Thursday, August 6, 2020

The Wildflower Wedding - The Bridal Bouquet

I always find the bride bouquet to be the most personal piece of wedding flowers. And this time I got to make one for a girl I’ve known her whole life.


It isn't the flashiest of stories.  But like the first drink of a good cup of coffee, it is one of the best of the normal stories:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1tXvfEupJ0G5zJ3utftQ4lcct0UAtghTJ

We went driving on the San Juan Islands on the way home from Cyan’s senior photo shoot and I stopped to pick some flowers as we waited for the ferry. And she said “could you do that for my wedding?”

And I was all “yeah. sure.”

And then she said “No really. Would you do the flowers for my wedding?”

And I looked into her completely serious face... And I said yes, in my van, with a handful of lavender from the field we were just at and Queen Anne’s Lace from the side of the road in my hand.

If only she knew how close to bittersweet tears she took me in that moment... (it’s not hard to do. I’m a sap.)

So when I said yes, I was in. Dedicated. All completely in.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1eQkhMHAPX77JSwg3Tkqyw57f7UNbpqO7

In this bouquet are dahlias from @connellsdahlias, flowers I got through @teressajohnson, and even a few from @larchefarm, who was so wonderful in helping me find the last few bits I needed for this event... but many, many of these flowers were from my garden, planted and cultivated with this exact bride in mind.

She asked for crazy. She asked for fun, and wild, and muted rainbow. And I did everything in my power to give her just what she asked for and a tiny bit more.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1uigjb0pF3_NxuiVkgezm-HceIV-OPLRR

See, hidden in this bouquet was her first kiss as a bride. A thimble to give her Peter Pan (her favorite book, which has a subtle theme throughout my flower-work for the wedding). 


Can you see the thimble?

The thimble was 100 years old, gotten from my great aunt’s sewing table my mother left to me. It is a tiny treasure, meant to be given away. The first of many tiny treasures you give away to your partner to create a life together. ❤️ Because it really is all about the little things. Those little things make a life (and a damn good story).

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Monday, August 3, 2020

The Wildflower Wedding - Bridesmaid's Flowers


It would be hard to imagine the blessing it is to watch these girls grow up and start their lives together unless you had been part of it.  They have been close friends for the entirety of their school careers as most of them met when they were in Preschool or Kindergarten.  Now the first one of them is getting married, three more are in college, and one is headed to nursing school.  Their lives are truly beautiful and so are they!


Flower crowns are easy to make if you know the trick of it.  The easiest way to make one is to make a ton of mini bouquets, called posies, and put them in water until the day of the event. I had learned this over much trial and error in the last couple months. My dear friend at @sheholdsdearly helped me make more than 100 posies for these crowns the day before the wedding.  At one point, sending me to the venue so I could measure the space for the floral backdrop and working on them herself for hours! She blessed me far more than she knows that day.


Inspired by the theme of "wild", most of these are things we found on our properties or in the creek near our house.  The blackberries and Hawthorn were dethorned by hand before we made the posies so nothing poked the bridesmaids at the event.  The bachelor buttons and straw flowers were gathered from my own yard and the roses and carnations were purchased.  


The bouquets mirrored the elements of the bride's bouquet but smaller and less elaborate.  


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Sunday, August 2, 2020

The Wildflower Wedding - Cake Flowers

The cake is such a wedding statement piece!  The bride and I discussed the cake decorations ahead of time and I wanted to create a beautiful pastel rainbow on the cake that echoed her bouquet.  


I got done with the backdrop and all of the bouquets and touch ups on all the floral headbands I went to the tent and was completely shocked by the color of the frosting ferns that garnished the cakes!  We had talked about deep forest green ferns, but the color was very different than I was expecting and did not match with the brides "pastely" cake flower choices...


I believe that it turned out just beautiful and unique anyway, though, didn't it?  

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1qkhId6anq0myV4kqkIM17s5ng6RWDLmd

All my plans went out the window and I had to reinvent what I was doing on the fly!  This is when having buckets full of flowers and willing hosts comes in very handy.  I asked ushers to help me move all the buckets to the dinner tent and I started to dig in.   

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=10jIHX50htN3io_9slPTA7KZKfk7N-_Ws

Pastels were out with this deep green and bright chartreuse frosting.  But as the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention." and I had many beautiful things left over.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1iQOXQFo6uFp9kEWpj3AeWF8oIXm5AO0V

For the cake, I used white sweet peas, burgundy and Ferncliff copper dahlias from @connelsdahlias, chocolate cosmos, peach petunias (from the organic hanging baskets at the venue, I mean, I got creative), and then green hazelnuts from my tree, calendula blossoms, rose buds, burgundy bachelor buttons, white roses, pineapple sage, sweet pea greens, and mint sprigs.


After all the confusion, it really did turn out stunning and each piece made quite a statement!

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Elb5hFcg_bKhaTasl8zSiYmI6rVEuLvd


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