Notes On A Wedding | North West Wedding Blog

Forget Me Knot: Alaska Garden Wedding

July 28, 2011

came upon this real Alaska wedding featured on Forget Me Knot Weddings and we immediately fell in love with the homemade charm of the event! Everything from

the flowers to little decorative details were put together by family and friends of the couple, making this wedding a true labor of love- and an adorable one at that! The bride (Sarah) and the groom (Jared) met on board a salmon fishing boat in Alaska, proving their love for adventure and nature; something that truly came across in their choice of color palette and decor. We particularly love the barn venue and gorgeous garden style florals!

Who says you need to choose two or three colors for your wedding palette? The colors of the garden style florals in this wedding are so cheerful and lovely that we say, when in doubt, use them all!

Bringing a vintage

armoire outdoors to use as an altar is so unexpected and such a fun touch. The rustic wooden container for the altar wildflowers fits perfectly with the garden theme.

If you and your fiance aren’t in love with a traditional wedding cake, why not buck the cupcake trend and order cheesecakes? Jacob and Sarah ordered cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory and displayed them on a mix of vintage and wooden cake platters.

These felt mustaches are so cute!

Images via: forgetmeknotweddingsblog.com and josselynpeterson.com.

Dress: J.Crew / Photography: Josselyn Peterson / Cake: The Cheesecake Factory

2 comments

Categories: Real Wedding

Tagged: alaska wedding, barn wedding, cheesecake wedding cake, mustache photos, natural wedding, outdoor wedding, red bridal shoes, red white bouquets, rustic

Floranthropy

July 27, 2011

2 comments

Deciding upon flowers is one of the most fun parts to planning a wedding. Will they be organic or classic? Neutral or bright? Rustic or elegant? Whatever you choose, the flowers are a way to add your personal style and touch to the day.

{image via Martha Stewart Weddings}

When florists prep flowers for an event, they feed and hydrate them with the goal that they should last several days, even up to a week depending on the type of blooms in the arrangement. The average NW couple spends around $3,000 on their wedding flowers and with most couples leaving immediately for a honeymoon, they only get to enjoy the beauty of those arrangements for a single day. Typically, friends take home the arrangements or the venue tosses them in the trash. How sad to see all that work and beauty (and money) go to waste!

Floranthropy hopes to change that. The new Seattle based non-profit is giving NW couples another option – donate your wedding flowers to a local hospital, hospice or retirement home and reap the karmic benefits. Tracy Dittman came up with the idea for the new service while planning her own June wedding. She was searching for a way to honor the memory of her late mother and decided to donate her wedding flowers to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle where her mother sought treatment for cancer. Friends reacted so positively to the news, that Tracy realized the potential for a new donation service in Seattle.

There are other benefits to donating your wedding flowers – tax deductions. Not only will your flowers bring someone else joy in a time of need, but they will also make a dent in your year end tax bill; not bad after a year filled with wedding costs! Tracy says that if a couple spends $2,000 on their wedding flowers, depending on their tax bracket, they could have

$200-$700 back in their pockets at the end of the year. The average cost for the service is $75 which covers logistics – transport of the arrangements from your venue to the donation site, a photo of the flower drop and a tax deductible receipt.

For more information, please visit Floranthropy’s website.

2 comments

Categories: Vendors

Tagged: donate your wedding flowers, floral donation service, Floranthropy Seattle, Tracy Dittman

DIY: Mr & Mrs table runner

July 26, 2011

Leave comment

Didn’t you just love the peach and sage green color story from yesterday’s post? Today we have a new DIY project for you: the adorable Mr and Mrs table runner designed by Rachel for the Farm to Table inspiration shoot. This burlap runner would be such a sweet touch to highlight the head table at a wedding, or you could even customize the runners with your new monogram or last name and use them on

all your tables.

Materials:
A piece

of burlap 8 feet long by 18 inches wide (for a 6ft long table or 60” round)
Black matte decorator’s spray paint
Exacto knife and cutting board
Blue painters tape or duct tape

Step One:
Use the stencil template provided and decide how big you would like the letters. For an exact replica, this will need to be printed on 11 x 18 paper on a large scale printer found in most offices or copy shops.

Step Two:
Cut out the stencil with your exacto knife making sure to preserve the inside bubbles of the ‘R’ and the ampersand.

Step Three:
Iron the burlap and lay out the stencil so that it is centered on the ‘&.’ Tape it down and carefully spray paint inside the stencil repeating three times along the length of burlap. The vintage look is achieved by a light hand with the spray paint.

Leave comment

Categories: DIY

Tagged: Angela and Evan Photography, burlap, color inspiration, finch and thistle, lace, Mr and Mrs Runner, peach and green, pink and green, rustic wedding, sage green, vintage wedding, wedding DIY, wedding inspiration

Color Story: Farm to Table

July 25, 2011

Leave comment

Happy Monday! We’re starting off the week with a magical inspiration shoot that our own Rachel of Finch & Thistle Event Design styled for Nonpareil magazine – a beautiful magazine for brides and event professionals with lots of DIY details.

The shoot was based on a fun idea that prominent design and fashion bloggers would put together a mood board for their dream wedding. Then they would handpick the designer, photographer, florist etc to interpret that mood board. Kathleen of Twig and Thistle picked Rachel to style and design the shoot with a “Farm to Table” theme and a peach and pear color scheme. She wanted to have lots of handcrafted details and worn, rustic elements in the design. This is what Rachel came up with…

Some behind the scenes details from Rachel…”I used vintage marmalade pots found on Ebay for the two smaller centerpieces and the white metal vase came from a flea market. The Mr & Mrs runner project was inspired by the burlap runners one of my brides made this summer and the herb pot favors seemed a sweet and inexpensive take on the Farm to Table theme.

Our baker fell through at the last minute, so I improvised and cheap viagra decorated simple white cakes from Bainbridge Island’s Town & Country supermarket! Some scattered Secal pears, Black Mission figs and olive branches kept the farm feel a bit more sophisticated.”

The sage green herbs in four inch pots wrapped in burlap and lace make for a perfect wedding favor that guests can enjoy for months to come.

Love this hand printed MR & MRS table runner as much as we do? Check

back tomorrow for DIY instructions on how to recreate it!

The bridal bouquet is so soft and lovely with peach roses, Cafe au Lait dahlias dusty miller, antique hydrangea, flowering oregano and tiny white garden roses. Rachel tied it with lace and added a vintage brooch for some sparkly contrast.

These handmade mason jar lanterns are another easy DIY project that look absolutely stunning shining from the trees at dusk.

Photographer: Angela and Evan Photography / Stylist, Floral and Event Designer: Rachel Bowes for Finch & Thistle / Bride’s Dress: Wai-Ching Studio / Hair & Makeup: Teryl Hawk

Leave comment

Categories: Washington Photographers

Tagged: Angela and Evan Photography, burlap, color inspiration, finch and thistle, lace, peach and green, pink and green, rustic wedding, sage green, vintage wedding, wedding inspiration

Inspiration: Amazing Wedding Accessories

July 22, 2011

Leave comment

Are you still deciding on jewelry and hair accessories for your wedding day? The search for something beautiful and unique to viagra online pharmacy perfectly complement your dress can take a while so we have rounded up of some of our new favorite necklaces, bracelets and sashes to perfectly accessorize your bridal look. From a gorgeous and delicate lace necklace, to a pink ruffled peony sash and chunky pearl and crystal bracelets, we’ve put together a little something for everyone’s style and taste. What do you

think?

Beautiful Bridal Accessories