orcas | Finch and Thistle

{ Tuesday, November 16, 2010 }

Chelsea and Jamie: Part II

category: event design, floral design, Home, Weddings

*
The bridesmaids wore different shades of blue dresses from J.Crew and Kenneth Cole and the groomsmen all wore white shirts with blue and orange checked ties.

**
Chelsea wore a Nicole Miller gown, accessorized with a multi strand gold and pearl necklace from Macy’s, and carried a bouquet of white and orange garden roses, blackberries, thistle, dahlias, stock, freesia and green hypericum berries.

*
Jamie wore a custom suit from Nordstrom.

*
Family members dressed in jewel tones and I made their boutonnieres and corsages to coordinate.

The ceremony took place on the patio of the Oddfellows hall in Eastsound, overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound and surrounded by native Madrona trees.

*
Penny the Labrador served as flower girl and ate her corsage halfway through.

**
Outside on the deck we set up a photo booth complete with props and I decorated with hanging flowers in varying shades of blue glass.

Guests enjoyed cocktails on the deck while the wedding party took photographs and then guests dined on barbequed salmon and chicken with cupcakes made by the island’s only bartender for dessert.

*****
We used white linens to show off the burlap and the blue mason jars. I used cherry brandy and orange roses, dahlias, stock, hypericum, seeded eucalyptus, blackberries and blue thistle in the flower arrangements.

*
I loved how the light shone through the blue glass as the sun set!

A gift table displayed an antique leather suitcase and the cake topper was from Chelsea’s grandmother’s wedding.

The bride and groom entered the reception to a taped recording by one of the groomsmen mimicking the starting lineup for an NFL football game and guests danced the night away under a ceiling draped with pennant flags in vintage fabric while lanterns and jars of flowers hung in the windows and from the railings of the patio.

****
{all * pictures courtesy of Jonathan Steinberg Photography}

And yes, in addition to designing this wedding, I am one of the bridesmaids :)

Tagged: blue, coastal, orange, orcas, organic, san juans, wedding

1 Comment

{ Monday, November 15, 2010 }

Chelsea and Jamie, Orcas Island: Part I

category: event design, floral design, inspiration, Weddings

For those of you who have been following the blog for the last few months, you will remember that Chelsea guest blogged about her experiences planning her August wedding on Orcas Island. Here are all the details and pictures from the big day!

*
Chelsea grew up on an apple farm in Wenatchee, WA (the epicenter of Washington state’s apple growing region) and in her senior year of high school she was nominated Apple Blossom Queen (an honor that meant she had to bring her tiara and gown to college with her so that she could be ready to attend a parade at a moment’s notice).

On a weekend trip to Lake Chelan right after Chelsea and Jamie got engaged, Chelsea and I found a pile of vintage apple label postcards in a roadside antique store and inspiration hit. We would design her upcoming Orcas Island wedding to have a country, organic theme based around vintage apple posters.

Chelsea was a very hands-on bride. After I put together a mood board to help with the design direction, she immediately started scouring the blogs for ideas to make their wedding day special on a budget. She made the burlap table runners herself, spent a weekend sewing pennant flags, collected crates and crates of coveted blue mason jars and vintage bottles and glued lace cutout blue paper onto recycled cans for centerpieces.

*
We even assembled the glass cake plates ourselves from platters, ashtrays and sundae glasses we purchased for pennies at Goodwill.

Then Chelsea’s sister Erica had a *brilliant* idea. She had been to an event for the WA wine commission and seen apples “tattooed” with logos for a sponsor company. We had been tossing the idea around of using apples grown by Chelsea’s father as place card holders but this took things to a whole new level. Erica found a small indie sticker company in Seattle and commissioned them to design a small black heart shaped sticker with a C & J cutout in the middle. Two weeks before the apples were to be picked, Chelsea’s dad and stepmother stuck the stickers onto the apples while they were still green. Apples turn red right before they need to be picked so the sticker blocked out the sunlight leaving a stencil in green on the red apple. They turned out perfectly!

*
We added small paper leaves to each one and we had the perfect escort card display.