This past Saturday I provided the flowers for Melissa's wedding. No words can express how much I came to adore this bride. She has the most vivacious personality and just watching her interact with people kept me entertained throughout the wedding process. My first meeting with her was absolutely hysterical. She came to visit me with her awesome sister and the whole entire time they bantered back and forth like sisters do. Having four sisters and three daughters of my own, I totally got the sisterly love.  She constantly used sayings like I am such a "Hot Mess," and then she would bust out laughing.

 Mostly what I appreciated and enjoyed about Melissa was her unbelievable trust in me and her willingness to allow me to create. Everything I showed Melissa she loved; that being said, we had a list of flowers to use a mile high and a color combination that I was not completely sure of.  Two weeks before her wedding I said to her  "You have absolutely no idea what your flowers are going to look like do you." She just laughed and said, "no but I trust you." I have to admit I had no idea how I was going to make it work either. There were four main components I knew we would be using: she loved blue thistle, yellow craspedia balls, crimson colored peonies, and flowers or foliages in green. Maids wore great little green J. Crew dresses.  She had one last request and that was for dahlias. Oh yes, she also loved succulents so those were added to the list as well.

 

We actually a had a mini-fight in the flower shop over the grooms bout. I wanted to make the boutonniere but designer Jessie beat me to it. The piece she created was so lovely I could not refuse her the glory. I also need to thank Jessie for gathering up her succulents from her garden. We used Jessie's patch of hens and chicks for the boutonnieres and for the bridal bouquet. 

 

The bridal bouquet was just a delicious mix of color and texture. We used crimson peonies, yellow dahlias, yellow yarrow, blue viburnum berry, dusty miller, green dianthus, succulents, a heather I saw for the first time that also looked like a succulent, craspedia balls, pale yellow spray roses, yellow roses, hot pink celosia, blue thistle, and sea star fern. 

 

What a stunner… 

 

The famous sister who was a complete sweetheart.

 

I love this picture of our wreath and our maid. So pretty!!

 

We got to use my milk glass collection finally. We filled bud vases galore for this wedding. They were used throughout the house, and through the cocktail hour.

 

Isn't everything just perfect?

 

I absolutely love these lanterns Melissa found, they looked awesome hanging from the tent at The Thomas Birkby House.  Now I need to gush over the Birkby House; owners Ron and Judy and event manager Mary Louise. They are absolutely some of the most delightful people in the wedding industry. Not only is the property absolutely pristine, comfortable, and located right in historic downtown Leesburg, the venue comes with their very watchful and caring eye. I am always so impressed by their hands on approach and how they are really there for the brides. I love working with the Thomas Birkby House. It is truly one of Loudoun's very best event venues.

 

We created a very full and rich garland for the ceremony that we hung on the arbor.

 

Melissa was yet another bride to take advantage of my styling skills. She hired us to bring along several of our rental props. When a bride is paying me to finish the look of the wedding, we just start throwing extra props onto the truck…I brought these little grapevine balls to decorate the back of the aisle. We had clusters of flowers on the first few rows for family seating, these we brought just for extra decor.

This was also the weekend we got to use Evan's new place card easel and board. In fact, Melissa was the bride we created the board for. My daughter Abby actually suggested Evan for the job, and the result was amazing.

 

Melissa created her table numbers with this beautiful paper. We used extra pieces of this paper to design our place card board. First we wrapped the board in burlap and then we added her paper.

 

Next we added miniature garlands down the edge of the board to soften the design. This was my first time displaying place cards so the question was do we display them left to right or top to bottom in alphabetical order. Left to right won out, but in future I think I prefer top to bottom. The things I am learning this year…

 

Evan designed the easel so perfectly that it is mega sturdy. I can't imaging anything worse than the place cards falling over.

 

We brought this fabulous white iron basket for the programs. The last time I used this basket  we placed our newborn baby Grace inside for a photo shoot.

 

We brought all of our vintage white iron out for this wedding.  I suggested the "dine with us" sign for the buffet. 

 

My white iron stands were used for the buffet pieces. We also provided smaller white iron stands for the dinning tables.

 

The low centerpieces were designed in my vintage milk glass containers.

 

All in all we used over 40 milk glass vases for this wedding. The whole wedding was drop dead gorgeous. I am so thrilled and honored that I was chosen to do the flowers for this wedding, and I am certain Melissa and I will be life-long friends. Happy married life Melissa. I loved you and your wedding.