Sunday, October 20, 2013

Congratulations Jamie Howard and David Meade




Jamie Howard and David Meade were married on October 19 at The Virginian, a breath-takingly beautiful golf resort in Bristol, Virginia.  The weather was perfect for an outdoor wedding, and the scenery was amazing.

This wonderful couple came into my life in February, and I have enjoyed getting to know them and seeing their wedding come together.  Jamie has done all the planning for the wedding and has added great details.  Her programs, which she designed herself, were a work of art. She had numerous hand-painted signs, and the table cards were displayed on a magnetic board with a gorgeous picture frame.  There were references throughout the decorations of the couple's interests.  The groom's cake was a surprise for David.


The cake she envisioned was a rustic looking icing, with only a couple of large fresh flowers.

I had the opportunity to do all the flowers, and am especially proud of the dahlias I used in the bouquets, on the cake, and placed throughout the entry way.  I used some wild berries in the altar arrangements to give them an old world charm. 



Wishing Jamie and David a lifetime of wonderful.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Congratulations Jill Griggs and Josh Metcalf!

Succulent Love
Jill Griggs and Josh Metcalf were married October 12 at the Carnegie Hotel in Johnson City.  We wish them all the best, today and always.

Jill had chosen succulents for her wedding.  This was a very challenging task for me, as I hadn't used them before, but, of course, had seen them on Pinterest.  I checked with the floral supplier, and they were more than a little perplexed at the possibility of getting more than 100 succulents, so I ordered them from a grower in California, about a month ago.  I needed them that early because I couldn't wait until the week of the wedding, just hoping that they would arrive and that they would look good.  When they came, they were healthy and alive.  I set them in a west-facing window and fed them Miracle Grow every other day.  They increased in size.

On Thursday night, I took all of them out of the dirt and rinsed them and put them in water to hydrate as well as possible, even though I had researched and found that they can live out of water for days.  On Friday, I tried wiring them to a stem.  For those who don't know about wiring flowers, the wire then has to be hidden by floral tape.  I started the floral tape as high on the stem of the succulent as possible, then tried to twirl it like I would a flower, but the leaves started falling off.  The odd thing was that the largest, most beautiful, of the succulents were the most fragile.  Some of them would disintegrate just by touching them. 

In my mind, I started to think that if I could get eight for the boutonnieres, six for the bride's bouquet, and two for each bridesmaid, that would be enough, with the additional flowers I was using.  I managed to get 26 wired to stems out of the 60 that I had.  The others were ruined.

They did look great, but I'm not so sure that they were that special, considering the amount of effort.  I don't think I would undertake a succulent wedding, ever again.

I did see the father of the bride, Barry Griggs, after the wedding, and his boutonniere still looked healthy.  All of the guests got to take home a potted succulent as a favor.

I am the kind of person, who if I say I'm going to do something, I will do it.  There was no way I would go back to Jill on the day before the wedding and say, "I couldn't get it to work."

If you want something special for your wedding, let me know.  I will try as hard as I can to make it happen.