So as soon as Emma knew she was getting married we started planning. On pinterest of course ;) Pinterest has added a lot of fun to my life, I really love that app. Anywho we knew we would be using the LDS church because that is just what we do as Mormons but also because it is free :) Free is good. Only downfall to the free is that I truly hate that it is in a gym with the ugly basketball hoops and all. So we decided we really wanted to cover it all up and make it look like it is not a gym. There is a little problem though and that is money, always the money issue ugh!! Well Isaac's Mom told us about a wedding she went to that the family had used Painters plastic instead of expensive material!! So we ran with it. I spent months gathering light's and decorations and all the things I figured we would need. I was very worried that this whole thing would look like a Pinterest fail!! I had nightmares and stewed and fretted for months and when it came down to the actual decoration day I just prayed it wouldn't look like we had decorated with plastic and sticks lol!! Because we live in the gorgeous NW I have awesome friends that have all kinds of cool foliage in their yards and they let me come and cut curly willow branches off of the trees. I also gathered many pinecones and cooked the bugs out of them. I really wanted the gym to look like a winter wonderland! So here are the pictures of the process, or as much of it as we captured on our phone's, thank heavens Tyler was on the ball and took them from the very beginning ;) Marc also came and took pictures for us! He is very talented and very kind to come and do this for us! Many many thanks to all the family that traveled up to help me with this crazy idea and for the hours and hours of labor they put into it, it turned out beautifully and I am so happy and I know the bride was happy also :)
We started on the ceiling Thursday night. The other ward had the building that night so we waited until 8:30 to start. We had to put the wire around the perimeter of the gym, we were lucky and someone had already put the eyebolts up so we just had to put the wire around. In the middle of the gym was a hook on a pulley that we used to hold the hoop in the middle, then we cut the plastic long enough to loop over it and then go over the wire and hang down to the floor. It took 4 boxes of plastic that was 12' by 400'. I can't remember how many lights we had. I bought 12 strands of white lights and rented 22 strands of lights. My sister had brought I think 6 strands of lights and the Darrah's had a friend that had a huge tub full of lights and we probably used around 20 of their strands of lights. The hoop in the middle was holding a lot of weight. We made the hoop out of PVC conduit, George had to heat it and bend it into a hoop.
After we doubled the plastic over the hoop we had to open up all the folds so we could fill in the open areas.
 |
| tubs of lights and one of the boxes of painters plastic |
 |
| so many lights |
All that plastic opening made our hair stand out on end haha.
Look at them go!! One of the hardest parts about working with painters plastic was that it is really easy to rip! The lights would kind of snag so we had to be careful. The lights were hard in that you could only have so many strands hooked together before a fuse would blow.
This was getting exciting!! I was starting to think it wouldn't be a pinterest fail!!
 |
| So tired!! |
So about here we went home, I think it was 11:30! I am not a night owl so yikes!! I only worried after George said he hoped that the pulley and rope and hoop could hold all that weight....so all night I couldn't sleep. It was a long night haha.
Saturday we got back to work at 9:30. Oh another person that went the extra mile is Diane Meacham, I rented all the table cloths and lights and some of the greenery from her and because mother nature decided to dump snow on us just before the wedding I couldn't make it to her house out in the hills so she and her husband and daughter and Son-in-law brought everything to us. It was very nice and helped so much with the stress. So here we are back at work on the ceiling.
and walls :)
 |
| Pizza break :) |
 |
| Plastic and branches!!! |
Noreen and Jackie went to work on the back drop :) It turned out great and all the lights worked if we bumped them just right haha, I can laugh now :)
 |
| Noreen and Judy and Jackie working back drop |
Sid spent most of the day steaming the table cloths and he did a great job!!
So Emma was the YSA Relief Society President up to the wedding and she became friends with Sister Clark (in the green) any way the sisters wanted to come help so we put them to work making the sticks look magical :)
We did a hot chocolate bar :)
The Darrah's had another family friend that had these lighted tree branch tri-folds so we of course put them to use :)
 |
| Dallin loved decorating haha |
Not sure what is going on in this picture but it made me laugh haha :)
It is all looking so pretty!! If we could have changed the floor you wouldn't even know it was a gym :) Just what I wanted :)
I do believe we decorated until 6:30 or 7!! Boy was I tired by the time we were done. Only one more sleep hoping that nothing fell haha! It looked very magical and beautiful! I was very pleased with all our hard work : )
