Julia and Jason - Creativity at William Penn Inn

I was fortunate to get to work with one of my favorite families once again-  this time with daughter #2 - Julia and her fiance Jason.

Julia added many of her own very creative touches to her wedding.  Actually the whole family is creative and a joy to work with.  I hope I do them justice in my description.  With a color palette of white, yellow, and blue, I created Julia's bouquet with white roses and mini calla lilies.  A few of the roses had gold pins in them.  Mom Debbie sewed a pleated navy ribbon collar for the bouquet.  Jason wore a matching calla lily boutonniere.

The bridal party wore blue gowns, so we made their bouquets up of white football mums, yellow flowers, and baby's breath collars.  Julia's sister Christin posed for this photo. Since she was the MoH, I used yellow spray roses for her bouquet and yellow button mums with the same white football mums for the bridesmaids.  Groomsmen wore rose boutonnieres.  Why don't I have a photo of Bradley all dressed up?  He's Christin's adorable little boy!

Julia and her Mom decorated the arch themselves.  To carry on the golden lighting effect, I created two tall arrangements each at the entrance of the aisle where the bridal party would walk.  I filled the container with gold mesh and lights and placed a large flower arrangement on the top.

Julia created her own clever cocktail table decor.  Squares were filled with bottle caps I believe from their favorite craft beers.  Signs on top were "Did you know?" facts about the couple, and mats of photographs were included on the tables as well.

Julia also used a fun sign-in idea for her guests.  Each one signed a puzzle piece with words of advice.  When they were put together the finished product would be framed.

I made two different types of centerpieces for Julia. First she created beautiful gold glittery square vases for the first type of flower arrangement of hydrangea and spray roses. They looked wonderful and Julia said they weren't hard to do.  I will probably be stealing this DIY idea in the future.  I'm giving you credit now Julia!

The second half of the centerpieces were simple, but I thought, very pretty.   In the center were rectangular vases of white football mums.  Two containers of crushed gold glass and votive candles were placed to either side. I loved the presentation of candlelight for these tables.

Again, Julia did a great job decorating her sweetheart table.   She glittered the glass candlesticks and added a sweet sign to the front of her table. Good job Julia!

And of course, a creative way to decorate the wedding cake was the "icing on the cake!"

Thank you to Julia and Jason for having me help them with their wedding flowers.  Julia did an amazing job with her details and made my flowers look really good.  I wish you two the very best!  And if I'm still around when Bradley gets married I hope to help him with his flowers too.  lol

Angela & Daniel at Brandywine Manor House in Chester County

Brandywine Manor House is a wonderful, wonderful rustic location that has everything a bride could want - a barn for a smaller wedding (200 seated) or cocktail party; a tented area for a larger wedding (up to 325); gorgeous grounds with several locations for ceremonies and many locations for pictures.  It is gorgeous!  I was so excited and honored when Angela wanted me to help her with her beautiful rustic wedding there.

Burgundy, pink, and a hint of blue were the basis of the color palette for this wedding and Angela's bouquet.  This short cascade included roses, calla lilies, lisianthus, thistle, waxflower, and greens.  Daniel wore a matching calla lily.

Bridesmaids carried a variation of this bouquet with hypericum berries and grass loops added. Roses with grass loops were worn by the groomsmen.

As I said before, there are several locations on the property for ceremonies.  For this spectacular area I designed  large mix of burgundy and white flowers in an old labelled bucket.

Underneath the barn is an area for cocktail hour.  For this wedding Daniel collected bottles of his favorite beers for me to arrange with flowers.

What is probably the #1 vendor rule as far as I'm concerned?  DON'T BE LATE! Why would you want to cause even more stress on this special day?   Unfortunately this bride's caterer was hours late so no tables were set up for me to place anything.   What a mess!  So I left everything on some extra tables and the bride's sister fortunately put everything where it belonged when the caterer finally arrived.  For the placecard table I had two antique, rusty funnels painted and personalized with names and dates.  I only had one pair of these and this lucky couple got them!  

We made three different kids of centerpieces for this wedding.  One third of the tables were done with my glass jars in wire in the largest size by themselves.  Another third were decorated with rusty pots full of hydrangea.  And the rest of the tables were decorated with a pair of my glass jars in wire. I used all kinds of mixed flowers on the tables.

These two smaller containers were placed on the sweetheart table.

Since the cake wasn't going to be brought over until the caterer arrived - hours later - Angela's lovely sister said that she would put the flowers on it.  Her help was immeasurable!  She said the caterer made up some kind of excuse for being so very late, but in the end, everyone had a great time.  Congratulations to Angela and Daniel on their marriage!

Stephanie and John - Just Bouquets

Stephanie only needed bouquets and personal flowers for her wedding at Manufacturers Golf and Country Club.  With a color palette of purple, lavender, white, gray, and pink I designed bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages for her wedding party.

I think this is one of my very favorite bouquets.  The pink, white, and gray blended together so nicely and I love the varied textures.  John wore a matching calla lily as his boutonniere.

Mixed colors of lisianthus made up the bridesmaids' bouquets. Lavender lisianthus was used for the groomsmens' boutonnieres.

Moms opted to carry nosegays made up of pale pink and lavender.  I thought these came out really pretty.  Of course the Dads matched with lavender lisianthus boutonnieres.

I wish much happiness to Stephanie and John.  Congrats on your marriage!

Jena & John at the Hotel Monaco

Jena did an excellent job of planning her Philadelphia wedding all the way from Florida.  It's not easy to plan long distance and she did a fabulous job - with the help of planner Amanda Dabbeekeh owner of Diamonds and Details  http://diamondsanddetails.com/about.html.

Jena wanted a muted color palette of pale pink and whites for her wedding.  So we used beautiful pink lisianthus mixed with white lisianthus and bits of white waxflower for her bouquet. John wore a matching boutonniere of white lisianthus.

I opened up pink spray roses really wide and collected those for Jena's attendant's bouquet.  Added touches of baby's breath were added as well.

Jena wanted tall vases of flowers to line her ceremony aisle.  They were then re-purposed and used on her six guest tables as centerpieces.

Jena did a wonderful job with her wedding details in spite of the distance and other obstacles she faced.  Everything looked so lovely when I left that day.  Best wishes on a long and happy life together Jena and John!

Heather and Andrew - Fall Love

One of my favorite places to work is Aldie Mansion which happened to be the location of the wedding of Heather and Andrew.  Heather had a more unique color palette of ivory/white, purple/lavender, blue, and red, which was really fun to work with for Fall.  I loved how it all came together.

Heather's bouquet contained lavender roses, daisies, red mums, and wheat!  It turned out to be such a pretty combination.  And Andrew wore one of my pocket gardens which was made up bits and pieces of the wedding flowers.  It slips into the groom's pocket and looks great as a "boutonniere".

Mums are perfect for Fall weddings and these bridesmaids carried bouquets made up of three types of daisy mums.  My favorites are those two toned purple daisies.  Groomsmen wore matching boutonnieres.

There are several locations for ceremonies at Aldie.  Heather and Andrew chose to have theirs under the large oak tree.  I filled my white wicker stands with Baby's Breath and blue delphinium to define their ceremony space.

Heather brought me several wine bottles with interesting labels to use on cocktail tables. I filled them with a variety of mums.

I used a simple large candle container and filled it with rose petals for the placecard area.

Rose petals also greeted guests on this entry table.

Every table at the reception was a little bit different.  Basically I did two different styles of centerpieces both with a bit of a lacy vintage look. Half of the tables were made up of large glass vases in either clear, blue, red, or purple and filled with a variety of flowers.  The second half of the tables were "tablescaped" with three different vintage vases each filled with one type of flower from the couples' color palette.  Most of the little vases were also different from each other.

This wedding turned out to be such a pretty one and I would have loved to have seen all of the tables finished, but I had a family commitment that day.  I was allowed to go in early so that I could get there on time.  I hope that Heather and Andrew had the time of their lives at their wedding that evening!  Congratulations to you both!

Ashley and Chris and Wonderful Wheat!

The church in which Ashley and Chris had there wedding was one of the sweetest little churches I've ever seen.  And Ashley's details really added to its charm.

When guests walked in they were greeted by this sign. I loved how it was written on a decorated chalkboard.

Ashley also decorated her own unity candle set with lace and burlap. Pretty!

I used Ashley and Chris' fall color palette of orange and rusts to make altar flower arrangements.

I even found some orange colored wheat to add to the arrangements.

I added a touch of Fall to each of the window sills in the church with bud vases of Red Rover mums, eucalyptus and more orange wheat.

I made up Ashley's bouquet with orange spray roses, rust colored hypericum berries, ivory standard roses, and ivory spray roses.  Such a pretty combination!  Chris' boutonniere of an ivory rose with hypericum berries matched perfectly.

Wheat was also a lovely addition to the mix of peach spray roses and fall mums  in the bridesmaids' bouquets.  I bound the stems with twine for a more rustic look.

Wheat also appeared in the groomsmen's boutonnieres which I finished off in twine.

Using a rust colored ceramic vase, I made a pretty arrangement of orange wheat and leftover flowers for the placecard table at Bay Pony Inn.

I try to use up all of the flowers that I buy for a bride, so using up Ashley's bouquet roses proved to be the perfect topping for her wedding cake.  Congratulations and may the two of you live a long and happy life together!

Karen & Scott at Hotel Fiesole

Hotel Fiesole in Skippack is a lovely spot to have a smaller wedding.  I've worked there several times and am always impressed about how pretty it is.  Karen had attended a friend's wedding there that I had worked on and decided that it was the perfect place for her own.  Her color palette was purple and burgundy which was carried through her bouquet of lisianthus and roses.   Scott wore a burgundy rose boutonniere.  Karen's MoH carried a smaller bouquet of dark red spray roses with a matching boutonniere for the Best Man.

We made a beautiful arrangement of burgundy and purple flowers in a large urn placed in a central position in front of a large window for the ceremony.

All of Karen and Scott's paper goods were particularly pretty.  I made a small arrangement in a purple vase for the placecard table.  And on the opposite wall was a box where guests could leave notes for the happy couple.  I thought the note cards were adorable.

Another detail that I really liked were the table numbers.  All of the centerpieces were made up of purple hydrangea and burgundy roses with a leaf wrap inside the vases.

The flowers on the small sweetheart table matched the other centerpieces for a unified look.

Congratulations to Karen and Scott.  May you always be as happy as you were on your special day.