Sunday, April 24, 2011

Melissa & Robert - Black, White, and Red All Over



Melissa and Robert held their wedding ceremony at the chapel in Valley Forge Park and then moved the party to the Plumbers Union Hall for dining and dancing. Melissa chose a color pallete of red, white, and black which was so much fun to work with and added so much brightness to their reception. I take no responsibility for the photos below however. Anne takes even worse pictures than I do and she set up (lol). If Melissa reads this and has better photos - PLEASE SHARE!



Melissa carried a bouquet of my favorite red roses - Red Intuition. If you look closely, the roses have darker red veins on their medium red petals. Just gorgeous! I also added stephanotis to the roses.







The Maid of Honor carried a bouquet of red and white roses. Bridesmaids' bouquets were made up of just white roses.






The ring bearer carried a "present" of red carnations and black and white polka dotted ribbon.









I hung test tubes of red roses and glass crystals from painted black birch branches for the placecard table. I had also done an adorable arrangement of Macy gerber daisies (red, white, and black mixed) which was not photographed.















Melissa and Robert have two adorable bulldogs. I used black and white vases to hold red gerber daisies. Melissa took photos of her babies and I added different poses to each vase.












Gathering shaped low vases were filled with red acrylics and tied in the middle with a black and white polka dotted ribbon. They were filled with white gerber daisies, red roses, and other flowers. These arrangements were MUCH cuter than this picture!


Tall vases were filled with clear acrylics and a red rose. Ivy dripped from an arrangement of red roses and other red and white flowers.

















Touches of roses added just a bit of color to the wedding cake highlighted by a Lalique topper. Congratulations to Melissa & Robert!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Corey's Baby Shower - Rubber Duckie you're the one!

Corey and JC collect small rubber duckies. Naturally, I thought this was the perfect theme for her baby shower at Columbia Station in Phoenixville. I had a blast shopping for duckie goodies prior to the shower. Most of the gifts that we gave her had a duck theme too - duck towels, duck pjs, duck toys, duck bathrobe, duck bibs, duck bottles, etc. . Barbara and I had so much fun preparing for this party and Jackson's arrival.


The large welcoming doors to Columbia Station look wonderful with some type of wreaths on them. I always suggest this to my brides who are having their weddings there. For Corey, I made two large blue and yellow Spring wreaths to go with her color palette.



After entering the doors to Columbia Station, a cuddly duck pointed the way to the party room.





I admit that I get a little crazy, but I like flowers in the Ladies room. I decorated a cylinder with a rubber duckie and filled it with yellow gerber daisies.





















I used two types of centerpieces and only one type's photo came out. Corey's favorite flowers are gerber daisies. So I painted a duck on the bowls and filled them with gerbera. I bought all sorts of little yellow ducks and surrounded the bowls with them. Favors - which were cookie ducks made by my friend Ellen Perla - were placed on the blue napkins at each guest's place.


I filled two hurricane vases with silk Spring flowers and baby ducks for the buffet table. The food was absolutely scrumptious and the service was wonderful. I highly recommend Robert Ryan Caterers.

I found a guestbook with a duck on it as well as a pen with a duck head that "quacked". I'm keeping that for myself. I also failed to take a photo of the "duck" tablecloth I found for the gift table. It wasn't revealed until the pile of gifts were all opened by Corey. Guests played gift Bingo while she was doing this. Prizes were Rubber Duckies made of soap!


Two bouquets of blue flowers flanked the entrance. And balloons were placed in each of the high windows in the party room too. In the hallway, on the credenza, I had a print of rubber duckies displayed as well as a hand-made bear and a very large rubber duck that I found on vacation. My picture turned out too dark to share.










We decorated Corey's Chair of Honor with a large yellow bow and blue daisies.


The shower ended with everyone being served this wonderful duck cake made by Ellen Perla. She does beautiful work! I also had an adorable mother duckie carrying her 3 babies on this table.

I had a lovely time with my daughter and all the wonderful ladies who attended. Now, I'm ready to be a Mom-mom!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Katy & Jon - It's Easy Being Green!


Katy wanted a wedding that was unique in every aspect. She loved the combination of red and green, but we had to be careful to not make it look like Christmas. She loved greens as much as flowers, which was such a nice change of pace. And she was very willing to take on a large wedding project. Katy and Jon were married and celebrated their wedding at Columbia Station in Phoenixville. Working with Katy was a pleasure and her hard work paid off handsomely. I think we all succeeded in making this wedding very unique. Katy's gorgeous Fall bouquet was made up of red dahlias, red hypericum berries, and greens. Jon wore a matching dahlia boutonniere.
Bridesmaids' bouquets were very different. They were made up of tall Bells of Ireland and feathery celosia. Groomsmen wore red mums placed through a floret of the Bells.


I made up two arrangements in birch containers for Katy and Jon's ceremony and sat them on tables on each side of the gazebo. I used an array of red, burgundy, and green flowers and greens.


One of the many nice features at Columbia Station is a credenza that sits in the hallway between the two large rooms. It's a perfect spot to place a memory arrangement. I made one up for Katy and she sat a photo of her loved one next to it. I think this is a lovely tribute.
My favorite part of this wedding was definitely the cocktail table arrangements. I found out that Jon collects comic books and asked Katy to decoupage boxes featuring comics. She did an amazing job and certainly personalized these tables! I filled each box with one color of fall mums. Katy made 10 of these boxes for the 10 cocktail tables and they looked fabulous!


Using apples for a red and green Fall wedding was kind of a no brainer. The placecard arrangement also contained cockscomb, matching hanging amaranthus, alstromeria, and greens.

Katy wanted lots and lots of greens in her centerpieces. We made three different but similar centerpieces for her. Each was arranged in a specifically shaped green antique tin and contained a specific type of green and a red seasonal flower. The first type of centerpiece was made up of fern and red cockscomb.

The second centerpiece contained red alstromeria and a plethora of ruscus.


And the final centerpiece was made up of salal and Red Rover mums. I love the rich, deep green of leaves and was thrilled to feature them at a wedding.