My "Mini Wedding"

A month or so ago I planned/hosted/organized an event for my sorority. It was a Mother-Daughter Tea, and we had about 50 moms and 50 daughters on the guest list. I had such a blast planning it, and I even took to calling it my "mini wedding." I was able to use a lot of my ideas that didn't work out for my actual wedding on this event, and it was so much fun!

The venue was a place called Royalty Pecan Farms in Caldwell, TX ( just a bit outside of College Station). It's actually a working pecan farm, and the land is full of groves and groves of pecan trees. It's so country-cute. Totally the opposite of my actual wedding, and I loved it.

from RoyaltyPecans.com

from RoyaltyPecans.com

Nestled in all those trees is a small cafe-style building with a pretty, grassy terrace.

from RoyaltyPecans.com

from RoyaltyPecans.com

They actually host weddings there:

(source)

from RoyaltyPecans.com

We had originally planned on setting up with ten round tables outside, like these pictures:

from RoyaltyPecans.com

from RoyaltyPecans.com

from RoyaltyPecans.com

from RoyaltyPecans.com

But, a little complaining from Mother Nature forced us to move inside the cafe. We ended up putting the tables in this space:

I was working with a very, very limited decor budget, so I opted for grocery store flowers. I ran to Kroger and HEB the night before and bought spider mums, purple poms, gerber daisies, and limonium. I purchased the glassware outside of my budget and kept it...I figured I'd use it for my real wedding or something. We did two different centerpieces. Both had fabric squares of calico (calico was on sale), one in navy and cream plaid and one in dark red and cream gingham. I cut them with pinking shears (no sewing required! rustic!).

This was taken right after those  poor flowers emerged from the back of my car, so they look a little disheveled, but you get the idea. The cyclinder vases were $1 each at HobLob with a 50% off sale. The vase got a bit of navy satin ribbon and some raffia, and was filled with the purple poms and dyed limonium.

These candleholders were 50 cents during a 50% sale at HobLob, and they were filled with river rocks and a merlot votive, then tied with some brown gingham ruffled elastic trim (clearance aisle!!) and raffia.

For the second centerpiece I bought these bubble bowls (like $4ish each), put a red satin ribbon and raffia around them, and filled them with bigger river rocks, water, and a floating dark red gerber daisy (or two).

My bridesmaid Kristen has requested that I make centerpieces like this for her wedding. We'll see.

This next picture shows the space all filled. It ended up working well inside. We were close to the buffet (tea sandwiches, fruit and cheese, petit fours desserts) and away from the threat of wind and rain.

If you look closely at this next picture, you'll see one of the tea stations!

See it in the back? One of my favorite things about the event was the tea. We had an iced tea station with sweeteened raspberry tea and peach tea in the big jars, and ice and unsweetened tea to the side. Splenda, sugar, lemon, etc. were all there as well. On the other side of the room there was a hot tea station with teacups, hot tea, and all the fixings.

Toward the end of the event the skies cleared up and we were able to go out and enjoy the pretty view and take some pictures.

Me with Bridesmaid Pilar

My Mommy with Bridesmaid Pilar's Mommy!

See how pretty it is? Looove those trees.

I consider myself pretty lucky to have been able to have this event as well as my wedding to plan. I was able to do a lot of the country-chic stuff that I decided not to go with for the wedding, and it was a fun challenge to stay under the sorority's small budget. What do you think? Isn't Royalty Pecan Farms cute?

All pictures are personal photos unless otherwise noted.