Kelly & Greg - A Rustic Wedding in Collegeville

Kelly came to me so enthusiastic about the elements she had collected for her wedding. She had lanterns, jars, and bottles of all different designs and sizes. And she was full of ideas for unique table numbers and decorating. Together we sorted everything  into small table collections and figured out the flowers we would use for her yellow, gray, green, and white summer wedding.


 Kelly's bouquet was a mass of lisianthus, dusty miller, craspedia, white dahlias, and succulents tied together with twine. Greg wore a boutonniere of dusty miller and craspedia.   I don't have a photo of the bridesmaids' bouquets unfortunately.  They consisted of craspedia, white larkspur, and dusty miller.

Kelly and Greg provided their own chuppah for the ceremony. I filled buckets with white hydrangea to go down the aisle.

For cocktail hour under the tent, I used some of Kelly's self-decorated bottles that I filled with yellow alstromeria.

 We used groups of bud vases on the rest of the outside cocktail tables filled with a variety of flowers.

 Inside the venue, I filled a wooden Coke crate with cola bottles which held lots of pretty flowers. This was placed on the farm table - minus the clutter.

No detail was too small for Kelly. Her "cake table" looked fabulous. Signs were artistically decorated.  The love notes suitcase was adorable. Kelly rented my old wooden ladder to seat it on.

I can't put a picture of every table on my blog, but here are some of my favorites. Note that the "numbers" on each table are all different. Kelly did a fantastic job decorating!

I used small jelly jars to hold flowers on the sweetheart table. Even Kelly's candy table was perfectly matched to her color palette. Kelly and Greg worked hard on this wedding and it showed. Everything looked amazing.   Thanks to the two of you for allowing me to be a part of your wonderful day. Congratulations!

Nicole & Jeff - Vintage Villanova

I love working on weddings at Villanova Conference Center.  It's not only that I received my Master's Degree from VU, but the mansion is absolutely gorgeous!.  So when Nicole asked me to help her with her wedding, I was more than pleased.  I also would like to thank my good friend Ron Dlutz for sending me photos of the wedding flowers.  I couldn't have made this post without them.

Nicole wanted to use a color palette of white, yellow, and blue for her wedding and add touches of "vintage" wherever possible.  For her bouquet I used white roses mixed with white lisianthus and stuffed with stephanotis plugged with rhinestones.  Jeff wore a white rose boutonniere.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets of just the white lisianthus mixed with pale yellow hypericum berries while the groomsmen wore lisianthus boutonnieres.

Back at the mansion, we set up memory vases to go along with photographs provided by Nicole.

We had some fun with the sports that Nicole and Jeff love so we filled ceramic soccer balls, basketballs, footballs, and baseballs with hydrangea for the cocktail tables.  Jeff and Nicole provided the sports trivia questions to go along with them!

Half of the tables had vases of yellow, white, and blue flowers exactly like this one on the placecard table. 

On the other half of the tables, I displayed vintage vases on top of books provided by Nicole. Every table was a bit different. 

Thank you again to Nicole and Jeff for letting me be a part of their special day. Congratulations!

Christie & Bill in Beautiful Cape May

Christie is the second sister's wedding that I worked on from one of my favorite families.  I was sooo happy to work with her and ended up in Cape May for a gorgeous weekend. Hey, if I'm going to travel that far I'm going to take a mini-vacation too!

The shore is all about soft colors - pink, white, and aqua blue - and hydrangeas - and we used a LOT of those.  The combination turned out to be really beautiful.

For her bouquet, Christie chose soft pink roses with green hypericum berries to contrast and some Queen Anne's lace for softness.

Her bridesmaids carried the same soft pink roses combined with white lisianthus. I had fun with the groomsmens' shell boutonnieres.

It was a very windy day in Cape May, so the ceremony flowers were brought down to the beach much later in the day.  I had to get the blue in those so we made bows!

There were several cocktail tables both inside and outside of the Hotel Alcott.  I painted boxes an aqua blue - spray painted shells silver - and added hydrangea to them.  What a great place to relax and have a drink!

I added shells to the vase upon which I did an pink and white arrangement for the placecard table. I felt like Queen Anne's lace belonged in Victorian Cape May!

Carolyn and Bill used an underlying baseball theme - so their tables were named after their favorite players . For half of the tables I used glass squares of white hydrangea.  I tucked in pink mini-carnations along with shells among the flowers.  I used pink hydrangea with white carnations on the other half of the tables and filled those squares with aqua blue acrylics.

Again I used my little blue boxes to decorate the sweetheart table.  I added spray roses to the hydrangea.

A huge THANK YOU to Christie and Bill for having me help them with their wedding. Not only were you wonderful to work with, the whole weekend turned out to be wonderful!.  I wish your life together to be as fabulous as your wedding day!

Jacqueline & Daniel's Rustic Wedding

Rustic weddings are always so much fun for me to work on and Jacqueline and Dan's wedding was no exception. Jacqueline chose a soft pastel color palette of pink, light green, and white which was perfect for this July summer wedding. Jacqueline's bouquet was made up of soft colors and lots of texture including Asian lilies, lisianthus, waxflower, mini-hydrangea, and white freesia. It was not only beautiful, but had a wonderful scent as well.  Daniel wore a boutonniere of freesia.

We wanted to use more rustic looking flowers for the bridesmaids' bouquet so I used daisies, alstromeria, and hypericum berries. Daisies were worn on the groomsmen's lapels.

The couple used the venue's birch arch to which we added touches of Baby's Breath.

Since the ceremony was moved under the tent, the cocktail hour was moved inside. I used the mix of bottles and flowers at several places on the bar instead of on hi-tops.

A large arrangement of white, pink, and green flowers sat on the placecard table.  I love the tall green vase that I found!

Keeping in mind that rustic means not having "matchy matchy" centerpieces, Jacqueline decided to use four different types of arrangements spread throughout the dining area. Since I collect a lot of unique rustic type containers, Jacqueline had lots to choose from and bought out several types of my containers. First we used wooden "Garden" baskets filled with a mix of flowers.

The second type of centerpieces consisted of my rental rustic lanterns, a shape matching glass vase of flowers, and votive candles.

Jacqueline supplied the old books on which to seat our third type of centerpiece. These consisted of replica vintage metal measuring cups with votive candles.

Finally, Jacqueline chose to use my green metal double garden buckets on the remaining guest tables. These buckets could be used over and over again after the flowers are no longer fresh.

I think this wedding had so many interesting aspects to it and lots of wonderful rustic details. I don't have a photo, but we used jelly jars of flowers on the sweetheart table, too. What a pretty, pretty rustic gardeny wedding with lots to look at and savor. Thank you to Jacqueline and Daniel for allowing me to be a part of it. I thoroughly enjoyed working on your wedding. Congratulations!

Stephanie and Frank - Vintage Lace and Love at Manor House

If I was still teaching I would have to give Stephanie an A+ on the details she worked on for her wedding. She herself wrapped lace around all of her vases so nicely! Every vase she wrapped was done so tightly that they looked like they were decoupaged on! She did a terrific job! As you can see by the pictures, Stephanie's color palette was white, pale green,  and soft pink which lent itself to using lace for a beautiful vintage feel.

Stephanie's bouquet was made up of pink peonies, white waxflower, and dusty miller. I wrapped the stems in white satin ribbon with an overlay of lace. Frank wore a white lisianthus boutonniere.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets similar to Stephinie's but with white football mums (in lieu of the more expensive peonies) combined with pink lisianthus and dusty miller. They were wrapped similar to Stephanie's bouquet. Pink lisianthus boutonnieres were worn by the groomsmen.

It was very windy outside that day so I wasn't able to set up the ceremony flowers because I was there early. I sat an arrangement of pink and white flowers in an old white ceramic pitcher - pictured above - that I rent out on an old table provided by Stephanie. This was to be part of a grouping with a mason jar of flowers and a mason jar candle sitting on a lacy table cloth.  Stephanie also provided her own Shepherd's hooks and hanging mason jars which I filled with Baby's Breath to go down the aisle.  If she hasn't already done so, these are for sale.  If you're interested, please contact me.

Greeting guests on the entry table was a grouping of programs, photos, and a small flower arrangement on top of an old candlestick that I spray painted silver.

A trio of vintage inspired vases sat next to the birdcage that Stephanie used to collect her envelopes.

Mantles in the old farmhouse were decorated with more framed photos and small vintage vases of flowers.

Half of the guest table centerpieces were glass cylinders wrapped by Stephanie and filled with hydrangea, lisianthus, dusty miller, and asters.

On the rest of the guest tables I used two vintage inspired vases of flowers combined with a glass candle cylinder wrapped in lace by Stephanie. Every one of these tables used slightly different vases.

Only the childrens'  table was different from the others.  Stephanie added her own magic to this one.

Again I used three small vases of flowers on the Mr. & Mrs. sweetheart table to complete the vintage theme.

I really enjoyed working with Stephanie on her wedding. She worked hard and it showed in every little item she provided for her special day.  I wish this family many happy and wonderful years together.  Congratulations!

Kendi and Lew - A trip down Memory Lane

The most wonderful thing about Facebook is being able to find and catch up with friends from my past.  I have re-connected with so many terrific people.  And through Facebook, I have also found some of my former third grade students!  There was a family whose son was one of my third graders when I first started teaching.  He was a little imp, but I was crazy about him and became friendly with his parents as well. I have lots of funny moments in memory from this 8 year old young man.  And then a few years later - I had his little sister Kendi in my class.  And Kendi grew up into a beautiful, warm, and loving woman who met and fell in love with the wonderful Lew!  Kendi (and her brothers) were all at my wedding, so things came full circle and I not only attended Kendi and Lew's wedding, but I helped her with the flowers.  I got to visit with almost the whole family.  It was pure joy for me.

Kendi loves purple - which turned into the theme of her barn wedding.   The barn belonged to someone they knew and was absolutely adorable.  It even had a built in bar!

I made Kendi's  bouquet out of white, purple, and lavender lisianthus.  Lew's boutonniere was made of white lisianthus.

Kendi's bridesmaid carried an all lavender lisianthus bouquet.

I filled purple mason jars with hydrangea and purple carnations for all of the guest tables. Lew's sisters helped with all of the other decor.  The room looked great!

I placed lavender daisy mums on the wedding cake. The toss bouquet is in the background to the right. This wedding was just right for the happy couple.

I was so happy that I got to share in Kendi and Lew's special day.  I love them both and look forward to getting together with the whole family soon.  Congratulations to both of you!