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!

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!

Bridal Tea Party at Shearer Elegance

I was asked to make centerpieces for a tea party bridal shower given at Shearer Elegance. Tea cups were a natural! I collected a variety of tea cups in various shades of pink, the color palette for the shower. This beautifully restored Victorian Mansion is the perfect place for any party - but particularly for a tea party. My friends all know that I am a tea room aficionado and Shearer Elegance certainly fits the bill for a tea party. Sue Tator, owner and host, has a terrific collection of tea cups and tablecloths. The venue is charming. And Sue makes wonderful scones and tea sandwiches. Every year a Mother's Day Tea is held here. And Sue has a woman dressed up in Victorian clothes there to tell about Victorian Teas. Please "like" the Shearer Elegance Facebook page to keep up with future events.






After using teacups on the party tables, I thought that a teapot would work well on the cake table. I found a really cute one with a bluebird on it! I created a base of flowers for it to sit on. The bride-to-be was then able to keep a wonderful memento of her bridal shower.



The dining room in the mansion is quite lovely. High tea can be served at the long table as well as at individual tables placed around the main floor. A beautiful venue with several options available. And the food is always wonderful. I highly recommend that if you book your party, shower, luncheon, or small wedding at Shearer Elegance, your guests will be thrilled. Gorgeous rooms are available for your out of town guests also. www.shearerelegance.com

My son and his wife rented out all the bedrooms for their bridal party for the weekend of their wedding. They said it was fabulous. And Sue provided brunch for the rest of us the next day. It's a wonderful place indeed!






P.S. I also wanted to share these adorable tea bag favors that were made for the guests at the tea party shower. Sue Tator made the arrangements to have these done so please contact her - or me - for details. Cute huh?

Emily & Zack - Citrus Colors

It's always a welcome challenge for me whan I bride has a "certain" budget to work with. How do I make a wedding look like they spent a lot of money....without breaking the bank? Emily wanted to use a bright color palette of orange, yellow, and green for her wedding at Blair Mill Inn so I knew we could have fun with color. The venue gives their brides candle centerpieces to use, but I felt that the room, and the candleholders, needed a blast of color. Below is the result.









Emily's colors included orange orange, lemon yellow, and lime green. Fun!!! I had Emily buy all kinds of glass bottles and vases. Each table was designated a color, so into each vase or bottle, went "bits" of flowers. On one table all the flowers were orange and another had all yellow flowers, and a third of the tables were green. To tie everything together, we scattered rose petals in a like color under the candles. I think these centerpieces really did brighten up the room!

I also buy unique, one of a kind containers when I find them on sale to help some of my brides with costs. Emily made use of a few of them. And they're usually so inexpensive, that the bride gets to keep them instead of renting them. On the cocktail tables, I used test tube based containers - since Emily is a chemist. Different mixes of flowers were used in each.



Emily loved this black wire piece - especially since black was her accent color. I filled it with lemons, limes, and oranges, coordinating straws, and bits of daisies. Where did this go? On the bar, naturally!



I also use citrus colored acrylics in the base of this V-shaped vase. I added matching ting ting and flowers to the mix to create a whimsical welcome for the placecard table.



Since I had such beautiful colors to work with, the bridal party flowers were a breeze. The MoH carried an all orange bouquet including some outstanding huge orange ranunculus.



Bridesmaids' bouquets were all yellow - so bright and cheerful!



And the junior bridesmaid carried a lime green flower bouquet.




And then there's Emily's bouquet which contained all the colors and flowers used in the other bouquets. Zack's boutonniere matched.



The ceremony took place under a chuppah created by Emily. I created two arrangements to frame their wedding canopy. Congratulations to Emily and Zack on their wedding and a job well done.

Brittany & Brian - Perfect Pearls

Brittany told me that she was the first of her friends to be getting married and that she wanted her wedding at Talamore Country Club to be a big, fun party for everyone. So, I came up with a few ideas for her that I thought she would like in her lavender, purple, green, and yellow color palette. She chose a theme that I hadn't created before, but which came out wonderfully, I think. See for yourself in the photos below.

Brittany's bouquet consisted of purple and lavender lisianthus, green mini-hydrangea, and some very large beautiful yellow ranunculus. I bound the stems with ribbon and then fit a very, very wide pearled bouquet bracelet on top of it. Brian wore a boutonniere of matching lisianthus.



I tried something new, to me, for Brittany's bridal party. I knew that fuji mums came in all three of Brittany's colors - lavender, yellow, and green - and suggested that if she wanted a more "fun" type of bouquet for her girls, then using just these mums would work. We really liked how they came out - different from most of the bouquets I create with the spiky tips. Since fujis are a rather large mum, I used smaller, lavender cushion mums for the groomsmen's boutonnieres.

Moms carried nosegays of lavender mini-carnations, green button mums, and yellow spray roses. Dads' boutonnieres were made up of yellow spray roses as well.





At church I arranged two large containers of flowers for the altar consisting of purple larkspur, purple filler, yellow lilies, lavender stock, and green fugi mums. I thought it was so nice that the church carpeting blended so nicely with Brittany's color scheme!


There are several cocktail tables at Talamore and we added a touch of purple and yellow to all of them. I had very recently purchased a set of purple vases which I filled with purple and yellow alstromeria. Each vase was finished with a yellow "bow tie". Just something cute to add instead of just candles. I have a collection of fun, and inexpensive, containers in an array of colors that I buy especially for this purpose for my brides.



For the placecard table I designed an arrangement that set the theme of the wedding - pearls! I had a container that to me looked like a large glass pearl and filled it with yellow mini-sunflowers, purple larkspur, and green fuji mums. I then draped a string of pearls around the container.

Brittany was totally on board with doing something different for her wedding and loved the idea of using pearls. I had sketched four different ideas for her and she liked them all. Rather than chose among them - she choose to use them all, which was possible because she had a lot of guest tables. I had a blast seeing my vision come to fruition and was really pleased with the results.



For the first type of centerpiece, I created a "dome" of carnations draped with a string of pearls. A touch of pearls crowned the top. The glass square was filled with white "pearls" (bubbles) so that the stems did not show. Other domes were made up of yellow, lavender, or green carnations to give variety to the color palette.


Of course I did an arrangement of a pretty mix of yellow, green, purple and lavender flowers all sitting in glass squares into which I piled pearls in the base. I also tucked in pearl sprays among the flowers.


Centerpiece type #3 was candle-based. Squat pillars sat in a square of pearls. I placed four smaller glass squares around each of these each containing yellow, purple, green, or lavender flowers.



The fourth type of centerpiece was a grouping of table-scaped glass rectangles and squares. They were each filled with one color of flower - green, purple, or yellow and included pearls inside or outside.

I finished up this "pearl" of a wedding with candles and pearl decorated vases of flowers on the sweetheart table.

This was such a fun wedding to put together. I really enjoyed working with Brittany and her mom. Thank you so much for your faith in me and allowing me to work on so many new ideas for your special day. Congratulations to Brittany and Brian. I can't wait to see professional pictures.

Amy & Mario - Blue (and white) in Blue Bell

Amy chose such a pretty color palette for her wedding consisting of white, light blue, and black. I love this combination. Sometimes I wonder if the words "Blue Bell" put the color connotation into a bride's mind because I've done several "blue" weddings here. Just sayin...

Amy chose gorgeous white lilies mixed with white stock for her bouquet. I have to apologize for this picture - which I took. It doesn't do this bouquet justice and you can't really see the softness of the stock between the hard lines of the lilies. It was beautiful. I wrapped the stems in white satin ribbon and secured it with white pins "tuxedo style". Since lilies are just a bit too large for a nice boutonniere, I used stephanotis for Mario's boutonniere because it reflects the "star shape" of the lilies.







Bridesmaids' bouquets consisted of two sizes of white roses mixed with light blue delphinium. Groomsmen wore matching white rose boutonnieres. All corsages and other boutonnieres were made up of white roses with either blue or black ribbon accents.







When you enter the doors of BBC, there is a credenza right in front of you. Amy wanted to honor her loved ones, particularly her mom, and created a memorial area here with photos and a pretty vase of white flowers. To the left of this area is the ballroom and to the right is the cocktail room. Placecards are set up in the cocktail room for guests to pick up while they're enjoying food and cocktails - what else? I created a large piece for Amy with black wire wrapped around the stem. The "bowl" was filled with clear acrylics and underwater lighting. I used a mass of white flowers here including snapdragons, carnations, Queen Anne's lace, and large hybrid lilies.




Mario is a fireman. Amy found these wonderful fireman helmet containers to use in the cocktail room at Blue Bell Country Club. Unfortunately, the last time I looked on the website that she gave me, they were no longer available. It's a shame because these were so cute. I filled them with white hydrangea to stay within Amy's color palette. She also decoupaged some photos onto vases for some of the other tables, but I don't have any photos of those just yet.




Black is always a challenge to incorporate in a wedding, but we were able to add it in several places at Amy & Mario's wedding. The focus of the centerpieces were the high arrangements that Amy chose. We arranged blue and white hydrangea, Queen Anne's lace, white carnations, blue delphinium, white larkspur, and white lilies on top of tall glass cylinders. In the base of the cylinders we added weight with white, clear, and black marbles. We added a wide black ribbon with a blue ribbon on top of it. These tall arrangements were the "star" of the room and the focal points. The supporting "cast" were low glass cylinders full of beautiful, full bouquets of hydrangea. I thought this was a lovely combination.

Half of the low arrangements were filled with lush white hydrangea. The cylinders were wrapped in pretty blue ribbon with a white ribbon in the middle of it. Simple but so pretty.

The other half of the low arrangements contained just blue hydrangea and double wrapped with black ribbon on top of white. I used bouquet vases with black ribbon tied around the necks across the head table. All bouquets were placed in them after introductions were made - an easy but effective way to add flowers to a head table!


Best wishes for a wonderful future together Amy and Mario! It was a pleasure to work with you.

Eliana & Tyler - Is there a doctor in the house?

Elians and Tyler celebrated their marriage at Villanova Conference Center. She chose a beautiful clean, crisp color palette of green and white which allowed us to utilize some more unusual flowers. There are so many nooks and crannies to decorate here and Eliana added her personal flair all over the mansion. In spite of being in medical school and working awful hours, Eliana managed to put together a wonderful wedding. I can't believe that she found the time to DIY some of her centerpiece containers and did a fantastic job. She is quite an accomplished young woman with a wonderful sense of humor. She's going to make the most fabulous pediatrician!

Eliana's bouquet was composed of white lisianthus, white freesia, white ranunculus, and green mini hydrangea for a more garden-like flavor. Her mom brought back sari material from India which I used to bind the stems. Tyler wore a pocket garden boutonniere which I unfortunately don't have a photo of. I'm hoping Eliana will share her professional pictures with me.

We made lots of corsages and boutonnieres of white spray roses and green button mums for this wedding. Bridesmaids carried bouquets of Bells of Ireland, white stock, and white spray roses. Gold sari material was wrapped around their stems. Groomsmen wore boutonnieres of white spray roses sitting in a floret of Bells of Ireland.

One of my very favorite placecard table arrangements is this one. Eliana got me an old "doctor's bag" and we filled it with green and white flowers. How very fitting for the wedding of two medical students!

We used a collection of cut glass containers holding a candle and rose petals on all the cocktail tables throughout the mansion.

What I love about Villanova Conference Center is that you get to have your reception in a ballroom, but you also have access to the whole mansion, the patio, and the guestrooms! In one of the large sitting rooms is a piano, which always looks nice with a touch of decor on top of it. Eliana got me some gorgeous sari material which I draped across the piano. On top I placed candles and hydrangea in a grouping of tall glass holder.

I designed three types of centerpieces for this wedding. One was made up of all candles. One type was made up of all flowers. And the third, was a combination of flowers and candles. I filled glass squares with lime green flower foam, hydrangea, and lime green button mums.

Eliana made the "boxes" into which I put flower arrangements of green and white flowers. I love that she used "corners" on them. The first was made up of a light green pattern.

The second "box" that Eliana made used more of a dark green pattern. I think she did a fabulous job with these. If anyone would like to know how they were made, I can tell you.

The last centerpiece was made up of a several different types of candles - what I call "candlescaping". I added rose petals to fill out the threesome. Congratulations to Elians and Tyler and Good Luck at Hershey Medical! I know you'll make fabulous MDs.