A Garden Party Wedding with Vintage Style

Get garden party wedding decor ideas with vintage inspired style. This old fashioned church wedding inspires with dIY projects and cottage garden style.

It’s been a couple weeks since the epic wedding celebration of our daughter, and I’m still recovering! But it’s so fun to look back at the pictures and relive the special day. It was months of planning and prep, but everything turned out just as she had dreamed. I hope you enjoy seeing all the details of A Garden Party Wedding with Vintage Style!

A Garden Party Wedding with Vintage Style

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Vintage Style Wedding?

First off, I have to admit that Happy Girl said she didn’t want a “vintage” wedding. She’s heard that word her whole life as related to my work and just doesn’t like it I guess? Then she started telling me her vision of every guest getting a different colored faceted glass goblet and having LOTS of flowers. And when I spied a tufted velvet green antique settee curbside last Spring…she was very excited. Yep…think those two things alone sound like a vintage style wedding;)

Custom Art and Entrepreneurs

One of her longtime friends and bridesmaids is an artist, and loves painting flowers. Grace asked her to create art for the wedding with her color scheme. You can find Abby’s art on her Instagram HERE. For the Save the Date, she created a beautiful watercolor of Sam and Grace in their wedding attire heading into the church (where their relationship started).

Abby also created a beautiful watercolor floral border which Grace used throughout the wedding on the programs, printed posters, table numbers, menu, and a favor card. Professionally printed custom art gave the whole celebration a cohesive look (and balanced the vintage). What a special gift to create a special day!

Most of the wedding details came together with women entrepreneurs. I love supporting cottage industries: the caterer, the cupcake maker, the florist the artist, and the photographers are all women who have grown their small businesses by word of mouth.

The Wedding Ceremony

The wedding ceremony was in the sanctuary at the church where their relationship started and grew. They were both youth group sponsors and got to know each other through doing ministry:) Church was the natural place to hold their ceremony and reception.

I brought all my container plants to spread around outside and provide the garden party theme. The florist (you can find Rachel HERE) decorated the entrance stairway with real Italian Ruscus garland, hosta and ferns. Grace wanted a LOT of green, her favorite color.

We brought Rachel 100 hosta leaves from our yard that she worked into the bouquets and sanctuary florals. It was a personal family touch and looked so pretty with the more feathery greens and simple satin ribbon.

The sanctuary decor was simple, with a pretty floral on the cross and greenery on the aisle chairs. I placed faux garland across the pallet wall in the front to add a little bit of green.

The color punch came from the bridesmaids dresses…

Garden Party Bridesmaid Dresses, Bouquets, and the Bride

Each bridesmaid dress was different, chosen to coordinate with the color scheme. Grace made this graphic, so we could stay focused on the colors. It was so fun to see each bridesmaid in a dress that fit her style and personality, yet still with the cottage garden theme.

She wanted her bouquet to be full of color, and definitely wanted ranunculus, her favorite flower. The bridesmaids bouquets were mostly green, since each of their dresses were floral and colorful.

The two little flower girls had white dresses and colorful floral crowns. They carried little wicker baskets of petals.

Grace’s dress was made of a beautiful brocade fabric with covered buttons all down the back. Her veil had a delicate green vine around the edge. I think the sleeves looked like Snow White’s dress. We shopped three different places before we found “the one” at The Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul. (I got my dress there, too, 32 years ago;)

The Garden Party Social Hour and Dance

After the ceremony, we had a receiving line with the newlyweds and the parents. After we greeted the guests, they went outside to enjoy the Garden Party social hour. Teens from their small groups walked around serving charcuterie cups in baskets and there were cold cans of lemonade, tea, and spring water to enjoy. Music was playing and there were yard games to play, too. The weather was perfect; warm with a light breeze.

The outdoor garden party where we transformed the church parking lot into a lovely garden party was my biggest challenge. I’ll share more about the projects we made in another post, but here are pic’s from the pretty area. It was more magical after dinner when the lights came on and everyone was dancing under the stars;)

{see how to make our Upcycled Old Garden Fencing Cloche HERE}

We rented 6 wood picnic tables for seating with a campy, relaxed vibe. We brought our scaffolding benches and benches I found curbside for extra seating.

Colorful vintage enamelware was filled with ice and cold (non-alcoholic) beverages. The whole area was created with DIY birch trees we made and evergreen trees in vintage metal garbage cans. Party lights were strung from these. A large arbor was the entrance to the area and was a great photo spot for guests. Another arbor was by the gym door where the dinner reception was held.

The Dinner Reception

When it was time for dinner, the guests were welcomed into the church gym which had been transformed into a beautiful garden party venue. Lights, tulle and colorful paper lanterns decorated the ceiling. Every guest had a different colored glass goblet. The late afternoon sunbeams shining through the glass was gorgeous. I heard about many conversations where guests were reminiscing about their grandma’s goblets;)

Thrifted vases were filled with farmer’s market (and garden) late summer flowers down the middle of the tables. Snipped ferns were placed randomly for more green. Mercury glass and clear votive candles were also plentiful with twinkling real candlelight.

Rented white folding chairs provided the garden vibe. The churches vintage white china plates were perfect, set on another churches borrowed gold chargers. Handmade nosegays of flowers were clipped to a sweet note and a bag of chocolate kisses at each place setting.

The colorful glass goblets, which inspired the whole look, were thrifted, borrowed and gathered-300 of them!

The Head Table

It was a traditional head table with bridesmaids on one side and groomsman on the other. But the newlyweds were seated in the antique tufted velvet settee I found curbside last Spring. I cleaned and revived it, and it was the perfect (and comfy) seat for the happy couple.

Behind the head table were vintage frames with chipboard. Some had grass, some wreaths with twinkle lights and some with milk glass vases and flowers. And of course a Mr. and Mrs. sign!

Pretty Flowered Cupcakes for Dessert

The dessert bar was filled with pretty, delicious flowered cupcakes. They were placed on stacked vintage glass cake plates (my collection;). Greenery garland and twinkle lights throughout sparkled as the night grew dark. After dinner, guests helped themselves to cupcakes and headed outside to dance in the garden party area.

{Cupcakes were made by Char at Canasota Confections.}

The happy couple was sent off through a tunnel of sparklers! What a fun, beautiful celebration we had. The guests enjoyed the evening, the Lord was glorified with their covenant…and we’re happily tired that it all went off perfectly:)

I can’t wait to see the pictures taken by Emily at Emmy Faye Photography. I’m sure she captured the beauty of the day perfectly. It was hard to get pics when you’re the host of the party! And I wanted to soak it all in, too.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the details of the big event! I’ll be sharing all the behind the scenes DIY projects and prep that went into the party soon.

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