I find it fun to try to challenge myself to create unusual combinations of plant material, and still keep the expression, seasonal. Here, a tea cup with a carefully curated selection of flowers from my garden is inspired by a little get together we had at the house yesterday, while planning the design of my best friend daughters wedding. She is getting married in March, and since she works at Logee’s Greenhouses in Connecticut, she wants a botanically diverse wedding, rustic, hints of vintage, yet totally designed.This will be a fun project over the winter, for I have only designed a couple of weddings in the past, one, a fancy high budget fete at the Blythewold Estate in Rhode Island, again, for another friend, where I crafted garlands of chestnut leaves, artichokes and citrus which payed homage to the frieze in the estate’s main home, and faux topiary constructed from lemon leaves, chicken wire and dozens of gardenia’s, and built centerpieces our of sheered domes of boxwood and truffle colored velvet ribbon. I become too obsessed about designed weddings, wanting each to be better than anyone could ever imagine, but they are exhausting projects, so I rarely plan to become involved with any.
For this one,to be held in Sturbridge Mass. in a barn setting , we are planning arrangements of unusual succulents which need to be started now in the greenhouse, mosses, topiary Citrus, hints of feathers with speckles, tall forced branches of shrubs lit from below, and charming vintage collections of pottery with arrangements like this. It’s all about an unusual color palette. Chocolate, mustard, chartreuse, aubergine, buttermilk and truffle.
What a lucky bride, and lucky you, for she will appreciate every careful selection you have designed and nurtured for her.I took a seminar for a long weekend at Logees years ago,Bryan's mother was still alive, and charmed us all…Joy was a joy…had to say it!She said she drank Elderflower blossom tea every day, and claimed it kept her young. She dried the flower panicals on a sheet in her guest room.Then she stored them in a tin to use the whole year.
A march wedding in a barn like structure in MA! I hope the heaters will be working well.
I'll be watching for future posts on this subject as my daughter has flower arrangements to think about also for her July wedding. I made a late season arrangement of roses, cosmos, hydrangea, golden rod and salvia in a large antique brown pitcher.
Flowers arranted in any antique vessel always look so nice.