Real wax, flameless candles for your wedding

I’ve decorated any number of weddings in which the bride wanted lots of lighting incorporated in their flowers and decorations, including candles and Christmas lights. Both those options had their difficulties — candles are not always allowed or require a permit from the fire department and Christmas lights require a power source, and its not like you can link together 20 table arrangements with normal Christmas lights. I’ve spent many nights loading batteries into yard-long Christmas light strings, wrapping up the battery pack to protect it from water in the arrangement, then taking it all apart at the end, believe me. And let’s not talk about the fire danger of traditional luminaries, where you light a candle inside a paper bag.

imagejpeg_0

Image courtesy Candle Luminary

However, there’s a Southern California company that is making real wax candles, but instead of lighting them, you use rechargeable lights to light them up. Candle Luminary is making these candles in several sizes and shapes and, as you can see above, there is also a floating option. I got a chance to check them out recently.

Continue reading

A spectacular home wedding

I haven’t had the pleasure of attending or decorating too many home weddings, but this wedding has basically ruined me for all future home weddings, I think.

I was thoroughly, thoroughly impressed. This was the wedding of Sid and Maureen, who met while working at Fox Sports, where my husband spent some time a few years ago. Before I get into the decorations and such, I first have to say this was one of the most enjoyable weddings I’ve ever attended. It’s truly a testament to the couple when it feels as if all their wedding guests are so incredibly nice.

There was probably one thing I would have changed — I would have added “garden wedding and reception” to the invitations. It would have signaled to all the women attending that they’d be walking in grass during the entire event. I happened to be nearly 8 months pregnant when attending, so there was no way I was planning to wear heels anyway — I wore a long dress and flat sandals and was apparently the only woman at the wedding who felt comfortable walking, heheh.

Continue reading

Sweetheart table decorations

Sweetheart tables are simply a table set aside for the bride and groom, away from the rest of the bridal party — as opposed to your traditional long head table at the head of the room at a reception. I’m not sure when this trend began, but I think before my mom’s retirement, I had been decorating sweetheart tables for at least five years.

Why have a separate table from your bridal party? Well, why not? They can be as simple as a small, cocktail table set aside from the rest of your tables, or put on a riser, to connote a place of honor. If anything, even though its the bride and groom’s party, the bride and groom are still the guests of honor.

Above, is a picture of the sweetheart table at a friend’s wedding at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.

Continue reading

Decorate staircases, banisters and other stuff

From time to time, you might be lucky enough to find features in a room that are perfect for decoration. I’m talking about staircases, banisters, posts, maybe even windows. You should totally take advantage of these features. They’re usually very easy to dress up and it’ll add something extra to your wedding reception or ceremony.

Photo by Doris at a wedding in RPV

This small set of stairs is a perfect example. The railing is maybe a yard long, but doesn’t it look pretty? All it needed was a short length of tulle (although the fabric above looks like chiffon), maybe three yards, and maybe nine bright roses to bunch at each end. You don’t even need a big bow or anything.

Continue reading

Fruit arrangements for your wedding reception

Reception centerpieces are so much more complicated now. Back in the day, you had one vase. Then there was topiaries. Then came the multi-level centerpieces, then the candles, then the mirrors, then the combination of vases. Now you have to worry about being green too! And try to keep your costs and maybe do it yourself! to boot. Well, here’s an idea that may combine at least a few of those last ideas.

Flickr photo by valdea

Flickr photo by valdea

Put some fruits in your arrangements. My mom loved putting fruit in her arrangements — it really gave a flair of creativity. This arrangement is maybe not one she would like, but its a good example. One of the reasons why arrangements get expensive is trying to fill out with flowers. For example, those roses are kind of small, so the apples and lemons help fill it out nicely.

Continue reading

50th Anniversary wedding decorations

Reaching 50 years of marriage is a huge achievement — the golden anniversary. So if you or your parents decide to celebrate this remarkable milestone, you might decide to do it up big, the way you may not have done it 50 years ago.

Golden anniversary altar arrangementThis wedding at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Rowland Heights was, yes, a 50th anniversary wedding renewal, so naturally, there are a lot of gold-tone flowers — yellow roses, orange daisies — accented with areca palms spray painted gold. This is simply a closeup of the flowers.

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