One thing my sister really wanted in her wedding was garlands of silver dollar eucalyptus branches over the doors at her venue.But she was on a budget, and the places that did have it, didn’t have it in stock (and were super crazy expensive, nonetheless!) My mom was just going to buy the fake kind at Hobby Lobby… and I was like: NOoooooOOOO! Well, God works in mysterious ways, because just days before the wedding, I was driving with my mom to the mall and we saw a silver dollar eucalyptus tree on the side of the road… We are from San Diego where they are growing left and right, but my mom had never seen them growing in South Carolina.

So my awesome aunt and uncle went with me a few days before the wedding to see if we could cut some of it for the wedding. Honestly, the tree looked in rough shape… it had probably taken a bolt of lightning or two, so we weren’t even sure if it would be in good condition.

It was a total “God thing” because it happened to be in a church parking lot. So I went in, and explained how we had seen that they had a eucalyptus tree in the front, and that my sister was getting married in a few days and had been looking for this exact tree, and asked if we could please have the bottom branches for her wedding.

The pastor’s response: “Oh, you mean the tree we are going to cut down? Yeah, sure.”

So we got a full carload of branches… for free!

Btw, I don’t recommend climbing a eucalyptus tree with bare feet- I found out the hard way that their splinters really hurt!

We went around my parent’s house and picked some other tree and bush branches for greenery filler while we were at it. We seriously had a few carloads of the stuff, which was really great, because a lot of it was kind of eaten up, so we sorted the “prime condition” branches (for the bouquets and centerpieces) and the “usable” branches, for the garlands.

And then we got to work.

I really didn’t do much of the assemble. My aunt has done lots of weddings, so she was the one who did the bouquets, centerpieces and garlands. What would we have done without you, Aunt Stephanie?!

I originally thought that the room didn’t even need eucalyptus garlands, but once seeing it, there was no going back. It was breath taking.

For the flowers, my mom bought 100 white roses and 100 stems of white hydrangeas from Sam’s Club.

My aunt put them together with the branches and made “floating bouquets” in the vases.

This combination was the perfect way to have an expensive looking wedding while staying under around $200 for flowers.

Realistically, the branches alone should have cost us $1K

We put some on the cake stand too (but not touching the food!)

It was so perfect- I wish you all could just see for yourself how amazing it was.

It seriously looked like heaven.

Aren’t the bouquets gorgeous!

And here’s the bride’s bouquet. Ah! LOVE!!!!

Here’s to amazing fmaily members who pull together to make this wedding work. Seriously, my family knows how to hustle!

We even did a vine looking garland by the cake table.

Okay, I’ll be quiet and let you take in the space for yourself.

Seriously though, best wedding ever!

See more photos of the wedding HERE.