Vintage style weddings

Rule of thumb is that something vintage is anything designed or made more than fifty (50) years ago but less than one hundred years ago. Any object created over 100 years ago is considered an antique. A vintage feel to a wedding has become more and more popular lately. There are a lot of brides who work with white milk glass pieces to achieve that look. I wanted to branch out from that and design flower arrangements using some alternatives. I've scoured antique shops, thrift shops, consignment shops, and flea markets for some different ideas. What I've found are soft colored ceramics, Depression glass (which comes in a variety of colors including green, pink, and blue) and pressed glass (patterns pressed into glass in molds). A “Shabby Chic” look would also have a vintage feel. In home decorating you think of distressed furniture and French linens. But at a wedding I think more about a look with a feminine touch or with tea stained accents, mismatched patterned linen patterns, and lots of white and soft colors like beige, sky blue, and mauve in ceramics. Worn garden items and lots of roses are also favored Shabby Chic elements. Art Deco was a movement that began in Paris in 1925 and spread to America by the 1930's and was most popular in the 1950’s. It is a symmetrical look more than asymmetrical. This style is often characterized by rich colors, bold geometric shapes, and lavish ornamentation. A calla lily is a perfect example of an "Art Deco" flower. Typical vintage flowers would include: Queen Anne’s lace, hydrangea, daisies, freesia, dahlias, and African violets. I've used wide open Campanella roses and Queen Anne's lace in a bouquet example on my table. My typewriter is a perfect vehicle to use to "write" a welcome letter to your guests or to display a menu.   I have filled a tall glass vase with rounds of thread.  Vintage linens are peeking out of a vintage style flower bos.  And I've used one of my many wooden soda boxes to hold flwoers in old Coke boxes.  All of the items and linens in the photographs are available to rent to my Whimsical Welcomes' brides.  If you have any questions - please send me an email at WhimsicalWelcomes@yahoo.com.

Victorian Style Weddings

If you were not able to come to the recent Bridal Blossoms Wedding Flower Show, I've got some photos of ideas to share over the next few weeks. If you have chosen to use a Victorian theme, keep in mind that the ladies of the Victorian era loved flowers with a strong fragrance and used lots of fern and foliage in their arrangements. Favorite flowers included: roses, lilies, orchids, grape hyacinth, tulips and jasmine. All of the flowers had meanings and were chosen for a wedding with that in mind. Most brides carried a white bouquet to symbolize their purity. Posy holders were popular at social events. Head-dresses of flowers were worn by many brides. And many of the ladies attending carried fancy hand fans. The Victorian era was a time of extravagance. Huge pyramids of flowers were not uncommon. Other types of arrangements included tall March stands, flowers in low concentric circles (Beidemeir style), and Pot a fleur style (foliage interspersed with flowers). While it would be quite expensive to replicate the extravagant arrangements that were popular in Victorian times, there are several ideas that will give a bride the same "feel". These ideas were displayed on my Victorian style table at Bridal Blossoms. Here are some of my suggestions as photographed: Collect ceramic or glass baskets for centerpieces. Use a white wicker basket for your flower girl. You can also use white wicker stands for the ceremony. You can make or purchase "corsets" for clear glass vases. Heavy cut glass vases of a variety of shapes work for a Victorian style wedding, particularly in compote or pedestal shapes. I've also placed peacock feathers in a glass fan shaped vase. In the center of this table I used a posy holder dripping with pearls. It holds sixteen different flowers. All of these items, plus more, are available for rent or purchase to my Whimsical Welcomes brides. Contact me for a consultation at WhimsicalWelcomes@yahoo.com

Ideas I Love: Cocktail table fun!

I've created lots and lots of cocktail table arrangements over the last 10 years. I believe that they're one place that can show off the personality of the bride and groom. Often I'll have a few ideas for a bride (or groom) who is crafty so that they can make their own containers. Fun ideas don't have to be expensive, but they certainly do add a special touch to a wedding reception. Stay tuned for lots more ideas!
 
 Kate's fiance collected comic books. I showed her how to decoupage.  So as a surprise for him, she bought other comic books (using his was not even a remote possibility) and made me boxes to decorate with Fall mums at Columbia Station. She did a great job!



 

This one was a "no-brainer"  for this sports minded groom. I made up the arrangements and he provided the trivia cards for the tables at the Pearl Buck Estate.

 

And finally, for Karen's purple wedding, we used her groom's favorite candy - Jolly Joes! Fortunately this bride's Dad worked for the Just Born Co. and was able to get a whole lot of them for her cocktail tables at the Mercer Museum. I wonder if there were any left?

Coren & David - DIY at Loft at Limerick

The Loft at Limerick is a more rustic type of venue so Coren wanted to fill it with rustic ideas for her wedding. She made her own centerpiece containers and added the perfect "placecard' idea for her guests. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of Coren's bouquet, but I do have one of the bridesmaids' bouquets. They were made up of yellow and white mums. Groomsmen's mum boutonnieres matched. Three little flower girls carried pomanders made of yellow silk daisies. I often suggest this option so that the young ladies can play "wedding" after the actual event.


 St. John's Lutheran Church in Schwenksville have their own containers for florists to fill. I used yellow and white fuji mums to fill them for Corey & David's wedding.


 I love how this "placecard table" idea came out. These are old windows with each pane designating a different table.

 


 I added a vase of white and yellow flowers to the gift table.


Coren chose her own glass jars and painted them to make her centerpieces. On half of her tables she painted larger jars white and wrapped ribbon around the neck. I filled these with a mix of yellow and white flowers.




 The other half of the tables were tablescaped. Coren chose her own containers to paint white and I filled each vase with either a white or yellow flower.

Congratulations to Coren &  David.

Ideas I Love: Wedding Card Box

Ideas I Love: This is such an adorable card box for a wedding. Stacking wrapped boxes and making a slit in the top is decorative and practical. Great job Allison! And thanks to Ryan Estes for his photograph!

Nicole and Ryan - You Can Bank On It!

When I first spoke with Nicole, she told me that her wedding was going to take place in an old bank in Easton - The Bank Street Annex. She wanted to use lots of color to brighten up her venue. So I sketched four different ideas for her, as I usually do for my brides. Three were what I call "normal" and the fourth a bit "out of the box". Fortunately for me, Nicole chose to be different. I thought that since the wedding was in a bank, we could play up that fact and do arrangements that represented the rich people who had once done business in that very bank. This was such a fun wedding for me to work on and I was so happy with the results. A big thanks to Michael's Photography for sharing his photographs with me. Although Nicole wanted to use lots and lots of color for her wedding flowers, she wanted her bouquet to stand out - so she chose to do an all white bouquet with just hints of color. I made her bouquet of white roses with clustered stephanotis. Some of the roses had colored pins in them while the stephanotis were filled with rhinestones. Ryan also wore a white rose boutonniere with a stephanotis at the base.





 Bridesmaids carried bright bouquets of orange, pink, burgundy, and purple.  They really popped against their dresses. Groomsmen wore boutonnieres of orange spray roses and purple mini-carnations to match.




.




 We made two colorful arrangements for the wedding ceremony which was held inside the venue





.



The first of the three types of centerpieces were arranged in cigar boxes. If you look closely among the flowers, you'll notice folded money to signal a "fat cat". Loose cigars surrounded the flowers.


The second set of centerpieces were based on Nicole's love of champagne. I used small versions of champagne buckets to hold bottles of champagne - courtesy of Nicole - and an array of flowers. We scattered corks around the arrangements that Nicole also collected.




 


The third centerpiece represented jewelry. Each colorful flower arrangement was made in a jewel-toned colored glass square. I draped necklaces, bracelets and brooches around and among the many colored flowers




.


I used three smaller colorful squares to decorate the sweetheart table.

Love the bride and groom on the wedding cake! Perfect for your wedding. I wish the two of you a wonderful, whimsical life together! Congratulations to Nicole and Ryan.

Ideas I Love: A Vintage Look

Adding a beautiful gardenia to your hair is the perfect touch for a vintage wedding!