adventures in design

A Backyard Wedding

I had the pleasure of designing the personal flowers for a lovely backyard wedding outside of Franklin. It was a beautiful day, with perfectly blue skies, emerald green grass, and a lovely bride and groom ready to commit themselves to one another for eternity-- the perfect wedding day.

The colors of the wedding were ivory, cream, and a brilliant red. For the bouts, I constructed a calla lily with a solitary stephanotis bloom

The brides and bridesmaids bouquets featured vendela roses, black magic roses, cream freesia, and white lilac

A lovely side view of the bride's bouquet shows off the bouquet's profile:

Red Sox calla lilies really are a gorgeous deep red

A full view of the bouquet-- dressed with midori double-faced satin and embellished with a victorian-style brooch

The edging of the bouquet featured a latte-shaded ribbon embellishment

A bit of a better view of the cameo brooch

Jamie & Chris...it's love!

This February, I had a gorgeous wedding with planner extraordinaire Kristin Carolan of Simply Stunning Events, and the oh-so-talented photographer Brian Kaplan. The theme: rustic glam meets modern contemporary. The colors: jewel tones of deep rich red, lucious purple, sage green, gold, and oranges, with a pop of brilliant reds and vivid green. The result: a gorgeous wedding for an equally gorgeous bride & groom.

All pics courtesy of Brian Kaplan Photography.

The bouquet featured white mini callas, bicolored coffee break & leonidas roses, vendela roses, and seeded eucalyptus


red hypericum & waxflower acted as a bit of embellishment, and the bouquet handle was dressed in antique gold midori


The cake was embellished with open black magic roses & coffee break roses


The bridesmaids bouquets were a vignette of colors, with deep black magics (they were so open and gorgeous!), white callas, coffee break roses, and mango callas-- and then wrapped with chocolate midori

 
The  reception tables were 42 inches. We created small, focal-point conversation-style pieces: This arrangement features a leaf wrapped vase with red anthurium, fern curls, dendrobium orchids and roses.


White milk glass mint-julep style cups were filled with pussy willow, white dendrobium, and white stock


A sweet arrangement of coffee break roses, black callas, and white tulips



Congrats, Jamie & Chris!
 

Winter Wonderland IV

A few more shots of the guest tables, then we're on to the magnificent Royal Table!

I just love this image of the white arrangment in black and white:


The bride, groom, and bridal party sat in the center of the room at the "Royal Table" : a table with arrangements that featured ivory and crimson blooms. It had a few special surprises as well:

A long line of submerged flowers and floating candles, along with golden bowls of blossoms rested on the top of the table



Each bridesmaid and groomsmen had a frame indicating their name & placesetting.


A long view of the Royal Table


White dendrobium orchids, red James Storey orchids, and lush Charlotte & Black magic roses form the base of this breahtaking arrangement, along with gold accents and manzanita branches


Crystals hung from the centerpieces, and tall gold pedestals filled with red roses complemented these lush and gorgeous arrangements


The royal table was all about being opulent and lush

The view from the Bride  & Groom's Point-of-View

It was a beautiful evening. The bride and groom danced the night away in a gorgeous setting, and being so beautiful themselves, I'd say the night was theirs for the taking.



Wishing you a lifetime of every happiness, Ashlie & Scott!

Winter Wonderland: III

Continuing with this beautiful Wedding

The reception was held at the Hermitage Hotel. Outside in the lobby, guests found their seating assignments by reading their names from cards printed on the same golden paper that the programs were printed upon-- designed and printed by Brocade:

The oh-so-beautiful cake by Jo's Custom Cakes & Catering



The guest tables were decorated in a white color scheme: tall white centerpieces with white and cream roses, denrobium orchids, gold ting, manzanita, gold branches, and hand-strung crystals made up the top of the arrangement. The base of the vases were filled with submerged orchids and branches.

Cyllinders filled with submerged flowers and floating candles rested on the tables, along with placecards, solitary rose blossoms, and votives.

A close up view of the centerpieces: all of the swarkovski crystal and freshwater pearl strands were hand-strung.

The guest tables featured handmade menu cards with a pearlescent brick red backing and menu card printed on gold paper designed and printed by Brocade:

Each menu card was placed within a gold napkin and then upon a crackled gold charger.

Brocade designed and made these table lumniaries with gold-dust vellum and red ribbon:


You'll notice all of the fonts and colors are matching and cooresponding with the other elements: the programs, menu cards, luminaries, place cards, and luminaries are all complementary
 

A full view of the complete table look

I love this picture: you can see the Christmas Tree in the corner, i think it adds a great amount of depth!


More images to come on Monday!

Winter Wonderland II

Now, onto more images from the beautiful wedding of Ashlie & Scott. The bride was breathtaking in her ivory gown and birdcage veil and 1950s hairdo. She was styled to the hilt and looked just amazing:

And she and her groom are just so in love...

The groom's bout: a gold kissed black magic rose with green hypericum berries & gold wire

The groomsmen wore white bouts with red berries, embellished with an antique gold wire


I just love this image: doesn't she look divine!

The bride's bouquet:

The bride's bouquet: white lilies, calla lilies, vendela roses kissed with gold, and lush peony


A closer look at the bride's bouquet

The bride's favorite season is Christmas, and the bridesmaids gowns were a beautiful deep scarlet. They carried bouquets of white calla lilies, white peony, and red roses, with gold-touched creamy-green hypericum berries

The maid of honor's bouquet was slightly different and was touched with gold:

I just love this shot of the bride & groom

Coming tomorrow: the reception!

Winter Wonderland : I

Over the next several posts, I'll be devoting my blog to the absolutely gorgeous wedding of Ashlie & Scott-- married on December 13, 2008 at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Their reception was at the  Hermitage Hotel. I am so excited to share these beautiful images from you from the amazingly talented Divine Images-- Bill and Lesli are so incredible, so awesome, so great-- I can't say enough wonderful things about them. They have such an artistic eye, and captured such beauty in this wonderful couple... I was so lucky to have them as the event photographers!

The Downtown Presbyterian Church is a located right on 5th Avenue and is in the Egyptian Revival Style: lush Egyptian colors decorate the walls in a beautiful color wash. I love the decor and atmosphere of the church. Since we were in the holiday season, the front of the church was draped with fresh green garland and accented with roses:

On the tops of the spires, individual rose balls made for a beautiful first impression as guests arrived:



Inside, guests signed the photo guest book of the couple's Engagement Session . The colors of the wedding were antique gold, ivory and cream, and rich red. The guest book table arrangement showed off this color palate with these rich shades:

Guests also grabbed a program-- placed inside this beautiful antique basket that the mother of the bride found in advance of the wedding. The mother of the bride, Valerie, was absolutely amazing-- she was every bit a part of her daughters wedding, and worked very closely with me to help make sure her daughter's day was absolutely perfect. She very easily wins "Mother of the Bride of the Century Award" for being the best MOB ever!

Brocade designed these programs: printed on curious metallics white gold paper, printed with deep red ink and then with a vellum overlay-- they were decadent and beautiful:

I hand-stitched the pew markers in cream fabric and then placed beautiful vibrant Freedom roses with green hypericum berries:

 Inside, the church was decorated with beautiful, tall candelabra filled with white hydrangea and open roses, with gold accents and glowing candles:

Every small space in-between was filled with a votive candle so that there was tons and tons of pretty candlelight


A look at the unity candle & altar centerpieces



The unity candle holder was hand-painted in antique gold and then the roses and hypericum berries were arranged to match.


I decorated the surface of the piano with a gold runner, candles, and fresh blooms. You can see the Egyptian-Revival columns beautifully in this photo.

Tomorrow: The bride, bridesmaids & personal flowers galore!

A "Green" Wedding

My favorite color is green, so I was delighted to work on a green themed wedding for a lovely bride this past November. The bride wore a stunning gunmetal grey gown, and loved the look of green cymbidium orchids and dendrobium orchids. Her bouts consisted of dendrobium orchids with lily grass loops:

 


The darling flower girl carried a basket with fresh moss, cymbidum orchids, and dendrobium orchid sprays:






I tucked white and green faux petals into the basket, as the ceremony site did not allow real petals

For the bouquet, the bride carried shades of green and white in a rustic display of fresh flowers:

 

The bouquet was accented with green moss balls:



Accent flowers included akito roses & hypericum berries



The bouquet was hand-tied with pretty green ribbon


It was a beautiful bouquet for a beautiful wedding day.

Amanda + Matthew: An October Wedding

In October, I had the pleasure of working with the wonderful bride Amanda-- who I first met at the Perfect Wedding Guide Show in August. Her colors were shades of coral and fall pinks and yellows and oranges. She wanted to feature calla lilies in her bouquet, with corally-red dahlia and fresh yellow roses:

The doors to the church were decorated with rustic wooden branch wreathes decorated with fresh fall flowers. The bride wanted the wedding to feel simple, casual, and rustic:



A Closer Look:

Her pew markers were chocolate double-faced satin ribbons with single flower accents:

And the altar flowers were simple groupings of fresh fall flowers on a swagged chocolate brown silk with tall pillar candles that were wrapped in ivy:
 
A closer look:



The table centerpieces were simple fall arrangements of assorted in-season blooms of bright colors:




Later that day, the centerpieces were placed on the tables outdoors:


In all, this sweet wedding was the perfect component to an equally sweet bride & groom. Congratulations, Amanda & Matthew!

What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding (of carnations)

I don't know what it is, but carnations really have a bad rap. They just do. They have this stigma of being a "cheap" flower, or being a "funeral" flower, or the kind of flower that you bring to your fifth grade crush because they sell it for a dollar at the gas station for a buck. Part of this misconception is the conditioning that we have in seeing the flower in such inauspicious places-- like funerals and gas stations-- or that they are the number one floral choice for the third grader's science project for their uncanny ability to absorb food coloring.

But me-- I really like the carnation. I love the way that it smells.It's botanical name, "dianthus", means "divine flower"--probably for this very reason. It's the number one cut flower in the UK, and the main flower reserved for mother's day. In England, you wear a red carnation to symbolize if your mother is alive, and a white carnation if your mother has passed away.

 

Carnations have been long prided by florists, but they've also been the subject of famous paintings (Van Gogh, anyone)

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For me, I like them in many different ways. Their classic look, the delicate ruffle, the heavenly scent, and the beautiful color variety (from red to pinks to yellows to orange to bicolors)...can produce some gorgeous varieties in arrangements and bouquets.

 I made a classic bouquet with some carnations that I just love the color of -- a dusky brownish peach, and paired them with some creamy white vendela and some gypso (aka babies breath) for what made for a very "old fashioned" bridal bouquet:

The Gypso Created a Pretty Cool Collar

In the end...carnations may not be the flower for you, but keep in mind, there's a reason that this flower has held its own for longer than the rose. Want to see more? Check out the British National Carnation Society

Matt & Lisa

In October, the too-cool couple of Matt & Lisa were married in October at a a beautiful private residence in Franklin. The house, Montpier, was historic and was just amazing-- no wonder Matt & Lisa chose it as their destination for their marriage:

The bride chose high & magic roses as her signature bloom. Her bridesmaids bouquets were collared with seeded eucalyptus, and the handles were dressed in ivory ribbon:



The bride chose an all-high and magic bouquet with no collar, dressed in truffle brown ribbon:



A closer look...



The groomsmen wore boutonnieres of high and magic with a lily grass loop:



And the mother's corsages featured orange spray roses with eucalyptus & dendrobium blooms with hypericum accents:



The bride walked down a petal-strewn aisle of high & magic roses-- you can see more pictures from their photographer's blog, Jessica Rayburn (the pics are great-- I really invite you to check them out). This couple was a lot of fun to work with, and I wish them the best in all they do!