- { Monday, August 6, 2012 }
Mahogany and Lace at SODO Park
- category: event design, floral design, Home, vintage centerpiece, vintage decor, Weddings
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.
- { Monday, June 11, 2012 }
Published: Coral and Aqua Engagement Shoot
- category: event design, Home, press, Styled Inspiration Shoot
Our Georgetown styled engagement shoot is featured on Wedding Chicks today! Take a look at the full gallery for lots of details and more of Chantal Andrea’s beautiful portraits of our lovely couple.
- Tagged: bright colors, chantal andrea, coral, crepe paper chandelier, engagement, finch and thistle, gold, kerissa bakes, lahappy, ombre cake, Styled Shoot, turquoise, wedding, wedding chicks
- |
- Comments Off on Published: Coral and Aqua Engagement Shoot
All the fun British details from this Diamond Jubilee party on Bainbridge Island yesterday had me feeling quite patriotic over the weekend. Lots of Union Jacks, commemorative tins from M&S, tiny flags in the Pimms, festive flowers and classic British food – sausage rolls, flapjacks, victoria sponge, tea sandwiches…and chicken curry. Obviously. The Queen was there and Will and Kate put in an appearance over by the bar. As you can imagine there were lots of fascinators and hats among the guests and even a tiny corgi wearing pearls.
- Tagged: 60th anniversary, black vases, commemorative tin, diamond jubilee, event design, finch and thistle, floral design, peony, queen, ranunculus, seattle, tree peony
- |
- Comments Off on Long Live Gin and Tonic!
- { Friday, May 25, 2012 }
Published: Design*Sponge Styled Engagement Shoot
- category: Design Sponge, event design, floral design, Home, press, Prop styling
Welcome Design*Sponge readers! Thanks for stopping by to take in some more details from the engagement shoot that is featured on my favorite design blog today. What a fun shoot! I worked with some of my favorite Seattle wedding pros and even a past client of mine (more on that later)…
It all started (as they often do) with a Pinterest board which you can see here. I picked my favorite colors and my favorite flowers and one of my favorite restaurants and worked from there. I called up my friend Sally who happens to be the creative dynamo behind Seattle based design firm LaHappy and enticed her into designing an invitation suite. She, of course, killed it. I mean, seriously, gold sparkly paper? Beautiful calligraphy in NEON pink? A vintage floral illustration envelope liner. Swoon.
Then we needed a photographer and I turned to another lovely friend, Chantal Andrea. Chantal has an incredible eye and her stunning portraits and moody journalistic style was ideal for the bohemian look of the engagement shoot. The team was almost complete. Almost.
I really really really wanted an ombré cake and I knew just the person to ask. One of my brides from last summer is an amazing vegan baker. The dessert table at her wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty and pinned all over the place. Her new company Kerissa Bakes is already making a name for itself and I can personally vouch for the fact that the ombré chocolate cake and the polka dot almond cookies she made for this party were absolutely delicious. There wasn’t a single piece left over at the end of the night. Not a crumb.
Then there were the flowers. I’m obsessed with garden roses and jasmine so those were a given. Then I got incredibly lucky and scored some green centered ranunculus at the market. I’d seen them before on the cover of Martha Stewart Weddings but never in person and they were just gorgeous. Beautiful colors and frilly petals and wonderful black centers. Wow. So I spray painted some vintage vases and mason jars gold and got to work.
This shoot was filled with DIY projects of which the fabric tassels and the crepe paper chandelier were my favorites. I found the tutorial for the fabric tassels on Pinterest (and my advice is to save yourself hours by buying a rotary cutter for $20) and talked my husband into helping me twist the crepe paper garlands while he watched ESPN one evening. I loved how they looked hanging from the restaurant’s wrought iron chandelier.
And then there was a party…
Seattle Vendor Credits –
Photography: Chantal Andrea Photography
Floral, Prop Styling and Event Design: Finch & Thistle Event Design
Stationery: LaHappy
Desserts: Kerissa Bakes
Venue: Via Tribunali Georgetown
We’re back from our amazing trip to Africa! I’ll share some pictures when I’ve had time to catch up on the hundreds of emails and voice mails that were waiting for me back at the office, but in the meantime here’s a set of pictures guaranteed to mak
e you smile.
Back in November we did a 1961 Mad Men themed birthday party for a client on Mercer Island. Decorations consisted mainly of smoking accoutrements: candy cigarettes, bubblegum cigars, cigarette holders, chocolate cigars, vintage glass ashtrays etc with a few flowers thrown in here and there for good measure! I scoured estate sales and thrift stores for retro decor and worked with Kip Beelman to set up a fabulous photo backdrop so guests could do the twist with Sophia Loren. DJ Tony Schwartz played hits from the 50’s and 60’s that kept guests on the dance floor and he was assisted by Shake Bartenders who provided the smoky signature cocktails. The amazing spread was catered by Ristorante Doria and the bold polka dot and jewel tone linens came from BBJ. If only Don and Betty had put in an appearance…
- Tagged: 1960's party, finch and thistle, mad men party, retro party, seattle event design
- |
- Comments Off on Partying Mad Men Style
- { Thursday, January 12, 2012 }
Lisa & Josh – A Fresh, Modern Wedding at The Edgewater
- category: Home, Modern Decor, Weddings
Let me just say that I absolutely loved working with Lisa. Adored might be more like it. Not that I don’t enjoy working with all my clients, but Lisa hired me a full year before her August 2011 wedding, knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t change
her mind once. Let me repeat that: NOT ONCE. Sure, she let me suggest ideas and decor elements but her vision was unwavering: green, cement and rust with trees and branches incorporated somehow and a clean, modern look. After a summer of vintage weddings, it was a breath of fresh air.
Lisa’s bouquet was white and green with exquisite lady slipper orchids and grasses and her bridesmaids carried green and rust bouquets that popped against their slate grey dresses. Josh and the groomsmen had boutonnieres made of poppy pods, dusty miller and curly willow twigs.
We used cement vases and settled on three styles of centerpieces – a taller one with curly willow branches, a shorter fuller one and a low vessel filled with succulents. To incorporate the tree theme, we purchased birch votive holders from Etsy and used three on each table.
But of all the beautiful images by Angela and Evan Photography, I think this one is my favorite…
- Tagged: eco wedding, edgewater hotel, green, grey and orange, modern wedding, Seattle wedding
- |
- Comments Off on Lisa & Josh – A Fresh, Modern Wedding at The Edgewater
- { Wednesday, September 14, 2011 }
Amy & Matt – White + Sage Wedding at the Sorrento Hotel
- category: event design, Home, vintage decor, Weddings
Amy and Matt’s intimate 40 person wedding took place in the Penthouse in Capital Hill’s Sorrento Hotel and was captured beautifully in these images by Kip Beelman. The bride and groom wanted a soft, vintage look with lots of texture and unexpected floral elements such as succulents and nigella pods. I used my collection of vintage milk glass for vases and then decorated with vintage books and mason jars in the fireplace and on the cocktail tables. I loved how the room was left “as-is” with it’s cozy furniture and fireplace to welcome guests and then “turned” to bring the tables out for the reception. It made it easy to use all the centerpieces as additional decor for the ceremony.
Amy and Matt were a lovely couple to work with – so in love and excited about the wedding planning process and the vendors they were working with. Congratulations to you both and all the best as you begin this new phase of your lives together!
- { Monday, September 12, 2011 }
Jennifer & Jerry – Pink, Red and Plum Wedding at Palace Ballroom
- category: Home, vintage decor, Weddings
Jennifer and Jerry’s wedding design was inspired by the bride’s absolutely stunning blush pink Luly Yang gown. Jennifer wanted pink flowers but she wanted an edgier, more urban look to match the wedding venue – Tom Douglas’ Palace Ballroom.
Jennifer and Jerry’s photographer, Barbara Kinney, is a Seattle based photographer who was the official photographer for the Clinton Administration White House and Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
I decided to contrast the various pink tones with grey, red and a deep chocolate and keep the look very textured with stem upon stem of garden roses, grey berzilia, koko puff dahlias and red sedum. Dark plum and brown flowers and foliage (chocolate dahlias, nine bark and smoke bush) helped give the arrangements contrast against the blush pink linens and tied in the reception to the ceremony’s dark chiviari chairs.
A cupboard and chandelier from Vintage Ambiance was used first as the “altar” and then as the backdrop for the stunning cake table by The People’s Cake.
I absolutely adore these garden roses. So beautiful and they also have an amazing scent. They provide a lovely ruffled look like a peony when peonies aren’t in season (and are as pricey as peonies, but worth every penny).
Kelsey from Sugarcomb Event Design put together this fabulous escort card display using a wine barrel from Jennifer and Jerry’s winery, Guardian Cellars, with a monogram mimicking the wedding invitation.
It’s rare that I attend a cake tasting, but Jennifer invited me to come along and share with Kaysie of The People’s Cake the actual colors and flowers that I would be using for the arrangements.
- { Wednesday, September 7, 2011 }
Published: Golden Gardens Bathhouse Wedding
- category: Home, press, Style Me Pretty, vintage decor, Weddings
So thrilled to see Abbie and Matt’s gorgeous Golden Gardens wedding featured on Style Me Pretty today! You may remember some of the images by Nickel Images that I shared a few weeks back, but check out the article for even more beautiful photos and all the details from Abbie.
- Tagged: finch and thistle, golden gardens bathhouse, Nickel Images, purple and green, Real Seattle Wedding, style me pretty, vintage wedding
- |
- Comments Off on Published: Golden Gardens Bathhouse Wedding
- { Friday, July 15, 2011 }
Abbie and Matt – Lavender + Sage Wedding at Golden Gardens
- category: Bouquet, Boutonniere, Centerpieces, Corsage, event design, floral design, garden roses, Home, vintage decor, vintage props, Weddings
Abbie and Matt’s June wedding at Golden Gardens has to be my favorite wedding to date. Abbie was a dream client – a bride with vision on a mission to craft every element of her big day who loved every idea I dreamed up. I loved the location – Golden Garden’s Bathhouse, I loved the catering plan – Taco truck and Molly Moon’s ice cream, and I loved the high style, low budget vintage travel theme. An all around love-fest. Very fitting seeing as Abbie told me afterwards that someone told her the reception decor could be summed up in one word – “love.”
After months of planning, designing, cutting out tiny felt mustaches (Abbie), and growing (I let my catmint grow rampant in preparation for this wedding), Julie and I arrived to set up around noon and were met with bags and bags of paper pom-poms, paper place mats, shells and vintage bottles. Then I got to roam free, setting up all the prop displays and floral arrangements, hanging ribbon and pom-poms and decorating to my heart’s desire. Did I not say it was a dream wedding?
I really struggled to narrow down the images I wanted to share. I took so many pictures and then I saw the gorgeous images from Nickel Images and just went a bit wild. Definitely check out the Nickels’ blog for more details (a two part post!) of the day and some words from Abbie about her inspiration. There’s a story for every prop display…
{All images courtesy of Nickel Images unless otherwise credited}
The bride and bridesmaids wore silver sparkly Toms!
Photography: Finch & Thistle (except top image)
Photography: Finch & Thistle
Photography: Finch & Thistle
Images 2,6,7 Finch & Thistle
