Rewind: Valentine's Day Party

On Valentine's Day this year, my friend and I hosted a dinner party for 8 elderly widows. I had such a great time planning this event! We told the ladies to wear their fanciest dresses and we sent 8 of our guy friends to be their dates. They picked the ladies up with corsages and brought them to the house for dinner and an evening of music.

I think this is a great example of a few relatively inexpensive ideas that really up the 'wow' factor. For the centerpieces, I wrapped vases with different colors of ribbon to match the color of the flowers. I mostly used carnations (in big bunches they're actually pretty cute!) and some roses. I found some inexpensive red runners ($10 each) and placed a ton of votives on the table. We borrowed the chargers, silver and dishes from another friend.

Over head we made (literally) hundreds of the Martha Stewart pom poms in tons of different shapes and sizes. We used shades of red and pink tissue paper. It took a ton of time, but we had a lot of friends help and so it was fun. Literally anyone (even boys and kids!) can make these. (the instructions are on Marthastewart.com)

For each place setting, I made a place card using my new calligraphy skills (I've been taking lessons, but I'm still a total beginner). I also made a little tissue paper flower for each place setting in various shades of red and pink.

For the mantle, I covered different vase heights with 1 sheet of tissue paper and placed a pillar candle in each. We also lined the windowsills with votive candles and we hung christmas lights from the ceiling. The effect was...magical.

I think my favorite part about the whole thing was how meaningful it was to the ladies we invited. Many of them were in their later 80's and 90's. One said as she was leaving, "I don't even remember the last time I went out and did something fun." That made all of the late nights preparing for this totally worth it.

I can't wait to do it again next year!

Heather at Log Haven

I loved Heather's classic Black, Red and White color scheme! We used a mix of different color red roses, gerbera daisies, crocosmia and dahlias for the bouquets. The centerpieces were alternating tables with floating white roses or floating dahlias, and taller white lilies and taller dahlias. On top of the black runners, we sprinkled pearl beads. All of the vases had black rocks in the bottom. Simple and classy!

Roses, Lilies & Pearls

i heart fall weddings!

Stacey & Bryce, May 12

Stacey and Bryce tied the knot this past weekend. What a fun wedding for me! Stacey chose red, white, and black as her color scheme. We used red and white roses, white mini callas, bear grass and wheat grass as her main floral elements.

For the ceremony, we made two large pieces for the altar with curly willow and red silk blossoms. (Special thanks to Stacey's dad for making those cool black vases!) I didn't get a picture, but the front of the altar was lined with floating rose cubes, votive candles and red rose petals.

Stacey wanted a bouquet with roses and mini callas, but didn't want the "lollipop look." We varied the height of the roses and mini callas to give it a more natural look. We also included bear grass loops and spikes.

I love it when moms carry clutch bouquets instead of corsages--it's so elegant! For the mother's bouquets, we used white roses and mini callas along with bear grass loops and spikes.

Stacey's cake was amazing! We sprinkled some rose petals on each tier and surrounded the bottom layer with wheat grass, black rocks and rose petals. Her centerpieces each had one cube with either a floating rose/bear grass loops or a wheat grass/rose petal cube and a pair of floating candle votives.

The long coffee bar was decorated with sections of wheat grass that had red votive candles hidden in the grass. We surrounded the wheat grass with black rocks and red rose petals to tie in the color scheme.

Happy Holidays!

October Weddings

I am completely behind on blogging! Here are some images from October weddings--lots of orange, deep red and fall textures. I just love fall weddings because there are so many neat textures to work with--especially fall foliage, chocolate cosmos, fiddlehead fern curls, hypericum berries, and seeded eucalyptus. We paired all of these great textures with sunflowers, roses, dahlias and calla lilies in rich fall colors. One of the brides chose a very rustic theme for her centerpieces, so we used pumpkins with flowers in the top ---perfect for October!

Fall colors in Park City

Lacy's wedding was a few weeks ago at the beautiful Park City Mountain Resort. It was perfect weather and a beautiful backdrop. I just loved the deep fall colors that she chose to incorporate in all of her flowers.

Looking Forward to Fall!

We have a lot of bridals scheduled in the next few weeks for our fall clients. I'm getting so excited for the rich colors and textures that come with fall weddings! This bouquet today included 'Black Magic' roses, 'Circus' roses, mango mini callas and chocolate cosmos. I am a huge fan of the chocolate cosmos---they are a deep burgundy/brown color and the actually smell like chocolate!