When I got a call from Jamie beginning of this year, I knew that I had a good feeling about this couple. Well, first of all, it's quite rare that the groom gets to handle the flowers. ^_^ And sure enough, when I met both Judy and Jamie at the Bouche Production bridal show in Willow Grove, we immediately had a great connection!

This couple inspired me so much when they told me the places they have travelled and when they wanted to incorporate that into their wedding decor theme, I was like "YES!". ^_^ AND...to top it all, their venue is the Merion Tribute House! YAY! We definitely love that mansion and had a great time there when we did Joy and Jon's wedding.

So I showed them this one super cool idea of "submersed table number" and I was so excited when both of them liked it! For all the DIY brides out there, this idea is certainly easy to do! I got the idea and instructions from this awesome book "The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding" by Khris Cochran (ISBN-13: 9781561589647). The "submersed table number" idea is listed under "Floating Table Number Centerpiece". PS: I know when to give credits when due. ^_^ The slight difference is I used a picture clip holder instead of looping wire. I think it's easier. ^_^ We then added the hydrangeas and sprinkled mixed raw and brown sugar around each centerpiece.
 

Now, that's just half of the tables. As for the rest of the tables, we did tall centerpieces using a mix of hydrangeas, stocks, delphiniums and larkspur.
 

Now here comes the best part...for me at least. ^_^ For the place card table, I suggested that we made this the main "tribute" to their travel adventures. I had too much fun with this and I loved everything about it. ^_^ Judy supplied the luggages (she got these from Home Goods), by the way. The idea was to have an arrangement overflowing from the smaller luggage that was stacked up on a bigger luggage. Then I went around shopping to get the garden angel statue, the Indian elephant, and other knick knacks. I was so happy that I got to use a little bit of scrapbooking to make the shadow box for them. The other cool thing is...they actually printed the place cards as if they were passports! Sweet! ^_^ This definitely makes it to top 3 of my favorite works!
 

As for the personal flowers, from the start, Judy emphasized how important it is for her to have simple design for her bouquet. She loves mini calla lilies and so that's exactly what we did for her bouquet, just a bunch of mini calla lilies with french braided blue ribbon stem wrap. It fits her so well! Love it! ^_^ And for her bridesmaids, who decked espresso brown dresses, we went with simple light blue hydrangeas bouquets to match their sashes.
 

Although the weather that day was a little nerve-wrecking, this lovely couple was so blessed when the rain stopped just in time for their outdoor ceremony. About 30-mins after their ceremony was over, it was pouring cats and dogs! It's almost like the Heaven decided to hold all the gray clouds just for them. It's so amazing to witness this miracle! ^_^

I really did have a blast doing this wedding and am forever grateful to Judy and Jamie for this wonderful opportunity to showcase my works.

For more pictures from this wedding, please visit Papertini's online photo album.


Judy and Jamie's wedding vendor(s):
Merion Tribute House - Venue
Lawrence-James Studio - Photographer



Congratulations once again to Judy and Jamie!!!
Many happy wishes for you always!!!

Thank you for the honor to be
a part of your special day!! ^_^

I really appreciate it.

謝謝!




 

Daina found me through Wedding Wire and boy, I am sure glad our paths crossed! Not only did I have so much fun, I also got a rare opportunity to witness "a little divine intervention" and I find it very much meaningful. ^_^

Daina and Ale, her mother, were so pleasant to work with and we definitely clicked from the start. They definitely made a good wedding planning team. ^_^ Her wedding was considered a large one because she had about 14 bridal party (and add the families on top of that) and about 22 guest tables. We were working on quite a tight budget, however, since Daina was very flexible and open to ideas, we made it work!

Daina chose Burnt Orange, Green, and Fuchsia to match this particular shade of Dark Teal fabrics that she used for her bridesmaids' dresses. I think those colors compliment each other very well and most of all, I think they are the best representation of her bright and cheerful personality. ^_^

So for her bridal bouquet, we used "MILVA" roses (it's a darker shade than "Orange Unique"), "Mango" mini calla lilies, green dendrobium orchids, green hypericum berries, fuchsia alstroemerias, hot pink gerbera daisies, and purple statice as accent.
 

As for the bridesmaids' bouquets, we kept it simple by using "Mango" mini calla lilies and lily grass loops.
 

Simple design is definitely key when you try to cover a lot of ground. So for her centerpieces, we split the design into 2 (two) styles - tall centerpieces for half and floating centerpieces for the other half.

Each tall centerpiece consisted of DRIED curly willows and half got paired up with fuchsia alstroemerias, the other with orange mokara orchids. Daina purchased the dried curly willow in mahogany color from www.driedflowersrus.com (they are one of my favorite vendors and John Wisdom rocks! ^_^) and the tall vases as her mom planned to give them away to guests.
 

The floating centerpiece has few orchid blooms (in fuchsia, green dendrobium orchids and orange mokara orchids) with a circle of steel grass and pebbles on the bottom. Daina got the glass container (it's actually a salad bowl!), floating candles and pebbles from IKEA.
 

For her place card table, we did one tall centerpiece and placed fuchsia, green dendrobium orchids and orange mokara orchids as "borders" for the place cards. They had such lovely effect and made the place card table looked cheerful! ^_^
 

All the above designs are DIY friendly as you can see. Very simple and absolutely doable for brides on budget!
You can always contact me if you need advise on the above designs. ^_^


Daina and Matas are both Lithuanian and so it's so cool to see them honoring their heritage in their wedding. One of them is the special wedding "cake", called Šakotis. This "cake" smelled so much like belgian waffles (in this case...it also smelled like dark chocolate...)! It's definitely not your ordinary cake! its texture is like... between a biscotti and waffle, can't really describe it. It's harder than a cake for sure. Therefore... here's my little tip for those who are interested in decorating Šakotis in the future: wire your flowers. Make sure the wire is thick enough so they can "poke" through the hard surface. ^_^

Design wise, I just thought the dark chocolate covering looked so much like a waterfall, so I just designed the flowers as if they were falling on a waterfall. ^_^ I think it's simply... awesome! ^_^ And if you visit my blog often enough, you know how much I love, love, love unique ideas! ^_^
 

The lovely venue is the Collingswood Grand Ballroom in Collingswood, NJ and catering was provided by Barry Catering. Both have friendly and professional staff, definitely would love to work with them again in the near future. ^_^

For more pictures from this wedding, please check out Papertini's online album.


Now, speaking of the "little divine intervention"... I must admit the weather on Daina and Matas' wedding was, unfortunately, not the best. Not only it was humid, it also rained. It was pretty much raining when I got to the church to drop off the flowers. Then the choir came in and started practicing the wedding songs. As soon as one of the ladies sang "Ave Maria" (she sang so, so, so beautifully), I am not kidding you, the rain stopped! Just like that! It was so bright outside, you couldn't tell the sky was raining just a few minutes prior! The weather pretty much stayed bright and sunny afterwards. It was such a divine moment that it took me a while to process in my little head. I mean, there's no other way to describe this experience! And for this, I am humbled and forever grateful. ^_^

Congratulations, Daina and Matas!!
Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity
to be a part of your special day!

Many Happy Wishes for You Two Always! ^_^


 

Once again I got the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with the wonderful Randi Martin of Always Fabulous Events. The lovely couple, Kamila and Wayne, picked Bolingbroke Mansion as the venue for their romantic and intimate wedding venue. I thought it was fun to come back to Bolingbroke again (the last time I was there was for Marylou and Baris' last year)! ^_^ And once again we were blessed with the weather that was gorgeous and simply perfect for a wedding!

Kamila picked Burnt Orange as the base/dominant color and the accent colors were White, Ivory, Peach, Pink, Purple (only for her bridesmaids) and Green. We used a lot of roses but also introduced others lovely flowers such as mokara orchids, snapdragons, alstroemerias, and lilies.

For a ceremony, we spread a mix of burnt orange, peach and ivory petals on the both sides of the aisle. The variety of this burnt orange shade rose is called "ORANGE UNIQUE", it has that softer orange shade compared to its cousin, "MILVA" rose.  As for the peach roses, we used "DONNA". You can barely see the peach ones in the spread, but they're there! ^_^
 

If you are interested in choosing Bolingbroke Mansion, the one important thing about spreading rose petals for the aisle is...you (or us or the event planner) have to CLEAN THESE UP right after the ceremony is over. Therefore, my recommendation is to keep it in the same design as I did for Kamila's (tight spread on the left and right of the aisle only). You can certainly do the big spread in the middle of the aisle, but you'll probably have to be prepared to pay for the extra labor charges. ^_^ I think it worked out great! ^_^
 

For the altar arrangements, we used "Orange Unique" and "Blizzard" roses, white Dendrobium Orchids, green Hypericum Berries and green Hanging Amaranthus. These were repurposed for the fireplace mantles after the ceremony ended (check out the picture here). You are probably wondering how the heck that big, round arrangement was able to be placed on a narrower mantle. Well, here's a little secret... the arrangement is what they would call "half arrangement". The full floral arrangement was shown on the front side, the back is filled with greeneries. The greeneries help to weigh the arrangement and of course, provide "cover up" for the floral foam. Since they are flat enough, you can push the arrangement against the wall so it can sit nicely on the mantle. ^_^ The greeneries I used for this were the Non-varieagated Pittosporums.
 

For Kamila's bouquet, we used a mix of  "Orange Unique", "Donna" (peach), and "Vendella" (ivory) roses, burnt orange Asiatic Lilies, and "Mango" (burnt orange) mini calla lilies. We used Baker's/Leather Ferns for her bouquet collar. For her maid of honor and bridesmaid, we put "Orange Unique" roses, "Mango" mini calla lilies, green Hypericum Berries and purple Statice. I think this combination worked so perfectly against their champagne-colored dresses! Love it! ^_^
 

As for the guest table centerpieces, we used mokara orchids, hypericum berries, snapdragons, alstroemerias, and roses. For the cocktail tables, we had fun using the orange "angel hair" fiber (We got these from www.accentdecor.com , but for some crazy reasons, I don't see this listed on their site today. we'll do more research and get back to you on this) as the vase filler and we just put a simple, bunched up alstroemerias. I think it looked awesome! ^_^
 

And here's my pride and joy...I love this cake. I do...I must say that it's one of my favorite works! We used green hypericum berries, mokara and oncidium orchids to decorate the cake. And I'd say it's quite... magical! ^_^
 

We really did have a blast doing this wedding! Kamila, Wayne, Randi and her staff were simply awesome!

We are very much looking forward to our next collaboration with Randi and her wonderful staff! ^_^

For more pictures from this wedding, please check out Papertini's online album.
 

Congratulations, Kamila and Wayne!!
Thank you so much for the opportunity!!

Many Happy Wishes for You Always! ^_^

Sami's dad wanted to jazz up her graduation party, so he hired me to make few arrangements. For the main living room, I thought it would be fun to have a conversation piece, that's why I decided to do something a little dramatic (just a little! ^_^). The manzanita branch I used for this arrangement was a plastic one (my suggestion if you are to do this yourself, get the real manzanita branch. They're a lot stronger, therefore you can place more lanterns). I painted the branch matte gold.
 

The flowers I picked for this were sunflowers, "Hocus Pocus" roses, anthurium, safflower, and non-variegated pittosporum leaves.

For the deck, I thought it would be fun to do something a little modern, so I went back to my roots, so thus speak, by coloring the water light blue and cut out polypropylene film (a.k.a gift basket plastic wrap) to get the "cracked ice" effect. I then put the vase inside a wreath filled with white spider mums and non-variegated pittosporum leaves.

 

It was definitely a gorgeous day for a graduation party and I think everything worked out great!

For more pictures from this event, please visit Papertini's online album.


Congratulations on your graduation, Sami!! ^_^