Now offering e-Design services

finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, goldNikki was a dream bride to work with on the design of her August wedding at Everett Golf and Country Club. From the very beginning, we were on exactly the same page with the design style she requested: an elegant ballroom style wedding in blush, peach and gold with whimsical, Anthropologie inspired touches.

They say that planning a wedding takes a village (don’t they?) and this was no exception. The team that Nikki and I assembled to pull this off was some of the best of the best. Courtney Bowlden is responsible for all the beautiful photography, J + B Video produced a fabulous wedding video, and Judy Tallant at Tallant House worked with me to design the dessert table. The linens are La Tavola, the vintage pieces came from Vintage Ambiance, the favors are Theo Chocolates and the gorgeous programs and calligraphy are La Happy.

finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, goldMajor thanks are due to my wonderful team on this particular wedding. A woman down due to illness, terrible game day traffic, unexpected hot weather and floating flower mechanics made the setup on this a little more hectic than I had anticipated and still we got everything done with time to spare and calm demeanors all around.

finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold Nikki_Kevin0885copy Nikki_Kevin_bridesmaid_bouquetsfinch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold, ceremony backdrop finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold pool flowers finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, la happy, calligraphy finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design I fell in love with these chair covers but they weren’t in the budget for the entire head table so I ordered them as a surprise for the bride and groom. Thank you to Melanie Benson for sharing her source on these beauties!

finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, petal chair ties finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, floral design, blush, gold finch and thistle, seattle event designer, la happy stationery finch and thistle, seattle event designer, tallant house bakery finch and thistle, seattle event designer, tallant house bakery finch and thistle, seattle event designer, tallant house bakery finch and thistle, seattle event designer, tallant house bakery

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.

vintage bridal bouquet SODO Park seattle
SODO park chuppah decor seattlebook pages guest book ideatall pedestal centerpiece jewel tonessimple book centerpiece with bud vases

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.

bride and groom sorrento hotelwhite and green organic boutonnierescloseup white bouquetsorrento hotelmilk glass centerpiecebook fireplace display

library at sorrento

green and white dahlia bouquetsorrento hotel decor

vintage centerpiece seattlesorrento hotel wedding

white and green wedding cakeguestbook display

sorrento hotel weddingbride and bridesmaid bouquets seattle

bride and groom sorrento hotel

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!

 

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.

Finch & Thistle Palace Ballroom wedding

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.

pink and grey bridal bouquet

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.

brown chivari chair tiespink and plum wedding centerpieces

pink and brown centerpieces

pink vintage centerpiece

sweet little flower girls

brown, red and pink bridesmaid bouquetspink and brown chair posyA 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.

vintage cupboard altar

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).

pink wedding vintage

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.

creative escort card displayIt’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.

pink and rose gold wedding cakes

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.

Real Seattle wedding by Finh & Thistle

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

 

I think Tess would agree with me that she and Ryan chose the perfect time of year to get married – peony season! We share a love of the fluffy, fragrant beauties and I was keeping my fingers crossed for a lull in the rain and some sunny weather so I could use them in their wedding flowers. No such luck on the rain, or the sun, but fortunately Eastern Washington has a different climate altogether from the Puget Sound and a few stems started making their way westward so I was able to use them sparingly in the bouquets and centerpieces. I’ve already shared one of the church arrangements here but here are a few more images courtesy of the fabulous Angela and Evan Photography

Tess’ bouquet was mainly comprised of white peonies. I wrapped the stems in lace and tied Tess’ parents wedding rings onto it as a sweet reminder of her late father. It looked so pretty against her simple, strapless wedding dress!

The bridesmaids bouquets were pink and green with tones ranging from blush to magenta. The groomsmen’s bouts had pink dogwood and scabiosa pods with the groom’s made up of two white and pink cymbidium orchids to match the bride’s hair piece.

The Rainforest Pavilion at Woodland Park Zoo was hung with pink and green lanterns and lengths of ivory fabric to mark the dance floor. The tables were covered in navy blue satin tablecloths, blush pink napkins and gold chargers. I wanted to keep the centerpieces  loose and romantic so I filled footed silver bowls with peonies, scabiosa, queen anne’s lace, freesia and roses. They smelled amazing and the silver bowls reflected the light from the pink Glassybaby votives.

Tess and I had our first meeting at Top Pot donuts and when she confessed that she had a weakness for the sweet treats and was looking for something fun to serve later in the evening, donuts seemed an obvious choice. I love the mini cartons of milk she added. So cute!

milk and donuts wedding favors

And so where does the peacock come in? Well, just as we finished setting up the reception space, it started to rain. No light NW misting either, think absolute torrential downpour. As I was running to my car, encumbered by boxes and buckets, I noticed this flash of green and blue to my right and low and behold the zoo’s resident peacock was racing along beside me, apparently also seeking shelter in my open car trunk. I don’t know which of us was more surprised! Fortunately, I out-ran him and slammed the door shut before he could jump in and after some angry squawking he swooped around and headed back towards the zoo.  Imagine if I had driven home with a peacock in the back of my car? I’m not sure how I would have explained that one to the zookeepers…!

I worked with Laura and Majid for a full year on the design of their wedding, so as you can imagine the style and palette changed a bit here and there but the final result was well worth the extra work. I loved the unusual plum and marigold color palette from the start – such a fun and vibrant look – but Laura wanted a vintage twist so we settled for blush pink and grey accents to tone things down.

Plum and Marigold weddingThe Edgewater is a great venue – stunning location with gorgeous crystal chandeliers contrasting with a modern wood paneled ceiling – and their staff is super helpful. As I was setting up, the room was so warm that the tulips and dogwood was starting to wilt – a florist’s nightmare! The banquet manager kindly turned on the AC for me and everything perked back up. Phew!

These pictures are all by the talented Angela and Evan Carlyle.

jewel toned peony bouquetplum bridesmaid dresses boutonniere with calla, dogwood and lisianthusbride and bridesmaids at Golden Gardensbride and groom in Golden Gardensbride bouquet at Golden Gardensbill ballpurple and yellow tall centerpiecegreen orchids wedding cake Edgewater Seattlebride and groom at Edgwater hotel, Seattlebride and groom at Edgewater Seattle