Eileen and Brad - Signs of Spring

Eileen and Brad were married at St. Mary's Church in Schwenksville. The hyacinth were in bloom in front of the entry doors. When I walked past the colorful flowers, I caught their beautiful fragrance. It couldn't have been a better entrance for the guests at their wedding. To me, it symbolized the re-birth of the earth at this time of year as well as the new life beginning for Eileen and Brad. I loved working with their wedding colors of blue, white, and green and managed to work silver elements throughout their flowers. And even more, I loved working with Eileen and getting to know her better.

Eileen's bouquet was made up of a grouping of mini white calla lilies, her favorite flower. Brad also wore one on his lapel.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets of green roses, blue delphinium and white tulips. Groomsmen wore matching boutonnieres of blue delphinium.

Since the flower girl's favorite color is pink, I added some bright pink elements to her bouquet of blue iris. I put a smaller version of the pink hearts on the tips of the fun curlyques.

I surrounded a lovely memorial candle, which the couple had made for Brad's father, with blue hydrangea. It was taken from the church to the reception to sit in a place of honor.

Glass vases were filled with Bells of Ireland, delphinium, and larkspur for the pedastals on the altar. White bows lined the aisle as well as the front doors of the church.

After the ceremony, the bridal party and guests moved to Columbia Station in Phoenixville for a fabulous reception. For the placecard table, I filled a large glass cylinder with blue and silver shred and "planted" a candelabra in it, upside down, that I had previously found. I then topped everything off with lots of blue hydrangea. And the bench was such a unique "guestbook" made by Eileen's mother! What a wonderful keepsake for guests to sign. Way to go Karen!

I filled glass squares with blue, clear, and green acrylics and added either a white, green or blue hydrangea to each of them. These sat on the cocktail tables.

Probably the most important flowers at the reception sat on the sweetheart table. This silver bowl has been in Eileen's family for generations and been a part of many of their weddings. I filled it with large white roses, some of which I sprinkled with silver glitter. I also placed a white rose at each of their seats.

I used lots of blue hydrangea and delphinium in the high and low centerpieces for the guest tables. Other flowers in the silver containers included hypericum berries, Bells of Ireland, fugis, and, of course, white tulips. After all, it's finally Spring!

Alease & John - Perfectly Pretty Pinwheels

I had an amazing experience working with Alease. She's sweet and creative and has a wonderful sense of humor. Her pinwheel concept was a blast to work with and think up ideas for. And the more color - the better! The two of us designed her wedding on-line because she lives in California. Only when we were finished with almost everything, and she came home to visit her family, did I meet her face to face. And I have to say she's as much fun in person as she is on- line.

Alease wanted a bouquet full of Spring colors and we managed to do just that! Her bouquet was filled with roses, tulips, ranunculus, craspedia, stephanotis, lisianthus, hydrangea, and delphinium in a wide range of colors. I even used all different colored pins to secure her white satin stem wrap. John wore a white rose - just perfect for the groom.

Each bridesmaid carried a bright bouquet of just color of tulips. Their escorts wore boutonnieres of stephanotis with matching ribbon wrap and pins inside.






Moms carried small bouquets of blue and yellow iris mixed with pink roses. Dads wore boutonnieres of yellow spray roses.

We used two very colorful topiaries to "frame" Alease and John during their ceremony. I'm so glad that the sun stayed out.


Alease based her entire wedding on a whimsical pinwheel theme. Her fantastic invitations featured pinwheels. And pinwheels were the placecards for her guests - which they would later add to the centerpieces. Alease and John also chose to number their tables with the numbers that were important to them, rather than consecutive numbers starting with #1. You can see a bit of that on my centerpiece pictures.

Alease and John have a rabbit named Guinness, who is sooo cute. Naturally, since it's Easter time, I thought rabbits and Easter candy - the perfect companions. So Alease took pictures of Guinness for me and he "starred" in the cocktail table pieces. Each table and the bar had a different Guinness pose. Notice the bunny shaped candy in and around the vases. Finding it was the hardest part of this arrangement. And by the way - Guinness is paper trained!

The centerpieces were so bright and colorful. I've included just four of the 15 different flowers we used. Alease's step-dad made the wooden boxes to hold the grass and Alease picked out the ribbon. Guests "parked" their pinwheels in the grass box on their table. Each table had different containers of Spring flowers. Kind of like an indoor garden at La Massaria. I can't wait to see Sarah Schulte's professional pictures which I know will be superior to mine. Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all my friends and family!

Party Time!

Ironically, I had two 50th birthday parties to work on last weekend. The first was a surprise party that a gentleman was throwing for his wife. It was left up to me to design something unique using roses and candlelight. I painted pots a metallic silver that matched a silver web covered pillar candle that I placed in the center. Surrounding the candle are red roses and black painted ruscus. Before the party, the lovely staff at Columbia Station sprinkled red rose petals around the base of each pot. I really liked the final look of these.

These are the centerpieces that I created for my brother Jon for his 50th birthday party celebrated that same weekend. Not a flower in sight! I wanted to share Jon's playful side along with how he's changed through the years. Since his friends know him as Jonny "O", painting O-shaped wreaths gold as picture frames was a no brainer. I used 11 different double sided photos of my little brother - one for each table - and I had a blast working on each and every one of them.

Jennifer & Greg - Wonderful Winter Wedding

Jennifer had chosen a wonderful combination of winter white and beautiful, bright red with accents of black for her weddinng colors. We used gorgeous red roses with accents of white stephanotis each containing a white pearl. Bits of ruscus framed the flowers that we shaped into a teardrop. This shape makes such a gorgeous display against a wedding gown. I can't wait to see her professional pictures.

I made the bridesmaids' bouquets out of white roses with baby's breath and a frame of salal. Baby's breath reminds me of snow. And the pins I placed in the roses added just the right touch of red to the bouquets.

These are various boutonnieres that were created for the gentlemen in the wedding party. The black accents are kind of hard to see against the black background.





Samples of some of the corsages we made for the ladies.






















For church, I created an arrangement of flowers as a backdrop for Jennifer and Greg's Unity candle. The red flowers really helped to make the pretty white candles "pop" as they sat on the altar.

Amanda & Charles - The Cannons at Columbia Station

Amanda and Charles' wedding was my first of the 2010 season. And I couldn't have asked for a nicer bride with whom to work at my favorite reception site in Phoenixville. What can I say about Amanda except that she's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside? She chose a color palette of peach, white, and blue with some elements of winter to be added - the perfect combination for a January wedding. Her bouquet was made up of lisianthus, spray roses, delphinium, and pine. Charles' boutonniere was a combination of lisianthus and delphinium. I'm going to let the talented Brett Martelli's pictures do the talking for me now. He took some outstanding photographs which he sent to me right after the wedding. Thanks for sharing Brett! www.martelliphotography.com














Bridesmaids' bouquets consisted of light blue delphinium, peach spray roses and white spray roses. They looked terrific against the navy blue dresses. Groomsmen wore matching boutonnieres of peach spray roses.

Amanda's mom is very crafty! She made these beautiful wreaths to greet their guests at the doors of Columbia Station. And I now must admit that I fell in love with Mrs. Kolb's beautiful Golden Retriever. Alas, he was too big to sneak into my van. What a sweetheart!

I found out that Amanda makes jewelry, so I asked her if she would create something for her wedding. And she did! Amanda decorated these small vases with her special designs to place on the cocktail tables. They were so adorable - and not one was left over after the wedding. I can certainly see why!

I created a large arrangement for the placecard table which sits in the entryway at Columbia Station. In the tall cylindrical vase I floated silver, wire angelhair which was lit up by an underwater light. From the top I arranged a wintery mix of greens, white birch branches, delphinium, larkspur, white hydrangea, and peach spray roses.

Amanda's mom made these pretty winter topiaries to dress up the window sills throughout the ballroom. I think they added the perfect touch.

I designed three different types of centerpieces for Amanda and Charlie, all using cylindrical glass containers. In the first, we massed full white hydrangea with scattered peach roses and bright blue delphinium. I wrapped a matching blue ribbon around the cylinder with a white ribbon overlay to carry through the color scheme.

Then I used the same flowers in a bit of "tablescaping". We filled three sizes of glass cylinders with the same flowers each with a contrasting ribbon wrapped around it.

And finally tall glass cylinders were filled with birch branches. From the branches I hung peach roses, LED candles, and crystals. More votive candles surrounded the base of the containers with their light bouncing off the glass and clear marbles inside. Columbia Station looks so beautiful with candlelight shimmering throughout the ballroom. This was a great start to my wedding year and I'm looking forward to many more beautiful weddings.