Hip Hip Hurray, we did it!! This past weekend we officially became event designers. Not only did we provide the flowers for the wedding of Mackenzie and Adam, we were also hired to do the styling, theme development, and management of the event. I helped the family with all vendor selections, rentals, coordination of vendors, we helped with the lighting, and even the toilette's, yes the toilette's. I have to admit this was a huge undertaking but we truly did an amazing job. Yes we did it all, and we are so freaking pleased, relieved, inspired, and simply thrilled with our results. My clients were incredibly wonderful, and capable, so that made my job a lot easier. They clearly knew the look they were going for, it was simply my job to make it happen.  I suggested that they have a wedding planner but they wanted me to plan the look of the day, and have  family member Beth execute the time-line. We hired wedding cord. Cara Berger from Celebrations by Cara, to write up the time-line and Beth kept the evening operating on time.

  The couple married at Murray Hill in Leesburg, Virginia. This estate home, is drop dead gorgeous! I mean it, truly one of the most lovely properties I have ever seen. The estate home sits on a cliff that overlooks the Potomac River, Mackenzie and Adam, married on that cliff.

The Bride and her fabulous mother, seriously wanted dark wooden chairs, and linen colored linens, which led us to Party Rentals Ltd. The amazing Rose became my sales rep. and I am totally in love with her.  I will always be grateful to her for helping me through this first big rental. Managing, forks, butter knives, chairs, linens, wine glasses, china, and napkins is something I had never done before. Rose was incredible, the product was amazing, and the service phenomenal. I loved being involved in this aspect of design and it completely was a recipe for success. On many past events, I have arrived at a venue to find that the planner or the family had changed the linens without telling me.  It was awesome to know exactly what the dinner tables would like when I went to place my precious flowers.  The altar table was one of many pieces I brought in from On A Whim Antiques in Lucketts, Va. I can't thank the girls at On A Whim enough for their support. We could easily call this an On A Whim wedding. Every time I walked through the door of the antique store, I would find yet one more antique, or prop, I just had to have to make this wedding so incredibly special. I am an antique loving, wedding addict.

 

This sweet piece of furniture (from On A Whim) held the programs and decor next to the lemonade stand.

 

All of the fabulous paper products were designed by Christina owner of PaperZest. 

 

We used a huge farm wagon to greet guests and to display place cards. Being true perfectionists we tried to roll the farm wagon down into the correct spot. This proved to be really complicated, but all in all we managed to pull everything off, it did however require a tractor.

 

My gonna be daughter in law, Mallary helped with the set up, and she also thought of the "love to a T" sign that was displayed with the programs.

 

Multiple picture frames, mirrors, window panes, and chalkboards, ( all from On A Whim Antiques)  were created by the family to provide a seating chart. It was my idea to display it on the farm stand.  We had hoped that the lemonade and gifts could be on the wagon as well, but the place card display ate up the whole wagon. Oddly enough we thought we were going to have empty spaces all over the wagon, so I brought a ton of flower arrangements, props, plants, and fun stuff for this space.

 

We made a garland of seeded euc, italian ruscus, and plumosa grass, that framed the wagon.

 

We displayed pictures of the family in my old antique tobacco basket.

 

Next comes the reception… but I am saving that for another post. This is getting ridiculously long.