Saturday, July 28, 2012

Mid July Wedding at Sacred Heart Church in Suffern and The Pearl River Hilton

We had the pleasure of working with a bride that found us by witnessing our work first hand at her friend's wedding that we coordinated and designed at The Highlands Country Club.  Katie was the maid of honor at that wedding - What a wonderful way to really see our day of coordination services in action and to view the quality and value of the flowers by seeing them up close and personal!  Well, finally, Katie and Ryan's wedding day arrived and it was her turn to be the bride dressed in white (well ivory anyway).   Her ceremony was at the Sacred Heart Church and reception was at the Pearl River Hilton in Rockland County.

Bouquets:
The maid of honor bouquet with picasso calla lilies, cream roses, stock, scabiosa, and greenery.

The bride's bouquet perfect in size for the bride

Here's an up close and personal look at the bride's bouquet - very soft creams and palest of pink with scabiosa pods, calla lilies, ranunculus, lisianthus, roses, and cabbage roses.
 One accent the bride added onto the handle onsite was her grandfather's pin - very sentimental piece that brought up warm memories of her late grandpa and a symbol that he was there in spirit walking with her down the aisle.
The highlight for us is to see the flowers the day of and how they accent the bridesmaid dresses! A great pair!

 The Ceremony itself along with the decor, had many personal touches.  The godparents were also the readers, additional family helped present the gifts for the offering, and other younger family members helped to pass out programs and the "streamers" to wave at the bride and groom for guests to welcome the newly weds outside of the church!  What a fun idea! 
The aisle markers were made by the bride's relative out of silk hydrangea and tassel roping and were re-used after the ceremony when our team brought them to the reception site.
Traditional church ceremony arrangements in the color scheme.  Most wedding flowers are considered a donation to the church so just double check if you are thinking of re-purposing your ceremony arrangements at your reception.


 The Reception Decor:
The cake topper waiting to crown the cake! Every now and then we see the figurines appear and they have a new twist...

Re-purposed aisle markers around the lantern card box

Beautiful low centerpieces designed by Sarah and team using purple imported hydrangea, stock, roses, scabiosas, queen anne's lace, alstromeria, and some greenery - a great size for the 10 person round tables!  They also used "door numbers" as their table numbers.

Wisteria table linens gives a nice sophisticated color to the room without going over the top with the purple them and is much more interesting than just opting for the standard white linens.

At each place setting, the menu card is tucked into the pocket fold of a lavender napkin with a key favor

The team at the Pearl River Hilton (Derek, Barbara, and Paulette) were all top notch and were absolutely wonderful to work with.  Our clients were in great hands and we look forward to another opportunity to see them again at future weddings!

Katie and Ryan had a great team of wedding professionals so right off the bat, they had the optimal setup for a top class wedding!  Katie's hair and make up team did a wonderful job and had all the girls done with plenty of time to spare so that the photographer Jose Reyes of Jose Reyes Photography could stay on top of the photo schedule and get everyone to the church on time!  Our bridal attendant, Adina, kept Katie calm prior to taking off in the limo for the church. At the reception, the band rocked the guests and kept them dancing all night.  They were great musicians and singers and the band leader keeping the flow going nicely...

Snafu:
Onsite during setup, the band leader brought to my attention that they didn't have a copy onsite of the "blessing recording" by the bride's grandfather who had passed - it was to be played after guests were seated for grace.  I had a back up copy of the recording on my laptop and was able to transfer it to the sound guy onsite.  One snafu diverted! 

The band leader also may have gotten booed by two very significant people in the wedding if he had not changed the wording of "matron of honor" to "best lady" during the bridal party introduction.  The best lady strongly disliked the term "matron" and the bride was listening out to make sure the band leader said it correctly while she was waiting to be called for her introduction.  We always review all the details with the band leader and the maitre'd together prior to the event starting onsite to make sure that the details reviewed previously weren't just brushed aside. The bride, after hearing the band leader announce her friend into the room as "best lady",  said, "YES! He said it!" She had the biggest smile on her face and it set the mood for a fantastic start to her reception. As a team, we did it!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Mason Jar Arrangement

This is our latest design - a standard mason jar with a loose garden style arrangement of blush cream roses, lilies, stock, ranunculus, bupleurum and varigated greens. This similar design will be featured at a wedding we're doing at the Roundhouse at Beacon Falls in September - stay tuned for photos of that wedding!