Now offering e-Design services

fall is here

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been waking up to the sound of the fog horns echoing in the distance and a serious chill in the air. Summer in the Northwest is no doubt a magical season but for all the wedding folks, Autumn heralds the end of our wedding season and for a few short weeks, a well deserved rest. Since our last wedding a week ago, I have been cleaning up the studio, meeting with 2014 clients, planning for upcoming commercial shoots, bugging all my photographer friends for wedding images, and catching up with the friends I barely saw in the craziness of the last few months. On Monday, photographer Stephanie Cristalli and I took off for the country to visit my very first pumpkin patch (at age 31 no less) to pick out some heirloom pumpkins and make some pretty pictures.Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch stephanie cristalli Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch Finch & Thistle fall bridal bouquet pumpkin patch stephanie cristalli

today

seattle wedding flowers by finch and thistle event design

spring weddings

…are my favorite. If I could do my wedding over again I would forgo the (sort of) guaranteed late summer sunshine, pick an indoor venue and have this bridal bouquet…

finch and thistle, stephanie cristalli, seattle wedding floral designerThanks to the lovely Stephanie Cristalli for the sneak peek from today’s shoot. More to come…

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