The History of our Vintage Botanical Wedding

How did this vintage botanical wedding happen? Well, it happened in a blink of an eye. Only yesterday, my precious boy was asking for another bowl of cereal, needing to be picked up from soccer practice, and walking across a makeshift, pandemic stage with cardboard cutouts of admin, and all of a sudden he was a man. By a twist of fate, he ended back home from college for an operation and met a girl.

Nevertheless, when it’s the right one, it changes everything. My little man, was a grown man and there was no denying it. It couldn’t have been a more scripted meet-cute if I had written it myself. Head over heals, he knew he needed a career and joined the Navy. Finally, when we went to see him graduate from boot camp, his girlfriend went with us.

Interestingly, what you need to know is that twenty-eight years ago, I went to see my sailor graduate from boot camp in Chicago and he asked me to marry him (that’s a story for another time). Fast forward, with symmetry, poetry, and a lot of goofy romance, my son proposes to his girlfriend at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

And badda-bing we’re planning a wedding so she can be with him at Nuke school in South Carolina. Her theme, of course, was to have a vintage botanical wedding. Rightly, what follows is a DIY, How To and bit of inspo for anyone else interested in a vintage botanical wedding theme, and since you’re on my site, I think you might be into that (wink). I’d like to believe if my characters (spoilers) in The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress got married, they’d have this type of wedding. Plus, my daughter-in-law is convinced I manisfested Chas (my son) going into the Navy because the love interest for Violet (1940s main character) is named Charles. Read it and you decide!

The Centerpieces

We had a total of nine centerpieces and the photog didn’t capture them all and I was too busy helping with food and trying not to ugly cry at my son finding his mate so early and so completely, that I didn’t capture all of our beauties. The vintage botanical wedding centerpieces were each unique and hand-crafted by me, my daughter, and my (now) daughter-in-law. You can save money making these vintage botanical wedding centerpieces bases by cutting your own wooden rounds or finding them on places like Amazon. I had looked online, but we were on a budget and so my sailor (now retired) cut them for us from a recently felled tree. In places, we had to glue the bark on with wood glue, but it worked out great. We used a glue gun to glue the bigger pieces and some of the hanging moss bits to the rounds and items. It peeled off easily later!

Where to Find Elements of Centerpieces

• Thrift Stores for vintage botanical wedding idea
• Yard Sales
• Craigs List
• FB Marketplace
• Granny’s House
• Amazon (dried flowers and moss)
• Temu (Don’t come at me, great prices)
• Antique Stores

Items to Include (but not limited to)

• Brass candle holders
• Small lanterns
• Wooden sculptural pieces
• Small vintage looking bottles
• atomizers
• antlers
• taxidermied butterflies
• Vintage insect pins
• Dried flowers (some Amazon, some I bought at the grocery story and dried myself, especially the roses)
• Mini Topiaries
• Vintage botantical postcards
• Miniature vintage books (I even made some keepsake ones)
• Wood glue
• Hot glue gun

Bouquets, Party Favors & More

Sarah, my daughter-in-law, put together all the bouquets with vintage botanical wedding vibes with flowers both she and I bought. Ultimately, I have to say she did an amazing job. The key is to pick your color scheme and not go too far from it, adding flowers outward as you progress, the smaller flowers towards the outside. We also carried the motif through for the groom and bride table, the party favors (more on that below) and the pre-dinner charcuterie table. Here’s some inspo pix to help you:

Custom Seed Packet Covers for Wedding Favors

Using midjourney AI, I spent hours trying to get their colors and vibe to custom design covers (sticky back sheets) to put atop the ordered seed packets. Once I got images that worked, I had to spend hours tweaking them and then overlaying text with their wedding particulars. Then I found an ornate wooden shelf at a thrift store, turned it upside down, painted it, and added moss to display the packets on the gift table.

Blank Seed Packets for You

Since you’re my faithful readers, I want to give you the template to create your own. You’ll need to right click and download these blanks and then use a design program to insert text. I have an old PC and believe it or not I used Paint and Publisher to add my text.

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Have you had or helped with a vintage inspo wedding? What can you share that would help others? What info was the most helpful for you today? Please comment and share. I love to interact with readers! If this post have been of value, considering buying me a cuppa. click on yellow link!

Tam Francis is a writer, blogger, swing dance teacher, avid vintage collector, and seamstress. She shares her love of this genre through her novels, blog, and short stories. She enjoys hearing from you, sharing ideas, forging friendships, and exchanging guest blogs. For all the Girl in the Jitterbug Dress news, give-aways, events, and excitement, make sure to join her list and like her FB page! Join my list ~