But Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

      So, a couple of months ago we were invited to a wedding.  Adam, the son of my DH's oldest friend was getting married in another friend's backyard.  Michelle's backyard, to be exact.Now, I don't know about you, but I've been to many backyard weddings.  Some rented tables and chairs, maybe a decorated arch, a lot of tulle, and some pastel and/or white flowers.  Maybe red roses if there was enough money in the budget.  Backyards are generally large, communicating a them on that scale is difficult and costly.  Most backyard weddings all end up looking the same.                                                                                                   

Not this one!  This was a miracle of decor, I tell you.  Michelle, with lots of help from another friend, Tammy, hunted down every last piece of anything with a picture of a cherry on it!  I didn't even get pictures of everything there was to see. 

There were little, hand-painted, cherry-decorated birdhouses (like the one above) hanging from all the trees - dozens of treehouses!  There were more birdhouses hanging from the fenceposts and in other strategic spots throughout the yard.  

There were prints of cherry paintings hanging from the fence (see below).  There were cherry printed bowls, teapots, pitchers, cups, platters, aprons, ribbons, tableclosths, and napkins.  There were tiny, little pieces of cherry printed fabric peeking out of miniature picnic baskets.                                                                       

There were little tableaux set up throughout the yard.  On the side of the house, in one small alcove was a little shelf with  a cherry printed tea set, red and white gingham fabric, and black, cherry printed fabric accessorized with glass domes, decorative iron birds, cherry printed basketry and red and white polka-dotted ribbon.  (telephoto at right and below, as well as a view of the whole tableau).         

In the breezeway between the house and the garage - always a very cutely decorated spot, the wrought iron and crystal chandelier is always there - was a buffet table filled with cherry printed serving dishes.  The fence was decorated with an adorable, vintage apron, some vintage cherry prints, and other super-cute decorations (some of which are also always there).  One one wall of this area is a fabulous, hand made, rustic buffet cabinet made by Adam's dad a few years ago.   In it, there were cherry printed cannisters, napkins, candlesticks, bowls...okay, you get the idea.  There's a picture of it below.                                

One of my favorite things was a little area she had set up behind the garden shed - which, btw, I should have take a picture of as well because it looks like a little girl's playhouse instead of a garden shed.  Absolutely adorable! Anyway, behind it she had set up an area for the photographer to
take pictures of the wedding guests.  There was a little white bench with a couple of cherry-printed pillows on it.  Above that, on the wall of the shed, she hung a framed, vintage advertising poster that said, "We tend to Seek Happiness."  Of course there was more to the saying, being that it was an advertisement for cherries, but that was the best part.  You can see it there on the right.  How sweet is that set-up?  I got a picture of Rexy just as she as jumping off the bench.

Another on of my favorite things was that apron on the side of the fence.  How cute is that?  With the light shining through it like that, it felt like you were walking into an old movie.
Those birdhouses hanging from the trees were just fantastic, too.  When you walked under the trees, it was so cool to look up
 and see them swaying in the (barely discernible) breeze (did I mention that it was 96 degrees that day? Hairdo and makeup just melted away...).

Out front she had some statuary wearing this hat with the dingle balls on it and I don't know if

you can see them, but there are little cherry charms hanging between each dingle ball.  Who thinks of these things???  Michelle.  (Yes, that's me in the hat.  I cut off the whole bottom half of my face!  Oh, well.  Rexy looks much cuter in it anyway, there's one pic below)

To the right here (hopefully, when I publish this everything will be formatted the way it is here in the "compose" mode - I don't know about you, but I often have problems with blogger just randomly changing my spacing and formatting.  Sigh.  One of those bugs I hope they fix some day.) is a picture of the "dance floor."  she has a little tinted, cement patio outside the garden shed/playhouse that was utilized
 as a dance floor.  There are pillows on the ground and on the benches - all with a cherry print.  The fence is decorated, as I mentioned above.
So tell me, how cute is all this??? I didn't even show all the tables set up with their cherry printed tablecloths, the lawn furniture with their cherry printed pillows, and everything else that I've forgotten to mention.  And, I would like to add, it wasn't too much.  Everything was tempered with enough white and touches of black to keep it from being overwhelming.  But it's a big yard, so you do need a lot of things to get your point across.   When you walked up the garden path and turned the corner, there was no doubt what the theme was, but it was charming and pretty across the board (or should I say "across the lawn?").  It was so charming and pretty that I just had to share it with you.  And, hands up from everyone who thinks Michelle should be doing something professional in this arena!

I'll leave you with a picture of my beautiful girl having fun with the hat.

(Seems like I should have had her in red and white gingham doesn't it?  The was no dress to be found like that, plus she picked this one herself.)

Hmmmm.  Too much space here at the end.  Off topic, I want to ask, how many of you have participated in the Melange Team's weekly challenge?  Why not start today?  The challenge for the week starting Wednesday, September 16th, is "Wee Witches."





Just make something using the theme "Wee Witches" and then post about it on your blog or Flickr page.  Then,  in the comments section of the challenge post (won't be up until Wednesday, I'm jumping the gun a little here), post a comment including a hot link to your blog post.  There are usually directions for including a hot link (i.e. a clickable link - not a copy and paste situation, it just makes it easier on everybody).  If not, here are directions.  (That site also has some mighty cute, free blog backgrounds - just FYI)