My Etsy Wedding (Part 3) - Cocktail Hour & Reception

I can't count how many times people have asked me about where I got all the ideas for the custom touches at our wedding. To be honest, most of them came from Etsy. I thought I would share links to the Etsy stores that we worked with to help make our wedding so full of personal touches!

For the third installment I will focus on aspects relating to the cocktail hour and reception.

1. Guest Book - We tried something VERY different for a guest book, anniversary wine bottles. With the amazing help of my father we were able to track down larger than life bottles of wine (that will also be drinkable) for our 1, 5, 10, and 20 year anniversaries. The 20 year bottle was signed by only the bridal party and parents at our rehearsal dinner (which is why it is locked up in the lantern) but the other three bottles were set out during cocktail hour for the wedding guests to sign. We will open each bottle on the correlating year and read the signatures. We thought this was an amazing way to make the guest book something that we would actually see/use again instead of a book that sits in a closet for the rest of our lives. Check out the amazing labels we purchased and some of the fun guests had signing the bottles.

Thanks to Jaclyn's Weddings this custom touch to our wedding was PERFECT. 

Guests signing the 1, 5, and 10 year wine bottles. 

2. Straws - This was an easy and inexpensive way to provide a personal touch. We purchased stripped paper straws in both yellow and grey (our wedding colors) to have at the bar for cocktail hour. I was amazed by how many people noticed and commented on this addition. This was a great way to get people in the party spirit... even the bride (me). Check out the pics below. 

Thanks to In The Clear we were able to add personal flair to every drink from the bar.

The bride(me) enjoying my amazing straws. 

3. Favors/Escort Cards - I found that picking out favors was one of the most difficult tasks of wedding planning. I didn't want to send people away with something that would just thrown in the trash or that some guests wouldn't be able to enjoy (chocolate etc.). Matt it a LOVER of plants so I attempted to incorporate his love of nature in our favors. I cannot say enough about our experience with The Succulent Source. After the initial plan of air plants became a disaster just 2 weeks before the big day the people as The Succulent Source were AMAZING to work with. The wedding vision would not have come together without our adorable favors.

Thank you to TheSucculentSource for making our favors everything we envisioned them to be. 

 A single favor/escort card

4. Table Runners -  During the planning meeting with our caterer we were expected to decide on linens (a HUGE surprise to me). After searching through binders full of options I realized there wasn't anything I really liked (I was dreaming about chevron). Leaving the meeting feeling a little defeated I searched the web for rentable and custom made chevron table runners and found an INCREDIBLE shop. We not only had our original order 2 weeks ahead of schedule but when we placed a last-minute order for a few more because we upped our table count they showed up in plenty of time. I feel so blessed to have found someone that was able to help make my vision a reality. With yellow/white and grey/white chevron table runners throughout the spaces our wedding was truly a vision. 

Thanks to Longrunners our tables look flawless. 

Cocktail hour tables

Reception Tables  

5. Sweetheart Table - This decor was a BIG surprise from my parents. I was REALLY worried about how to make our sweetheart stand out from the rest of the wedding decor but wasn't willing to budget for the amazing rhinestoned "MR. & MRS." that I wanted. When I arrived home for wedding weekend my Dad had spend HOURS glueing the letters to a board and painting it so it could stand on our table as a decoration.

Thanks to IDoBling our sweetheart table really stood out. 

6. Toasting Flutes - I spent A LOT of time searching for the perfect toasting flutes and in the end a simple, modern Mr. & Mrs. was the perfect pair of etched flutes for us. I had several wedding guests complement how cute they were on the day of. Jennifer has many different designs on her site. 

Thanks to Glass Engraving by Jennifer we had a pair of beautiful hand crafted toasting flutes. 

I hope you found these ideas inspirational. With every post I find myself more amazed at how much these personalized touches and details really impacted the guest experience at our wedding.