Superman party

I've got so little time for blogging these days and will find it even more difficult during the next five weeks. I just have time for a quick post today about the Superman party I recently did. A client wanted to have a birthday party for her husband. Since he is her "super" man, that became the theme. I ran around to so many stores to try to find something in the party area for Superman, but nothing was to be found. Even Party City hasn't carried Superman items in a year. Poor Superman! So I decided to decoupage his "S" onto blue vases and follow through with yellow and red flowers and some ting ting for flight! Decoupaging is an easy, inexpensive way to decorate almost anything. Try it - it's fun!

Stacey & Richard - Fun at the Firehouse

Stacey and Richard celebrated their marriage at Vincent Mennonite Church followed by a reception at the North Coventry Fire Company banquet hall. Stacey wanted to use a mix of pink, white, and aqua blue for her wedding colors. Since there are no aqua blue flowers, it's always a challenge to fit that color into a color scheme. But we accomplished it with ribbon, containers, and acrylics. Once Stacey saw the acrylics - she HAD to have them in her centerpieces. They were perfect with her decor. I think that this wedding turned out to be so "sweet" with a wonderful combination of colors.

Stacey carried a bouquet of white and pink roses with pearls in their center. We bound the stems with aqua blue ribbon and a bow underneath the head. Richard wore a white rose boutonniere.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets of pink and white roses. Groomsmen wore matching boutonnieres.

The nest with the aqua blue bird's eggs was a "no brainer" for the ring bearer. I added touches of Baby's breath and some pink ribbon along with the "rings".

The three year old flower girl carried a white tulle pomander with pink satin roses. I made a matching halo for her to wear on her head. Such a cute set!

I filled large white wicker baskets with pink alstromeria and white fugi mums. By ribboning the handle, we easily added the aqua blue color Stacey wanted.

I also wanted to get a bit of the aqua blue on the church pews, so I doubled the ribbon on the pew bows. I love how this looks. I'll have to remember this!

In an aqua vase, I arranged an assortment of pink and white flowers to put on the gift table.











Because the tables were rectangular in shape, I wanted the centerpieces to follow those lines. I used multiple sweetheart shaped vases full of alstromeria and acrylics. The small vases had pink acrylics in them while the white had aqua blue. We also used similar vases to hold the bouquets on the head table.

Jaime & Steven - Delightful Dendrobiums

Jaime chose a beautiful color pallete of purple, ivory, and green for her wedding to Steven at the fantastic Columbia Station. I love the combination of those colors. We incorporated some personal touches, including apples and vases, which meant a lot to the couple, and came up with some truly unique ideas for their reception. Jamie wanted three different centerpieces which allowed me to utilize some really fun elements. I really enjoyed working on this one!

Jamie carried a gorgeous bouquet of rose, stock and trachelium with touches of variegated hosta around the edges. Steven's boutonniere of a matching rose and hosta looked great as well. Jaime was a gorgeous bride as seen on her photographer's website. I'll post some pictures when I get them.


Bridesmaids carried bouquets of lavender alstromeria and green hypericum berries. Groomsmen wore boutonnieres of matching alstromeria.






A mix of green and purple flowers that included Bells of Ireland and various shades of larkspur, sat on each side of the church altar.



I filled a vase that Jaime provided for her "memory vase" with alstromeria and hypericum berries. The vase was transferred from the church to grace the credenza at Columbia Station.


The placecard table held a tall glass compote filled with apples, alstromeria, orchids, greens, and ting ting. I liked how this festive arrangement greeted the guests.


I placed orchids in glass containers to decorate Jamie and Steven's sweetheart table. These alternated with candles.

I used wonderful moss covered pots for the first centerpiece. In each of them I placed purple hydrangea studded with green dendrobium orchids. I love this pot with purple flowers in it.

Steven's grandparents own a farm with an apple orchard. So Jaime and Steven picked the green apples for the second centerpiece. I filled 8" glass bowls with the apples and then did an arrangement of dendrobium orchids and sanderiana from the top.

The third centerpiece was candle based with a hint of dendrobium orchids placed around it.

And a happy ending to a wonderful wedding - a beautiful wedding cake decorated with my favorite flower - purple lisianthus!

Alyssa's Garden Gerber Daisy Shower

Tanya put together an absolutely adorable bridal shower for her sister, Alyssa. Alyssa's favorite flowers are gerber daisies, so that was obviously the theme for this party. Tanya chose to use watering cans for the centerpieces and everywhere else she could think of using a brightly colored garden theme. I had a large green watering can painted with the couple's names on it for the placecard table which came out wonderfully. There will be lots of gerber daisies at Alyssa's wedding in the fall. I love working with these sisters. They are such fun ladies!


This cake was just too cute. Tanya had pots of cookies made, chocolate covered strawberries, and more while I made up a few small garden pots of gerbers for the table.

I even placed a touch of gerbers in the Ladies Room.


Watering can arrangement for the gift table.

Gerber arrangement for the favor table.

I made a small bouquet of silk gerber daisies for the "brides" chair at the shower.

Some of the watering can centerpieces that went on the tables. Wrapped candy flowers were sprinkled around the cans. And flower shaped cookies were given as favors.

I'm a little behind on my blogging - there are just too many weddings during this season. I'll catch up when I can.!

Manuela & Marco at Romantic Ridley Creek Park

Manuela was an absolute delight to work with. How lucky her elementary school students are to have such a sweetheart of a teacher. Ella chose a color pallete of purple, lavender, and white for her wedding at Ridley Creek State Park. She also felt that she wanted to decorate Hunting Hill Mansion in a way that was appropriate for the era of the mansion. She decided that she would use urns and thought it would be fun to hunt for them herself. And she did a wonderful job too!

Manuela's bouquet consisted of purple lisianthus, lavendar lisianthus, white stock, and purple godetia. She also wore a lovely white gardenia in her beautiful dark hair. Marco's boutonniere was made up of a purple and lavender lisianthus.

Unfortunately I accidentally deleted my photo of the bridesmaids' bouquets, made up of various shades of stock. Groomsmen wore boutonnieres of godetia.

Tubed heads of hydrangea with lavender bows were placed on the pews at Holy Savior Church in Norristown.





I used three shades of stock to fill up the urn which went on the placecard table. This was similar to the flowers that the bridesmaids carried.











Ella bought three different styles of urns to use for her centerpieces. We decided to fill each with her favorite flower - hydrangea - plus a contrasting flower. The first type of urn was filled with beautiful purple hydrangea and white godetia.

I filled the second type of urn with huge stems of lavender hydrangea and purple carnations.

The third urn was filled with white hydrangea and lavender roses.

The cake sat in a nook on an upper level at the mansion. I decorated it with lavender roses, lisianthus, and purple carnations. I'm looking forward to seeing professional pictures of this beautiful purple wedding.

Backyard BBQ - How To Make Easy Centerpieces!

It's easy to combine flowers that you grow with flowers that you purchase when doing casual centerpieces. For this party at my friend's house, I used mason jars as vases. I used a summery pallette of yellow, green, and lavender and tied it all together with a lavender and green print ribbon around the neck of the jar. My cutting garden was full of "green" eyed Susans which I combined with lavender larkspur, mini sunflowers, lavender mardi gras asters as filler, purple veronica, and green hypericum berries. When you put together an arrangement like this, make sure that you use flowers of different textures. One flower type should be tall (larkspur), one should hang over the rim of the jar (mini sunflowers), and then other flowers to fill in between. Small heads of hydrangea work well in these jars as well. Lots of us grow those. Good luck and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Angela & Joe - Perfect Pinwheels!

Angela and Joe wanted a joyful, happy wedding full of white, yellow, and green flowers. Angela decided to make whimsical, colorful pinwheel placecards for guests to pluck from green grass in order to find their seats. What a fun way to start off a reception. And she did an amazing job!

Angela chose mini sunflowers, with green centers and stephanotis with green pins in them, for her bouquet. A huge "thank you" to her fabulous photographer Denise Mabilog, for sharing some of her pictures with me. http://www.denisemabilog.com/. Angela and her family worked hard on many of the details of her wedding. It's easy to see that a lot of love went into making this wedding so special.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets of yellow and white daisies. I sewed daisy buttons onto the stem wrap to match.

Large antique white wicker containers held a mass of Baby's Breath and bright yellow and green fugi mums on each side of the altar at church.

A close up picture by Denise Mabilog shows how cute the placecard pinwheels were.

The tall flower container filled with sunflower seeds was placed in the center of the wheat grass sections. The boxes that held the grass were built and decorated by Angela's talented parents. The whimsical pinwheels that Angela and her mom made for placecards were placed in the grass. This was such an adorable idea!

Very cute triple glass containers in yellow and green were filled with individual flowers and placed on cocktail tables.