Decorate your reception entrance

In a down economy, I know its farfetched to think you can pay for an entirely separate floral arrangement just for the entrance of your reception, right? Still. It’s nice to check things out. Plus, your florist may just want to throw in a nice, fancy arrangement just for your entrance — its sort of a calling card and a hint of things to come when you first step up to the door of the ballroom where your wedding reception is being held.

My mom really liked these kinds of arrangements. I think allowed her to really stretch her creative muscles, because you can incorporate a more elaborate design in a bigger arrangement, as opposed to the smaller guest table centerpiece. As you can tell, my mom loved her tropical flowers, including ginger, heliconia and sexy pink heliconia (that’s what she called it! But its not pictured above, sorry). My mom also loved to trim and braid huge palm and ti leaves. She took special classes to learn those techniques.

If it wasn’t one huge asymmetrical tropical arrangement, my mom would design a pair of triple-tiered flower arrangements that would flank the entrance to the ballroom. Above, my mom used lots of lilies, roses, Hawaiian orchids and flowing greens. Here, she also covered the column with champagne organza.

There’s the sexy pink! It’s hanging off the vase, but you almost wouldn’t notice with all the spectacularly-silver sprayed greens in this arrangement. My mom also has a protea in there, alongside the ginger and heliconia. If you look on the table, she also included ti leaves manipulated into a flower bloom. How cool was my mom?

Not every entrance arrangement was super fancy (and heavy to lift!). This arrangement is one I think a lot of people can reproduce — a plate holding a big bowl of water with some floating candles. Then surround the bowl with red and white roses, leather fern and baby’s breath. This sort of arrangement is perfect for, say, a seating card table or a check-in table.

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