Category: Huntsville State Park wedding

Huntsville, Huntsville State Park wedding, Raven Lodge, Texas, vintage style, wedding

The Weekend Country Wedding

Karen

Well the big day has come and gone for Baby Boy and Sweet Amanda.  I now officially have a daughter-in-law and I couldn’t be prouder.  My daughter the southern bell and her fiancee were also able to be at Star Hill for the weekend.  The wedding was beautiful.  Sweet Amanda was stunning in her gown.  I do believe that I had no idea how much work holding a vintage wedding at a state park would be for both families ( mostly Sweet Amanda’s mom and dad), the kids’ friends and family friends but I think we would would gladly do it again (just not tomorrow please) to see how happy that it made the kids.  The ceremony was held at Huntsville State Park in the Raven Lodge.

The lodge is located overlooking a small lake.  It is really a site suited to Sweet Amanda’s vintage-rustic-elegant style.

The site was transformed from a blank slate into a beautiful site.

Raven Lodge was transformed in one morning into a beautiful site by a group of Baby Boy’s friends who unloaded and arranged 200 chairs and 20 tables, rigged the lighting, and even carried out stuff for centerpieces.  The brides’ buddies brought in boxes of treasures to decorate every square inch and her parents started working at 8:00 in the morning without stopping until after midnight with the cleanup.  The groom had the best deal going because of the no seeing the bride on the wedding day rule.  Sweet Amanda was at the site until 2:00 for her 5:30pm wedding.  You will see her a lot in the pictures below because she really did oversee the whole process.

 The bride hard at it.  She was cutting ribbons to hang from the sconces in the chapel.

Tara completing the chalkboard for the entrance to the chapel.
The results were amazing.  The pictures I have are certainly not going to show you how beautiful everything looked, but I hope you get an idea of what a beautiful wedding they had.

 The center of each table was a funky mix of books, bottles and vintage items.

 This is MUCH better than the Texas Parks and Wildlife poster that is mounted to the fireplace.  Some of Amanda’s friends literally went home and got curtains to cover the poster.  Other friends added the window frame, the flowers a chalkboard with Sweet Amanda’s favorite verse and some of the vintage luggage that dotted the entire wedding.

 Sweet Amanda asked people to bring sweets for a sweets table.  This is the set up before the food arrived.  It was beautiful and delicious. I loved the painted frame chalkboard on the table.

 This was the start of the sign in table.  My friend Tanis brought an antique table up and decorated the table with vintage items.  One of the coolest things that she did is to set up three Mason jars for the guests to write wishes for the couple to open on their 1st, 5th, and 10th anniversary.  The frame was used to display pictures of the kids growing up.  The sign in book was on this table.  I wish I thought to take pictures of the finished product.  It was beautiful

The view from the chapel windows.  It looks out over the lake.
I only have a few pictures from the beautiful wedding.  I was a little busy and forgot all about taking pictures but I have collected these to show you a few to show you that it was all worth the effort.  Their smiles the entire evening warmed my heart. 

Thank you to those of you who shared in our joy.  We truly feel blessed to have a family and friends who ventured up to the country in July heat to share in this special moment. 


Chalkboard DIY, chalkboard paint on furniture, DIY, DIY Projects, Huntsville State Park wedding, ornate chalkboard frames, repurposed frame, resale finds, Reused frame, reusing an old frame, Weddings

DIY Framed Chalkboard

Karen

Project number two from the weekend was to turn a frame that Sweet Amanda and her mom found at a thrift store into a chalkboard.  That girl is quite the thrifter!  She found an amazing gilded frame in the trash that will make an appearance at the wedding and I think she paid $3.00 for this one:

The frame was in overall good shape.  I believe it once held a large mirror and is made out of particle board.  It is HEAVY!  There was some damage to the front of the frame that allowed the particle board to show through in a couple of places.

Sweet Amanda plans on having her wedding program written out on the chalkboard as everyone enters the wedding chapel so she wanted it to be fancy yet rustic/vintage… just her style. I could not figure out how to fix the damage to the front of the frame without totally redoing the finish…so I repainted and refinished it.  I sure wish I were more talented and could have just touched it up but it would have not looked right with my lack of skill.

Between showers I laid the frame outside and got out spray paint.  I am not the best spray painter in the world.  I tend to spray too much in one spot.  I really focused on thin even coats of gold spray paint this time.  I also had some shiny silver paint in the cabinet so I very lightly sprayed a coat of the silver over the gold.

The frame looked a little scary at this point.  I had visions of having to call Sweet Amanda to tell her I ruined the frame.

After the frame dried and before the rain came, I brought it in to the Garagemahal.  The frame is really divided into four concentric rectangles so I decided to work on applying the antiquing glaze one whole rectangle at a time.

Working with such deep detail on a large frame meant really working fast.  Even as humid as it was the glaze dried quickly.  I use cut up t shirts to wipe off the excess because the cotton really seems to pick up any puddles and it allows me to get into the small spaces.  I have two t shirt towels going at one time.  One is for the first wipe over and it is really gross, the other is for the second wipe over and is more clean.  When the second rag starts to get dirty I demote it to the first wipe over rag and get a new second rag.

After I finished the entire frame, I went back over everything at one time with a fresh rag… really rubbing hard. Some gold and some silver shows through the glaze.

I loved the results.  The frame really does look like an old plaster frame for $7.00 in gold paint and left over silver paint I would have to say the frame was a success.

The next step was to make the chalkboard part.  Hubby cut a piece of hardboard to fit the frame on his table saw.  We buy tons of hardboard.  It comes in 4 X 8 by 1/8 sheets and costs about $8.00 a sheet.  I use it to put backs on furniture we recycle, I paint on in like canvas and about a million other uses.  I primed the hardboard with Kiltz primer before I started painting on the chalkboard paint.  I bought Rustoelum chalkboard paint in a can to use and got out the foam roller and small paint tray.  My advice is that if the chalkboard you are making is small, go with the spray paint version. The paint on version of the paint was a pain in the neck. I wanted the finish to be smooth so I rolled on thin layers of the paint.  It took 4 coats to get the finish I could tolerate and it is still not perfectly smooth.

The picture above is after coat number one.

After the chalkboard paint dried over night I put the board into the frame.  We were really lucky here, the frame had some easy to use tabs that made putting the board in a snap.  I was pleased with the results.  According to the directions, I have to wait three days for the paint to cure then condition the chalkboard by rubbing the entire board with chalk then wiping it off.  After that it will be ready for use.  I will make sure to post a picture from the wedding.

On the Internet there are several crafters who have posted making their own chalkboard paint by adding un-sanded powered grout to regular latex paint.  I may try that down the line.

TADAH!  At the wedding.  Not bad for a resale find.