Monday, August 02, 2010

Hi Ho Silver!

When Dan and I first started looking for inspiration for the wedding, we were coming from two opposite ends of the spectrum. He likes natural and wild flowers, I like elegant and girly. Even in our home it's hard to marry these two styles, and we've really learned the art of compromise. When this photo came up on 100 Layer Cake, I knew we had found our inspiration. 


It's elegant, it's rustic. It's vintage, it's contemporary. It's to die for! I decided then and there that I needed to recreate this look for our wedding. We have a friend collecting barn board for us, and I've been scouring local thrift shops weekly to find silver teapots, creamers and sugar pots. I wrapped lace around votives and I have a mercury glass project I'm testing out this week and hoping it will add a bit more sparkle to the table! 

So what do you get when you spend a good couple hours each week raiding local thrift shops? 

27 teapots. 40 cream and sugar pots. A dozen candle stick holders. Whew! And I'm not done yet! I've decided we have enough for the bare minimum, but not enough to make me happy! Here are a couple of my favourite finds so far. 

 (Personal Photo)

I love this little pearlized teapot. Like I love it so much it may not make an appearance at the wedding because I don't want to give it away!!!

(Personal Photo)

And how awesome is this stacking set?! I'm hoping our florist can figure out a way to keep them stacked and stuff flowers between each layer. I have my centrepiece trial with our florist on Wednesday so I decided to polish a few pieces of the older silver up. Oooh boy that takes some elbow grease and a heck of a lot of patience!!!


 (Personal Photos)

Tarnished vs polished. Dan likes them tarnished (probably because it's easier just to leave them be), but you better believe I'm polishing these puppies up! In the end all the hard work is going to be worth it and I love getting my hands dirty doing stuff like this. I feel so happy that I'm a bride who's enjoyed getting into all the little details and investing myself into projects like this. I know not everyone would really care about centrepieces, never mind picking each one themselves. So there you are! I'll be sure to post photos from our trial on Wednesday. I'm smiling just thinking about it!

4 comments:

  1. That's dedication! I love them especially cause I've got a thing for teapots. They're going to look lovely :)

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  2. wow those are going to look great! If you need more silver and you can't find vintage- I bought Julep cups with 40% off coupons at Michael's and they have a nice vintage look, plus they are already shiny! Can't wait to see pictures from the wedding when it is all done!

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  3. Holy awesomeness! How did you find so many?!! Our thrift shops never have that much silver! I really love it though! How much did you end up spending on all this? Just kinda curious, it's way too late in the game for me to change my mind!

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  4. Thanks ladies! I had a huge haul at good old Value Village and Talize today. I got a 6 piece set (teapot, platter, cream, sugar, and some weird little mini-creamer) for $25!!! I also found about 4 or 5 other teapots, etc.

    Loveisyouisus, I have a few rules when I buy pieces. First, I never spend more than $10 on a teapot. Never. The point of this is to look pretty, but also to keep costs reasonable, and renting or buying a centrepiece vase from a florist is about $10-15, so I'm trying to stay comparable or under. Second, they must be in good shape. No missing feet, no broken handles. A dent or two is reasonable, but that's as far as it goes! The cream and sugar bowls range in price from $0.99-$4.99, I honestly think it just depends on who was holding the price gun!

    The only time I have broken those rules was actually today. I found a gorgeous teapot at Value Village but it was $17.99. Ouch. I asked the cashier if she could do better on the price explaining that it was for my wedding. She called the manager over and he was happy to oblige and I ended up getting it for $12.99! I found another teapot for $7.99 at Talize so it balanced out ;)

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