Rustic DIY Wedding Cocktail Hour
Chris and I absolutely love games: board games, video games, escape the room and scavenger hunts! We wanted to add our personal gaming flair to our cocktail hour and, perhaps, went a little overboard.
Hashtag Scavenger Hunt
Our venue had a many strange and magical items. We wanted to encourage the guests to wander the grounds, so we crafted a scavenger hunt. To celebrate our 7 years together, we’ve selected 7 of our favorite Nestldown attractions for guests to find.
As guests entered the cocktail area they passed a large scavenger hunt display. I bought a large vintage chalkboard ($40) from my friend Traci that she had found at the Alameda Flea Market. Chris and I re-painted the chalk paint and I drew the design on with a chalk marker ($5.50) using this transfer method I found on Pinterest. The chalkboard flips and we used the other side at our entrance.
Elise created the beautiful coral paper flowers and Traci gave me the wooden crates. Chris and I designed the scavenger hunt pamphlet together. Chris arranged the Super Mario map that hinted at the position of the attractions and I designed the list. We placed them in a rustic tin pail ($8).
For guests who wanted to use their phones, we borrowed and bought selfie sticks ($14.99). For guests who still have flip phones, like my dad, we purchased 6 disposable film cameras ($13.70 for 3).
In the end, it seemed like most of the guests enjoyed the hunt and we loved making it! We spent the first half of cocktail hour doing our formal family wedding shoot, so I wasn’t able to see it in action. Checking Instagram the next day was extremely fun and we can’t wait to developed the disposable camera film. However — if you want to do something like this: no one used the selfie sticks and only half of the disposable cameras were used.
Growler Table Decor
To be honest, I totally forgot about decorating the cocktail tables until our last meeting with the caterer. Chris had been keeping multiple growlers from his favorite breweries in our tiny pantry for months. I had asked him to pair down multiple times, but was suddenly stoked that he did not when I found this inspiration on Pinterest.
We went to the SF Flower Mart two days before the wedding and bought the ferns ($5). Then, thinking that that might not be enough, I frantically bought 3 rope and glass lanterns ($10.22).
Gold Framed Seating Chart
Originally I wanted to just have the seating chart and no escort cards. Turns out that means the caterer doesn’t know what food your guest ordered. So we had both!
We borrowed the gold frame from my friend Laura, strung up the grey & white bakers twine we purchased for the reserved seat tags, and used mini-clothing pins to hang the table number sheets I designed.
Photos: Foot Candles Photography & Allison McCarthy
Venue: Nestldown
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