Flower balls and Osiana roses : A photo shoot for Alabama Weddings

Loving the outdoors as I do, a photo shoot outside is always my first choice. This was just the case when Alabama Weddings Magazine contacted me about creating a bridesmaid's luncheon for a shoot. 

A stately old oak tree provided the perfect framework for us to set our tables and hang the large, ribboned balls of green hydrangea. 

Flower balls have been so popular with brides, but most are tight and a bit contemporary looking. My idea was to loosen up the look with luscious antique hydrangeas in varied textures and shades. Even the balls are slightly irregular in size and shape. I love the effect. So soft, these flowers almost beg to be touched! 

 

Our color inspiration for the bride's luncheon was the perfect melon of the osiana rose. 

Osiana is a Lillie's favorite because, in addition to her ladylike color, she carries large blossoms of velvety petals that curl back as they open like old-fashioned garden roses.

 

  

We were grateful to have great team members on this shoot. Cantaloupe colored linens were provided by BBJ Linen and the delicately wreathed china "Rothschild" was courtesy of Bromberg's. The sweet invitation and calligraphy place cards were designed by the talented Melissa Hill of Weddings Etc. in Homewood, Alabama.
Melissa also shared the little birds nests with us.

 

The tiny script banner on the moss-filled birds nest at each bridesmaid place setting reads:"Thank-you for being my bridesmaid"

In the South, no bridesmaids luncheon is complete without a beautiful bridesmaid's charm cake. Angel's Cakes designed this one just for this shoot. When I called Janet to ask for the cake, I struggled to find  the best name for the color of the shoot. It wasn't pink, it wasn't orange...so, I told her it was the color of cantaloupe. 

When Janet arrived with her wonderful creation, she announced, "Here is your canta-loupey colored cake!" 

Imagine my excitement when the image of her beautiful cake made the cover of the Fall issue of Alabama Weddings Magazine.

Lush swags of spray roses, osiana roses, daisies, ropes of green hanging amaranthus and tiny kermit mums make these chivari chairs look fit for royalty.

The air was filled with the most delicious scent thanks to our own Alabama-grown Sand Mountain tuberoses.

Perhaps the real magic of the event was Terry Bruno's photography. By looking at these serene and breezy images, you'd never guess the mercury in Saint Clair County hit 100 degrees that afternoon! 

Woodland tablescape : Bridesmaid's breakfast on the forest floor

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Please click below to vote for Lillie's tablescape in the contest!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=311010465612751&set=a.311004928946638.65782.133965753317224&type=1&theater#!/photo.php?fbid=311010465612751&set=a.311004928946638.65782.133965753317224&type=1&theater

Whenever we get a chance to style an event beyond pure floral, I admit, Tracey and I get just a little bit giddy. Besides our shared love of nature and flower, we've both worked extensively in photostyling for print publication and share a more holistic approach to design than combining flowers with pretty containers. 

So, when local fine jeweler, Bromberg's, approached Lillie's  to design a table for their February 2012 bridal event, we couldn't resist! Each of the six designers chosen to participate was given a different china pattern to serve as the design theme for their table. Lillie's was to be a new pattern by Arte Italica. Little did we know that the design was so new, that we would never actually see the dishes until the day of the event! As a matter of fact, we set up our table early Friday before heading out of town to deliver another event, and the dishes were still in transit!

Our second inspiration was this adorable vintage silverware chandelier hanging over the table. Immediately I knew it had to become a major design element.

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Next, we needed a theme. 

That was easy. The mystery Arte Italica dishes were to be earthy and rustic with grayed white and purple.

Burgeoning silver pussy willow branches, happy tulips coming up everywhere and a patch of plummy hellebores nodding in my backyard were all begging to be used. 


 

A bridesmaid's breakfast 

on the forest floor! 

  

We gathered yards of soft green moss and created a berm down the center of the table from which the floral elements were to spring naturally, as if scooped up from the forest floor. Along the moss berm we added tiny resurrection fern, purple and silver begonia leaves, African face mask and shelf lichen. The cloches which we'd just brought back from market were perfect for this table. I couldn't have them empty, so I ran over to Continental Bakery for the perfect little brioche. 

To help us pull the theme together, Melissa at Weddings, etc. in Homewood created a sweet invitation for our woodland "bridesmaid's breakfast" with a brown faux bois backer.
   

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Early Saturday morning, brides began streaming through the store doors, dressed in all manner of pearls and pumps and LBD's (little black dresses) and dark sunglasses in hopes of winning the Holly Golightly look-alike contest. Photographer Arden Ward was busy snapping away, getting every detail. Suddenly Bromberg's looked like a scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's. All of the Bromberg's family were so helpful to the brides.

And the giveaways - Oh my goodness! I think every bride won a cool prize.

The grand prize winner of the Holly Golightly contest won a beautiful strand of pearls for her ensemble, including a vintage mink and an equally vintage cat (aptly named "Cat" in the movie)

Now we need a vacation!...which brings me to my next point-

Lillie's in the running for a beach weekend give away so . . . please vote  xo ~

Again, here is the link to vote for our woodland tablescape!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=311010465612751&set=a.311004928946638.65782.133965753317224&type=1&theater#!/photo.php?fbid=311010465612751&set=a.311004928946638.65782.133965753317224&type=1&theater

Behind The Scenes: A Tuscan Wedding Dinner for Southern Bride Magazine

 I was kicking back after a busy holiday season with my latest guilty pleasure -- Pinterest 

(Lillie's has its very own board here) -- just searching around, and what should pop up but this photo shoot of a Tuscan themed wedding dinner...a photo shoot that I had done with Southern Bride Magazine! So, I thought I should share more of it here. 

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Oh how I wish we'd been in Tuscany, but alas, we were not. Instead I set up the shoot at an old Spanish Colonial home tucked away in an unlikely part of Birmingham. Gabrella Manor, as it is now called, had the right bone structure to give us our night in Tuscany. 

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Each element on the table shares a common theme of elegant rusticity synonymous with the Tuscan countryside. Textured linens, raffia, hand-thrown pottery, dark wood and hand-painted tiles form a backdrop for an abundance of fruits, herbs and late summer blossoms. 

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These wonderful baskets tied to black chivari chairs are filled with rosemary, tomato red rosehips, antique hydrangea, garden roses, fushcia beautyberry (or pokeberry as we call it down south) and tiny sunflower-looking mums called vyking.

 

 Here (above) is wedding planner Anita Kanellis of AK Brides who worked with me to pull the look together with wonderfully rustic place settings from Peter’s Pottery,  linens and chairs from Aztec, and beautiful invitations by The Invitation Place. 

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Diane Olexa of Olexa's Cakes baked this stunning gold wedding cake - almost too pretty to eat....almost. Bridesmaids dresses by Dalia McPhee, and of course, to set the mood, Andy Tolar of Design Productions hung strings of cafe lighting.

Natural light was provided by the Alabama sun, which refused to dim for most of the very balmy evening. I suppose this should have helped me get into character, but in my dreams Tuscany has less humidity.

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The folks at Southen Bride Magazine brought in The Foto Altelier  to shoot stills and these shots are straight from the video made by the always fun, John and Angela Deaver of Main Street Productions who documented the event on video here on Vimeo.  Enjoy - Ciao!