The ceremony

We're having a backyard ceremony at my grandparent's house. It's going to take a little work to make her backyard look amazing like it used to (it's a long story). We're helping my grandparent's build a deck, plant a few flower gardens, and plant grass this summer. By next summer, their yard should be looking great again. I'll try to put some pictures of their yard up here as we go through the process of making it look spectacular again!

The ceremony decor

We found this antique looking arch with a gate at Fleet Farm of all places, I fell in love with it right away. You can't tell but the paint looks a little weathered to give it more of an antique feel. I can't wait to get married under this in my grandparent's flower garden! 

We bought the plaque below for the middle of the gate, it's in our wedding colors and the leaves add to the outdoorsy element. It's so perfect and was on sale for $6 at Hobby Lobby, I love Valentines day sales!

When looking at pictures of weddings, I've seen everything from paper lanterns to pom poms. I thought they were very neat, but didn't think I would have the budget for something like that. That's when I found out you can very easily, and cheaply make pom poms out of tissue paper! I'm going to make them in red and black. I can't wait to string these on trees for the ceremony! I plan on making smaller pom poms for the chairs on the end of the aisles too!
 
Here's a how-to guide on MarthaStewart.com

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias?comments_page=1

My first attempt!

These have kind of been through hell, since they're in a box, and I brought them to my grandparent's house to show them my idea, they're getting smooshed! (You can kind of see my tattoo in the pic! FI and I have matching ones!)

---

Just a size comparison, the big ones will be strung from trees, while the small ones will go on the chairs!

This is what they look like without fanning them out, and how I'll leave them up until the week before the wedding!

---