DesignsandEvents: Keeping A Wedding Secret

I am sorry I was away most of last week but, I was on a secret wedding mission ;).

A little over three weeks ago I received a text from one of my garden club friends informing me that her daughter had decided to get married on June 17th of this year and that the wedding was a secret!! The couple just wanted to get married. They were not into the wedding planning. My friend wanted to know if I would be available to do a few bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for the wedding? I was thrilled to be included in such a neat occasion so, I said, "Of course!"

I met with the bride and her mom, my friend, a few days later. I learned that the wedding would be in the family backyard, a lovely spot. The ruse would be the engagement party which had already been planned for the happy couple. The family was quite excited and making all sorts of improvements to the yard as they prepared for the special day. The patio and backyard shed were getting facelifts, the beautiful backyard garden was being weeded and mulched and an arbor and tent were being rented or purchased. All sorts of fun!!

The color palette for the wedding was to be white (cream), pale pink, blue, touches of gray and the green of two kinds of eucalyptus. Very exciting and beautiful!!

Part of the color palette~

So, I set out to plan for the day and ordered my flowers for the wedding. The flowers included white and pale pink peonies, pale pink garden roses, white roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, astilbe, astrantia, thistle sea holly, dusty miller and the eucalyptus. I had wanted to use dahlias but, when I went to the market to pick up my order, they had not arrived. I did find some other dahlias from another vendor at the market but when I got them home and as the flowers opened, I realized the dahlias had a yellow center, which was not in the color plan. Also, the yellow pollen would have stained the bridal party dresses, which would just not do!

After the flowers had been conditioned for a while, (stems cut and put in water enhanced with flower food) I started making the corsages and boutonnieres.

This was the other Mom corsage. ↓ The bride wanted to add some of the sea holly to the mother corsages. I think it was a nice choice.

You can see touches of astilbe, dusty miller, astrantia and eucalyptus, as well as the white roses and white ranunculus in the corsage.

The grandmother corsage was a pin-on corsage.

It was tied with an ivory ribbon.

There were two groomsmen. I guess I took a photo of only one of their boutonnieres :).

The dad boutonnieres...

And the little ring bearer boutonniere. So cute!

Last but not least, the groom's boutonniere. The blue sea holly was to be added only to his boutonniere. I loved all the eucalyptus in the pieces, as well.

Now onto the bouquets!!! The extra fun part!

The bride wanted the bouquets to be free-flowing. She also liked the look of eucalyptus in the bouquets. The thistle sea holly was an important part, as well.

This is the bride's bouquet. Don't you just love that white peony?!

I let the bouquets sit in water until the very last minute when the stems will be wrapped with ribbon. I want the flowers to be as fresh as possible.

Each of the bouquets included a succulent. This was another interesting touch that the bride wanted to add. Very neat!

I thought the peonies in these bouquets were just gorgeous!

It was finally time for the bouquets to be wrapped in ribbon. Here is bridesmaid bouquet number one...

Bridesmaid bouquet number two...

And finally, the bride's bouquet! Her bouquet was wrapped with fabric remnants from her wedding dress. I thought it was so pretty!!

Next it was off to the family home for delivery! Since the original plan was for the "party" to start around 2:30 and the real wedding to start at 4:00, I wrapped the stems in water-soaked paper towels and held the paper in place with a plastic bag tightly wound with an elastic. That way the flowers would still stay as fresh as possible :).

Looking pretty as they were about to be packed into the SUV.

Unfortunately, what I didn't know until I got to my friend's house was that the wedding no longer was a secret. A dear family member had passed away earlier in the week, necessitating the need to reveal the secret. However, the house was already abuzz with activity just like any other wedding venue. My friend looked lovely and the backyard was perfect. The bride must have been getting ready because I didn't see her. Although the plans in the end were changed, it was still extremely flattering and exciting to be part of the original plan and to be part of the "secret" :).

I wish all the happiness in the world to the newly married couple!

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