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!).