that picture perfect Pinterest wedding for under $5,000. I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about you and left my bride-to-be readers in the lurch. This month is going to be about decor. That's a large topic that has many more posts ahead. This one is going to be flower specific. Stay tuned for a post all about shopping for those flowers and braving the local Flower Mart. I'm going to get specific here about how to decorate the tables and other surfaces and give it a theme to make it look pricey. Almost as if you had a wedding coordinator which, of course, you do...her name is Pinterest.
For me this was a Pinterest/Joanna Gaines combo. If you're addicted to HGTV like I am then you know who Joanna Gaines is. If you're not then you need to immediately set your DVR to record "Fixer Upper." It's mostly a girl crush I have on her because in an alternate universe I can design and decorate just like her. In this universe I do my best and binge watch her show. One afternoon I was mid "Fixer Upper" marathon when I paused the TV and was struck by inspiration. As I've mentioned in previous posts, you never know when the light bulb will strike so thank god for Tivo and the ability to rewind and pause. At the time, I was still looking for design ideas for my wedding and this small idea became the over riding theme for the interior decorations. This photo is a screen shot I took from the show. I loved the simplicity of the roses with the mercury glass.
This got me thinking about how to make this work on a larger scale and still fit within my budget. I wanted to keep the tables for the reception small with a more intimate feel. I also wanted to be able to have simple decorations like this without them getting dwarfed by a huge round table. I figured if I used mercury glass containers of different sizes and clustered them together with a mixture of flowers and candles it would do the trick. Now about that pesky budget.
Mercury glass is gorgeous and I am mildly obsessed with it right now but it can be pricey. Hello Pinterest! I remembered coming across a post about *DIY mercury glass. A quick search and I found a few of them I could refer to. The easiest one was this one. I always like to give Pinterest credit where Pinterest credit is due (hopefully you will all do the same for me). All I needed was a few cans of Looking Glass Mirror spray paint, an empty spray bottle and some white vinegar. I also managed to do a little shopping in my garage and re-purpose a few dozen glass Ball jars I had been hoarding. See, honey, I told you I shouldn't throw those away!! Silly husbands and their need to trash stuff. A mere 16 years after storing those jars and my hoarding paid off.
The kids even got in on this action as this is a kid friendly craft. That is, if your kids are old enough to handle spray paint and not coat each other so they look like walking mirrors. It's tempting if you're eleven. If you don't trust your little monkeys, then give them vinegar duty (this will make sense after you read the tutorial). It's simple and requires much less clean up
than the paint. I spent days gathering all of the glass containers because I decided to mix and match it up a little with different shapes and sizes. Then I spent another afternoon spray painting and turning all of my glass into mercury glass. I've included some photos of the finished product at the wedding so you can see how it looked. The inspiration came from HGTV, the execution came from Pinterest and the embellishing came from me! You can always add your own flair so your wedding looks like it came out of your brain with your own personality stamp all over it.
*If you can't find the DIY Mercury Glass post, let me know and I'll give you simple instructions and tips.
