Weddings 2011: Elegance and purple roses at Ross Bridge Resort

gratitude ~

More perfect weather could not have been ordered for Kiella and Jamal's wedding day at Renaissance Ross Bridge Resort. The early fall sky was clear blue and the temperatures in the 70s with a little fall breeze in the trees. But the perfect weather was not the coolest thing about the day.

 A most unusual thing happened the afternoon of the wedding that the bride still probably doesn't know . . .

As I was cleaning up and loading the van after flowering the arch, the groom in his tuxedo came JOGGING towards me across that wide stone terrace at Ross Bridge!

. . . Big smile big guy . . .

Miss Carol, "Thank you so much, it is all beautiful!"

Wow . . . well that never happens, WHAT a SWEETHEART ~ what a gentleman!

I will never forget that. It's not often people express gratitude.

Honestly we really felt it was quite an honor to work on this wedding. Kiella is an event planner for a large Embassy Suites in North Carolina and has excellent taste. She knew exactly how she wanted the ballroom to look and I was thrilled she chose us.

Bride Kiella LOVED purple, purple and more purple.

Bridesmaid's bouquets of coolwater and bluebird roses with royal stock.

Ross Bridge is beautiful on a Fall afternoon don't you think?

Bride's bouquet of Amelias with a sweet ruffle on the petals.

The weather was PERFECT that day -- fall must be the best season for outdoor weddings, particularly here in the South!

Bride Kiella timed her ceremony perfectly ~ the pictures after the ceremony capture the long shadows and golden hue of the fall sunset.

A dozen large silver candelabra with Amelia roses and hydrangea gave the ballroom at Ross Bridge an elegant look with silver chivari chairs and elegant purple linens.

Dancing to the tunes of Just a Few Cats and Alvin "Cornbread" Garret.

The guest left for home with a sweet treat from Gigi's Cupcakes.

Perfect ending for a sweet girl with a dream of an elegant purple wedding.

Thank you Arden for the images from the day.

Sneak Peek

Just received such great images from photographer friend Jerrod Brown. Can't wait to upload every single one for you to enjoy. But for now . . . here is a sneak peek!

check back for more . . .

Wedding Color Trends : And the Lillie's 2011 Winner is . . .

Since Lillie's 2012 wedding season is just beginning, I thought this would be a great time to reflect on the 2011 year in flowers and see how the year's predicted color trends actually influenced Lillie's weddings and events. 

Sure, I had a hunch what the outcome might be...

It seemed easy enough to guess which color was the most popular. Right? But then I went and posted.(Note to self: posting  =  homework) To simplify matters, I decided to stick to weddings and exclude our other Lillie's events. So, now the homework is done, lists of weddings compiled and the votes are in, and we're ready to reveal (in descending order) Lillie's top three most popular colors for weddings in 2011

 

  

~ in third place ~ brides asking for the silver grays of eucalyptus, lamb's ear, dusty miller and Brazilian gray brunia,

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 ~ in second place with brides requesting the feminine, pale, peachy-pinks of Anna and Majolica pink spray roses, barely peach evening stock and Juliet garden roses.

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~ and first place in a run away victory . . . 2011 was the year for purple. from deep royal purples to French lavender and all shades in between. Lillie's bouquets were purple from February until November last year.

Lillie's brides in 2011 requested hydrangea, lisianthus, evening stock, lavender roses, scabiosa, purple stock and lavender sweet peas!

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Wedding color trends for 2012

I love to check out the Pantone color trends for any given year and then track how those trends translate into "real time".

What fascinates me is not what 10 or 12 colors the tastemakers have predicted, as much as which stand-outs will attract us most. 



In case you haven't seen it, here is the Pantone color trend forecast for Spring/Summer 2012 :

If color trends were flowers, here's what 2012 might 

look like:

So, what was the IT color for 2011?

Hmmmmm. Gray was everywhere. And yellow. Clean aqua blues and greens were all over the place. And, add to that lots of bright white to contrast those sharp, clean colors.


But what about Alabama brides?

Certainly, we at Lillie's can't speak for the whole fashion world, only our little, flowery corner of it -- but, looking back over the year, it's clear that one forecast color was the clear winner with Lillie's brides! 
 
See if you can guess which of these Pantone color trends for Spring/Summer in 2011
was the most popular color choice for Lillie's weddings last year:

Of course, if I was caught up on blog posts for the year, then you might have figured it out by now. . . but, alas, you'll have to wait until my next blog post for the big reveal.

More white wedding bouquets!

We had such a great response to our Lillie's blog post about white bouquets for brides that I thought we'd add a few more. And by the way, it goes without saying (even though I'm saying it) that white bouquets and nosegays are equally popular with bridesmaids, not to mention (though I can't resist mentioning it) for mammas and grandmammas!

So here you go, all you white flower fans - a few more beautiful white bouquets ~

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A luscious bouquet of anemone, rose and wide open freesia blossoms for Bride Cat. I love how the jewel-like black and gold centers of the anemone lend added richness and keep the solid white palette from appearing flat. Photo by Heather McAlister Photography

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Bride Bess carried white freesia and eskimo roses when she married at Saint Peters Catholic Church in Hoover, Alabama. Thank-you to Robert Norris for this shot.


Her reception was held at a completely green venue . . . a beautiful botanical garden, also in Hoover, called Aldridge Gardens.

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Bride Meredith selected the perfect month for a peony bouquet. Her wedding was at The Sonnet House on May 1, 2011. The antique brooch was a perfect compliment to the feminine, ruffled white peonies. Thank you to David Shirk for this beautiful image.

Above is one of my all time favorite pictures! The event was a Memorial Day wedding in Birmingham and this maid was juggling her little camera while hanging on to her bridesmaid's bouquet: a simple, hand-tied garden bouquet of Virginia alstromeria and Virginia roses with pops of apple green courtesy of mini green hydrangeas and hosta leaves.








Here, friend Ricky holds a just-finished, bountiful white bouquet of  French ranunculus and hydrangea, still glistening and about to be sent off to lucky bride Prim.  

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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

white wedding bouquets

This week two different brides have asked me if they should carry an all white bouquet or a bouquet with color. I always say, "It's your day, carry your favorite blossoms!"

My good friends Carolyn and Cathy at The White Room and I have an ongoing discussion over white blossoms vs. color on the day of the wedding. The White Room girls have me outnumbered ~ here are a few of the white bouquets Lillie's has made just for their brides xo . . .

But remember, even white bouquets can vary in shades, textures and hues. The bouquet above includes a  true white casablanca lily, a vanilla Virginia rose, an ivory mini calla and, at the very top of the bouquet, a snow white peony. The touches of green in the bouquet are found in the fronds of southern shield fern and the buds on white freesia stems.

So, since all colors, including white, vary tremendously, the only way to achieve truly even color is to select a single type of blossom for your bouquet. The bouquet below is limited to Amelia roses - one of my favorites because of the feminine scallop on her petals. 

Thank you's to Arden photography

This bouquet photographed by Emily Kicklighter is a neat mound of white Akito roses with a collar of waxy green galax leaves.  Akito roses are one of the purest white and, according to growers, the most popular variety of white rose for weddings.

Other popular white rose bouquet choices include:

Bianca - medium sized and ivory in color  

Eskimo - medium-small sized head and snow white. Eskimos make great boutonnieres!

Garden roses - glorious white garden roses vary in size and shade, but most are fragrant and lend that full-blown lushness to anything they adorn

Spray roses - again, lot's of whites to choose from, but one of Lillie's favorites is white majolica. Their tint is chalky blush, and though they might start out small, they open wide and (when most would have long-ago dropped their petals) they keep on smiling

And, if you are willing to add a little texture to your white bouquet, one of my favorite "white" additions is Queen Anne's Lace, which adds wonderful movement and whimsy to a bouquet.

Thank you's to Simple Color Photography