Ever been to Rancho Las Lomas in South Orange County? Me neither! So I got totally excited when I opened my email and saw the gorgeous flowers that decorated the outdoor theater used for the wedding ceremony. The photos are courtesy of a friend who continues to supply me with absolutely gorgeous photos of flowers. I think my friend needs a moniker. Any suggestions?
Anyway, for the photos of this gorgeous wedding, keep reading.
Maybe its just me, but do you ever just look at pictures of weddings in Flickr? I do. Often, that’s how I find simply spectacular wedding decorations. Sometimes I get down time at work (shhhh) and just surf around checking out flowers, churches, receptions, gazebos….oh, I’m the only one? Hee. Oh well.
Wedding in Syria. Photo by Flickr’s noble4
At any rate, I have found some spectacular pictures, from around the world, really. Seems that we Americans are kind of stinting with our weddings, compared to Brazilians or Syrians. Above, the flowers are mostly, carnations and Gerber daisies, but check out those elaborate branch lamps. But it wasn’t enough to just have those elaborate lamp/vases, they’re also entwined with what looks like English netting. Amazing.
Ah, did I catch your attention with the mention of pool flowers? Yeah, you don’t see it that often, but when you do — wow! These pictures are from a friend who did not want to be identified, but she so happened to be at two weddings a few weekends ago and saw the flowers and just knew I would want pictures. The pictures were taken from her cell phone, but you can click on each photo for a bigger version.
The first wedding, by the way, was at Dove Canyon Country Club, a venue I have never had the pleasure of decorating. The area code on the website tells me its in south Orange County, and my friend says Rancho Santa Margarita. The second wedding was in Palos Verdes at a private home.
This may be a little late, but better late than never! (Brides, remember that line when everyone asks why the wedding started so late.) Wedding Decorator pal Doris came all the way from Washington D.C. to take pictures of her friends’ wedding just for this lil’ ole blog! Well…not quite.
All photos by Doris. Thanks, Doris!!As the headline suggests, this wedding took place at La Venta Inn. It so happens I have done a wedding here — a long, long time ago. I remember the place pretty well — spectacular location, as you can see from the photo of the gazebo, although the facility where the reception is a little tight — no 500-person parties here! But if you asked me for pictures, I probably lost them. Oops! Not to worry, Doris has swooped and saved the day.
The flowers, I gotta say, are spectacular. Totally bright and eye-popping, perfect for an outdoor wedding overlooking the ocean. Very summery. These lovely flowers were designed by Be Buds Florist in Torrance. Nice job! The photo above, by the way, is a close up of the gazebo’s centerpiece, and have a gorgeous variety of flowers — orange-edged yellow and pink roses, green cymbidium orchids, pink orchids, pinky-green hydrangeas. There’s just so many!
The pew decorations are simple but effective — red and orangey-yellow roses attached to the chairs. Simple, easy, colorful. Ka-pow! Massive impact. Heheh.
I’ve been meaning to do a post on staircases. Don’t ignore your staircases! I love decorating staircases. They add a lot of drama, without needing a lot of decoration. Think of all the bridal magazines you’ve seen, where the bride’s wedding gown train is spread behind her on the staircase. And those staircases don’t even tend to be decorated! Decorating a staircase is easy, just like in this photo — rose petals, a few bunches of roses, and some draping. Easy elegance.
This photo was labeled a tabletop arrangement — which could mean it was for the gift table, or the sign-in table or a cocktail table. Anyway, here we’ve got more hydrangeas, more of the orangey-yellow roses and — are those coffee bean buds?! How cool are those?! They’re actually called hypericum berries.
This is the sweetheart table. It’s very simple, but in a way, the statement of where the bride and groom are going on their honeymoon — Maui — kind of invokes your imagination.
This guest tables appeared to be set with three different styles of vases, carrying three bunches of flowers, although I’m not clear if all the tables had the same type of trio. I don’t think that’s the case, since in the background, I don’t see the big sprig of orchids at that table to the right. Anyway, I like the asymmetry here — square, tall vase with a green cymbidium orchid sprig in water, topped with a candle, a short cube vase with a bunch of those orangey-yellow roses, and the sprig of bright pink orchids. Really cool. And, I think, looking at the other pictures in Doris’ set, there were other combinations for each table.
Last but not least, the cake. A bakery was not listed on the wedding website so I have to assume that La Venta Inn did this cake, and it is so simple and beautiful. As a wedding decorator, I tend to like wedding cakes that are simple so that they can be dressed up with flowers. I mean, look how this one turned out! And the florist left nothing un-decorated — the cake knives, the wineglasses, everything has blossoms on it. And yet, nothing seems to be dripping with flowers. That’s good decorations, my friend.
Apparently, a flutist like FlutePrayer attends a lot of weddings! The same weekend she attended that lovely wedding at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, she played a duet at this wedding at the Padua Hills Theater. I actually am unfamiliar with the Padua Hills Theater in Claremont, so this is a treat for me, too.
The lovely bride and groom walk back down the aisle, happily married. I love that the bride chose purple — did you see those bridesmaids in front of the gazebo? Purple is such a strong color, plus it denotes royalty. What else could you ask for in a color? It really pops against white, but also looks so elegant paired with silver.
You see what I mean? Purple table cloths and white rose petals? Wow! So romantic. By the way, those glass vases holding up the guest table arrangement look slim and elegant, but they’re actually quite strong. I’ve placed many a heavy arrangement on those vases, but the trick is to place the arrangement without overextending it. You don’t want it to tip over into your food.
Ah, and the arrangement itself. Those look like stargazers, pink orchids, pink larkspur and possibly carnations. The overall effect, with the glass reflecting the candles and the purple table cloths (such an easy, yet eye-popping detail) — elegant.
Ah, summer. This is the time for outdoor weddings. In my experience, most people want to have the wedding ceremony outdoors but the reception indoors. If you think about it, the ceremony is the most important part of the wedding, but most of the planning goes into the reception. Let’s change that!
Here, my girlfriend Sam and her husband Jason married on the beach under a wooden arch decorated with bright yellow flowers. An arch is really the easiest thing outdoors — they’re portable (but can get heavy) and easy to decorate. Decorating them is as easy putting English netting or a brightly colored material on them — you don’t even have to tape or wire it, you can just weave or twine it in. In this case, Sam’s florist attached a big arrangement of yellow gerber daisies to the top, on top of tulle that went along the sides of the arch. Easy as pie. Oh, and don’t forget those yellow lilies halfway down!
Photo by Flickr’s ronsho
Another easy option outdoors is a canopy. I found this lovely example on Flickr. This canopy could have been built from scratch and decorated on the spot. I don’t think it would have been hard. It appears the top of the canopy has a white material — possibly English netting or tulle (which is a little harder than English netting) stretched across the top and wrapped along each of the poles holding the canopy together. Along each of the legs are billowing lengths of English netting. In this case, I’m sure its English netting because of how its flowing. Anyway, the legs also seem to be paired with spotlights, for that awesome, uplit effect. There also appears to be green Christmas ornaments hung on the canopy, giving the corners a tinge of green light. Very pretty.
Photo by Flickr’s drew313
Here’s another example of a canopy. I actually happened to attend this wedding too — this is my high school bud Janet, getting married in 2006, at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott. I think this canopy is a permanent structure, just because there are so many flower arrangements on it — it better be steady! Plus, it was windy that day — my husband and I were appointed to be the ones lighting the unity candle, and it would not stay lit! Anyway, Janet’s florist used big lush roses, stargazers, lilies, orchids and Casablanca lilies to great effect in the three main arrangements. Plus, there was the green garland connecting the three. Throw in a few mini arrangements in the corner, and you’ve got a gorgeous ceremony!
Ah, but then there are gazebos. Gazebos are permanent structures, generally built in place and you can’t move them. Unlike arches and canopies, they have walls, but I have found that the walls don’t really play too much of a part when it comes to decorations.
Photo by Flickr’s Wedding or Party Decorations
Most gazebos at wedding venues are not four-sided structures, so the decorations tend to focus on the posts holding up the roof. For example, with this white gazebo, it looks like there are eight posts, but only six are decorated — the six that will be center stage when the ceremony is happening. This went all out, using a garland of light pink, dark pink and white flowers to decorate the entire front top of the gazebo and creating six round arrangements for the six posts to be decorated. Oh, and not only that, there is the draping — English netting along the top and covering each of the posts. That’s a lot of work.
Photo by Flickr’s Vickylaflamme11
This gazebo is a little simpler. It’s draped with English netting all along the top of the front and along the front posts. However, I am a little flummoxed as to why they didn’t just paint it white. It would make it look more like a wedding venue.
Decorating pews for the ceremony can be difficult. Not all wedding ceremonies are performed in churches, and sometimes churches are the most difficult places to decorate of all. A lot of churches, especially Catholic churches in my experience, do not allow tape on their pews of any kind, so trying to attach some sort of decoration on pews usually ends up with a wrestling match between you and some rubber bands. There are also clips, but those slip off easily, and you don’t want a flower arrangement slipping off as you walk down the aisle in your full-skirted wedding dress.
Above is a picture from a wedding in which I was a bridesmaid a few years ago.
Here’s another photo from a past wedding at St. Elizabeth in Rowland Heights. This was a golden anniversary wedding, thus the gold draping on the pews. I attached these with rubber bands, and made little poufs with the fabric and fluffed them up, which looks pretty and handily disguises the rubber bands.
These are just a few of the pew decorations that’s available out there. Believe me, I’ve done so many types of pew decorations, but if a full aisle garland is not what you’re looking for, Flickr is a great place for ideas.
One Flickr user in particular had most the best pew decoration ideas, from what I could see — Wedding or Party Decorations. I’m not entirely sure if this account belongs to an actual florist, but if it does, I’d be happy to later on link to their website, if they have one.
Tulle and flowers is more along the lines of what I do when it comes to decorating a church. There isn’t a lot of detail in this photo, but there are a bunch of roses where the tulle is attached to each pew. If you weren’t sure, when there is draping along the aisles, its usually every other pew or every other two pews, after skipping the first two (which will usually be reserved for family and have the most traffic, like, for witnesses who need to get up and sit back down). The tulle and flowers don’t appear to be attached by tape; it could be attached to that gummy flower adhesive, but that stuff leaves a residue, so I don’t really recommend using that stuff. Another way to get this effect would be to use white rubber bands. Also, check out the petals in the loops — not bad!
These are really nice — big, purple and blue hydrangea blossoms in a metal flower vase. The vase is probably just aluminum, and the whole thing seems to be hanging by ribbon from a clip.
This arrangement is even more simple — red paper cones hung with ribbon with what look like pink and orange roses and greens. The nice thing about this arrangement and the last is that they’re easily hung, easily removed and make a lot of impact because of the strong colors.
