OCTOBER 15, 2014
Nieves/Hemphill Wedding
Grand Plaza Hotel, St. Pete, Fl.
My husband and I had a Harry Potter inspired wedding! Being a HUGE Potter fan, I knew that I wanted to include the boy wizard in my wedding. I went through so many different ideas: from full-blown Potter (which included having each bridesmaid represent a different Hogwarts house, and each table at the reception be a different Hogwarts class) to a wedding modeled after Bill and Fleur's wedding from Deathly Hallows (outside, enclosed in a huge tent, with purple accents) until I finally decided that I just wanted to have a casual, relaxed wedding with Potter touches and accents. Little hints and nods to the Harry Potter series, some that people may not even pick up! Here are some of the things that I did, I hope you enjoy!!
Being a non- traditional bride, and not very keen on flowers, I made a brooch bouquet. I watched countless YouTube videos, bought my brooches from ebay, and constructed it. It took a surprisingly long time and about 35 brooches in total! I also used craft pearls, white ribbon for the handle, and a base holder to hide the wires. I am immensely proud of it- although it was laborious!
Next up: shoes!! I bought very inexpensive white ballet flats for myself and my bridesmaids from Amazon. The ceremony was on a beach, so no shoes were required, thus shoes would only be worn during the reception. Again, shoes are not something that I cherish or invest much thought in, so I was perfectly fine not spending $100's on them for one day! One of my bridesmaids made cute bows, white for me, and then Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff-inspired bows for the other shoes! She also added "Always" and a lightening bolt onto the sides of the shoes! I absolutely loved them!
Our adorable ring bearer, Lilly, held a giant Golden Snitch that, when opened, revealed our wedding rings. The Snitch was made by the Groom's mother and it was perfect! We made sure to tie the rings tightly inside in case Lilly dropped it- we didn't want our rings to get lost in the sand!!
For my flower girls, I again wanted something non-traditional. I had two sisters as flower girls, ages 5 and 3. I know that tossing flower petals is not something natural for a little girl to do, and that they wouldn't have the patience to rehearse it a few times. I also wanted the girls to have fun and not stress out about anything. Thus, my alternative... Bubble Guns!!! My "Bubble Girls" were a huge hit! They loved being able to shoot bubbles at everyone, and they kept the guns, so it made for an easy party favor! We had to go through a few different types of bubble guns before we found ones that were easy to operate, held enough bubbles, and didn't leak everywhere! (If I had more time, I would have loved to experiment in painting the guns our wedding colors without messing up the internal mechanics)
When it came time to decide on what my bridesmaids would hold- I was at a complete loss. I researched every flower bouquet alternatives- fans, lanterns (this was my choice for a long time during planning, I even purchased lanterns!), Harry Potter wands (but it didn't seem grand enough for a wedding), brooch bouquets (but after the length and expense of MY brooch bouquet, I vetoed this idea!), button bouquets, and even balloons! But nothing seemed quite right. I was walking aimlessly through a craft store one day and I came across these lovely wooden letters. Inspiration struck! I picked up L, O, V, E letters in a fairly large size, my Fiance spray painted them grey (one of our wedding colors), I added coral (our other wedding color) and grey fabric flowers as accents, and bought craft pearls that I lined the letters with. My Fiance drilled holes in the bottom of the letters and we glued in dowel rods (also painted grey!) The result were beautiful, unique pieces of art that I now hang in my home around a display of wedding photos. The letters also looked beautiful next to the bridesmaids dresses!
Until you start planning a wedding, you never realize just how many flower-related accessories and decorations there are! My next issue that needed addressing were the boutonnieres for the Groom and the Groomsmen. I wanted each aspect of our wedding to depict the personalities of both John and I, and for each little thing to mean something, and the boutonnieres are no exception! In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry has to use a flying broomstick and catch a key that will open a special door. There were hundreds of keys flying around, but Harry had to find a very specific key- a large silver one with blue wings. That was my inspiration! I purchased two different 'lots' of antique keys from e-bay, in all shapes and sizes. The cost was very inexpensive. I then found different wings to glue to the keys. A little ribbon and a safety pin, and a Potter boutonniere was born! John, the Groom is the only person who wore a silver key with blue wings. Everyone else had either golden keys, or different color wings.
Now onto the reception! An inexpensive birdcage, purchased at a flea market, painted grey, and housing two different pigmy puffs (purchased at Universal Studios), made for a great card holder!
Instead of a traditional cake, we went with cupcakes! We had two different flavors of cupcakes, and the wrappers were created out of pages of Harry Potter books! I would like to take credit for making them, but my baker ordered them from etsy!
Our venue had a small bar that sat in the corner. We had an open bar for our guests, but we wanted to spruce up the bar area. It was the perfect spot for some Potter themeing! While it was a completely open bar, we had three specialty drinks that our guests could order by name for a little fun. First was "Felix Felicis"("Lucky Potion) which was Amaretto Sour. Then there was "Amortencia" ("Love Potion") which was a Hurricane. And lastly there was "Veritaserum" ("Truth Serum") which was a Margarita. My Fiance purchased card stock paper and printed out the labels for the drinks. The picture frame was bought at Hobby Lobby. We also bought a few inexpensive bottles, and added some sticker labels. We researched our favorite Harry Potter "potions" and labeled the bottles accordingly- as well as adding water and food coloring and some bottles even contained glitter! The result was a nod to the boy wizard that made me smile every time I looked at it!
The last item that we agonized over was the party favors. It took a lot of researching, and vetoing of different ideas before we came up with something simple! We wrote an abbreviated excerpt from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone about the key that Harry had to catch (see the description for the boutonnieres) and printed it on card stock paper. We then complied a list of 95 of our favorite book and movie quotes, so each favor had a different quote, glued on little coral and glittery hearts, and attached small antique keys with either coral or grey ribbon. These were very inexpensive to create, and our guests enjoyed them!
We also took a few Potter-themed photos (we asked all of our bridal party to bring their wands!)
No comments:
Post a Comment