Nina & Adam - MD's in the Making (Marvelous Doctors)

I worked with Nina's wonderful parents, Nina, and Adam for this lovely wedding at Joseph Ambler Inn. We put our heads together and came up with a lot of "doctor" related ideas. Since Nina and Adam are in med school in Missouri, I had a lot of contact with Mr. and Mrs. Salinger who were lovely people and a pleasure to work with. Nina wanted to add a lot of personal touches to her wedding as described in my blog below. She didn't want her reception to look too formal but vibrating with color. I believe that her color palette of red, yellow, and blue, did just that.
Nina carried a bouquet made up of sunflowers and red dahlias. She wanted to be the only one with a touch of orange in her flowers, so I added Goldy mini gerber daisies. I also made a comb of yellow spray roses that Nina wore in her hair to anchor her veil.

The bridesmaids' bouquets of mini sunflowers and red cockscomb looked wonderful against their lovely red dresses.


The flower girl carried a basket of mixed yellow and red flowers. I added streamers that matched those on Nina's bouquet.
Adam's boutonniere consisted of yellow spray roses and red cockscomb.
Groomsmen wore bouts of yellow mums and red cockscomb.

Moms wore white pearled bracelets with white spray roses and a red ribbon accent.
White was the primary color used at the synagogue. Up the poles of the chuppah I used fresh garland with white carnations. On the aisles, I placed white hydrangea hung with white bows and streamers.


Red and yellow gerber daisies were placed in blue test tube holders for the cocktail tables. Perfect for med students, yes?



I love the two long mirror ledges at JAI and have always brought something to place on them. In this case, since sunflowers are Nina's favorites, we used them in double-sided seated vases. I love how the candlelight and the flowers reflect in the mirrors.

Since she was a little girl, Nina traditionally made the placecards for all guests at all the holidays celebrated in the Salinger home. How was she not going to do this for her wedding? And she did a lovely job too. On the table, I added a large arrangement of "gardeny" flowers in her color scheme of yellow, blue, and red. Sitting across from this table was the sign in book - which was a pharmaceutical register signed with pens from various drug companies. Cute or what?

As many brides are doing these days, Nina and Adam sat at a guest table with their friends. When this is the case, I like to differentiate the seats of the bride and groom. For this couple, I tied sunflowers onto their chairs with bright red ribbon.
I made three different centerpieces for the tables. Each vase was filled with small rocks and shells that were brought back from Israel,which is very important to the whole family. I added some blue marbles to echo the blue flowers. Each vase was filled with a different red and yellow flower plus blue cornflowers. And if you look closely, you'll notice that the tables are named after diseases or molecules. That's because Nina is going to be a medical doctor and Adam is going into research. The banquet manager assured me that he'd never seen this at JAI before. There's a first time for everything and I was overjoyed to be a part of it!

Theresa & Tyler - A Terrific Twosome!

Theresa and Tyler's wedding at Normandy Farms was filled with special touches. The first thing a guest would notice would be the old window sills sitting on the placecard table. I'll point out just a few of them through my blog. And Theresa was all for trying out some new and different ideas like her bouquets and her placecard table piece. I loved working with this blue, white, and yellow color palette. And I thoroughly enjoyed working with Theresa and helping her make her vision come to life.

Theresa's bouquet was made up of blue delphinium, yellow roses and a collar of yellow stock. I loved how unique it was!

Tyler's boutonniere consisted of a yellow rose set on a blue wire curl with a touch of blue delphinium.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets also made up of a collar of yellow stock with centers of delphinium and Star of Bethlehem. Groomsmen wore yellow rose boutonnieres.

One mom wore a corsage of daisies and the other carried a small bouquet of them down the aisle. Daisies have been popular at weddings for century. I've always thought they were so sweet.

On both sides of the outside arch, I placed blue vases on white pedestals. I filled them with yellow centered mini-sunflowers, blue delphinium, and curly willow.

Inside, I filled clay pots with blue hydrangea and craspedia for the cocktail tables.

I had a wooden box painted with Theresa and Tyler on the front. I think our artist Caroline did a fabulous job! I filled it with clay pots of yellow and blue flowers. The ribbons on the bar were the same colors used in Theresa & Tyler's handfasting wedding ceremony. The windows are to each side.

Theresa named her tables after constellations. If you look closely you can see one of the "signs" that she made. I did two different centerpieces for this wedding. Theresa had purchased lanterns, so I used short mason jars to surround them with blue hydrangea and yellow sunflowers. The other half of the tables had larger mason jars filled with a variety of blue, yellow, and white flowers. Theresa had bought log slices to sit these mason jars on to add another touch of "country" to her tables.


Small mason jars were placed on the sweetheart table and filled with blue hydrangea and white roses. Congratulations to the two of you! It was a blast working with you.

Sarah & Mac - NASCAR? Yes, NASCAR!

The groom wore red high top sneakers! That should tell you what a fun couple Sarah and Mac are. Their wedding took place at the lovely Duportail House in Chesterbrook. Sarah and her mom were great to work with and very involved in the personalized details of the wedding. Sarah chose a basic color palette of white, blue, and green with a blast of color from her NASCAR additions.

Sarah carried a bouquet of beautiful white peonies and wore a white gardenia in her hair. She looked gorgeous! Mac's boutonniere was made up of stephanotis.

Sarah's bridesmaid carried a bouquet of mixed colored flowers with grass loops. The groomsmen wore boutonnieres of white spray roses.

Since Sarah and Mac are huge NASCAR fans, we decided to add a bit of whimsy to the cocktail hour. Sarah wrapped vases with nylon roping in the colors of their favorite drivers. I added checkered ribbon - that her mom found - and gerber daisies to each vase. Sarah provided the race cars for another fun touch to the cocktail tables.

I also added automotive funnels - with sprouting spider mums, to the hors d'oeuvres table.


One nice touch that Sara included was a vase full of blue, white, and green carnations. Guests filled out tags with well wishes and then hung them from the stems of the carnations.

There are several mantles at Duportail House. On one I put cut glass vases to hold bouquets. On the other, where there was already an assortment of antique glass and pottery, I added a variety of small vases with assorted flowers.
On the table where Sarah and Mac sat, I filled a crystal bowl belonging to Sarah's mom with blue hydrangea and green hypericum berries.


I filled my white wire baskets with moss and an array of flowers including Love in the Mist, Bells of Ireland, alstromeria, and hypericum berries. These arrangements were placed on the guest tables and popped nicely against the blue tablecloths. I wish the two of you all the best!

Nicole & Geoff - Branching Out at Knowlton

Nicole and her mom did most of the planning for her wedding at Knowlton Mansion while Nicole lived in California. A difficult task, but one that I think they pulled off beautifully. Nicole chose a color palette of white, green, and pink. She wanted to use branches in some form as much as possible, too.

Nicole's bouquet had a bit of a vintage look to it with the addition of Queen Anne's lace to her flowers. I wrapped ribbon around the stems and then a layer of lace to match. Geoff wore a boutonniere of lisianthus and hypericum berries. Bridesmaids carried bouquets of roses and hypericum berries while the groomsmen wore matching roses.

I used two large glass vases to hold large, gardeny arrangements for the ceremony under the pergola. Rose petals were scattered at the base of the pedestals for added color.


I used different sized bottles in groups of three on the cocktail tables. They were filled with a variety of different flowers.

It's always a challenge to design a placecard table piece for this room because of the chandelier over the table. I used slices of logs (courtesy of Nicole's Dad) and placed flowers on them in descending heights. I haven't seen a photo of the placecards added to the table yet, but I was very pleased with how the flowers came out.

Nicole's Dad did a great job cutting these logs for the low centerpieces. I filled them with green hydrangea, hypericum berries and pink sprays. It was so cute to see his big smile when her first saw all his hard work come to fruition with flowers!

Tall glass vases were filled with curly willow and a minimum of flowers including snapdragons, larkspur, and hypericum berries as requested by Nicole.

Nicole & Geoff's sweetheart table was decorated with arrangements similar to those on the guest tables. I used fresh curly willow in all the bowls which were filled with either pink hydrangea or green hydrangea and pink spray roses. I can just picture the happy couple sitting here! Congratulations!!!