Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Two Ideas I Love - Flower Girls

 
 
Two Ideas I Love: These days most churches and venues will not let a flower girl throw fresh rose petals. No one wants to clean them up plus they can also be slippery if walked on. This bride had a different idea altogether! The theme of this wedding at Tyler Arboretum was sunflowers. Kara got permission for her daughter - the flower girl - to throw sunflower seeds because the birds would "clean them up" - a great idea! I decorated a basket with silk sunflowers to hold the seeds. As a mom, this is another idea I love because then the flower girl can continue to play "wedding" with it long after it is over.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Ideas I Love #5 - Decoupage



Ideas I Love: I ask a lot of questions when a bride first contacts me. I want to know more about a couple so I can help them to personalize their wedding. This bride's groom was a comic book collector. As a surprise, I showed her how to decoupage on boxes. It's really easy. Voila - comic book containers for the cocktail room at Columbia Station. She had fun doing it and they came out great. What can you decoupage to personalize your wedding? PS - She didn't ruin his collectibles but used new comic books!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Ideas I Love #4 - Table Names


So many brides these days are naming their tables instead of using numbers. I've seen photos of them at age 2 for Table #2; places we've been; buildings at Penn State; restaurants in Philadelphia; and so much more. But one of my favorites has to be the names that Nina and Adam chose for their tables at Joseph Ambler Inn. Both of them are medical students - Nina to be a practicing doctor and Adam to be a research scientist. So...... tables were named after diseases and microbes! Adam built his microbes - such as Serotonin - and Emily purchased stuffed animal type "diseases" like Ebola. Who knew? But I liked it! Look for more Ideas I love from this wedding in the future!



Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ideas I Love #3 - Wedding cake photos.


Ideas I Love: I love when brides collect wedding pictures of their families and friends and display them at their wedding. However, this bride did things slightly differently. She put photos of couples cutting their wedding cake on her wedding cake table! A very cute idea indeed!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Lauren & Michael - Love is Blue

First I have to say that Lauren was one of the sweetest, easiest, most enthusiastic brides I've ever worked with. What a doll! She made my job go so smoothly because she loves everything. What a pleasure this wedding was to work on.

Lauren wanted a color palette of white, blue, and green - perfect summery colors for her wedding ceremony at Corpus Christi Church and reception at Meadowlands Country Club. By the way, Love is Blue is am instrumental song by Paul Mauriat from the 60's! Anyone remember it?

I love this bouquet of ivory roses, green hypericum berries, florets of blue delphinium, and stephanotis with rhinestone centers. The florets really "pop" from the ivory roses. Michael wore a mini-white calla lily boutonniere. I can't wait to see pictures. The last time I saw Lauren was when she was getting her make-up done. I'll bet she looked gorgeous!


Bridesmaids carried beautiful bouquets of ivory spray roses, green roses, and bits of blue delphinium. I couldn't believe how huge the ivory spray roses were! They really opened up and looked amazing. Groomsmen wore matching blue delphinium boutonnieres.


Carrying through Lauren's blue, white, and green color palette at church was a breeze. On white pedastals, I made arrangements of white carnations, Bells of Ireland, and blue delphinium in white containers.





Meadowlands CC has had a makeover since I last worked there. The lobby looks fabulous. They now put the placecard table in that lobby leading to the cocktail lounge. For Lauren and Michael's placecard table, I filled an Eiffel tower with blue bubbles. From the top I sprayed white dendrobiums, blue dendrobiums, and greens. I really liked how the country club matched Lauren's colors with their "blue water" and candle set-up. I'll bet it looked really pretty when lit up.


Meadowlands CC really let their wedding guests spread out and be comfortable. There are small hi-tops in the bar area plus an adjoining room with low tables and chairs. It's a lovely set-up. For the cocktail hour we used one of my favorite flowers - white dahlias - and put them in narrow cylinder vases along with berries, mums, and greens. The cylinders were wrapped in blue aluminum wire which was swirled in the center.


Lauren chose to have two slightly different centerpieces both using square, clear glass and blue acrylics. Thank goodness the white lilies decided to cooperate and opened up beautifully. I added blue hydrangea and green cushion mums to the mix.


The second half of the centerpieces were also made in glass squares with blue acrylics. This time the flowers included white hydrangea, blue cornflowers, and green hypericum berries.


The sweetheart table flowers were smaller versions of the centerpieces. The smaller squares contained the beautiful white lilies and blue hydrangea this time.


Thank you for making the flower planning such a wonderful experience Lauren. I wish Michael and you the very, very best in life! Congratulations.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Ideas I Love #2 - Personalization

Ideas I Love! My brides know that I ask a lot of questions about the two of them and if either of them have any talent. When I found out that this bride did needlework I asked her to please make something special for me to use. I love this wedding sampler that she cross-stitched and sat it in a place of honor on the placecard table. All I added was some fabric, pumpkins and a spray of wheat. What a great, personalized memento she got to hang on her wall at home.



Monday, September 3, 2012

Elizabeth & James - Enchanted Forest

Elizabeth and James were having an Enchanted Forest themed reception at Phoenixville Country Club done in Libby's favorite color - purple! So I added bits of enchanted whimsy wherever I could. In Elizabeth's bouquet of lavender roses, purple lisianthus, and lavender pinned stephanotis, I placed sprays of sparkly rhinestones. James is in the military and did not wear a boutonniere on his uniform.





Bridesmaids carried mixed bouquets of purple and lavender carnations. If you've never seen the Moon family of carnations they're the prettiest carnations you'll ever see. Love them and use them frequently. Groomsmen did not wear boutonnieres on their uniforms.




Such a pretty church. I made a three tiered vertical arrangement for the white column vases I used here. They consisted of hydrangea, purple tipped white carnations, and gladiolus.







I added pomanders of purple carnations down the church aisle in three shades of purple. We used the beautiful Moon carnations in lavender through purple and spaced them from light to medium to dark.







For the cocktail tables I filled little glass squares with cute purple bubbles and topped them off with a purple hydrangea. They're fun, inexpensive arrangements that added more purple to the cocktail hour.



Libby's aunt made centerpieces to fit her Enchanted Forest theme. I wanted her placecard arrangement to be representative as well. So, I used a manzanita branch cemented into a moss pot. I filled the top of the pot with purple hydrangea - but instead of attaching flowers to the little branches, I used purple butterflies and crystals. I thought they'd be much for fitting for an enchanted forest theme. I love how this came out.



Congratulations to Elizabeth and James. May you enjoy the next chapter of your life in North Carolina!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Wedding Details I Love - #1



I am going to add a new feature to my Whimsical Welcomes FB page and my blog. I've worked a lot of weddings these past nine years and have seen such wonderful details and personalization at some of them. I thought it was time to share some of the things my brides - and their families - have done. I'll brag for them! First up is my friend Robin's daughter's wedding. You'll probably see the details of Kelly & Jason's wedding here a lot. First is the caricature Robin surprised them with. She worked with an artist in Canada for a very reasonable price. The picture included their "fur-babies", Kelly's engagement ring which she adores, Jason's hat, and, of course, the motorcycle. Sorry about the photo - I forgot to use my flash. If you'd like further details, please contact me through email, FB, or my blog. Enjoy!