It's Wedding Show Season!!

This past weekend was full of wedding shows. We took the opportunity to set this tablescape at one of them. Unsure of how brides would react to our bold color scheme, we decided to go big because we just couldn't go home.

We chose orange an white because we believe that this will be a big color trend in 2011 and even into 2012. Monochromatic color schemes have always been popular with modern brides, but adding the white really allows the oranges to pop. The stark contrasts are bold and energetic.



We created a bouquet with a charcoal and white theme (also a color trend to look for in 2011) for the trendy bride who wants to make a statement without shouting. You will notice a little bling on the stems, adding a touch of elegance; and the black crystal flowers that provide an interesting non-floral texture.


We styled this cala lily bouquet for the traditional bride, but accented it with tropical foliage to bring it into the 21st century. This bouquet is also stylized in a popular color pallet for 2011, shades of green and white.


White is a common theme amognst trending pallets because it offers a clean canvas for pops of color and exciting textures. Notice how the metallic orange finish on the candles stands out against the starkness of the candle holders and the daisy is almost three-dimensional on he china.


The tulips offered a natural feel to an otherwise structured tablescape. The green of the tulip stems bring a freshness to the table that could not be completely achieved by the center arrangement on the table.


The Buddha hands supporting the bouquets provided excellent pedestals for the bouquets, tying them into the tablescape.


Pictures provided by eMotion Image and Video

The Princess Bride...in a Castle!

We had the opportunity to do a wedding in Baltimore, Maryland this past fall. In October, the weather can be a bit iffy in Maryland, but we lucked out and had a gorgeous wedding for a gorgeous bride. Casey had always wanted to get married in a castle, and her dream was finally coming true.


In fact, she had chosen The Castle at Maryvale! Working in historic properties always has its challenges, but we ran into a few new ones (like working around a massive 400 year old rug) that took some creative thinking to solve. Casey was grateful to have some professionals on her side. Here is the note we recently received in the mail:

Alex and Paul,

What can we say? You guys are amazing, you rock, we love you.... Thank You!! You not only created a beautiful wedding but you blew us and everyone there away! We hope you are proud of yourselves because we are!

Love you both bunches,
Casey and Jeremy


Working with Casey was exciting. She is an interior designer, giving her a great advantage in developing her ideas and expressing her vision to us.


Her inspiration came from pictures in a Martha Stewart Wedding magazine. The album was titled "Wedding Ideas That Sparkle." It featured metallic tones and lots of candles. The candles were in varied heights and colors of mercury glass holders. Casey loved the copper and gold tones with the bronze and silver accents.


We needed to make the theme more evening-friendly, so we made it darker by introducing a chocolate linen that featuring a copper leafing pattern. The linens were provided by Nuage Designs Each place setting featured a gold leafed charged atop a chocolate taffeta linen napkin also provide by Nuage Designs.


Our color pallet featured metallic tomes (copper, gold, and silver), ivory, and burgundy. To achieve these colors in the flowers, we used burgundy dahlias, brown and copper cymbidium orchids, hydrangeas, mango and white cala lilies, fiddle head fern (it is what sticks up around the candles in the low centerpieces), and vendella roses. The low centerpieces were accented with a copper, flat decorative wire.


The bouquets featured the same flowers as the low centerpieces handtied and wrapped in a copper satin ribbon a finished with pearl headed pins.


Casey wanted us to emphasize the use of candlelight, and we did that by capitalizing on the use of the mercury glass votive holders. There was a little over a dozen on each table. All of the pillar candles were copper colored and accented with a rhinestone band.


The base of the cake was done with the vendella roses, hydrangea, and miniature calla lilies. It was accented with the sterling silver elepahnt escort card holders.

We truly enjoyed our trip to the east coast, and we can't wait to go back. Thank you Casey and Jeremy for having us!

Photography by Jennifer McMenamin

A Barely Audible “Wow!”

We had the opportunity to do a photo shoot outdoors in Lexington last fall for jackie allen’s Kentucky Bride Magazine. The issue was finally printed, and it turned out great! The shoot was located on a beautiful horse farm just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. We had the task of creating a summertime tablescape which was rather challenging because it was already late October, and we only had five days to come up with a design and find the flowers we needed to make it happen!

Our design was inspired by the southern elegance that Kentucky horse farms are known for, but more importantly by the fact that we would be setting up outdoors. We wanted to choose bright colors and reflective materials that would really take advantage of the sunlight. The tablescape has about 1000 stems of flowers of which 600 are roses. Each place setting had its own arrangement in a bubble bowl, and each chair tie was accented with a cymbidium orchid.

Jackie Allen loved the finished product, and the photographers said that it looked like a fairy tale. It was a lot of work (especially when compared to the other three seasons in the shoot), but it is always worth it when you see jaws drop and followed by a barely audible, “Wow!”

How to make them ... SPEECHLESS!

The newest issue of Louisville Bride recently debuted (well back in January) and it would not be complete without a feature about yours truly. In this issue we are the expert planners that give you tips and tricks to make your wedding speechless. Check out the entire article at http://louisvillebride.epubxpress.com/loub1 pages 28 and 29!

We are also featured on a brand new website that is Kentucky and Southern Indiana premier wedding answer source. Somethingbluecollective.com is a collection of 30 top vendors in the Louisville area that give you invaluable advise for planning your wedding, all in an awesome video format! In our video we give you detailed information on how to WOW! your guest with your centerpieces. Check out the video for more details, but here is the cliff note version….

1. WOW Your Guest with Three Different Centerpieces – Tall centerpiece (over 4 feet tall), medium centerpiece (24 to 48 inches tall) and a low centerpiece (4 to 12 inches tall). Keep 12 to 24 inches above the table clear, so you don’t distract from conversation!

2. WOW them with Bling – Use non- floral elements in your centerpiece such as glassware, crystals, feathers, and wire to create interest and add texture to the centerpiece. And of course, every centerpiece looks better with crystals!

3. WOW Your Guest with Lighting – Lighting on or in a centerpiece is a great way to complete the look. This can be accomplished with battery operated LED lights that come in a multitude of colors or with the simplest votive candle. Don’t underestimate to the power of candle light…it makes everyone look better!

See the full video and check out others at something bluecollective.com

Also check out http://somethingbluecollective.blogspot.com/ where it talks about a great wedding show design we created! Here is a sneak peek…

Speechless Transformation

As 2009 comes to close, we would like to take this time to remember an awesome wedding that took place in August. We were faced with a great challenge of transforming a church gymnasium into a modern, chic, urban night club in middle of the day. This is the thank you note we received …

“Paul and Alex,

We just wanted to thank you again for the amazing job you guys did on our wedding…Everyone at the wedding, us included, was completely blown away by how amazing it looked. I think my favorite comment was ‘I was in the room for at least 5 – 10 minutes before I realized it was a gym.’ The flowers, the reception, everything was defiantly a “WOW!” I’m fairly certain lost of our friends will be calling you when they start planning their weddings and events. You guys rock!

Mason & Nicole Wiseman”

We started by choosing a modern color combination of aqua and raspberry as our primary colors and then accented the wedding with chartreuse green. The ceremony took place at St. Paul United Method Church and took very little to improve the space. Two symmetrical, asymmetric arrangements framed the couple at the altar and create a stunning focal point. The bridesmaid’s vibrant fuchsia dresses were paired with green cymbidium orchids and the bride’s bouquet pulled everything together in the perfect shades of fuchsia, and of course everything was accented in just the right amount of aqua.

Photographs courtesy of James Calvert.

The reception was truly the speechless part. The entire gymnasiums was draped in white fabric and reach sixteen feet in the air and then back lit in a stunning aqua to provide the right mood for the reception. Large eight foot square tables covered in aqua floor length linens and accented with raspberry napkins created the perfect back drop for the ultra contemporary centerpieces. Each table featured a large glass vase accented with strands of Swarovski crystals, aqua wire, and a rich pink cymbidium orchid and was finished with custom twenty-four inch diameter lampshades and over sixty LED lights. An acrylic raiser and votive candles filled out the centerpiece and created the modern, chic feel that was requested. A modern club would not be complete without a lounge, so a white leather serpent couch with matching ottoman and glass end tables was the perfect complement to the raspberry lit bar.

So remember when planning your next event that anything is possible. Let you imagination run wild and make sure to find the right people to make your event … speechless!