This past Saturday we had the pleasure of working with Christina and Victor they were hosting their wedding at the gorgeous Chicago Botanic Gardens. Although the weather threatened to move their outdoor ceremony indoors, the skies cleared and they were able to exchange vows outdoors in the English Gardens.

Christina’s cascading bouquet had white peonies, light pink sweetpeas, blush garden roses, blush astilbe, jasmine vine, white dendrobium orchids and stefanotis vine. It was a stunner and the pictures don’t do this beauty justice.

For the ceremony we decided to float flowers in the English Garden pond and we also designed these large urns to flank the couple as they exchanged vows.

The tall centerpieces were set on wrought candelabras with white hydrangeas, spray roses, jasmine vine, blush roses, hanging amaranthus and dusty miller

Half the fun of designing this wedding was collecting all the different milk glass compotes and vases needed to create all the designs.

The low centerpieces were collections of vintage milk glass and cut glass vases with textural arrangements of blush stock, wax flowers, pink lisianthus, jasmine vine, dusty miller, blush peonies and astilbe. We set them atop vintage books and frames that the couple collected during their engagement.

We hung a chandelier above the dance floor along with fabric from the four pillars that surround the center of the room for a vintage feel.

The couple provided lots of little touches throughout the wedding as far as decor goes, like this chalkboard with the menu.

We set this toss bouquet inside a vintage suitcase the bride provided.

The couple also thought it would be great to get marriage advice from their guests so they set this wishing tree for guests to leave a message along with a fun message that will help them live a happy life.

Christina and Victor, we had a wonderful time working with both of you and with all of your vendors… Especially Misha from Liven it Up Events, MDM Entertainment and the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Two weeks ago we were part of a bouquet competition for a panel discussion at Room 1520. We presented a bouquet of pink peonies, white garden roses, white astilbe, pink spray roses, seeded eucalyptus and white hellebores. That last flower made that bouquet!  We wanted to create a very romantic and soft look… for a little glam we added a circle broach to adorn the bouquet handle. We are very happy with the way it turned out.

Liz Sisson from Studio Starling is a good friend of mine. We’ve done countless of weddings together. You can say in the short list of favorite photographers she is right there with the top three. So when she asked me a while ago to put some flowers together for her booth at this summer’s Indie Wed I just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity and more than anything I was happy Liz asked because she knows a lot of good florists.

The surprising thing with this request is Liz’s style and mine are very different from each other. I’m not a leaves kind of girl, and let it all lose kind of girl. But I knew Liz is. If there is anyone I know that is Indie… it’s Liz. I think that is why we work so well together. We are the Ying Yang when we work together.

Liz wanted a lot of free form…. LOTS! So we went ahead and used the so called “wildflowers” which really aren’t. Dahlias, zinnias, privet berries, olive leaves, astilbe, Queen Anne’s Lace, geranium leaves, grass and astarantia were my go to choices.  It’s all about how to design them. So this time around I let the flowers speak for themselves just in a “Liz kind of way”.

We used white milk glass for all the designs. It suits the designs well and of course, we got lots of it in different sizes, shapes and heights.

Love all the privet berries on this design. The tiny blue berries gives it that extra texture we are looking for and it’s leaves helped us achieve exactly what we wanted.

Lucky me the farmer’s market had zinnias this time around! So we used them along with a few black eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s Lace, Olive Leaves, asclepsia and a few touches of white wax flowers

And of course, why stop now? I just had to do two bouquets.

Notice the little detail of burlap and twine for the bouquet handle. We loved it.

Couldn’t leave the bridesmaids behind. So I created something with lots of wax flowers, Queen Anne’s Lace and asclepsia.

Best part of it all, I get to work with Liz, Nicole (Liz’s partner at Studio Starling) and the delightful Emily on two weddings this coming August!