I am ready for summer. I am.  But I do not think I am not ready for peony season to be over just quite yet.

photo: Gia Canali; bouquet: GD Designers

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Welcome to Eunice & Daniel’s wedding!  Eunice and her sister Sabrina own Hello!Lucky, while Daniel designs video games at Three Rings, and frankly, I can’t think of a craftier, more inventive—or more exuberant!—crew to plan a wedding.  Eunice designed pretty much everything and she and her friends, led by sister and maid-of-honor, Sabrina, worked tirelessly to make sure those designs became a reality. Much of the inspiration for the wedding’s design is from Tim Walker’s photographs.  Walker’s work has always fascinated me, as it demonstrates, in intricate detail, how Britain was, is, and always will be a magical place, if improbably so.  See his work, if you aren’t already familiar with it.  You’ll know what I mean.  The little stage Eunice and Daniel were married on and the whimsical parade to the ceremony site, led by Daniel with his white unicorn, are lifted straight from Walker’s (or … Eunice-and-Daniel’s) imagination.

{click any image to enlarge the gallery}

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Below: a few images from the ceremony. I love the flower girls dumping the confetti on each other!!  The stage was lovingly made by the crew at Because We Can and painted by Eunice and friends.  (The stage now has a home behind Eunice & Daniel’s bed, which is the perfect sort of re-purposing of wedding decor, I think).  Eunice designed her dress and her friend and colleague, Hello!Lucky’s London office head, Iain Harris Bartlett, sewed it for her.

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The day passed by at lightning speed, as it really always does at weddings.  I was so happy to have a few moments with Eunice and Daniel along the winding dirt road and in the wide, grassy fields at {Wilbur Hot Springs}.

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The details of this wedding were myriad, intricate, and marvelous.  Nearly everything was made by hand, and much of it by Eunice, Daniel, and their friends. There was so much to look at (and photograph and share!) that I needed a dedicated post to do those details any sort of justice at all.  Here are just a few, though.  Sharla Flock designed the florals, which were rich and varied and added so much color and texture to the wedding.  The cake topper is hilariously cute (worth clicking to enlarge!).

The guests were dressed to match the wedding perfectly, even the littlest ones.  It gave me the feeling that we were all in a movie we couldn’t see being filmed.

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As night fell, the party began in earnest.  There was square-dancing and Eunice’s sister, Sabrina, sang a song.  Their father accompanied the band on his mandolin for another song.  And, yes, Eunice and Daniel really did cut the cake with a cleaver.  I think Daniel might have a collection …

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For fewer, larger photographs, please see {this gallery} on my main site.  And satisfy your floral-detail-loving-cravings {here}.  Hello!Lucky posted a great feature on their, site, too, complete with a gallery and diy wedding project instructionals, and it’s {here}.

photographs by Gia Canali; wedding design, Hello!Lucky; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; wedding planning, Lisa Feldman Designs; Daniel’s dapper suit, Al’s Attire; bridesmaid’s dresses, Al’s Attire and Jessica Bobillot; Eunice’s fascinator, Jennifer Behr; cake topper, Publique Living;  stage, wooden table “numbers,” and parade props, Because We Can and Hello!Lucky; lighting design, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design; Eunice designed her dress and it was handsewn by her friend Iain Harris Bartlett. Go handmade!!

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photos: Gia Canali; floral design, Sharla Flock; cake topper; PubliQue Living; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; table “numbers,” Because We Can with Hello!Lucky; lighting, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design.

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Honestly, even though I think they were just a starting place, I love seeing bridesmaid dresses that don’t match at all, or follow some broad color scheme—chocolate, saffron, and turquoise, with some patterns thrown in. Just really flattering dresses for each bridesmaid (which, naturally, makes the photographs that include the bridesmaids much better).  It also photographs very well when the families dress on a loose color scheme, with all different outfits in, say, khaki and blue, or all jewel tones.

Personal flowers are a lovely—and logical—opportunity for variation.  Below is a bride with her bridesmaids, who all wore different cream-colored dresses.  Floracopia created unique bouquets to match each bridesmaid’s dress.

(Clearly!) I have a soft spot for flowers.  So, what’s more exciting than having more to photograph / more to look at?  Here is another example of variation of personal flowers. All the bridesmaids bouquets were white (and green), but each bouquet featured a different bloom.  The corresponding groomsman wore a boutonnière made with a small arrangement of the same flowers.  The photographs below are not matched bridesmaid-to-groomsman, but I think they give a sense of the overall feel.  Florals by GD Designers.

Centerpieces are another high-profile, attention-grabbing opportunity to show off your creativity.  Using a few tall arrangements of unique blooms at some tables can add visual interest … and save you money over using tall arrangements at every table. Or, you could have a florist create different arrangements on every table.  The possibilities here are endless, too—different containers (e.g., vases), different flowers in the same color group, different colors of the same blooms, different everythings.  Below, a simple illustration of different containers.  This bride also alternated the patterned linens with solid black ones for more variety. Florals by Michael Holmes Designs.

If you are on a shoe-string budget, get your green-thumbed friends to grow and arrange flowers that are native to your area—or just raid your local farmer’s market.  Some of my clients did this with a wedding at the Mill Valley Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley, CA.  The centerpieces for the reception were all loose—and different—flower arrangements of local flowers in Mason jars.  The result was pleasing; it struck a happy balance between the unique and the united.

Cohesion, or the theme itself, is what “pulls it all together” visually, and the variety what adds interest. Couples are freeing their florists (and other vendors!) to do something they’ve never been encouraged to do before … create something unique.  This generous spirit is coming from celebrity clients and Joe & Jane couples alike.  I realize that I’m probably preaching to the choir, so I’d love to hear how other brides are making their own variations.  We’ll revisit this design aesthetic point from time to time.

My new hope?  For variations in stationery.  Now that the environmentally-conscious weddings are becoming more of a social standard, I’m looking for some crafty innovations with paper goods.  I’d like to see couples get a letterpress plate, but print their invites and other paper goods on vintage/re-purposed or scrap paper. (You have got to believe those letter-pressers have some wicked scraps stashed away, right?).  Escort cards made from … vintage playing cards, maybe.  Does anybody know someone out there doing this?

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Florals make a huge impact at your wedding, both in person and on camera (why we’re featuring them on this blog).  So Julia suggests—and I agree—taking on d.i.y. flowers only if it’s something you really enjoy.  She points out that, “if it’s stressful for you, you can d.i.y. something else.”

On her doing her own flowers, Julia says:

“I really did consider what kind of flowers I wanted when I picked the wedding date because I knew we weren’t working with a huge floral budget. I considered what flowers would be in-season, so we picked May instead of September.  I love peonies—I’ve always loved peonies. The first house I lived when I was little had almost nothing to recommend it, except there was this long hedge of deep red peonies.  When we moved, I asked my parents to put peonies in at our new place.  [Years later] when the wedding came around, it was a bit too early for the type of peonies growing in our yard to bloom. So our neighbor cut the ones in her yard, wrapped them, put them in warm water [and brought them to San Francisco].  Those peonies made up a substantial part of my bouquet.”

{click photo to enlarge}

Did you grow all your flowers?

“No, we bought some at the flower market.  You pay a lot more when you go in two months ahead of time and say you want a bunch of white tulips on a certain date.  So we went in [to look] and bought the flowers on the same day.  I never would’ve picked orchids [ordinarily].  They don’t grow where I live—they aren’t me. But I wanted to be open to what people had.  The orchids were elegant, beautiful.  And we were so happy with them.  I think if I had gone in ahead of time with an idea—I would’ve missed them.”

So … growing, buying, arranging all your flowers is a lot of work. How did you pull that off, logistically?

“I suggest getting the flowers a couple of days beforehand.  The flowers are so tight—you want them to open a little. I got mine on Friday, and we were getting married on Sunday.  We did a rehearsal midday Saturday and a rehearsal lunch.  My married girlfriends, and my fiancé (now husband) Bob, helped with the arranging.  Four to six people worked on it for three or four hours in the suite in the hotel room.  A lot of people came by to visit us in the hotel suite while we were working and stayed to help for twenty minutes or so.  Everything was done the day before except I did my bouquet the morning of the wedding. I was still deciding what I wanted, so I had set aside a lot of the peonies I thought I might use.   All the websites tell you how to order flowers, what to do with them—but not how to move them.  You get flowers in big packing boxes, so we put the arrangements back in the boxes.  Then my uncle drove them over [to the venue] and someone put water and the arrangements into the vases.”

What did you learn through the process, or what advice would you give to would be d.i.y. wedding florists?

“Think it out beforehand and have a plan.  It really reduces a lot of the stress.  Your mom, your aunt, everybody will think that you’re totally crazy for wanting to do your own flowers. But if it’s something you enjoy, you should do it. Also, one of the things I recognized early on was that doing arrangements that required floral foam was way to advanced for me for a big event.  Hand-tied stuff is great. And I found the bouquets easiest.”

We’ll be featuring some other d.i.y. projects Julia and Bob did later today.  Thanks for taking time to share with us, Julia!  You, Bob, and all your family and friends did a great job making your wedding personal and special.

photo credit: Gia Canali

floral source: the neighbor’s front yard & San Francisco Flower Market vases/containers: Save On Crafts

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