Citrus-Themed Day After Brunch

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Out of everything that went into the preparation for our vow renewal, I probably had the most fun and least stress planning the day after brunch.  It was held at South City Kitchen in Midtown, just steps from our hotel blocks and our venue from the vow renewal the night before.

Orange as a wedding color has always inspired me, so I knew that I wanted to use it for the brunch.  It’s so fresh and clean!  I kept things super-simple, bringing in only one accent color (yellow) and using lots of fresh fruit as decor.

Each place setting was decorated with an orange wrapped in parchment paper and tied with raffia.  The leaves were goccoed with “Bonne Annee!”, French for Happy New Year, written in calligraphy by Laura Hooper (continuing the slightly-French theme that was carried through from our RSVP packets, do not disturb signs, menus, and other printed items).

{Jessica Claire}

The bar was lined with oranges and lemons, purchased from Whole Foods and donated to a local food bank after the event.

{Jessica Claire}

You might recognize the tissue paper wreath!  I loved how it turned out and even though it’s a time-consuming project, I would highly recommend it to anyone.

{Jessica Claire}

A tip as you are working with venues: if they already have fresh floral or decor in place, ask them if they will place their order in your colors/theme.  South City Kitchen displayed a flower arrangement already and they were perfectly happy to order it for that week in orange and yellow.  Free decor for me!

{Jessica Claire}

Because it was January 1, the restaurant was not open, so we had the entire place to ourselves.  South City Kitchen is just such a perfect space and the food is just to die for…

{Mark Brooke}

{Jessica Claire}

{Jessica Claire}

{Jessica Claire}

… especially their made-from-scratch banana pudding.  Le sigh.

{Jessica Claire}

Now for a few more fun DIY projects!  I purchased several dozen mango-colored hemstitch cocktail napkins and using a drawing by Laura, I embroidered oranges onto the napkins in white thread.  They were a huge hit - several guests asked if they could take home a dozen of them, and I happily obliged!

{Jenna}

{Jessica Claire}

Favors were assortments of our favorite candies.  I purchased mango-colored boxes from Papermart and used Martha Stewart’s template to create dividers for the candy.  The top label was goccoed in orange ink and said “Sweet Treats”.  Kim and Julie displayed the boxed favors perfectly using cake stands and wrapped oranges as props. A few tissue paper pomanders I created with left-over wreath material completed the look.

{Jessica Claire}

{Jenna}

{guest photo}

Inside the boxes was a little goodbye message for the guests.  In the four squares of the dividers, under the candies, I goccoed “We miss you already!”.  I got lots of calls after people ate their candy and discovered the surprise!

{Jenna}

You’ve seen enough photos of my husband and I to last you a lifetime, so I’m only including one from our brunch portrait session here - how COOL is this shadow picture?

{Jessica Claire}

As I close the photo recaps from the event, a huge huge thank you has to go to our amazing photographers, Jessica Claire, Mark Brooke, and Michael Norwood!

{photo by Jenna on Jessica’s camera!}

So that’s all my friends!  My last post will be a quick recap of the DIY projects for the event - a full list including instructions (or links to instructions) for everything.  If there is anything else you’d like to hear about please let me know!  :)

xo,
E.

The archive of our vow renewal recaps can be found {here}.