Rachel & Chris - The Country Life.

Hands down this is one of my very favorite weddings.  The bride was terrific to work with and we both came up with all kinds of challenging and creative ideas.  Every table's centerpiece was different from each other.  Our artist outdid herself on these.  Here are some of the highlights.

The wedding took place at the John James Audubon Center in Audubon.  It has a very natural, rustic feel to it.  Colors for the ceremony included pastels of peach, pink, white, and purple.  We used very textured flowers in Rachels's bouquet including lisianthus, scabiosa, ranunulus, freesia, seeded eucalyptus, and lavender.   I wrapped her stems in twine for a more natural look.  Chris' boutonniere was made up of lavender, too.

Bridesmaids' textured bouquets were made up of daisies, crown asters, and herbs.  Groomsmens' boutonnieres matched the bouquets and contained hers.

How I enjoyed making the ceremony arrangements!  Besides flowers I was able to use peppers, beets, eggplants inside produce baskets which stood on barrels that I rent out.  There was one on each side of the aisle.  And I used rustic white baskets filled with three shades of alstromeria on the seats in the aisle.  So pretty!

 

Cocktail hour was held in another one of the out-buildings.  Rachel collected wine bottles with pretty labels. There was a variety of these around the room with different flowers.

I used a large watering can on the appetizer buffet table filled with larger flowers.

The placecard table was placed in the same room. Rachel used an assortment of herbs to hang each namecard from the rack.  I thought it looked terrific!  I had a wooden carpenter's box painted and filled it with jelly jars of daisies, zinnias, and sunflowers.

For half of the guest tables I filled different watering cans with a variety of flowers.  Each watering can one was different. Here are three of those.

The other half of the tables were made up of something different from us.  I had our artist paint the sides of the wooden boxes with different flowers, fruits, and vegetables.  They were gorgeous!  And then I planted each box with a flowering type of plant - kalanchoe, lilies, and coleus are just a few samples.  Not run of the mill for this bride!

Rachel's mother had two jars of colorful, canned peppers.  Where else should they go but on the sweetheart table flanking a jar full of garden flowers!

And the icing on the cake for me (pun intended) was decorating the naked cake!  This was my first and it was so much fun.  I used strawberries, raspberries, and peach lilies.  Loved it!!

Loved, loved, loved this wedding.  I'll probably remember it always because it was so unique.  Thanks to Rachel and Chris for having me be a part of it!  Congratulations!

Heather and Phillip - A Blast of Color!

Heather and I had not met and worked solely by long distance.  You can't do this with all brides, but Heather is a bit of a fun lover and a risk taker and trusted me to lead her along the right path.  And I have to tell you that she was an absolute pleasure to work with.  She wanted bold bright colors for her color palette - so we decided upon bright orange, hot pink, and lime green.  Love it!!! For her bouquet, we cascaded bright orange tiger lilies and hot pink Star Fighter lilies along with hot pink filler and greens.  Not your typical bouquet.  Please pardon my photography. As you know, I'm terrible at taking pictures.

Phillip wanted his boutonniere to stand out.  So to get away from the white stephanotis - I painted them hot pink, added green pins and a bright orange spray rose.

Bridesmaids carried short bouquets made up of lime green button mums, orange tigerlilies and hot pink filler.  Groomsmen wore pocket squares.  I think adding boutonnieres to those was too much!

All my brides are given a questionnaire to fill out.  One of my questions I ask is to find out if they have any hobbies/talent and if they do, I try to put them to work on their wedding.  Nothing says personalization like a bride's DIY project.  On Heather's questionnaire, she mentioned that she knit - which led me to a fun idea - yarnbombing!  I explained to her what I wanted and she carried through on the project.  I had Heather knit hot pink and orange striped tubes to go around glass cylinders from the Dollar Store. I used either deep pink or orange alstromeria in each vase.  Heather told me that her guests absolutely loved these!  I think they were adorable!  Such a personal touch.

Phillip's favorite flower is Bird of Paradise - perfect for a large, brightly colored placecard table piece in a hot pink vase!  I also used these fun colored  "shot glass" holders to put even more color on the table. 

We used two types of centerpieces for this wedding - one with flowers in one container and the second with flowers spread out in smaller, brightly colored bud vases.  I sent Heather out to shop for the round mats to anchor the flowers.

I had these cute colored tealight holders that I thought would look perfect on the sweetheart table alternating with some more bottles of flowers.  Just the right "frame" for the table.

And of course we had to make the toss bouquet as bright as the rest of the flowers in the room.  What a fun wedding to work on and a fun couple to work with.  Congratulations!!

Rebekah and Richard - Lavender Love

Purple is my favorite color.  So when I'm asked to help with a "purple wedding",  I'm ecstatic!  Rebekah wanted a purple bouquet so I put together a bride's bouquet of lavender roses, lisianthus, allium and stock.  Richard wore a boutonniere of lisianthus to match.  That's my favorite flower by the way.

Rebekah and Richard were married under a chuppah at Knowlten Mansion.  I used two vintage type pitchers to hold the ceremony flowers here.

Our artist painted each of the four sides of this wooden box differently.  We displayed it in the entry hall to the mansion.  I love this piece!

I created two different types of centerpieces for the guest tables.  On some of them I arranged a lot of purple and white flowers in round glass bowls.  In the bowls I circled fresh curly willow branches.

In keeping with the "branch theme"  I used curly willow straight up with three shades of larkspur.

So you can see why I loved this wedding with lots and lots of purple and lavender.  Thank you to Rebekah and Richard for allowing me to be a part of it. 

Danielle & Joe - Going for Gold!

There were several different aspects to Danielle and Joe's wedding.  First the colors of gold, purple, and white were the color palette that Danielle used.  Second, she focused on several "collections" which very much personalized her wedding.  She collected small goblets and wine glasses with gold trays to use for some of her centerpieces.  There was a collection of scotch bottles used on the cocktail tables.  And bourbon bottles were displayed on the placecard table.  All of these were meaningful to her.

Danielle wanted a loose bouquet made up mostly of greens.  I added large white roses - some with gold pins in the center - and freesia to the mix.  I was so pleased with how this turned out.  And making it even more special was that Danielle's grandmom insisted on paying for it.  How sweet! 

I love that bridesmaids carried long, arm bouquets of beautiful larkspur which come in white, purple, and lavender.  How perfect and natural looking.  Groomsmen wore boutonnieres of purple carnations.

We make the most adorable "wands" for our flower girls out of tulle, ribbon, and silk flowers.  This one featured a white silk rose and gold and white ribbon.

The birch arch was draped in fabric to form a chuppah.  We added a spray of greens, Baby's Breath, and three shades of larkspur to the front.

Danielle's special scotch bottles on the cocktail tables were all different and filled with purple carnations and Baby's Breath.

Bourbon bottles were filled with white hydrangea and gold beading for sitting among the placecards and wedding pictures.  Sorry about my flash in the photo.

For half of the guest tables I filled gold containers with a mass of various white flowers.  If you look closely, I sprayed some leaves gold to put color among the flowers.

On the other half of the tables I used Danielle's collection of small, pretty wine and cordial glasses on gold trays.  Each table was different.  I filled the small glasses with small flowers such as spray roses and spray carnations.  What a unique idea!

Finally, Danielle found two really pretty gold containers to use on her sweetheart which I filled with hydrangea and spray roses.  It added the perfect finishing touch to the room

Thank you to Danielle and Joe for having some very unique ideas for your wedding decor.  It made my job so much fun.  And you were so easy to work with.  May you live a long and happy life together.

One last fun photo to share with others is the farm table at the top of the stairs at The Barn on Bridge decorated by Danielle.  Please check out the wooden liquor box that held gift cards and the tambourine to be signed by guests.  So different!

Taryn & Chris - Happy, Happy Colors!

Boy am I behind on my posting.  I apologize for being so lax, but we've had some major upheavals in our lives this past two years.  Life gets in the way again!

However, I'm back with a beautiful wedding in one of my favorite color palettes of pink,  coral, watermelon, white, and peach. Such a happy collection of colors.

Taryn chose a bouquet of mixed flowers in her chosen colors.  I love how textured this bouquet turned out.  Chris wore a matching boutonniere.

Bridesmaids bouquets brought in shades of pink to the mix.  The groomsmen wore boutonnieres with the same spray roses.

The ceremony took place inside the country club.  I apologize for the darkness of the photo, but as I've said before - I'm a terrible photographer.  The couple got married in front of this large arrangement of flowers sitting in the window.

Because the couple were both bicycle enthusiasts, we created a "bike full" of flowers.  Taryn added the personal photos to this table.

 I used a variety of flowers for the cocktail tables. This one included hydrangea and coral hypericum berries.

Centerpieces were so bright and cheerful.  We used mixed flowers in glass cylinders on some of the tables and broke down the flowers into smaller vases for others.

 Taryn did a great job with her details.  The decor on the mantle is just one example of the great ideas she had.

Again, so sorry I'm late with this blog about your beautiful wedding.  I hope you're enjoying married life today as much as you did on your special day.