Saturday, May 10, 2014

Krista and Jim - The Best is Yet To Come!

Let's start by saying that this is the wedding of my BFF's daughter - who is like a second daughter to me.  Anne, Krista, Jim, and I worked for months on projects to get ready for this one.  While it sounds like a great thing to have your best friend be your florist, believe me, I can be a true pain in the patootie!  I am detail crazy and push to keep everyone on schedule.  But I think the results are worth it.  I'm actually missing some pictures of the wreath I made for the caboose and the initials hanging from the front door, but I have mostly everything else to share.

I really didn't have to ask Krista what her favorite color was - because I knew - purple!  But I did find out what Jim's was - red!  With lots of silver accents - we put Krista and Jim's wedding together with good intentions and lots of love.

Before the wedding day, I made rehearsal dinner flowers for the night before.  I was invited but couldn't go because I had to work!  And you know I rarely miss a free meal!  But I had things to do.  Since Krista's favorite flowers are sunflowers - and they didn't exactly go with the wedding's color palette - I used them for the clay pots of flowers for the rehearsal dinner.



Krista's bouquet was a blend of beautiful red and purple flowers with some gorgeous crystal pins in the roses.  Jim work a matching calla lily boutonniere for their beautiful wedding at Columbia Station.







My daughter was a bridesmaid in this wedding!  They all carried bouquets made up of red roses and purple lisianthus surrounded by a wire collar.  I made wire curls to match for the groomsmen's boutonnieres.





I made this flower pillow for the ringbearer. Our artist painted  the flower girl's name on her bucket.  I like to use faux flowers for little girls so that they can play wedding when they go home.








For the ceremony, I made standing topiaries in red and purple to flank the pagoda.  Down the aisle I hung matching pomanders.







Anne's husband, and Krista's father Bob, was honored at the wedding with an arrangement in the pagoda.  The table also held the sand for the sand ceremony.  Anne and Bob and Glenn and I started this business together and were the closest of friends until Bob suddenly passed away 5 years ago. So during the wedding I was sitting next to Anne in the front row.  The minister is talking and the sun is going down.  All of a sudden the lights inside the pagoda goes on and shines down on the flowers I made for Bob!  I nudge Anne and tell her to look right away!  We knew it was a sign that Bob was there and gave his blessing. I'm getting goosebumps again just writing about it.  I'm so glad that the photographers and videographer realized what was happening and got pictures of it because I didn't.





The flowers were later moved inside to the credenza in the hallway surrounded by photos of Bob.




What the heck, I may as well show you the bathroom basket and the flower arrangement I made for the Ladies Room while I'm in this area of the hallway.



As I said, I don't have the picture of the door decor, but when you walk inside there were some awesome details.  The first, is an engagement shot by Ron Dlutz photography that was turned into the sign-in board.  I made them buy red pens for this. It was wonderful and now framed on the wall of their home.




Next to this photo, was the centerpiece I made for this table. To be honest,  I bought it even before they were engaged!  Once a saw the purple container I had to get it for Krista!  I obviously filled it with red and purple flowers.




Across from this table is the gift table.  I don't have a good picture of the card box, but it was a red gift box tied with a purple ribbon.  Glenn glued four little pieces of wood into the corners and then drilled screws through the top into the wood. No one was getting the top off of that thing!  Next to it Anne made a shadowbox of Jim's medals he won playing golf for Special Olympics.  This was the charity that the couple donated to in lieu of favors. Guests helped themselves to personalized golf tees.




Jim is a first class sports nut - and a crazy Phillies and Eagles' fan.  In honor of that, I had Anne make tins of golf tees and I put together little tribute flowers to Jim's favorite sports teams in the cocktail room.  Notice the Phillies' shirts for the sign-in board?











And because Jim is such an avid golfer, we had a special "entrance" for the bridal party.  During military weddings, swords are raised to form an arch. Again, in Jim's honor, I tied purple and red ribbons around golf clubs which were raised by the bridal party!  Cheers rang out when the happy couple emerged from the golf salute.



I made two kinds of centerpieces for the wedding - low and tall.  I decorated low cylinders with silver swirls.  Check out the table numbers made by Krista, Anne, and their cousin Chris!  Perfect!  And here's where more of my crazy comes in - I made sure Anne bought mints for the table.  These were exceptionally good ones!   This is something that my mother instilled in me.


I wanted to make something striking and different for the tall centerpieces.  So I created lamps for the tables with crystal beading and red roses inside sitting in water.  Anne and I decorated all of the lampshades ourselves. But when night came and the lights were turned down, these looked spectacular!



You can't see it real well, but I bought Krista's sweetheart table decor for them for Christmas.  In the center is a silver heart photo holder with flanking red candles. Since hearts were an underlying theme, this worked out beautifully with the two silver vases on each end.  And doesn't everyone have chair bows especially  made for the bride and groom chairs!  We found some very cool silver swirl material for them.



And because this wedding was more fun than formal, Krista and Jim had purple and red cupcakes for their guests.  The food at the wedding was spectacular and many guests were too full to eat them.  So Glenn and I were eating them for a week. Yummy!

The wedding ended on a high note with dancing and laughing.  Lanterns that were bought especially for this wedding lined the steps as the guests exited  And then we had to clean everything up!  That's the part you forget when you add so many details. But we got it done in record time and went home happy and exhausted.

Congratulations and much love to two of my favorite people. Krista - I've always had a soft spot in my heart for you.  And I want to thank you for bringing Jim into our lives.  I love you both!