I am excited to share with you our PDX wedding party! A barn wedding reception!!
Disclaimer: This post has ALOT of photos and if you make it all the way to the bottom of the post there is a fun video of the party too!
I have always thought it would be fun to host a wedding party in a barn. In fact, I have told my husband I would love to own a party barn! Not sure that will ever happen but a girl can dream. Our son was married in Utah the first part of March and you can check out the Family Dinner we hosted the night before the wedding here. We wanted to host a party here in Portland for all of our friends too so it was the perfect opportunity to have that barn wedding reception!
Fortunately for me, there is a 100 year old barn just down the road from where we live that is part of the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse McMenamins. It was perfect! It is a beautiful venue and provided lots of lovely backdrops for photos of the bride and groom. All the photography is by the amazing MeganElle Photography.
It poured rain most of the day and up until an hour before the party started. Fortunately the heavens cleared and the sun came out! The puddles of rain provided for some fun photos though!
Because the barn is part of a restaurant the catering was taken care of which was so nice. I loved not having to worry about the food and I could just concentrate on the decorating. The food was delicious and all I did was add a floral centerpiece to the table!
I was able to bring in dessert. One of Logan’s favorite desserts is cheesecake so I decided a cheesecake bar would be fun. I have been wanting a vintage buffet so I got on Craig’s List and found one that I painted with chalkpaint. It was the perfect spot for the cheesecake bar. The LOVE helium balloons were a fun backdrop.
We had six different flavors of cheesecake and they were all delicious. No surprise but the Double Lemon was my favorite. I purchased the cheesecake from the local Portland Style Cheesecake & Dessert Company.
For the decorating I knew I wanted lots of candles and beautiful flowers. I am a firm believer that you can turn any space into a magical fairyland if you have enough candles and flowers. I spent months prior to the party visiting Goodwill to collect clear, glass cylinders to hold the candles. I purchased all the candles at IKEA.
I lined the outside steps with the candles and the inside walls.
They looked especially magical outside once the sun went down.
I also used the gold votives from our Family Wedding Dinner on the tables. I think we counted over 200 candles throughout the barn.
The flowers were spectacular! I told the florist I wanted mostly white with a touch of pink.
Along with the candles, I used framed photos from the wedding in Utah along the walls. The golden love sign from the family wedding dinner made by Lolly Letters made another appearance at this party.
Besides candles and pretty flowers, I knew I wanted lots of white lights! The barn was pretty dark because of all the dark wood so I wanted to fill the room with pretty lights.
We strung lights across the dance floor area and around the poles. We weren’t allowed to put any nails or hooks into the wood so we had to use existing nails that might have been there. We also learned that zipties are the perfect solution when you can’t use nails! We got pretty creative!
I have a very talented friend that help me create the hand lettered signs we hung around the barn. I found a bunch of different love themed quotes and used the font Amberlight. The signs were a great backdrop for the bride and groom and we also hung them around the outside walls of the barn. We added a magnolia garland across the top of the backdrop for the bride and groom and added in lots of little fairy lights and some eucalyptus branches. We spray painted the back of the magnolia leaves gold.
We used some of the signs as a backdrop to the buffet table too as well as the sign in table.
I used the same Date Jar idea for this party as I did for the Family Wedding Dinner.
There was a gift table just inside the door too.
I repurposed our LOVE marquee letters from the Wedding Carnival by spray painting them gold and they were the perfect way to cover up the bar we weren’t using.
We had a DJ at the party and all the lights provided the perfect canopy for the dance floor.
I used my Cricut machine to cut the vinyl for the sandwich board we had at the entrance to the barn.
It was a pretty magical night and it was so fun to share it with all our friends and family.
Thanks to Cave Art Productions for putting together this great video of our party! If you are looking for a videographer in Portland, Sam is great! You can also follow Cave Art Productions on Facebook.
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I’ve just been asked to decorate for a wedding open house and the bride wants garlands of greenery like you used. Did you make the magnolia garlands yourself or did you order those from a florist?
I purchased the magnolia garlands and there is a link to them in the post. They are artificial
I used three lengths of garland but actually bought six and then intertwined them together to give it a fuller look. We also spray painted the back of the leaves gold.
You have such a talent for creating beautiful events. Thanks for sharing the lovely barn reception and family dinner for your son and his new wife.
Thanks Carol. I really love doing it and it was so fun to put together.
It all looks so fabulous! I love that shot of them dancing with the lights above their heads, sort-of creating a star pattern. You also look cute in your fancy dress and shoes. Congrats again to expanding your family!
Thanks friend – it was such a fun party!!
When Karen Morgan told where you were having the reception, I was so excited to see how you would decorate. It is just beautiful, I do think you need a barn, you would be sooo busy with parties. You always do a BEAUTIFUL JOB. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks friend!! Will you tell my husband I need a barn!!!
So beautiful and bride and groom are beautiful too. I wish the Happiest Marriage Ever. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much Liz – they are just the cutest!
I love it! What was the font you used for the vinyl you cut on your cricut?
It is called Amberlight and there is a link to it in the blog post. I love it!
The reception was gorgeous!! Loved the quotes that were printed out on the signs. You should consider putting them in an 8×10 download option for us! I would definitely pay for that and I loved the font.
I just have to say, you are a treasure. You are so sweet to share all your fantastic recipes and other ideas as a way of helping women along life’s path. My niece is getting married in December and your wedding posts will serve us well. I LOVE the picture of you holding the cheesecake plates. You should consider that for your blog photo, if you ever decide to switch photos. It’s so beautiful and reflects your heart. Thank you SO MUCH for your lovely and generous spirit. God bless you!
Kathryn, You are so kind. Your comment just made my day! I am so glad my blog and recipes are a help to others. I so believe in women helping and supporting one another and I am glad my blog can be a source of help and inspiration for others. Have fun with that wedding!!!
Absolutely beautiful! There is so much more I could say….but I can’t put into words..you have such amazing talent!
What a lovely setting. My three grandchildren – married one in each year since 2013 and two of them had country farm weddings. They were lovely, but I didn’t have to decorate them. Our grandson married at his wife’s grandparents country place and it was just so simple and pretty. Our granddaughter married at a setting something like yours in a barn with all the lovely décor. There was a little cabin on the grounds where they stayed for their first night and the wedding party prepared for the wedding there. Our eldest grandson chose a church wedding as he works at a n inner city church. Ray and I are both pastors, so he and I officiated at all the weddings. How exciting for us. Sorry this is long. Enjoyed so much your beautiful pictures.
Betty, Thanks so much for sharing. It sounds like they were all wonderful events.
You look beautiful in your black dress with the lace sleeves! Where did you find it?!
Jill, Thanks so much. Funny story – I had another dress I was going to wear and two days before the party I went into Nordstrom Rack and found this dress for $40.00 and bought it! The brand is Adrianna Papell. It was a good find!
So beautiful! You are so talented! I wanted to do a similar backdrop for my daughters wedding. I couldn’t find the link to the artificial magnolias, just the fairy lights. Can l get the info on ordering the magnolias? thank you!
Here yougo: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018YIU3BA?ie=UTF8&tag=yourhomebas0e-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B018YIU3BA
BEAUTIFUL! I have this venue booked for my wedding in February and I’m looking forward to making it look so magical! I’m curious on how you were able to have the lights come together in the center of the dance floor. Was that with the zip ties? (brilliant idea by the way, its tricky with the limitation)
Looks like you had a wonderful day!
It was a bit tricky to figure out but we did use zip ties.