Elegant Barn Wedding Reception

From the great state of Kansas, here is the chance to own a piece of Americana. Here in Dodge City, the "Cowboy Capitol of the World", the cowboys still tend to the thousands of head of cattle, and there is plenty of open land that is untouched by man. Here you can see these wonderful treasures gliding by the open fields -- what a gorgeous piece of nature. Now, you too can have a piece of history without ever leaving your home. These fabulous pieces from The Great Plains are great for your western themed wedding celebration. They also make great home decorations, centerpieces, photo projects, dry flower arrangements, CHRISTMAS centerpieces, candle pieces, lawn decor, and craft projects. They may also be used for theatre sets, movie sets, TV sets, theme parties and department store window displays. There are three sizes to choose from -- S, M, L -- natural (unpainted) or painted -- If you need many of these for your western party or celebration e-mail for a quote. PICS AVAILABLE BY E-MAIL of these tumblers -- Buyer to pay actual shipping charges, insurance is optional but recommended. International buyers accepted but pay a fixed shipping rate. We accept personal checks (held 10 days to clear), money orders and cashier`s checks, these will ship the same day. Please, if you have any questions or specific tumbleweed needs, feel free to e-mail us and we will respond promptly. We also offer bulk purchases at a cut rate -- THANKS FOR LOOKING – Please contact us directly at: calmekul@lycos.com

What time of year?
I think country flowers, ie sunflowers, daisys, etc.. Maybe some tulle. Old Mason jars with votives can be placed on a table or hung with thick wire. Old wash tubs could hold ice or bottled drinks. Maybe a little wheat stalk in the flowers. I dunno, just a few ides. If you need more email me

Both Martha Stewart Weddings Fall 2003 issue and the current "Receptions" issue from Better Homes and Gardens (available on newsstands) have very elegant barn and rustic weddings featured. I would check your library for back issues. Some of the things they had were candles in lanterns and pots of flowers instead of cut glass vases. Guests were seated for the ceremony on bales of hay covered with folded blankets.
If you are on a budget you can make candle lanterns out of tin cans. Clean them, strip the paper off, fill with water and freeze. Then punch out the design of your choice with a hammer and nail. If you want to hang them up punch out a hole on each side and add a bailing wire handle. The ice keeps the tin from bending. I want to try this with small juice tins and string the jumbo christmas lights through them for lighting at christmas, but depending on the colours of lights and the designs you could do this for a wedding too. You can also make lanterns with a candle, a canning jar and some bailing wire wrapped around the top. These can be decorated with herbs or silks, but be very careful of fire- try everything out to make sure it wont catch! Barns are made almost entirely out of combustable materials!
My best friend was married in a park lodge that looked like a barn inside- lots of wood beams and it was dark. I would advise lots of white christmas lights wrapped around every available beam- very elegant, very cheap, much safer than candles, and you can either reuse them or sell them again on eBay. She also put her flower arangements in half gallon sized canning jars (she used prairie type flowers like sunflowers, baby`s breath and daisies- inexpensive, hardy and country-style all in one) and decorated the tables with a checked runner.

This kind of turned into a long post, but I kept remembering things!

Antiqe-ish stuff, like old bottles with dried roses and rose petals, lots of candlelight, white christmas lights. Or for centerpieces, multi-colored oil lanterns. That is what I am trying to figure out also, if you have any other good ideas, please send them my way. Good luck!

Take grapevine wreaths stretch them out twirl white lights around them with your choice of fall flowers and tulle mixed in.