2 Weddings, 1 ritzy wedding venue with an ocean view

A friend of mine often works weddings at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, and whenever she does, she snaps photos for me. It’s a nice peek into the world of very fancy weddings — I don’t think I ever got a chance to decorate a wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel (although I have decorated weddings at other Ritz-Carlton locations).

The first was a Pakistani-Bulgarian wedding, but you would never know it from the decorations. These are just a few photos from what my friend sent.

An overview of the setup. I love the simplicity.

An overview of the setup. I love the simplicity.

The vases holding the flowers are no doubt glass, but I would bet that the stands are clear acrylic. I would also bet that the frosting effect was achieved with either baby powder that’s easy to wipe off, or possibly just a result of condensation from the grass they’re sitting on.

Continue reading

Have a black and white wedding

Black and white is a classic color combination that is considered very chic and sophisticated — but not for weddings. In fact, I’d say that brides generally shy away from using black in any form or manner when it comes to their wedding. Maybe it’s superstition, since black is considered to be evil, bad luck, etc., but I would like to say that this is poppycock. Black and white is so easy and actually quite beautiful as a color scheme.

Flickr photo by LIndsayLMHC

Flickr photo by LIndsayLMHC

This photo appears to have been taken through a window, so forgive the underwater look. But what a gorgeous table setting. I love the silky black chair covers and and tablecloths, the beautiful silver tableware and plates, topped with satiny white napkins, and check out that lovely black-and-white patterned table runner down the middle. When decorating for a black and white wedding, the flowers are simple too — just use any combination of white flowers (like roses, stock, tuberoses, etc.) Here, they added some extra flair with feathers. Like it was needed!

Continue reading

Draping a church with fabric

Whenever I see a wedding in the movies or on TV (I’m looking at you, Khloe and Kim Kardashian), they always look like such elaborate affairs. For us folks who live in reality, we know that walking down the aisle probably won’t include angels hanging from the ceiling (Madea’s Family Reunion) or fireworks going off as you say “I do” (Bridesmaids). But there’s gotta be a way to dress up a church to make it prettier for a wedding right? Well, one answer would be flowers, and another would be draping. I like to use a combination of both.

DSC00154Now, please let me be clear about this — most churches won’t let you do all this to their sanctuary. This happened to be the church I grew up in, so my mom had a lot of pull, plus we knew all the rules — no tape on the pews. The front of the church is easy to drape because there are a lot of points where I can hook the fabric, like microphones and corners. But, this does take time — whenever I had to drape this church, I always did it the night before and it almost always took at least two hours.

Continue reading

Fuchsia and white wedding in San Pedro

I have worked with many variations of pink during my time decorating weddings, but this port-side wedding reception in San Pedro, at what appears to be the Doubletree By Hilton Hotel San Pedro now, was probably my favorite because the pink was actually fuchsia.

DSC03415Fuchsia is so bright and strong on its own, it really doesn’t need an accent color. In fact, what accent color would you try to put with it? White. And white, like the white linens, the white tablecloths and white seat covers, make the fuchsia seat covers pop even more.

Continue reading

Decorating a 25th anniversary wedding

Getting to five years married is tough enough these days, so making it to 25 years? That’s definitely a milestone that should be celebrated.

DSC02490

This wedding took place in 2004 at Burbank’s Pickwick Gardens. The bride was a friend of my mom’s, so my mom of course pulled out all the stops to decorate this wedding. Quite honestly, I’ve been wanting to post the above picture for years, but didn’t sit down to properly edit it until just recently (the wedding took place in July and it was extremely bright that day). But I was thoroughly impressed with how the ceremony decorations came out here — large arrangements with lavender roses, orchids and pink ginger and lots of ti leaves spray painted silver, on top of silver lamé-draped columns.

Continue reading

Using sequined fabric to decorate a wedding

I have used a variety of beautiful fabrics to decorate weddings, but sequined fabric is by far the flashiest.

DSC05635As I’ve posted recently, I have several colors of sequined fabric available for sale, so I thought it would be nice to show you how it can be used to decorate weddings. Above is the most simple way to use sequined fabric — use it as a sort of flashy tablecloth top. This color is what I would call green apple green.

And while this may be the most simple way to use sequined fabric, its gaining in popularity. I’ve been seeing more and more table settings with colored and textured tablecloths, rather than just simple white.

Continue reading

Yellow wedding decorations and flower arrangements

Yellow is perfect as a wedding color, especially with spring coming up. It’s sunny, its optimistic and hopeful and its just plain happy. So I thought it would be nice to focus on flowers and weddings using yellow as the main color.

DSC01394

This 2003 wedding was at the Pacific Palms Resort in Industry Hills (possibly when it was known as the Sheraton Industry Hills). I really enjoyed decorating this wedding, probably because it was such a bright, happy color — and I had a lot of time to work on the decorations.

As you can see from this closeup, the flowers my mom chose included yellow roses and yellow cala lilies.

Continue reading