100 Layer Cake

What can we say about the uber creative Jess + TJ that can’t be said through these stunning images by Gia Canali? Oh, you know – just that their wedding was simply epic. Yesterday we featured the first stage of their weekend-long wedding with their picnic-style, square dancing welcoming hoedown, and today we’re continuing the festivities with their rehearsal dinner – a classy affair filled with DIY beauties.

This may very well be one of our favorite DIY place card ideas. “We went to the local rock quarry and picked up a container of roughly 300 stones for $9. We brought them home, washed them off and sprayed them with a clear shellac. Then my aunt, with gorgeous handwriting, wrote all the names and table numbers. The final product ended up being a simple, cheap, nature chic place card! People enjoyed searching for their name in the giant heart we had set up outside the tent!”

“All of the signs, including the table numbers at our rehearsal dinner, were crafted by TJ and I. These mini table numbers and stumps were pretty easy to make and came out cute. We found a down tree in a neighbors yard so we didn’t have to cut anything down, TJ taught me how to use the chainsaw and we sliced each round out (no two were exactly the same width or size- but we ended up using the wider ones for the double digits), then we sanded them down to get rid of any splinter action. Initially the idea was to burn everything into the wood (which I had read on some other blogs), but we found that to be way too time consuming when we started out so we went the easier route. TJ used a dremmel with a rotary bit to carve in the numbers, and as a finishing touch I used brown paint to paint in the numbers. We then used all the leftover stumps for raisers under the vases + candles.”

You want this wedding to keep going, yes? We know how you feel. Fortunately for all of us, there’s an entire ceremony + reception that we have yet to touch. Stay tuned for those goodies coming up tomorrow!

Photography: Gia Canali Photography / Venue: C Lazy U Ranch / Wedding Planner: Stacy McCain Event Planning / Event Designer: Duet Events (Jess’s own wedding design company) / Florist: Lisa Anderson of Sweet Pea Flowers / Dessert: Shamane’s Bake Shoppe