Rustic Wedding with Birds and Acorns

I've been brainstorming over the last couple of days about our own wedding. Part of me imagines something very classy and elegant. While we are most definitely on a budget, I do have a keen eye for detail and I am a budget-shopper like you wouldn't believe. The other part of me loves quaint, charming and quirky. I'd like to be able to incorporate both elements, but it's a little harder than I would've imagined to find a good balance of both.

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Here are some of the key elements that I wanted to include in this inspiration board:

We live in "The Evergreen State" (Washington), so it's easy to imagine a woodsy element for our wedding. I'm a little too girly to go for full-blown rustic, but I like the idea of rustic with a touch of crafty cuteness. (Etsy, here I come!) I included pictures from Suzi Q (upper left corner) and Josh Goleman (lower right corner) to highlight a feeling of rustic elegance and whimsical romance.

Speaking of rustic elegance and crafty cuteness, I love these Penny Loves Kenny shoes! And they're less than $40!

As is probably apparent by now, I'm mildly obsessed with lovebird themes. I found the cute lovebird cake toppers at RedLightStudio on Etsy. The love bird ring nest is from Y&E Bridal on Etsy.

I designed the wedding invitation in the middle. It's harder to tell in this format, but it has a wood-grain background. I changed our names for privacy.

The acorn boutonniere, dessert tableau and the white chocolate speckled quail eggs are by Martha Stewart. I'm not sure how they did it, but they have a moss table covering on the tables that I think gives a great enchanted forest feeling.

If you saw my first inspiration board, you saw that we'd like to incorporate acorns into our wedding. When I saw this acorn cakelette pan at Williams-Sonoma, I thought they would make adorable wedding favors. I've baked them a few times now using different recipes ranging from a delicate maple flavor to a sweetly spicy pumpkin flavor. To add a little extra oomph, I brush the acorn caps with maple syrup and then dip them into raw turbinado sugar. (Although I didn't take this picture, or ever put my acorn cakelettes on the floor for a photo op.)

The oak branch and acorn candle holders retail for about $100 each, but I did some negotiating and I bought several of them for about a fourth of that! They're really high quality and heavy weight, and we're hoping to use them as part of our centerpieces if we can find a venue that allows us to use them. Otherwise, spoiler alert for friends and family -- you may be getting one of these for Christmas, or as a thank you for helping us with the wedding. Act surprised!

The earthy brown and green candy buffet is by Rebecca Thuss, one of the queens of event planning.