The Sweetheart Table

A great way to highlight the new couple even more is through a sweetheart table. Yes its great you would love to sit and hangout with your bridal party whom are ultimately all your best friends, but remember this day is about you and highlighting you as a couple.
Here are a few tips to make the sweet heart table simple but look great and not draw attention away.
1. If you have live floral make sure you have a vase on your sweetheart table for your bouquet. great way to make it a centerpiece and bam save a hint of money on decor. On this particular table we had placed the bride's bouquet behind an And sign to add a little bit of character. This bride chose to use real flame candles so also be sure to not place the floral too close as they can become excessively hot.

2. Tablecloth vs. no tablecloth
I would say it depends on the table, This particular one is more of a rustic table that has amazing character. Although because we chose not to do a tablecloth we wanted to hide their legs or really still give it an elegant look so we took the various sizes of logs and placed extra floral sporadically to enhance the look. Now the photo below shows the same table but this time we used a lace tablecloth to still allow for the character to show but it is still a great looking table. 

 3. The last tip is accent your table. With both of the examples you see a great deal of accents on both. What you do not see though is height in the accents. The best thing to do when you are accenting the sweet heart table is to be aware of the heights of your decor and to be sure that as the couple is sitting that they are blocked from view by guests or even their own view is blocked. It is important to keep the decor on the table to a minimal but still be elegant and match with the decor of the remaining tables.

For the fronts of the tables you could really play it up as we did in both examples. In the first look we used fresh cut logs to line the front and around the corners of the table to create an enclosed feeling. We placed the extra floral from the ceremony on various logs to tie it in a little bit more to the remaining decor. On the second example we placed the Mrs. and Mr. Sign atop of the lace tablecloth and flanked the corners with tall lanterns along with glass vases and mason jar vases to again tie in the remaining decor. 

Overall keep your sweetheart table simple. You do not want to go to over the top and drown out the couple and get lost in the decor of the table. Remember to keep decor below eye level to ensure that there is a full view for all parties.
Below are a few more photos from the examples to give you a few more looks.

The Cake

One of my favorite parts of wedding as a guest is the cake. Yes I know really the cake not the ceremony? Note that I did say one of my favorites not my only. Anyways nowadays there is so many different ways to do the "Cake" at weddings but I had to share the amazing cake done at a recent wedding I was the coordinator for.

Sweets are the best thing created ever as far as food goes. My awesome couple Sara and Mark chose to do a sweets bar filled with cupcakes and sweet treats for the favors! It was a great change of pace from the more traditional take on the "Cake."

The venue, Sterling Stables in Cocoa, FL, had the awesome back drop sweets sign which came into good use. Along with the great mixture of rustic decor this sweet table was amazing. Everything even tasted just as amazing as it looks.



Decor: Simple vintage white trays mixed with wood round cuts, pallet wood trays, with lace is a simple touch to tie it all together. The sign is made of reclaimed pallet wood with small clear light bulbs. This is a super easy DIY that any bride at any level of craftiness could pull off.

 The amazing cake believe it or not actually came from the local Publix Bakery! The cupcakes as well. They did an absolutely amazing job and everything tasted outstanding.

The best part of the great table of sweets is, as the favors if you wanted to take a sweet reminder home you were able to with the sweetness filled favor bags!. This really was a sweet tooth's heaven if that even exists.

The bags were filled with a variety of cookies and brownie bites that were sure to remind you of the sweet love these two share for each other. It was such a great way to throw a great spin on the traditional cake and make it work for their taste literally.

 One of the best things about being crafty is that I can create one of kind items for people and of course my family and myself. Recently I took on a project that had me going back to one of my favorite mediums. You see I have this knock for wood signs but I am not a huge fan of the vinyl letters or the "manufactured" look. I am big about handcrafted as I feel for me it shows my heart and passion for art much more. I love aging furniture and adding character to pieces that most of the time if you buy it from the conventional big box store it just lacks that character or even the story of where it came from. Well I guess that is my way of restoring things to new.
Well one of my awesome brides came to recently with a request for a few signs for her upcoming wedding so of course I said sure I have a ton of scrap wood in my garage that my husband has been bugging me to do something with it. So I saw this as a perfect chance. Now I am sure many of you have gone onto all the get ideas websites where you save tons of ideas but never do them. I am an addict truthfully so I know how you can get sucked right into it. So I was looking for a quicker way to transfer my handwritten  or even my artwork onto the wood on a larger scale without having to re draw it all over again. I was really looking for the outline at least so that it would be easier to proceed with the rest.
Well while on these idea sites I discovered using chalk was a great way to erase mess up etc. So bam perfect all I needed to do was get the wood together and draw out everything with chalk and no problem. Sounds simple right? Nope not at all. So I just wanted to share how I ended up with the amazing end results that I totally expected to go the other way but actually turned out much much better then I expected.  

First, find either used wood or new, you can always age it to make it look more used (that's for another blog). Sanding your wood is the key to excellence! I use a really rough high grain sandpaper on a sander (I am not wanting to do this all day so get a sander, you will thank me later). Always run the sander with the grain lines of the wood, literally do not go against the grain. Once you are happy with your sanding results be sure to clean off any dust from sanding. I usually have a shop vac that I use to suck up all the dust.

From there I will pick out a stain that will work for whatever project I am working on. Be sure not to get a stain and sealer in one. You want just a straight stain. I love using honey and espresso for furniture. For this particular project I used and espresso stain. To apply the stain use foam brushes instead of the conventional brushes. Depending on how dark you want the wood be ready to wipe off excess with a paper towel that is super absorbent. I usually do a small amount at a time and that way its easier for me to not miss any excess stain. Once I have made my way down the entire board I will access whether I am happy with the color and if I want to add a bit more I will continue to proceed and starting back at the top I will go back over the wood. Proceed to repeat as necessary.

Now you have the base for your sign. Now here starts the real challenge. If you like my idea of using chalk then you will need to paint over the board with clear chalk paint. I use a spray that I get from our local home improvement store. By the way I am in that store every day. Allow for the stain to fully dry before adding the chalk paint. Once everything is dry you can proceed with your sign. So for this one I was working on wedding signs. so my calligraphy skills come out. Before I begin to write out anything I look over tons of fonts to find ones that stand out to me or scream wedding. Once the font is determined I will practice a bit to get the right flow and then proceed to write it out on the sign with chalk. I use first a regular piece of chalkboard chalk and come back over it with a chalk marker to make it look flawless. As for the floral additives I use an awesome medium of chalk pastels that allow for me to blend and create a more realistic product. The last step once you have everything completed is to seal it. Remember this is chalk so if you don't seal it, you can experience smudges. Now for certain signs that I re use but just change the names I still seal everything else but the names and dates.
I have more signs to create so I am sure I will be posting more photos of them but I just wanted to share how this one came out.
I hope this was helpful and I wish you luck on your next project.
-SK