Philadelphia Wedding Project

Six terrific Philadelphia photographers are offering their services FREE to one deserving couple - no strings attached. If you or someone you know has a unique personal story and would be interested in this amazing offer, please check out this website and submit your story as soon as possible. http://www.philadelphiaweddingproject.com/ As I understand it, there will be several other vendors who are offering free or extremely discounted services as part of the package as well. This should be a dream come true for one special Philadelphia couple. Good luck!

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.

Lauren & Ryan - Many shades of Red Roses

Lauren's ceremony and reception took place at Manor House in Horsham. On that day, I had the good fortune to work with Jennifer O'Neil, who I consider to be the best banquet manager that they have there. She is a total sweetheart and Lauren was thrilled with her too. Lauren and I put in a lot of time together perfecting her flowers and I think it was well worth it. Lauren and I were both really happy with the outcome.

Lauren wanted a wedding full of red roses to complement her color pallete of red, white, and black. Her bouquet consisted of two shades of red roses, while the bridesmaids carried smaller bunches of just one shade of red rose with touches of white bouvardia. Ryan wore one shade of red rose from Lauren's bouquet, while groomsmen wore the other shade. We also used orchids for the Moms' corsages and calla lilies for the Dads' and Lauren's brother's boutonnieres. Grandmoms wore corsages of spray roses. All of the personal flowers coordinated so beautifully.

There was a threat of rain all day. The skies were black when we finally left. The staff at Manor House set up the ceremony both inside and outside - just in case. We left the ceremony flowers inside as a precaution, but in the end, they were able to have the ceremony outside just as Lauren wanted it. The single rose was one of a pair that Lauren and Ryan would exchange as part of their ceremony. Obviously there is a twin to the arrangement on the other side.

Manor House has so many wonderful places to use flowers. On the entry mantle we used a garland of greens with hydrangea. Inside the hearth, we placed a red glass heart shaped vase of red roses - a taste of things to come.

We had a lot of fun with this placecard table piece. We used lots of ting ting and party pieces along with gerber daisies, hydrangea, trachelium and larkspur.

We repeated the white plus red/white/black gerber daisies in fun curvy vases for the cocktail tables. We also sprinkled some color coordinated confetti on the tables.

Since Lauren loves red roses, we did half of the low pieces with just red roses in cylinders. We wrapped bands of black and white ribbon around the vases and used aspidistra leaves to cover the foam used inside. The "twist" was that each vase of red roses was a different type or shade of red rose. The two here are Latin Lady in one and Red Intuition in the other. We used five other beautiful shades of red roses as well.

The other half of the low centerpieces were masses of white hydrangea in cylinders banded with black and white ribbon. Aspidistra leaves were again used on the insides of the vases. Smaller versions of both types of cylinders were used on the Sweetheart table.

The tall centerpieces consisted of a mix of the white hydrangea and all the shades of the red roses. We tucked a rose into the acrylics in the base of each cylinder.

And of course, the wedding cake was topped off with roses. That's the toss bouquet sitting on the cake table by the way.

I'm writing my blog early this week because we're closing for vacation until July 19th. I'll be back with more pictures in a couple of weeks.

Michelle & Jonathan - Wine tasting at NVCC

Michelle and Jonathan are oenophiles - wine lovers - and wanted to incorporate wine into their wedding. They chose a color pallete of purple, lavendar, white and green - which obviously includes the colors of grapes - and ideas that represented their love of wine. I think they did a terrific job. And their favors were wine glasses - what else!

Michelle's bouquet was a gorgeous mix of lavender, white, and green lisianthus finished off with a collar of gaylax leaves. We French braided soft satin lavender and green ribbon around the stems. Jonathan's boutonniere of white lisianthus matched Michelle's bouquet. I thought I had a picture of it, but it seems that I don't.

Bridesmaids carried sweet smelling bouquets of purple, lavender, and white stock with fern. Groomsmen wore matching boutonnieres of lavender stock backed with a gaylax leaf.

The placecard table was located in the entryway. Placecards were each set into a wine cork. In the center of the placecards we used a moss filled, black wire tiered container. In the top level we used purple hydrangea with green grapes. We filled the bottom level with green hydrangea and black grapes. We wanted something reminiscent of wine without using the bottles themselves.

Green hydrangea in green squares decorated with lavender ribbon were used on the cocktail tables outside.

We didn't want to "overkill" the wine ideas, so we designed more subtle arrangments that worked in the wine "colors" idea. For half of the tables, we made topiaries of purple alstromeria and placed them in pots filled with moss. We used pots that looked very old and had a lot of Old World charm. I think they fit in perfectly with a wine theme. Every table number was held by a wine bottle. And on the white sheet of paper that you see placed in the cork, is the story behind the wine bottle on that particular table. What a clever idea!

We used the same Old World style containers for the second centerpieces. This time they green roses tucked inside bunches of lavender hydrangea.