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!

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.

Striking Floral Design for the Ceremony

I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon this floral arrangement online...I must have been doing a search for curly willow and lilies! However, once I found this series of photos from someones wedding, I immediately knew I wanted to get a similar look and effect for our wedding day.

These ceremony arrangements were a combination of massive quantities of curly willow, what looked to be Casablanca lilies, cymbidium orchids, eucaylptus and either snowballs or white hydrandgea. I thought the result was simply stunning and elegant beyond words! Also, they had filled the clear glass vases with slices of limes to either hide the floral stems or to add one more design element to the final result.

Below is how our version of the arrangements looked at the front of the aisle...

I used a mix of curly willow, Casablanca lilies, Gloriosa lilies and orange and grapefruit slices for the vase decorations. I had wanted to use blood oranges, but we were getting married in the wrong season to use them.

I love the look of Gloriosa lilies and the effect against the citrus and the white Casablanca lilies was spectacular. It also smelled heavenly, too! We purchased the tall square vases for the arrangements which helped keep down our floral costs. Also, because Casablanca lilies are so large, we didn't have to have a ton of them to achieve the effect we were going for. When the ceremony was over, these were moved into the reception & dinner rooms for the remainder of the evening.