Alyson & Shane - Tablescaping at Joseph Ambler Inn

When Alyson first contacted me and told me where and when her wedding was going to be, I asked her if she believed in fate. I didn't want her to think I was crazy, but exactly three years ago on her wedding date, my daughter was also married at the Joseph Ambler Inn. I was so excited to think that I might have the opportunity to work there again on her anniversary. Fortunately, Alyson did not think I was "nuts" and scheduled an appointment. However, right before her lovely mom and she arrived, we lost our electricity. We did as much as we could in the daylight, but then it got dark outside. Alyson and her mom were real troopers while we carried on by the light of many, many candles. In spite of the unusual circumstances, I was so thrilled that they liked my ideas and gave me the opportunity to work with these two very lovely ladies.

Alyson wanted her wedding to have a natural, garden feel to it. She chose a wonderful, cool summer color pallete of white, pink, coral, and green. Alyson's bouquet was filled with a large variety of garden flowers, berries, and beautiful greens including lisianthus and dahlias. Shane's lisianthus and hypericum berry boutonniere was accented with a hosta leaf that I cut from my own garden.

Alyson's MoH carried a pretty pink and coral bouquet of alstromeria and godetia.

The ceremony took place under the large tree on the front lawn of JAI. We decorated the arch with fresh fern and a garland of ivy, greens, and cremones. Antique looking metal cones were filled with green hydrangea, peach hypericum berries and tied onto stands with coral ribbon. It was a lovely setting for a "garden" wedding. Guests were treated to a string quartet serenade while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Cocktails were served on the outside patio. We set up a large vase of garden flowers and greens to accent the placecard table.

Inside the ballroom we used a variety of mostly milk glass bud vases and filled them with a mix of flowers. We wanted the mirror ledges to look like we had just gone into our garden and plucked a few of our favorite flowers to share with the wedding guests. We mixed in candles to reflect the light in the mirrors and create a more romantic look.

We used a mix of several types of glass vases to line Alyson & Shane's sweetheart table and filled them with a variety of pretty summer flowers.

We used small collections of similar vases to tablescape the guest tables. Alyson chose groupings of some old fashioned glass types including old bottles, milk glass vases, green glass vases, and cut glass vases. We filled them all with a wide variety of summer flowers in pinks, whites, green, and coral including hydrangea, cottage yarrow, roses, asters, stock and more. The flowers not only looked really pretty, many of them had a wonderful scent. The variety of vases and flowers did indeed give the ballroom a feel of just having picked these flowers from the outside gardens.