The Wedding Carnival}The Decorations

After coming up with the theme for our party – Wedding Carnival – my next decision was the color scheme.  Red and white were a natural choice for the wedding carnival decorations.  I also decided to add in teal and yellow.  The colors, like the event, needed to be fun!

I also chose this swirly sucker as my carnival motif.  I used it in the invitation as well as the wedding carnival decorations for the evening.

Here is a copy of the invite which was designed by my talented friend Meg (yes the same one that took the photos and made the doughnut cake topper!!!)

The suckers were also used to decorate the tables.  The tulle chair back ties were borrowed from a friend and I added the polka dot ribbon and suckers.

I alternated teal,red and yellow polka dot ribbon.

I also used the swirly suckers in the table decor. I purchased plastic popcorn boxes from Target ($1.00 each). I added some weight to the bottom with some rocks and then put a piece of styrofoam inside the box. I then filled the box with different shaped swirly suckers that I bought from Oriental Trading.  The large suckers I found at Walgreens for a dollar!  I also found the fun pinwheels at the Dollar Store.  I cut the mustache and lips out of craft foam and glued them to straws and then added Clark to the mustaches and Jessica to the lips!  I then filled them with popcorn.

I hot glued them to 3 rolls of carnival tickets to make sure they didn’t topple over.  I purchased the rolls of carnival tickets from Doolins.

I purchased the table runners from Special Occasion Design.  The chevron fabric in red and teal were just perfect.  I put the red side up on half the tables and the teal on the other half.  I also used the table runners on the sign in table and the ice cream bar.

We held the carnival in our backyard so I wanted people to know they were coming to a carnival from the minute they pulled up in front of our house. My friend Darlene made these fun vintage carnival posters which we hung from the garage. She used a site called Block Poster.  It’s a great site – it allows you to create posters of any size from a jpg.  The best part is – it’s free!!

The guests were also greeted by this amazing chalkboard art done by our friend Bill. It is truly a work of art and is now hanging in Clark and Jessica’s apartment. I found the frame at Goodwill and then spray painted some masonite board for the chalkboard. Bill used chalkboard pens to create the art and it is more permanent than chalk.
I made the LOVE letters using a tutorial over at Oh Happy Day.   Initially I thought it would be fun to find old vintage marquee letters or have them made but soon discovered that was way out of the budget so using Oh Happy Day’s tutorial I made my own out of posterboard, foamcore board and spray paint.  I bought the lights from Target.  I loved them and they looked amazing after dark!
As they came around the corner, on the side of the house they were greeted by this fun Carnival sign – they knew they were in the right place!!

And then they knew which way to turn for all the fun! I made this sign cutting the letters out of vinyl with my Cricut machine and then gluing scrapbook paper onto some masonite board.
As they entered the Carnival they had a chance to sign in.  I pulled my black sofa table out onto the patio for this.  I had put together a sign in book using some of their wonderful engagement pictures that were taken in the law library by Tara B.

The gumball machine I found at Goodwill made for some cute decor along with the letter W I painted and glued red chevron fabric to.  I also found this perfect print online and downloaded it for free.  During the entire planning phase I had joked with my husband that I wanted a Ferris wheel at the Carnival – I even found one on line you could rent but Jim totally nixed the idea (rightly so) but it was a running joke that I was going to have a Ferris wheel.  Well, I found a way to have a Ferris  wheel.
I also made yards and yards of pennant banners out of my carnival colors.  Thanks to my friend Sara who sewed all the triangles together and my friend Jeanne who spent the afternoon with me assembling the banners!  We hung them on the front of all the booths, along the fence and on the tables.

I also put together a fun holder for the cards that people brought using a vintage doll case I picked up earlier this year.  It worked perfect.

One of the things that was really important for me to have was amazing lighting.  My husband really came through on that one for me!  He spent hours and hours, days and days figuring out and hanging hundreds of feet of lights in our backyard.  I think we now own 700 feet of lights!!! The best place we found online to buy the lights was Hometown Evolution.  But I have to say the money and effort were so worth it.  Not only did they look great in the day light and provide a great place to hang all the paper lanterns…


But once the sun set they created a magical fairyland in our backyard. LOVE IT!!!

Lanterns were purchased from Luna Bazaar.

We have a couple of outbuildings in our garden one of which is my husband’s work shed.  It has a really ugly door on it so I wanted to make sure it was covered up.  I used a ribbon curtain to take care of the problem.  The ribbon was hung from a large bamboo pole which you can purchase in the garden supply area of Fred Meyer or Home Depot.  I hot glued the ribbon to it and then it was lashed to two more bamboo poles that held it up.  Not only did it hid the ugly shed door it because a fun backdrop for some photos!
I found a great online source for ribbon that was a great price at United Craft.   (Thanks Heidi!)

I also used some fun wordart throughout the carnival.  This darling piece showed up at my door the day before the Carnival from my friend Kristi of Barn Owl Primitives.  I love her work and this one was perfect – in just the right Carnival colors!!

I am also now the proud owner of a Silhouette Cameo and I had some fun creating some things for the Wedding Carnival.  The first one I had made was actually for the Family Dinner the night before the wedding so I had to hold on to it for the carnival.

and then I made this larger black one which is now happily residing in my front entry way.

This amazing sign hung over the entryway into the main Carnival area.
Another masterpiece by my friend Darlene.  Look at all the little people!!!

It also lit up at night.

Sometimes I buy things and I have no idea what I am going to do with it.  I just know I need to have it.  This was the case with this red ladder I picked up for $15.00.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew I needed to have it.  It was the perfect thing to fill in a space on the patio at the carnival.
Thanks to my friend Darlene I had dozens and dozens of these fun paper rosettes which we used in various places, including the ladder.  They also looked great hanging over the draping I put up behind the food table.

Thanks to all my husband’s hard work our garden looked amazing and provided a beautiful backdrop for the carnival.



Last but not least as our guests were leaving they were invited to take a “sweet” with them!

The sucker trees were made out of Styrofoam cones and covered in ribbon. Martha Stewart has a tutorial here.

For more Wedding Carnival please check out these links:

Overall Wedding Carnival pictorial

The Wedding Carnival}The Food Part One

The Wedding Carnival}The Food Part Two

The Wedding Carnival}Decorations

The Wedding Carnival}Carnival Games
The Wedding Carnival}Music, Dancing and a Flash Mob
The Wedding Carnival}The Bride and Groom