Wedding Party & Family Flowers

This is my sketch and "brain" on figuring out how all our wedding party and wedding flowers would look on our big day. I needed to incorporate the same flowers but in different combinations that made sense for their different purposes.

My floral choices were the following: Amazon roses, Casablanca lilies, curly willow, Gloriosa lilies and purple Asters. Silver wire was used as an accent in just about everything and added a beautiful and elegant effect. (You should be able to click on the image to  make it larger.)

Drawing everything out and figuring out the different floral combinations necessary proved to be not only theraputic, but gave me a handy cheat sheet to give to the florist when I placed my floral order eight months earlier...And just like we would hear from the chef at our tasting, the florist I choose gushed how excited they were that I had chosen the flowers I had for our wedding day, as many they had not worked with before and were not the "usual" choice that brides go with. In hindsight, I'm not sure still if I should have been flattered or concerned by that confession...

Lesson Learned: Our ceremony arrangements below were delivered separately from our other floral items. Actually, the arrangements below barely made it to the ceremony on time!  We had to place a call to the florist asking where they were after the bridal party flowers were the only thing delivered to the hotel by the time deadline. The florist said traffic was to blame, but I think that they most likely didn't do a trial-run of how to construct these arrangements with the fruit slices and their last minute assembly panic is what delayed their being sent out at the same time as the other flowers. When we returned from our honeymoon, we not only had the square vases we provided below returned from the hotel, but also narrower square vases which the florist had to set inside them to achieve the vase effect you see below. Tip: make sure your florist has experience creating your vision and if not, that they do a practice run before your big day, not on your big day!

The ceremony flowers consisted of Casablanca lilies, Gloriosa lilies and lots of curly willow. The vases were filled with slices of oranges and grapefruit to pull in the orange & pink silk of Jill's Maid of Honor dress. Plus, it added a nice colorful impact to the scenery.

You can see the unity and flow in the immediate bridal party flowers below...



My bridal bouquet contained Gloriosa lilies, Casablanca lilies, curly willow and shaped snake grass. Only my bouquet and the ceremony floral arrangements would contain the Casablanca lilies.





Eddie's boutonniere turned out to be stunning! It contained a Gloriosa lily to compliment my bridal arrangement, a purple Aster and was wrapped and looped with silver wire.

Since our vision of our wedding day was that of a retro/vintage feel, I was excited to give Jill a curly willow ball to carry down the aisle as something different, but to also go nicely with her dress. The florist and I selected a sheer purple ribbon (to compliment the purple Asters that were used) and attached a Gloriosa lily to the top and bottom (to compliment and tie into my bouquet) and then it was all wrapped with silver wire. I still have it, actually, hanging in a corner of my sewing room!

Anastasia had a non-traditional role being the Woman of Honor. To compliment her dress, she carried a silver-plated tussy mussy holder filled with Amazon roses (whose color popped against her black dress and tied into the citrus slices at the front of the aisle and Jill's dress) curly willow and purple Asters. Again, everything was looped with silver wire to keep that consistent and the overall result, elegant.

I had a tussy mussy made for Eddie's mother to carry, instead of the usual Mother of the Groom corsage. It was nearly idential to Anastasia's, except that her's had five roses and curly willow and Mary's only contained three roses and no curly willow. Additionally, I had a tussy mussy made for Vivian, made using just purple Asters and wrapped in silver wire. All the silver plated tussy mussy holders came with charms that we had engraved with the recipents name on one side and our wedding date, on the other. Eddie's grandmother, a last minute attendee, carried a tussy mussy that was just wrapped with ribbon for the handle that we had added to our order the day prior to our wedding day.

Because we had invited a small number of guests, many whom were close but extended family, I decided to just have flowers for immediate family and chose more feminine boutonnieres made for Eddie's two sisters to wear on their dresses instead of the usual corsages. Both sisters boutonnieres had an Amazon rose and a purple Aster, wrapped and looped with silver wire.

Eddie's father and his two nephews all wore boutonnieres of an Amazon rose with silver wire. Our nephews each had a boutonniere, too, because they handed out maracas to our wedding guests near the end of the ceremony (as well as being the only nephews in attendance).

I had boutonnieres made of purple Asters and wrapped and looped with silver wire for those friends who played a special role in our wedding ceremony. This included my dear friend Nancy who did two poetry readings, Steve who cued the recorded music required for the processionals and recessionals as well as playing the guitar and singing during the service, and Mike who performed our wedding ceremony for us (his wife, Vivian, the recipient of a matching purple Aster tussy mussy bouquet mentioned earlier).

Finally, I had boutonnieres made of greenery and wrapped and looped with silver wire for our two wedding day coordinators, sisters Pat and Lucy.

My Bridal Bouquet

The English have an affinity and knack for beautiful flowers at their weddings. I had picked up a beautiful seasonal English wedding floral magazine at the bookstore to give me some ideas and inspiration for my bridal bouquet.

When I saw this bridal bouquet, I fell head-over-heels in love with it! Plus, it showcased the Gloriosa lilies which I had already decided to incorporate into our wedding floral choices.

My version contained Casablanca lilies as the main floral flower, with Gloriosa lilies as the accent color. Snake grass bent into squared shapes copied the magazine image and curly willow pulled in the ceremony arrangements to tie the wedding flowers together. Lesson learned: the florist didn't finish the backside of the floral holder as I had requested and its plastic construction was visible in many of the pre-wedding portraits I had taken on the grand staircase. Covering the back of the holder in white satin ribbon may not be a big deal for some, but for me, it was. I'm all about the details, even if they are only going to be seen by a select few.

Another view of my bridal bouquet. I am also holding the dendrobium orchid "lasso" (lei) we used in the ceremony. A second lesson learned, the lasso/lei were two strands of orchids loosely tied together. I'd explained to the florist when placing my order how we were going to be using it during the ceremony. However, the florist didn't secure the two sections tightly enough, together, and it separated on one side during the unity ceremony. Eeek!

Down The Aisle in My Own Unique Style

I walked down the aisle to a David Bowie song for my wedding processional.

I know, how cool is that?!

Both Eddie and I are huge Bowie fans and I knew I wanted something different to play than "Here Comes The Bride"...

So I chose "5:15 The Angels Have Gone" which had a marvelous beginning, perfect walking tempo and swelling musical emotion before Mr. Jones began to croon. The song has a synthesizer break at the start, which aligned perfectly with my stepping out onto the balcony in a "ta da!" moment before beginning my walk down the aisle. I made a point of stopping by the hotel once I knew I wanted to use this song, and I counted the number of steps out of the foyer onto the balcony and then down to the front so I could make sure there was enough time for everything without feeling rushed.

It was perfect!

We included this beautiful song on our wedding CD that we gave to our guests, which included all the songs used in our wedding, reception and dinner.

You can listen to the song here.

A Menu for All Senses

I'm pointing to our name on the directory at the Four Seasons. We were there to have our wedding dinner tasting, including the wines we wanted to serve. Looking back, the tasting was a great way to experience our wedding dinner, since on our actual wedding day, we didn't eat much from nerves and excitement and the whirlwind of making sure we hit all our scheduled wedding milestones (after ceremony photography, first dance, toasts, cake cutting).




Our first course, a cold smoked, cured and candied salmon with mustard dill sauce.




Spiced butternut squash soup with maple, pumpkin oil and toasted pine nuts...

Missing, is a picture of our salad course, which was spinach and arugula with roasted walnut and anjou pears, seared foi gras, with a dried cranberry dressing.




Colorado lamb rack with leek and asiago cabernet whipped potatoes, tarragon jus.

The chef gushed to us about how excited he was to see (and to prepare) our menu for our tasting and our upcoming wedding. Normally, he confided, most bride and grooms go the safe route of chicken (and often, do a buffet). But he complimented us on our "adventuous" choices! We replied, we just loved food and wanted to share an amazing meal with those people we loved on our big day.




As you can see, I was never very far from my trusty note pad and sketch pad...

Attendant Attire

I never have understood why some women out there would asked their closest friends (and/or siblings) to be a member of their wedding party, and then dress them in some hideous outfit. How obnoxious and mean is that?  Of course, we could arm chair diagnois that this is classic Bridezilla behavior, of not wanting to share the spotlight on their wedding day. Yet I knew that for our wedding, I wanted our attendants to look as beautiful as possible, and that we would provide their outfits for them as their gift from us for being in our wedding.

As we were having a small wedding, we each only had an attendant each. I knew whom I wanted to my Maid of Honor, my oldest friend, met on the first day of high school.  I knew right away, right after I got engaged and asked her to be my MOH, that I wanted to put her in an iridescent orange and pink silk. The color would be gorgeous on her with her coloring, and perfect for the fall wedding we were planning.

My original inspiration was this dress I saw in a magazine on Renee Zellweger designed by the impeccable Carolina Herrera:

It's not very easy to see, but it was a simple and classic silhouette from the 1950's, fitted, sleeveless bodice and full, tea-length skirt. Ultra-feminine!

My scrapbook shows the two patterns I used to get the "bones" of each of the garmets constructed. I originally planned to make Jill's dress from the full-skirted option on the Retro Butterick re-issue pattern.

However, Butterick didn't re-size the original pattern for the modern woman, so the bodice I'd make for Jill, was way too small for her! I kept the skirt portion, but created a simple bateau neck, Princess-seamed bodice to attach to it for her, instead.

For Anastasia's dress (she was my husband's "Best Woman") I wanted to make her something that went with the vintage and retro cocktail-vibe we were planning for our wedding overall, but I also wanted her dress to compliment my husbands tuxedo. The Vogue Easy Options sundress pattern was perfect for this.

I found a fabulous black jacquard fabric at the fabric store, and bought some black semi-matte satin fabric to make the waistband and the double lapel detail that I added to the dress on my own to give the dress a tuxedo look. The jacquard had a puckery-embossed effect and was easy to work with and looked beautiful once finished.  The rhinestone and black enamel buttons at the front waist were beyond perfect!

I added a flat, squared black bow at the base of the bodice back for decoration and to reference the style of bows from the 1950's. Okay, truth be told and lesson learned, I had to conceal the waistband seams since they did not match up after I installed the invisible zipper. This is a common complaint with invisible zippers as it relates to home sewing. They disappear into the garmet seams so you don't see them, but trying to match up any cross seams can be a nightmare. Fortunately, this flat and squared bow hid the mis-matched seam and added to the beauty of the finished garment.

The inside was lined in satin and trimmed in leopard ribbon.

The finished result!  Black hose, black net tulle underskirt that showed under her dress, black gloves and low kitten-heeled, ankle-strapped shoes with diamond-look buckles finished the look, perfectly.!

Jill tries on her dress a month before the wedding so I can see how it fits and looks with the gloves and her shoes. (Apologies for the blurry photos!) You can see I hadn't decided on the waist decoration at this point, yet.

The final result. I gave her a net underskirt that peeked out, too. That and the same shoe style for her and Anastasia created unity and cohesion between their outfits.

Another lesson learned: Jill's shoes proved a challenge. Since her dress was a weave of orange and hot pink silk fibers (that gave a gold iridescent sheen) having her shoes match or blend in was harder than I anticipated. I took a sample of fabric with the shoes to the shoe repair to be dyed, where they assured me they would match the goldish orange in the fabric sample. Instead, when I picked them up, they were bright, bright orange and looked completely wrong with her dress. I remedied the situation by buying some gold fabric paint at the craft store, and literally painted it on her shoes. (Her shoes were a combination crepe toe box and heel with satin trim, heel and ankle straps.)  Surprisingly, the gold fabric paint when brushed over the orange dye job, turned into the perfect shade and matched up to her dress, beautifully!

I was so pleased with the end result, that I painted another pair of satin mules that I wore for the rehearsal dinner in orange paint and then painted them again with gold to get the same result as Jill's.

My final detail for Jill's dress, a rectangular rhinestone buckle I'd originally intended for a belt for her dress, repurposed within a 1950's inspired bow decoration (thank you, Jackie O. First Lady fashions coffee table book I own and consulted for reference and inspiration!).

Lesson Learned: First Dance

It all started well enough. We asked Steve to introduce us and made our big entrance into the ballroom that was set up for dancing.



And then the band began playing our song we'd practiced our specially choreographed dance routine to for the past year: "Stepping Out With My Baby" as sung by Doris Day.

AND THE SONG THEY PLAYED SOUNDED LIKE NOTHING WE HAD HEARD BEFORE!!!!




Lesson Learned: If you are going to practice a first dance to a particular song (and learn your dance cues to that) then use the recorded version for your first dance even if you have a live band. (Or else, tell the band and singer they need to sound EXACTLY like the recorded song. No exceptions!)




If you look closely in the above photo, you can see my Bride of Frankenstein look of horror as I try to pull off our dance with Eddie. As far as I was concerned, we might as well have been dancing to a completely random song pulled out of thin air.




We manage to do a good job faking that we had planned everything as it went along...




Our guests were none the wiser to this musical song and first dance snafu. They probably were just glad they weren't the ones in the spotlight on the dance floor!




Eddie dips me before our big finale ending.




And then forgets to heed our dance instructors instructions of holding onto me as he spins me at the end.

This did make for a great photo, though!

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

This is something we planned and were so happy we did! I have recommended this to every bride I know or meet: take a picture of EVERYONE at once on your wedding day!

We had the above photo snapped on the grand staircase at the Four Seasons, in-between our cocktail hour post ceremony and before dinner started. We asked everyone to join us at a set time (6:45 pm) in the itinerary of our wedding program. Our wedding day planners helped usher everyone from the bar, to the stairs. We got about three pictures of everyone taken, the above being the best of the three.

Lesson Learned: We made sure our photographer knew we wanted a group photo on the grand staircase and that it was going to be swapped out for the 5x5 request on the wedding mat. However, the way our guests assembled on the stairs, the final photos were difficult to crop down to fit the 5x5 layout necessary to finish off our wedding mat. Quite a bit of manipulation of the photo and paper border had to happen to make the final wedding mat look balanced and proportional. If you know you have a specific size you need a shot to work within, make sure you communicate this clearly to your photographer in advance.

Below, our wedding mat as it looked during our wedding...



Our request of our guests on our wedding day.

After we returned from our honeymoon, we replaced the picture of Eddie and I goofing around with the group photo on the stairs. We replaced our request for wishes, quotes and doodles with a copy of our wedding invitation.

I love having everything framed and displayed on our wall in our house. It makes a wonderful keepsake!

Wedding Day Photography

We had a few "big deals" for our wedding day where we didn't want to skimp on the budget. One was food: we wanted to share an incredible meal with our friends and family.

The other? The photographer had to be top-notch. I mean, this pretty much is the great recordkeeper of your big day, right?

Photography is tricky, though. It's very subjective. We went through a ton of wedding and event photographer websites until we narrowed it down two two that we thought were worth exploring. One photographer was out of Southern California and had trained with David LaChapelle. The other, was Nick Sokoloff from Salt Lake City, Utah.

To decide whom to hire, we literally opened up two browser windows and clicked on their portfolios nearly side-by-side. And Nick's work really resonated with us. It was a great combination of photojournalism, traditional and some wonderful avant garde shots thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately, we were able to book Nick for our big day and negotiated what we felt was a killer deal. Our agreement included our paying his travel expenses from Salt Lake to Las Vegas, 4x6 copies of all pictures taken, all the high-resolution images from our wedding day on a CD, and the right to use and reproduce our images as we wanted without having to seek permission to do so. We also agreed that he wouldn't do our official, physical wedding album, either.

We met with Nick a couple months before our wedding date when he found himself in Vegas for another photography engagement. This was serendipitous as it let us show him our wedding venue and to put faces and names together before coming together with him again on our big day. It also let me provide him with some images I had collected from the web and magazines of certain photography shots and looks I hoped to include on our wedding day as well.

Lesson Learned: At the time we got married, Eddie and I were more interested in having photojournalism photography than those of a traditional nature. In hindsight, I totally wished we'd done more traditional poses than we did, as we hardly did any. Also, in hindsight, there were certain guests who attended our wedding that I wish I had been able to get my photo taken with that day, just the two of us, together. Or even, shots of guests individually on their own. Additionally, we had family members who although probably a bit camera shy, were in only to be found in one of the professional pictures that Nick took that day: the group photo of our guests on the grand staircase. Eddie has one sister who knows her way in front of a camera, and boy, you might think that she was the only one there at the wedding from the number of photos you can find her in! His other sister? She's only in the staircase photo, I believe, which is unfortunate.

Some of the photos we had taken seemed like a good idea at the time ("Yes! Let's get a picture of me next to the swimming pool!)

In hindsight, not such a great idea. This was a great formal portrait, but we weren't having a casual, poolside wedding. And you can clearly see the pool steps handles which totally ruins the shot for me. [Perhaps in my old age I will learn how to Photoshop and practice photoshopping those out!]

We did a few of Eddie and I on the Lifeguard's chair. The actual effect was more wacky than the intended arty...Which just goes to show that some ideas are better in theory, than reality.

There were some great shots in the suite before Jill and I went off to have more pictures taken in the hotel pre-ceremony. But in some of those great, regal shots, there are A/C vents visible which again, for me, kind of ruins the effect.

Or else, you see Nick taking the photograph using the mirror to do so...Bummer.

We got some great shots pre-ceremony of me at the top of the grand staircase. These were more high fashion in style and I really love how they turned out.

These were a lot of fun at the bottom of the grand staircase, too, with the flowers the hotel had displayed for the weekend. What a boon, flowers that looked great with our wedding colors and we didn't have to worry about footing that bill!

Loved the shot of us cutting the cake! This is probably one of our favorite shots of the night, along with the photograph of our guests on the grand staircase. The picture of us cutting the cake is displayed predominately in our home. Everyone comments on it, whether they were there to see it happen, or are newer friends visiting our home for the first time.

Here is a series Nick captured where the journalism style was perfect for catching the moment. One of my aunts had unexpectedly gotten my grandmother (and her mother) on the pay phone to share some warm wishes with us before we went back to begin dinner...

I was totally caught by surprise but loved my grandmother being able to participate in our wedding this way.

Little did I know that my newly minted husband was hamming it up with Scary Teddy, behind me.

I finish my call with grandma and share how surprised and thrilled I was to have that moment with her.

Then burst out laughing to find out about Eddie's antics behind me!

Below: this was the only formal shot of us, post ceremony, from a traditional photography standpoint.

Like I said above, Nick gave us so many great memories of our wedding day, I just wish I had requested that we do a lot more traditional pictures than we actually ended up having.