Another Wedding Journey: Kiersten and Chris!

Last January, my niece, Kiersten, contacted me and asked if I could do the flowers for her wedding.  I, of course, said, "Yes!".  I was thrilled.  At our first official meeting a few weeks later, I met her fiancé, Chris.  They were such a cute couple!  So much fun!  With that first meeting, the journey for me had begun.  I would soon learn that Kiersten had a clear vision for her special day and that she has impeccable taste!  More on that later...for now I will share the journey from my end of the days leading up to the wedding on September 25, 2016.

As always, I collected the flowers a few days before the wedding.  They were cut and conditioned; meaning they were placed in fresh water enhanced with special flower food and set in a cool, dark place. In this photo below you see a tiny, tiny sampling of the flowers (after conditioning and ready for arranging) used to make the bouquets, centerpieces, corsages, etc. for the wedding.  My whole shed was filled with flowers.  It was kind of awesome!

There was a fairly substantial Items List for this wedding.  I started with the creation of the mom and grandmother corsages because they are quite time consuming and they keep well in the refrigerator.  Time is always a factor with weddings.

Kiersten wanted the moms to have delicate wrist corsages made of white roses and a touch of burgundy astilbe.  She also wanted to add a bow made of twine.  I added dusty miller and the "berries" of seeded eucalyptus.  Oh, and there was a little white waxflower mixed in, as well.

Simple and lovely

Kiersten wanted the fathers' boutonnieres to match the moms' corsages.  All the flowers were the same except for the added ferns in the back of the boutonnieres.  Kiersten had told me that she "loved" ferns so, I included them in many of the pieces.  I have become a real fan of ferns now and have Kiersten to thank!  She opened my eyes to a whole new flower world.  I love it!  I love the woodland feel.

The grandmothers wanted pin-on corsages so, Kiersten and I discussed what they might look like and came up with this-- 

The corsages were all white in color with the mixture of standard and spray roses, waxflower and some lemon leaf.  An ivory ribbon covered the stems and then was tied in a bow.  A twine bow was added also.  The theme and attention to detail continued :).

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Among other items on the list were these small galvanized buckets filled with baby's breath. 

Kiersten had added the burgundy ribbon to the buckets and then had given them to me to be filled with baby's breath.  They would line the aisle of the church for the ceremony.

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I made two of these large baby's breath and white rose arrangements for the altar of the church.

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Here is a taste of the reception flowers.  I made two of these arrangements.  So many cool fall flowers.  Kiersten loved all the colors and textures of fall which made this wedding so much fun.  I was able to ramp up my creativity!

I loved the colors of this wedding!  They were stunning!  I can say that in a non-bragging way because Kiersten chose the colors :).  Kiersten liked the mixture of different colors of reds, even the almost "black" reds.  This was a theme that carried into the wedding party flowers.

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Next it was on to the centerpieces for the reception.  These little vases were to be part of  an ensemble of centerpieces.  I will share those photos in a future post :).  Here the arrangements sat waiting to be delivered to the reception site in my shed.

Brittany, my daughter and assistant, was actually able to take prettier photos of these little guys while Judy, my other assistant, and I were inside the shed working on other things.

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I usually make a complimentary ladies powder room arrangement for my weddings.  I always have a great time creating these somewhat insignificant arrangements.  Because there is no pressure, I can do whatever I'd like in terms of floral design.  It's so enjoyable choosing from the leftover flowers to make these little arrangements.

Well, that is it for now...the beginning of the journey of Kiersten and Chris' Wedding.  My next post will probably be the creation of the bridal party flowers.  Hope you can stick around to see the next step!

Joining the Parties at:

Silver Pennies Sundays

Sundays at Home

Dishing It Digging It

The Scoop #243

Taking a Foliage Tour

Since today is the first day of fall and I am beginning the process of doing the flowers for a wedding this weekend and am super busy, I thought I would re-post my foliage tour of my town from last year.  I hope you don't mind. I'll be back "live" next week :).
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 My  husband gave me a new camera last Christmas to help me create better photos for my business and, perhaps, this blog.  To be honest, I need to take a camera course to take full advantage of my camera but time just hasn't allowed for that.  However, I have enjoyed playing around with it and I do think I have certainly taken nicer photos than I did with my old camera.

Well, the views looking out the windows of my home and driving around town have been so beautiful that I decided to take my camera and shoot a few pictures. To my surprise, it turned out to be lots of fun!

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I started the journey in my own backyard.  The views I see looking out the windows of my house seemed picture worthy, at least to me.  This maple tree is the view I see from my kitchen window.  Truth be told, the maple is getting a bit too big for where it has decided to grow.  Every summer I contemplate having my husband cut it down but, then the autumn comes and I can't bear to do it.  The battle will probably continue next year when it overtakes the driveway!

The side yard



Here you can see the little pond across the street.



Isn't it pretty?  Same little pond...different vantage point



I really hope I never take living in the Northeast for granted, especially in the fall.  It is just toooo lovely!

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I finally decided to leave home and travel down Route 40.  I headed to the center of town.  On the way, I stopped at Gibbet Hill, a lovely hill  featuring a local farm, restaurant and event venue.  I parked and hiked up the dirt path to the top of the hill.

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Almost to the top of the hill and you can see the town of Groton below...



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somewhere to the left (I think) and thirty miles away is Mount Wachusett.  

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Near the top of the hill are the remains of what some call the "castle".  Evidently, the "castle" has a storied past.  From what I have read, the "castle" was originally built as a retirement bungalow for a General Bancroft in the early 1900's.  In 1918, it was a transformed into sanitarium.  In the 1920's, it became a private tuberculosis hospital.  In 1932, a fire, which seemingly was caused by "careless fireworks," left only the stone structure in place.



Now, it is part of the Gibbet Hill Angus Farm property, I believe.  Weddings can currently be been held here.  It's really a cool place!

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Next, I continued on Route 40 to the center of town.  I stopped along Main Street (Route 119) to take a photo and encountered another photographer who decided to take a photo of this vibrant tree along the sidewalk.  I think this is quintessential New England.  I guess the other photographer thought so too! 

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Finally I was able to take this photo of the First Parish Church and part of Lawrence Academy, also in the center of town.  Sorry about the power lines but, not much I can do about it.  Because of the power lines my other photos of Lawrence Academy were not worthy of being published.  Too bad because Lawrence Academy is an impressive centerpiece of the town.





I wanted to take a photo of a farm that runs along Route 119.  Often times they have cows in the fields grazing.  The cows are unique because they look like Neapolitan ice cream, minus the strawberry.  They have large stripes of white, black, white on the sides of their bodies.  It can be a very pretty site. However, the cows were not grazing this day and Route 119 is really too busy a road to get out of your car to safely take a photo.  So, I opted NOT to try that!

Not to sound like a travel guide advertisement, but taking a Sunday drive on Route 119 through Groton and parts north is truly worth your while, especially in October.  It can be totally breathtaking.

Enjoy the ride!

Update of the Non "She Shed" Shed

The last time I spoke about my shed it was last spring and it looked like this.  I had written about the construction of the shed and how it would eventually be where I would do my floral designing and, hopefully, host parties and workshops.  I also wrote about how I didn't want to call it a "she shed" because I had wanted a shed loooong before "she sheds" were in vogue. You can find that story here, if you would like.  Back then, the inside of the shed still had a long way to go.  It has taken a while but, the shed is finally at the stage where I can actually use it, although there is still a little more work to do.  You may have gathered that my husband and I are not speedy about getting projects done.  My daughter, Amanda, says that is because we can easily be pulled away if we are invited to do something that is more fun than working on the house, like going to the beach or meeting up with family for lunch. She could be right about that :).

Welcoming in Fall Colors

I am a little late in getting a post out this week.  I think I may still be in summer mode or, perhaps, I am simply trying to catch up from the carefree schedule of summer.  I think the latter is probably more correct.  I've been doing laundry, cleaning up, trying to give SOME attention to my poor dismal garden.  All of these things are done haphazardly (at least for me) in the summer.  On top of all that, I am doing another wedding in two weeks.  Yay!!  It's going to be great but, it has been busy.

A Pink and Cream Wedding

This is my final installment (until the professional photos appear) of the journey of the flowers for Keri and John's wedding on August 19, 2016 at The Commons 1854 in Topsfield, MA.  You can see the other installments here and here.  I am really excited about sharing these last photos of the reception ballroom.  For the first time since I have been doing weddings, the venue had actually set-up the room completely.  I was able to get photos that showed the room as the guests were to see it as they entered the room.  I was very excited about that opportunity.

As you can see, the ballroom at The Commons is absolutely stunning.  The ceilings of the room are very, very high with the added feature of a balcony.  The ballroom is painted pristine white with gold trim.  Quite lovely when arranged with these gold cane-like chairs.

My team got right to work delivering the centerpieces and placing them on the dining tables.  I was working on the Sweetheart Table, which needed last minute assembly.  You'll see that in a minute.