Reception: Josh and Hillary

This past weekend I laid down my video camera and opted to help with decorating. My brother and his sweet new wife (more on their wedding here) threw a fun reception. It was full of children, Cajun dishes, sweet desserts and lots of love. The budget was small so Hillary and I worked hard to come up with a simple yet cute theme.

First here is their invitation that I absolutely loved. Dixie Paperie and Gifts did such a good job!

Isn't it so cute? The invitation help set the theme as well. We knew we wanted to incorporate rustic charm like old bottles and burlap while mixing in fresh and bright colors. Weeks leading up to the reception we would take pictures, send emails and exchanged phone calls trying to get the details just right. Hillary is a no-fuss bride. She was easy to work with and the best part is she knew exactly what she wanted.

Now with all that being said I do want to point out that I am not a professional wedding planner or coordinator. Hillary just knew how much I wanted to help decorate and get my feet wet. That or I might have begged for her to let me be in charge of making her reception great! More the second option. I fully think that hiring a planner is the absolute best idea. Read more about why here. Also I would like to add that this party was for about 65 people. This is a huge group to me. Between my mom, sister, sister-in-law and niece, we rearranged tables, cleaned tables, cut burlap, made flower arrangements, lifted boxes, moved all the decor to various spots and had a blast! Well, at least I did.

Thank you to my family for letting me point, spout out orders and be bossy. It happens. We had a time crunch people. I worked my mom to the bone. She was such a great sport too! I also need to add that about 20 minutes before we started decorating my camera died. Totally my fault but that left my phone to do all the photo taking. I apologize if any photo looks fuzzy. That's life.

Now for some more details. This is the room in the before stages. The restaurant has a Cajun feel with a touch of Italian food thrown in. The Mardi Gras green walls were a nice touch.

Next we started working with all the tables cloths and burlap. Let me add that neither cost a thing! The burlap is from an old wedding shower I hosted here, here and here and the table cloths came from a friends recent wedding. We love free and inexpensive. Love it.

We started adding in rustic touches and pops of white and turquoise for centerpieces. Another bonus, we didn't buy anything new. We brought things from home and worked with what we had. Hillary did buy a bundle of babys breath for $15 which everyone knows is my favorite. I was so pleased with the end result! The best part was seeing how happy Hillary was with the finished product. It was a small(ish) room but we fit everyone and included a kids only table. The kids really liked that part! No adults at the table equaled perfection for 4, 5 and 6 year old sweet faces. More pictures await:

And just to throw in a few more pictures, check out my hot date:

Prom pose and go...

Rusty got a little tickled by this. I have one last picture. I love the women in our family. They are beautiful, talented, loving and sweet as pie!

What do you think of the decor? Did I mention Hillary only spent $15 on babys breath? Sigh, I love that number. I hope that you all are having a great Tuesday and I can't wait to see you back here tomorrow!