Garden Party Wedding: Prep and DIY Projects

Hosting a garden party wedding? Get DIY wedding decorating ideas for your Garden Party Wedding. Repurposed and upcycled vintage finds and lots of garden flowers will inspire creative ideas for your special event.

A wedding is one of those special occasions where you want to pull out all the stops. Yes, you could pay someone to fulfill your wedding dreams, and you could have it at the fanciest venue. But our DIY family decided to craft and upcycle our way to our daughter’s dream wedding. Here’s the full how to list of our Garden Party Wedding: Prep and DIY Projects.

Garden Party Wedding: Prep and DIY Projects

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Planting Trees

When we decided to host the wedding and reception at the couple’s church, where their relationship started, I started coming up with ideas how to turn the parking lot into a welcoming and fun garden party. This was my biggest challenge!

I knew we needed big blocks of live green to soften the area and bring life. We went to Home Depot and bought 9 4 foot arborvitae trees. We planted them in old metal corrugated garbage cans I’ve picked up junking through the years.

Some of the garbage cans needed a little scrubbing. I love THIS for oversprayed paint and other sticky problems. It’s amazing how quickly old spray paint can come off with this stuff.

Then the bride, Happy Girl and I went to the garden center and picked out container flowers in the colors she was planning around. I planted them at the base of each container and then babysat them all summer long, feeding them with THIS.

What better way to communicate our trash to treasure life, then with pretty foliage in old garbage cans?

Container Plants as Centerpieces

I also planted container flowers in ceramic pots I picked up from Walmart. A combo of large and small, white, green and blue textured pots were used as centerpieces on bar top high tables and picnic tables. Our upcycled garden fencing cloches were used on the large containers. I kept these watered and fed all summer, too;)

DIY Garden Fencing Cloche

Mr. Fix-it made 8 of our “Upcycled Old Garden Fencing Cloche’s” to sit on top of the larger centerpiece containers. Each one had a different vintage doorknob on top; some gold, some faceted glass, some tarnished brass. After he makes them, I scrub the fencing with an SOS pad, dry, and give them a spray of THIS to bring out the patina.

DIY Birch Trees for Patio Lights

We wanted patio lights to hang around the perimeter of the outdoor garden party area, so it would be festive for the dance later. I bought 10 smaller garbage cans from Ikea to place them in. These are about 2′ feet high.

We trekked north to a family member’s house where there were plenty of dead birch trees laying in the woods. We gathered a trailer load of 8-10′ branches that were multi-branching. Mr. Fix-it was still not really getting my vision…nothing new around here;) But we had a fun day hanging out in the woods.

His engineering brain needed to figure out how to “plant” these birch trees into the pots. They needed to be sturdy enough to not blow over, yet light enough to be able to move them. He thought long and hard on this challenge;)

He ended up using a combo of spray insulation foam and broken bricks and rocks. He left the plastic liners in the garbage cans, so he could simply take them out after. (Although I probably could have sold them on FB if he would have left them in;)

He and a friend worked on them together in the drive way. He ended up spray painting the foam green, so when we stuck faux ferns and foliage in them, it would look better. They also drilled a big hook near the tops, so we could hang the party lights and paper lanterns.

Thrifting Wedding Decor

All Spring and Summer we were shopping secondhand for wedding decor. Happy Girl found 300 of the perfect sage green napkins on FB marketplace. A couple friends and I and the groom’s mom and friends ironed them all into a tri fold. What a job!

I spent many days searching church sales, thrift shops, garage sales and estate sales for colorful vintage goblets (sheer torture for me;) Happy Girl pictured the tables being a beautiful mix and match of textured colorful glassware. We certainly accomplished that vision!

I also found about 130 faceted clear glass bud vases for the farmer’s market floral centerpieces. Yes, we had glassware coming out our ears!

A handful of large, handled serving baskets from church sales were perfect to serve the charcuterie cups during the social hour outside. They were a couple bucks each at church sales.

Vintage Frames for Wedding Wall Decor

Behind the wedding party head table, we hung groupings of mix and match vintage frames with command hooks. I had the frames already (big surprise). She picked ones that were painted white, black, gold, green, and wood. Mr. Fix-it cut chipboard and inserted it into the frames.

Some frames got stapled faux grass, some got lighted wreaths. We attached clamps to a few so they could hold a milk glass bud vase full of flowers. And the two behind the bride and groom got Mr & Mrs signs. Happy Girl put them into groupings and decided how she wanted them to hang behind the head table. They really added a lot of texture and interest to the room.

Guest Seating Arrangement Sign

A while back I’d picked up an old metal bed (I think). It was heavy and I loved the details. I think someone had been using them in their garden. Think they were $20 at an estate sale. I thought we could maybe use them for the wedding somehow.

They ended up being the perfect holding stand for the guest seating arrangement sign. We played around with the idea first, to make sure it would work.

I scrubbed the dirt off and gave them a spray of black chalkboard paint for a nice subtle look.

Mr. Fix it made a custom frame with some black trim we had in the garage. He put the same chipboard in the middle.

Happy Girl printed out the guests names for the seating chart. We attached the lists with vintage-looking upholstery tacks. A greenery garland was draped across the top and two wreaths hung on either side of the bed frames. Of course I didn’t get a picture the day of the wedding, but I set it up in the yard so you could see how pretty it was!

Washing Cake Plates for the Dessert Buffet

We picked through my vintage cake plate collection, mixing and matching clear and milk glass with blues, greens, pink and yellow. We stacked them two and three high and filled them with beautiful cupcakes, bowls of candies and nuts. I washed them all before and the beauty filled my kitchen.

Crafting Guest Gifts

Summer vacation with the groom’s family included a big craft project. They made 300 pretty little flower nosegays with floral paper and magnets. These were placed on each guests plate with a note from the couple and a bag of chocolate treats.

Antique Settee for the Newlyweds

While they were crafting, I was diving deep into an upholstery project in the driveway. You can see the full trash to treasure makeover in “Antique Settee: From Curb to Wedding”. This curbside find ended up being perfect for the bride and groom.

Farmer’s Market Flowers and Garden Cuttings

When my peonies were blooming, I cut several buds when they felt like marshmallows. I wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap and put them in ziplock bags in the refrigerator. Happily, they opened perfectly at the end of August, even though they were cut at the beginning of June. We were so happy to add peonies to the beautiful Farmer’s Market flowers for the centerpieces. We also had cut zinnias and garden flowers of our own to add.

The bride said she wanted LOTS of flowers for her big day, and we definitely did! We arranged all the bud vases down the middle of the tables ourselves, with help from friends. We sent home many guests with flowers after, too.

That’s the DIY project list we worked on all last summer for the Labor Day Weekend wedding! I’m tired just telling you about it;) We had a perfect warm summer evening for the wedding with a nice breeze. The guests socialized outside in the garden party before dinner in the beautifully decorated gym. Then after, they grabbed dessert and went back outside to dance under the lights in the transformed parking lot.

Yes, it was well worth all that work. And we made so many great memories getting ready for the special day. So many friends and family helped us, too! I always say the process is as fun, or more, than the actual day. What a beautiful memory it all is:)

See all the pretty pics of how all these projects turned out for the big day in “A Garden Party Wedding with Vintage Style”.

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