I recently worked on a commercial shoot for The Dress Theory, a stunning new bridal shop in Greenlake with some of my favorite ladies. On a dreary November day in a Pioneer Square studio, Camille’s beautiful bohemian designer dresses (Sarah Seven! Claire Pettibone!) lit up the room and her sweet little pup June provided endless entertainment. Julie Harmsen took these lovely pictures, Jenn Blake of Scout provided the vintage rentals and styling, Jenny Bowker styled the hair and makeup and I created a few floral pretties to accessorize the gowns (and hair, and dog). A romantic bouquet of cafe au lait dahlias, antique oak leaf hydrangea, astilbe, herbs, pepper berry and lipstick pink anemones popped against the gowns while a pepper berry crown accented Kaitlin’s beautiful hair. For tiny June, I made a sweet little collar of herbs that she also wore as a crown. The models were stunning but June was definitely the star of the show.
I have been dying to share the images from this elegant August wedding at The Freestone Inn in Mazama photographed by my friend Chantal Andrea. I struggled to edit down the 600+ images into one blog post, so please forgive me for the length of this one. I just had too many favorites and there were just so many lovely details.
Serena and Mark’s intimate 40 person wedding took place in the Methow Valley, 3 hours drive from Seattle. Mazama is a tiny town with one general store so everything had to be brought in with us and Serena worked on all of the DIY details for months. I worked with her and Mark to plan and design the small, non-traditional wedding – contributing decor ideas and taking care of all the logistics of a destination wedding. Serena wanted an elegant look to contrast the rustic barn and meadows and we came up with a sophisticated color scheme of lavender, grey and butter yellow.
Wanting to keep the number of vendors at the wedding to a minimum, Serena took a hair and makeup lesson from Jenny Bowker prior to the wedding and was able to do her own hair and makeup on the day. She looked stunning.
Mark and Serena walked each other down the aisle of the patio of the Freestone Inn. Mark’s boutonniere of scabiosa and lisianthus complemented Serena’s bridal bouquet of garden roses, clematis, lisiantus, scabiosa and herbs.
The reception took place in a barn on the property used for heli-skiing in the winter. Our organic centerpieces of scabiosa, garden roses and clematis dotted long banquet tables covered with pewter and butter colored linens. For favors/escort cards, Serena and Mark purchased tiny succulents from the Ballard market and Serena and a friend glazed the pots themselves and created tiny name tags from birch bark. I used ceramic and birch pots for the flowers with birch bark votive holders and potted lavender to combat the 100 degree heat.
The highlight for me was the s’mores bar. The venue wouldn’t permit us to bring a wedding cake in, so we decided to put an elegant twist on the classic campfire treat with gourmet handcrafted marshmallows, graham crackers and several varieties of Theo chocolate and caramel. There was even bacon for the more adventurous guests.
I was able to work with some of my favorite Seattle wedding vendors to create this wedding – Kerissa Bakes baked the small cake and the marshmallows and graham crackers and Sally at LaHappy hand lettered the s’mores bar signage for me as a surprise for the couple.
And a couple more of Chantal’s beautiful pictures…
Floral, Event Design, Planning: Finch & Thistle; Photography: Chantal Andrea Photography; Venue: Freestone Inn, Mazama; Desserts: Kerissa Bakes
Today is the first day it really feels like fall in Seattle. We made it all the way to October 11 before the sky turned grey and the fog drifted in from the Puget Sound. I finally had a moment to step outside and notice the jewel colored leaves littering my garden in just the prettiest way and the illustrated pumpkin spice lattes in the Starbucks window across the street. Mmm pumpkin spice…that reminds me to buy some of those lovely heirloom gourds Jello Mold Farm is selling at the market this week…
I have been slacking on the blogging. Truth be told, I just haven’t had time to even look through the photos of this summer’s weddings and now the professional shots are slowly trickling into my inbox. Those are so much better anyway and so my fall/winter resolution is to share images from a wedding or shoot every few weeks for the next few months. I was lucky enough to work with some amazingly creative couples and shockingly talented photographers this summer. I can’t wait to share with you what we came up with…
*image credits clockwise from top left: Chantal Andrea Photography, Bryce Covey Photography, Melissa Guzman via Pinterest
Just wanted to share a couple of images from Friday’s beautiful wedding at the gorgeous SODO Park. I’m a huge book worm so it was wonderful to work with the bride on a vintage book theme in a tribute to her just-this-minute-earned PhD in English. A
fabulous venue, Angela and Evan behind the cameras and a stunning bride and groom…I can’t wait to share more details with you soon.
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Tagged: angela and evan, book theme, finch and thistle, lace and burlap, mauve, purple, seattle event design, seattle wedding decor, seattle wedding flowers, SODO Park, tall centerpiece, vintage wedding
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2 Comments
- { Monday, July 30, 2012 }
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category: Home
Hi friends!
My wonderful intern, Julie, is heading back to school and I am looking for a fall intern to help out with weddings and special events from mid-August through December. This would be an ideal situation for a student or new graduate seeking experience in the floral and event planning world and the schedule would work well for someone who works another job in the evenings. Studio days are usually Wednesdays-Fridays starting around 9am (dependent on our event schedule). The perfect candidate will have floral experience and/or a design background but we can teach the right person.
We all do a little bit of everything around here so you should be fine with getting dirty and doing particularly unglamorous things like hauling boxes, washing buckets and polishing silver. In exchange you will learn the ins and outs of an event business, help style photo shoots, create favors and design boards and learn to create the lovely, organic arrangements we are known for.
You must be reliable and available on certain key weekends in August and September. Must be able to stand for long periods of time, lift objects up to 30lbs and have own transportation, computer and a sense of humor. Experience in photography, editing, blogging and social media a major plus. There will be occasional early mornings, late nights and possible travel. Our studio is in West Seattle and we design and produce events all over the state. Most importantly you must like dogs (or at least tolerate them) as the two terrors, um, terriers, like to check in on our progress regularly.
Tasks could include:
Processing flowers
Installation/tear down of events and loading/unloading of vehicles
Cleaning the studio and organizing supplies after an event
Picking up rentals and craft materials
Creating visual displays or crafting favors
Ordering supplies
Delivering and setting up flowers
Creating and implementing an event timeline
Assisting on photo shoots and styling gigs
Writing blog posts and updating social media sites
Interested? Please email rachel{at}finchandthistleevents.com with the word INTERNSHIP in the subject line. Please include a short resume in the body of the email and attach or link to a portfolio, blog or design project. Please also answer the following questions (succinctly – no essays please!):
Where are you from?
Where do you live now?
Why are you interested in this internship?
Do you have any floral experience? If so, what?
What project or design piece are you most proud of and why?
What’s your favorite flower?
Favorite hobby?
Unusual talents?
