Hold on to your hats, SMPers, because there is a whole lot of adorable inspiration coming your way this lovely Friday morning, all courtesy of this very charming photo shoot designed and captured by Katie Cassidy Photography. With a bundle of cute as can be details, a fabulous theme (Game of Love!), oh-so-creative paper goods by Southern Fried Paper, popcorn programs and some yummy treats by Layered Bake Shop, this darling day is overflowing with wonderful ideas that you can tackle all on your very own. And how uber-fabulous is that?!? All planned to perfection by Wendy Kidd of Each & Every Detail, there is an entire gallery of whimsy just waiting to be adored. Join me there for even more!
Click here to see the entire gallery of images!
From Each & Every Detail, LLC... Katie and I had never worked together, but it was kismet when she reached out to me to help with this photo shoot. She had a million ideas swirling about and brought me in to help organize and streamline, as well as brainstorm on ideas that would focus the theme. I was immediately impressed and couldn't wait to dive in. We came together and started shaping our ideas into what we termed our “Game of Love” inspiration shoot. With Katie’s beer & pretzel bar idea and my scoreboard for the ceremony, we just fell in love with the theme and couldn’t stop!
We started with choosing bright colors- red, turquoise, orange and yellow to incorporate into as many of the elements as possible. To set the tone, we created the save the date with a game inside, with cookies for the game pieces and working spinner. Chelsea from Southern Fried Paper created a game box for it all to fit in and send to the guests. This truly lets the guests know what they can expect at this unique backyard wedding! The invitations carried out the turquoise and red and included the heart, diamond, spade and club from the deck of cards to keep with the game theme.
Creativity was the name of the game for the ceremony. We used a large chalkboard as our scoreboard for the ceremony area, showing you can be very creative in what you stand in front of for saying “I Do." It doesn't have to be the typical gazebo or large tree! We replaced the usual floral with pinwheels and banners. Pinwheels are a super easy DIY project, we thought showing them for the bouquets and table décor would inspire brides who might feel floral is too costly or maybe just too typical. With a bit of carnival flair, we had popcorn for ceremony guests with the program on the side of their popcorn box. We envision at the end of the ceremony, the guests can sprinkle the newlyweds walking out on their hopscotch aisle with popcorn instead of traditional bubbles or rose petals.
For the reception, who wouldn't want an ice cold beer outside in the afternoon? Katie’s genius idea of a beer and pretzel bar was complimented by the chocolate stout cupcakes with salted butterscotch buttercream icing created by the team at Layered Bake Shop. Katie gathered large pickle jars to set out different flavors of pretzels and of course it was all styled on items from Rent My Dust. Wine barrels from the Big D Party Rentals helped complete the look of the bar.
Seating was created using wine barrels as tables, a great checkerboard game table and a little patio set from Rent My Dust. We created a game center from pieces out of the Rent My Dust inventory as well. We had checkers, chess, dominos, jacks, card games and even crossword puzzles! Layered Bake Shop got crazy and made lots of sugar cookies that looked like the real game pieces! I swear you could barely tell the domino cookies apart from the real pieces on the table!
We think this theme is super easy for any bride to reproduce in a cute outdoor space. You can tell from the smiles on our happy couples face, it’s a “winning” theme!
Photography, Design + Concept: Katie Cassidy Photography / Planner: Wendy Kidd of Each & Every Detail, LLC / Vintage Décor: Rent My Dust / Cake, Cupcakes + Cake Pops: Layered Bake Shop / Paper Goods: Southern Fried Paper / Venue: Heard-Craig Center for the Arts / Hair + Make-up: Ashley Stiff / Wine Barrels: Big D Party Rental / Dresses: Circle Park Bridal / Models: Gabe & Laci Wilkins