I’ve designed hundreds of well-thought-out spaces in all different kinds of homes, but I never thought of myself as much of a wedding designer. In fact, I was never much motivated by weddings at all until my daughter became a bride. Jessie, aka J, is actually my stepdaughter and the precious only girl of my husband, and she happens to be a lovely person. So I embarked on putting my staging design skills to work to put together a wedding shower befitting our sweet J.
My inspirations were images and ideas that Jessie had shared with me, flowers and string lights and jars mostly. The word that kept coming up was fresh. Jessie is a gal that likes understated, organic, clean, and most of all fresh. So I knew the flowers and greenery were going to be key. I also knew her wedding color palette was mostly greenery with a touch of whites and very subtle blush and peach. Of course, I enlisted the help of a few people like Jessie’s best friend Caitlin, Caitlin’s sister Megan who was our baker, (Let me tell you she is a legit and fabulous baker check her out at @MadebyMeganJayne), and my sister in law Lynette.
Getting back to the flowers. After bouncing ideas around with my team members. We came up with an idea of an apothecary theme. I had the horrible task (Just kidding, this was my excuse to hit up the best places to treasure hunt!) of collecting all shapes and sizes of bottles not just any bottles but old medicine bottles, and bottles that looked like they could just as easily hold cotton balls as tulip bulbs. 
Man, I had to go to all my least favorite places (Again, I’m being sarcastic. You know I’m kidding) to find these bottles.
I hit the jackpot at The Depot at Gibson Mill, Sleepy Poet and Etsy. Once I had all of the bottles I then headed to one of my favorite businesses on earth that does such a marvelous job at what they do. Nectar florist As usual they came through huge!!!! The craftspeople at Nectar always seem to get me and my crazy ideas and make them wayyyy better than I imagined.
Then it was time to turn my attention to the food and table setting. My sister-in-law and I have like, oh I don’t know, a lot of sets of china that have been handed down from our grandmothers and Mothers. Lynette was the only girl in her family. I’m the only one in mine and J is the only girl and beneficiary of many sets of china. So we mixed and matched all of our treasured family china, crystal, and silverware for the dishware. It was so meaningful to include our heritage in this way. Our Moms and Grandmothers would be proud.
Now, our china would have been meaningless without the food to put on it. Here is where I give a big ole shout-out to Something Classic catering. The finger foods were so scrumptious, perfectly healthy and so delicious…. It was like a table of bite-sized joy. Again Megan Jayne hit it out of the park with beautiful and delicious sweets.
For decor, Lynette tossed the idea of a light picture wall. She ordered strings of tiny LED lights and tiny paper clips. We collected and printed pictures of the groom Jim and J in different phases of their lives before and after falling in love and becoming a couple. It was a pain in the !@# to put up but once it was up man it was cool and the hit of the shower.
I also need to add here my Mom Jane made the cutest burlap, yarn and fabric swatch banner I’ve ever seen.
Ta-da! It turns out designing a wedding shower has some similarities to interior design… take into account the space, how you plan to use it, the vibe you are trying to create and make sure there are plenty of things in the space to make people feel welcome.
This all made for a happy J., which in turn made all of us who loved her even happier.
