Wall + Flowers at OSP

The other day I discovered that the beautiful blue wall of waves in the Olympic Sculpture Park’s Paccar Pavilion is no longer! (I know, where have I been?) Made me realize just how attached I’d gotten to that gorgeous backdrop by Sandra Cinto, for celebrations of all kinds. Of course, the geometric, richly hued piece that took its place is also very cool — but I thought I’d share this wedding from the wave days in honor of their passing.

Plus, the photos that Barbie Hull took from this wedding are AWESOME!!! Wow, did she ever capture all the vibrancy of summer — and all the textures that I so love to play with. Garden roses unfurling next to scritchy scabiosa pods. Maidenhair fern trailing gracefully from playful groupings of ball dahlias and zinnias. The coral, orange, soft yellow, white, and green color scheme that the bride and groom requested was the perfect counterpoint to the blue and grey tones of the venue. It’s a florist’s dream when colors come together like this.  Added bonus:  Holly-Kate and Company on hand to make sure everything went flawlessly.

(And if you missed the blue waves, you can at least see a fascinating video showing its installation here.)

Ivory spray roses and dahlias, green zinnias, and maidenhair fern for the bride.

A little waterfront canoodling

How cute are the bride and groom with their pre-wedding beers?

Scabiosa pod and hypericum berries for the groom

Pops of color for the bridesmaids

Here comes the bride…

Centerpieces do double-duty on the aisle

An escort card table arrangement

Centerpiece detail

Maidenhair!

Casting the Right Bloom (at Cast Iron Studios)

What a difference one single flower can make. That’s what I think about every time I look at the images from this juicy, winey wedding we did at Cast Iron Studios last September. As any florist can tell you, purple weddings are tough. There just aren’t a ton of purple flowers to choose from, and the ones we do have at our disposal can be finicky:  hydrangea runs an unpredictable gamut from pale pinkish-lavender to plum speckled with green, lisianthus suffers the dreaded botrytis all too often, delphinium is so darn gangly, and some of the best plum-purples, like ranunculus, just aren’t available all year round. It’s a tough life, I tell ya.

But purples were the order of the day for this early fall celebration – which happened to take place on the MOST blustery, stormy day I have seen in a long time. (We’re talking about heavy iron doors blowing open and sending things tumbling down the stairs. Ack!) I rounded up my best purple soldiers and sent them marching into elegant silver vases and sweet hand-tied bouquets. But something was missing….

It was the gorgeous, vibrant, unique plum cascading phalaenopsis orchid, found by accident and purchased by the armload immediately! This deeply saturated blossom gave everything the punch and wow that I was looking for, and elevated the arrangements from sweetly gardeny to sexy and sophisticated. Behold, the power of a flower!

The delectable purple phalaenopsis!

These centerpieces did double-duty on both the tables…

… and the stairs during a candlelit ceremony.

A little purple uplighting to add to the ambience

The guest book table

Dahlias, scabiosa, callas, and more!

No botrytis on that lisianthus!

An eggplant mini-calla for the groom

Beautiful images courtesy of Carolyn Kipper Photography. Thank you, Carolyn!

Hollywood in Seattle, from Houston with Love

In the spirit of the upcoming New Year’s Eve celebrations, this post looks back at one of 2013’s sparkliest, NW-blingiest weddings. What is “NW-bling” you might ask? Well, seeing as I just came up with the term, it’s a concept in flux — but you can safely assume that NW-bling includes beaded lamps AND ornamental fungus. Shimmery vases AND understated blue hydrangea. And in this case, the whole scheme was inspired by a super fun bride from Texas.

The Hollywood inspiration tablescape — we can do better than this!

Planning a long-distance wedding requires a lot of trust on the part of the client. Candace and I began the process of fleshing out ideas for her wedding at Urban Light Studios over the phone; she and her fiancé had been to Seattle but both lived in Houston. Her decor vision was inspired by the 83rd annual Academy Awards Governor’s Ball. It was a to-the-hilt look, and one I don’t see a lot of in Seattle. Frankly, I thought we could do better! 

Candace rounded up all of her vendors for a site visit a couple of months before her wedding. The ever-insightful and awesome Kirstie Warren of Simply Wed was on the team at that point. Seeing the linens plus table lamps plus florals plus chargers plus flatware plus Chiavari chairs…. (whew!)… helped us edit the look. The room was going to be PACKED with elbow-to-elbow guests. We nixed the blue glass goblets and the sequined linens, and came up with a gorgeous, Houston-meets-Hollywood-meets-Seattle decor scheme that turned out to be one of my favorite weddings of 2013!

What do you think?

A full but festive room at Urban Light Studios!

There’s nothing like the smell of fresh mint!

Craspedia, aka “billy balls,” boutonnieres

Stately yet playful for the groom

A gorgeous mix of color and texture

Detail of the bridesmaid bouquets

Full, textural centerpieces

Lush linens completed and complemented the look

VENDORS:

PHOTOGRAPHY:  Julie Harmsen Photography

VENUE: Urban Light Studios

DESIGN/COORDINATION: Simply Wed

DRAPING: Rented Elegance

CATERING: City Catering 

DJ: Bamboo Beats

Grand Homeyness at the Olympic Sculpture Park

Weddings are about balance, in so many ways. The balance of vision and budget, organization and surrender, intimacy and public witness. Maia and Kevin came to me with their own specific balancing act for their August wedding:  to make the modern, sophisticated Olympic Sculpture Park feel homey and welcoming for their down-to-earth families. This was a seriously stylish couple. They would have looked right at home in any high-falutin’ setting – but I appreciated that their first priority was making sure their own vision found harmony with their guests’ comfort level.

Color and texture were the keys to this assignment. A vibrant palette of hot pink, coral, yellow, green, and hints of orange would establish a summery, playful, celebratory feeling. We decided to incorporate lots of greenery – big sword ferns, trailing clematis vine, fruiting raspberry cane – so that the arrangements had a feeling of Northwest wildness about them. And of course the flowers themselves – dahlias, leggy sweet peas, zinnias, bee balm, garden roses – were flowers that many of the guests probably grew in their own gardens.

Looking at the photograph that Karen Obrist captured of all the guests in the PACCAR Pavilion, I have to say that people look very much at home. (And aren’t all her images just awesome?) The super-tall centerpieces float above their heads like cheerful beacons, directing this couple to a life of love and happiness amongst their friends and family.

The bridal bouquet, with sweet peas, raspberry, garden roses, dahlias… and more!

Romantic, dramatic arrangements for the altar

The sweetest little clematis vine

Closeup of a centerpiece

The bridal bouquet in action

Colorful arrangements lined the terraced stairs

One style of tall centerpiece…

….and another

There is no such thing as “too tall” in the OSP!

• Design and Coordination: Very Important Events
• Table linens: Creative Coverings
• Photography: Karen Obrist Photography
• Cocktail Band: $4 Shoe
• Reception Band: The Nines
• Flowers: us, of course! (Floressence)

“Sublime” Romance at the Olympic Sculpture Park

When it comes to flowers, is there really such a thing as too romantic? Methinks no way. It is  no secret that my taste for floral design runs towards the gardeny, the spilling, the lovely. Any color palette will do — it’s that romantic feeling and lushness that speaks to me. Local wedding and event designer Shannon Lassen of Sublime had me pegged — and to my great delight and honor, asked me to design such arrangements for her wedding reception at the Olympic Sculpture Park last September.

Shannon was a master at creating layer upon layer of texture at her reception. Three different styles of table linens brought an elegant eclecticism to the clean, cool modernism of the Paccar Pavilion. To go along with that, I used three different styles of vases: vintage ivory ceramic, classic silver, and understated glass. Although each centerpiece was a little different from the next, the overall palette was a unified blend of ivory, peach, pink, coral, green, and silver. Cafe au Lait dahlias made their show-stopping appearance, as did garden roses, ranunculus, fully blown spray roses, and other seasonal treats.

The intimate ceremony at Parsons Gardens got special treatment with an ombré aisle design, and a couple of sweet little arrangements hanging from shepherds hooks at the start of the aisle. My friend and colleague Jean Louise of Juniper Flowers designed all the personal flowers, and you can bet they were stunning. But all this would just be talk without the amazing photographic record by Eliza Truitt Photography.

Happy Anniversary, Shannon and Tom! And thank you so much for inviting Floressence to be part of your day!

An ombré aisle

Sweet little somethings for the start of the aisle

To answer the question, “What happens to all those petals after the bride walks down the aisle?”

Airborne ombré

The Paccar Pavilion at OSP

Inspiration at the Great Hall at Greenlake

Sometimes one word is all it takes. When Margi came to me to talk about flowers for her wedding reception at The Great Hall at Greenlake, she described the feeling of airiness, light, and life that she wanted the room to have. Like being in an atrium, she said.

Atrium! I think of the floral abundancy at the Conservatory at Volunteer Park. I think of cellists doing their thing by a spiral staircase. I get a kind of floaty feeling.  A small bird is perched high up beneath the glass. Someone might be wearing a bow tie, and someone is definitely wearing a gardenia. Atrium!

That one word sparked the vision for Margi’s flowers:  tall centerpieces on classic silver candlesticks, with maidenhair fern fluttering around the edges. Fresh whites and greens, studded with aromatic rosemary, mint, and sage. Low counterparts in silver bowls. The vision carried over to Margi’s ceremony decor: pomanders to line the aisle and mark the altar at a waterfront park on Lake Union.  Let me tell you, that was one of the best smelling weddings EVER.

Dare I say that the entire wedding was atriyummy?

The Great Hall at Greenlake

Margi’s bouquet

Happy maids in fawn and grey

A mix of high and low centerpieces

Classic and fresh

This little guy was hanging out on the floor before his elevated destiny

A Great Hall deserves a grand bannister

Earlier that day…

Detail of the aisle pomanders

Many thanks to Alyssa Rose Photography for sharing these images. GuGuLy Event Planning pulled together a zillion details for the happy couple, and made our day a lot easier, too!