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.

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.

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Flashback: A friend’s wedding at the Castaway in Burbank

As I wait for the pictures from the Sunday wedding of a friend to download, I figured I would flashback to a wedding I decorated and attended two years ago at the Castaway in Burbank. I did blog about it before, but I did not include the photos of the decorations, which is what I know so many of the readers of this here blog want to see. Also, I want to note that while I have stamped the following photos with my Wedding Decorator address, these fine photos were shot by Taipei L.A., the photographer of my friend’s wedding. My own photos were marred by the bright sun streaming into the windows, so thanks to Moonie for sharing these photos, and kudos to Taipei L.A. for great photos and service.

Decorating this wedding was particularly challenging because of many factors. First off, we had to deal with a blockade of firetrucks and officials who at first wouldn’t let us drive our van full of equipment and flowers up the hill because of a brush fire in the hills behind the Castaway. There was the fact that my mom had put together a lot — WAY MORE than usual — displays for this wedding, so there was of course way more equipment than usual. Then there was also the fact that my husband and I were attending the wedding, and had to leave early to shower and get dressed for the reception — we were too busy decorating to attend the church ceremony, unfortunately.

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But of course, as you can see by the pictures, we pulled off the decorations with our usual aplomb, style and finesse. Did you expect anything less?

The Castaway in Burbank is generally easy to work with, considering how busy they get. Their prices guarantee steady traffic, not to mention a great location overlooking the L.A. basin and the San Fernando Valley. I’ve worked at the Castaway many times, and on a scale of 1 to 10 for cooperativeness, I’d give them an 8.9.

The only thing I might complain about is the high traffic (since doing decorations like these take time, usually at least 3, 4 hours, a 1-hour cushion between parties is of course difficult) and the lack of tablecloth skirts. They skirt their tables, as many independent restaurants do, with folded tablecloths pinned to the first tablecloth. It makes it difficult for draping the table.
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Recap: Holy Matrimony Batman!

What is this you ask? Well, first, this was the wedding of my friend Moonie, more popularly known as the editor and publisher of Flavor and its predecessor Pinoylife. He decided to get married on Oct. 1, the peak of the fire season and sure enough – a brush fire was burning the hills of Burbank the day of his wedding and reception, which was at the Castaway, nestled right in the hills of Burbank. Oh, and yeah, my family and I also decorated the wedding, so we got to deal with all the fun wrangling with the Burbank police and fire departments, trying to get past the roadblocks so we could unload all our flowers and equipment. Now, I can put “decorating amidst brush fire” up there along with “decorating amidst Long Beach Grand Prix” on my list of things I’ve done as a florist’s daughter.

There’s the water-dropping helicopter flying into the hills, as my mom and her teacher Silverio feverishly put together their arrangements.

I thought this was a nice environmental photo of my mom – what do you think?

Oh, yeah – besides decorating amidst the flames, we attended the wedding too. I was so tired at the end of the night….. Unfortunately, to Moonie’s disappointment, there was no flames lighting the hills as the reception went on. This was, however, the most fun and crazy wedding I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen plenty. May King Choc Nut live on!

Lovella looked absolutely beautiful and actually, clicking through their online wedding proofs, she was absolutely photogenic this night too. Too bad I can’t say the same for the other female in this picture…. *ugh*
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