I was hanging out with Joellyn, the proprietress of the Carr Mansion in Galveston and took notice of all the flags she had lining the white fence around the property. That got me thinking about how fun it would be to have a 4th of July wedding there. Since it was last minute, I got to exercise my DIY juices and we pulled everything together in an afternoon.

Since it’s hot in southeast Texas in July, we imagined this to be pretty casual, but not lacking in character, because who doesn’t want to pop outside for a bit on the 4th?! We used the vine wall in the covered pavilion for our ceremony backdrop concept. To create a focal point, I purchased some white, blue and gold paper fan decorations from Target, along with silver and gold star garland. All in it cost about $20.

The 4th of July wedding tablescape we put together was red, white, blue and fun. We used a standard white table cloth with a blue and white striped table runner. We also went with simple white dishes you can get from pretty much any rentals vendor. The festive, starry cloth napkins were Target finds! To keep the vibe on the lighter side, we went with bottles of Coca-Cola for “favors” because there’s nothing like a soda (or pop for my midwestern peeps) on a hot summer day!

Because the tables on site at the Carr are 40 inch rounds, they don’t require large centerpieces to look filled out. We set a red, glass lantern in the center of the table with florals on either side. Normally I’d have had a floral designer craft the arrangements in shorter containers, but we were in a pinch, so I bought a bulk of flowers at Randalls and used vases we had on hand. Each arrangement contained white hydrangea, red roses and a single painted blue rose as an accent.

Instead of a cake, I tried to imagine what other favorite dessert might be fun for the holiday. I initially thought apple pie would work best, but Texans LOVE beignets so I had The Gumbo Diner whip us up a dozen. To make the display, we stacked the beignets onto a cake stand and sprinkled each layer with red sugar.

The “Oh say can you see the love” banner was a DIY project. You can make your own by printing out each word on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper and then painting or coloring in the letters with glue and sprinkling with red glitter. This is actually an easy way to make lots of different banners, signs and cards and I use this trick all the time.

Carr Mansion is a perfect island venue for weddings up to 45 people. Contact Joellyn at info@carrmansion.com and let her know I sent you!

Want to see more from around the mansion? Check out Stephanie and Kurt’s engagement session!

EVENT VENDORS

Venue / Carr Mansion
Ceremony Backdrop / Target
Flowers / Randalls
Beignets / The Gumbo Diner