Fall Wedding Series #3 - Pumpkins, Burlap and Mason Jars

For my fall, rustic themed wedding, I concentrated on what elements I could use in my decorating that would match the theme and location. The wedding took place at Magnolia Mound Plantation. The ceremony was on the back steps of the plantation home, and the reception was under the pavilion. The pavilion is open on three sides and has a barn feel to it. So all my decor decisions were to enhance this already beautiful location. 

The Ceremony

The Pavilion 

I wasn't interested in having a bunch of flowers as decorations. I liked the idea of having pumpkins, but that seemed TOO fall for what I wanted. But then late one night the image of WHITE pumpkins popped into my head. Did I make it up, or are there white pumpkins? Sure enough, there are! So I had the brilliant idea that my husband (at that time fiancé) and I would GROW our own white pumpkins. Well... that didn't work out so well. The plants started off well enough, but the area we grew the plants in flooded a lot so all our plants died. Then I decided that we would buy white pumpkins. When pumpkins started coming out in stores, all the white ones were very ugly. They had brown spots on them. What to do!? I just HAD to have white pumpkins. And I did....

We PAINTED them white!!!

A couple of weeks before the wedding, we went to the store and bought LOTS of regular ol' orange pumpkins. We cleaned them off with a wet cloth and wrapped the stems with painters' tape. Then we took many cans of ivory colored spray paint (Not pure white. It wouldn't look natural too white!) and painted all the pumpkins! We painted some of the smaller pumpkins gold. We dusted the tops of the white pumpkins with some gold glitter spray paint. The gold glitter made a beautiful, shimmery effect. The pictures don't do them justice! :)

My car FULL of pumpkins!

A couple did end up rotting before the wedding, but we bought extra for that reason! :)

We used the pumpkins as centerpieces for the guests' tables and as accents all around the ceremony and reception areas. I also used lots of burlap and mason jars. I bought a large roll of burlap to make table runners for all the tables. We also had burlap bows in various places. Mason jars in a range of sizes were placed on all the tables in the reception area. Some had teal blue candles and gold glass pieces in some, while others had floating gold candles and moss.

Bows made by my mom (she is the best bow maker) using wired burlap ribbon.

I tied the ends of all the runners with a jute string bow.

And of course... the WHOLE family had to "help." :)

Check out my other Fall Wedding Series posts here: http://createsharerepeat.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedding

Wedding pictures taken by Janey Pie Photography.

Posted in: Wedding