Today’s post is short and sweet for engaged couples out there.
You are supposed to be “new at this”–it’s a wedding, not a test of your party-planning skills. So, no apologies needed. Your vendors should understand that you’re new at this!
I love what this couple came up with for their place cards! Not bad for a couple of newbies!
Clients sometimes ask me which flowers are the most expensive and in truth the price of many flowers will vary depending on the time of year. It’s not as simple as “local flowers are less expensive” and there are certain unique or exotic flowers (like orchids and callas) that many people don’t mind paying a little extra for.
Hydrangea is one of those blooms that can range from “reasonable” to “wow, what did I just pay for that hydrangea?!” When I picked up these lavender-purple hydrangea for my wedding this weekend it definitely brought a higher price tag than usual. It is so gorgeous, healthy looking, fluffy and the perfect shade of purple–not blue. Sometimes when you want the very best you simply have to pay for it. (And sometimes you actually get what your money’s worth.)
The frilly, blooms are so classic and perfect for a rustic, Vermont setting with a touch of elegance.
I’ll have some pics from this purple, lavender & white wedding for you next week! Have a great weekend y’all.
It’s been said that florists make the worst wedding guests, but I think there is a rising trend in rude wedding guests. From arriving late to the ceremony to talking & texting through the vows to stocking up on asprin courtesy of the amenity basket in the ladies’ room; I think wedding guests could use a few reminders when it comes to modern-day manners.
♥RSVP on time please…pretty please! (That’s what the SVP stands for after all!…it’s French for please.) Don’t force the couple to call you to ask if you are coming to their wedding. Don’t make anyone wonder whether or not you are coming. This thing is not about you.
♥Put your cell phone on silent before you even walk into the ceremony so you won’t forget! Interruptions by the sounds of crazy ringtones in the middle of the ceremony is an epidemic that has overtaken the “baby screaming through the vows” of yesteryear.
♥Arrive on time. No, arrive a half hour early. This is an important day for someone who cares about you enough to invite you to their wedding. Show up. On time. Or a little bit early. Consider this part of your gift to the couple.
♥Be nice. Say hello to the other guests around you at your table or during the cocktail hour. These are not just random strangers on the subway; you have a mutual friend (or two) in common. Ask, “how do you know the happy couple?” Say hi to grandparents and maybe let them cut you in line at the buffet. Compliment someone’s fabulous shoes or make a new friend on the dance floor.
♥Don’t raid the bathroom amenity basket. It’s not a shopping spree. It’s for everyone. When someone catches you stocking up on hairspray and lint rollers you might be embarrassed.
♥If alcoholic beverages are served before the ceremony, limit yourself to 1 drink. Manners people. Manners.
♥Sign the guest book or participate in whatever “sign in” ritual the couple has chosen. Sign the book or plate or picture frame, leave your recipe for love and happiness, offer your best wishes…whatever it is just find it and sign it. They’ll be so glad you did.
♥Say hello and congratulations to the couple’s parents. It’s a big day for them, too. A little, “Thanks for inviting us,” or a compliment on how beautiful the wedding has been wouldn’t hurt either.
Do you have any tips for how to be a good wedding guest?
Spring means melting snow, followed by some freshly fallen snow, the maple syrup is a-flowing and a-boiling, and ultimately, it is mud season in Vermont. As our friends and neighbors tap their trees and welcome their newborn lambs, the sunsets suddenly seem more beautiful and the Vermont wedding season begins!
Springtime in Vermont offers couples crisp days and wet feet in April followed by flowering trees and magnificent lilac displays in the middle of May. Local, in-season flowers won’t be found in abundance other than some greenhouse grown blooms. By the end of May as lilacs are fading away (and sometimes not until the very beginning of June!) we’ll start to see the delicate (and beloved by me!) lily of valley. I have a fantastic supply right outside my front door!
Springtime weddings in Vermont are not necessarily for the faint of heart. Much like our late-fall couples you can expect snow at any point during the first month of spring so planning an indoor ceremony and reception is essential. By the end of May we are starting to see signs of summer and weddings move outdoors!
Tulips have started leafing out only to later be covered by snow, of course!
This is what my coral pink peony looked like on April 3. They’ll be blooming in mid-June.
The fuzzy, serrated leaves of poppies bring a promise of summer. Blooms pop in early June.
Your florist can get a large variety of fresh flowers no matter what season you select, however when you are looking for “local, in season” flowers in Vermont you’ll find the largest variety available from early July through August.
I’ve dedicated this week of blog posts to do-it-yourself tips and today I’m winding up DIY week with a few personal thoughts. As a wedding professional I take my clients and their visions very seriously. I don’t take for granted the fact that I am invited into the planning process and that my suggestions hold varying levels of clout with my couples. I have a “first, do no harm” policy when it comes to doling out advice. This brings me to a little DIY beef I had this week…
I saw a DIY bouquet project presented on a blog (who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons!) and I think it was irresponsible to present this particular project as a feasible do-it-yourself wedding project. Where’s the beef?…
First, the flowers that one would need to purchase to accomplish this DIY bouquet would easily cost $160-200; second, it requires cutting these pricey white blooms apart and hot gluing them to cardboard (yes, my floral designer readers have just let out a collective gasp at the thought of white petals + hot glue!); third, the amount of time it would take to create this white petal, hot glue & cardboard creation has got to exceed 2 hours; and last, but certainly not least, these white petals don’t stand a chance without a water source which means 1. this would have to be made the morning of the wedding and 2. it will turn brown and wilt within 2 hours–absolutely, definitely and without a doubt–if they hadn’t already turned brown from over handling them.
I think a true wedding pro would disavow this particular do-it-yourself project. Comments from readers raved about what a great DIY project this was. What??? If you did a practice bouquet you’d spend almost $200 to realize that this was a horrible idea and if you attempted to make this bouquet the morning of your wedding you would be grossly disappointed. By the way, a florist can often make a bridal bouquet for about that price and you can just relax until I show up and place it in your hands. That sounds a lot better to me.
So to re-cap my main points about DIY: don’t put too much on your plate, determine whether you are a DIY bride and think twice before doing your own flowers!
This is a DIY save-the-date that one of my grooms made! Yes, DIY is not just for brides.
How awesome is this save-the-date? I love it!
It’s officially springtime in Vermont and after a beautiful weekend of solid vest-weather {and our first wedding of 2011!} it’s seriously snowing right now. Vermonters should know that we cannot get ahead of ourselves when spring teases us with her first appearance.
While I was out and about checking on things in my garden yesterday I snapped a few signs of spring. When I showed my husband my photos he said, “You know it’s going to snow, right?”
Crocus mark the change of the season. An emblem of youthful gladness.
Daffodils break through the surface of the soil and leaf debris.
You can almost see the flowers eager to bloom.
The branches of the Japanese pussy willow are curly and wild. One of my favorites for sure.
Also called ‘fantail pussy willow’ these willows are taller than I am.
These are lilac buds. Lilacs are one of our most highly anticipated blooms in Vermont.
What signs of spring have you noticed? I’ll have some pics from our first wedding of 2011 for you tomorrow!
The Irish may be lucky, but those stem-died green carnations that pop up every year are no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Check out these green ranunculus. They’re much cooler than died blooms.
Another look at a green ranunculus. I LOVE them!
I got this super cute pot at the gift shop at Hildene this weekend and these green dianthus–a member of the carnation family–are a perfect little “poof” of green.
Are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day?
This week I’m kicking off my 10th wedding season in Vermont ♡ and I think that’s pretty cool. {Toot-toot!…yep, that’s the sound of my own horn!} Hundreds of couples have invited me into their wedding planning over the years and I truly appreciate them all. It is gratifying to be able to work in a field that I love, in a state that I love, with the person I love {shout out to hubby for being a seriously awesome sidekick}.
Our 2011 calendar is nearly full and I’m excited about the upcoming wedding season. To all of my engaged couples, Thank you for putting your trust in me! It’s been a pleasure connecting with so many of you over the past severals months. I hope you’ll enjoy the remaining weeks and months until your wedding day…I look forward to seeing you!
The Round Barn, Waitsfield
Hildene, Manchester
The Old Lantern, Charlotte
Stowehof Inn & Resort, Stowe
The Whiteface Lodge, Lake Placid, NY
Waybury Inn, Middlebury
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne
The Queechee Club, Queechee
Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes
Vermont National Country Club, South Burlington
Topnotch Resort and Spa, Stowe
West Mountain Inn, Arlington
✿ Next week I’ll have some photos for you from our first wedding of the season! ❀
Andy from Daria Bishop Photographers sent me this photo a while back with a note that said, “Just because he never gets enough press.” Today seemed like a good day to share it!
We had a rainy weekend. It was the kind of rain that melts the snow, allows you to put on a slightly lighter coat and might just trick you into thinking that winter is on its way out and spring is walking in through the out door. But then, just like always, along comes a huge snow storm that brings about 2 feet of fluffy white stuff from the sky and deposits it outside your front door, all over your car (with twice as much at the end of the driveway where the snowplow came by!), and you officially cannot believe it!
This is about the time when many Vermonters start cursing winter’s name and day-dreaming of mud season. I caught myself nearly falling into this trap on Saturday when I was on my way to the Vermont Flower Show. I noticed a large patch of grass outside my window–sign of spring, right?–so before I got ahead of myself I quickly thought of some of the things I love about winter.
Here are 10 things that came to mind:
♥ Hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream
♥ My CSA share from Pete’s Greens (which I’ve missed dearly)
♥ Skiing with my husband
♥ A white blanket of snow that hides my unfinished yard work from the fall
♥ Fires in the woodstove
♥ The way my cat practically melts into the rocking chair in front of the woodstove
♥ That morning wake-up call via a burst of cold air that hits your face when you first walk out of the house
♥ Watching lots of movies—guilt free ‘cause it’s cold outside and we ain’t goin’ nowhere!
♥ Shoveling OK, not shoveling exactly, but the paths we clear through the yard can make a kinda cool maze
Not everything about winter is great, but much like hope, spring springs eternal! Vermonters just need to be a little more patient than most. What are some of your favorite things about winter?
We have 3 feet of snow out there today according to the snow gauge!
This is our cat, Lily, doing her Lily Tomlin impersonation. {little Lily, large rocking chair}
We attended The 2011 Vermont Flower Show on Saturday at the Essex Fairgrounds to get a sampling of spring. I was particularly looking forward to attending the seminar on organic gardening taught by one of my former UVM professors, Wendy Sue Harper. She was a truly inspiring mentor to me in college and now her gig is at NOFA. I consider her my personal compost & soil-health guru. After hearing about Wendy Sue throughout the years my husband was happy to have finally met her in person and I was happy that he got to hear her talk about soil health! {That’s what I call winning!}
Whether you attended the flower show for the educational seminars or purely for a dose of springtime blooms there was no shortage of happenings. Ned Davis demonstrated the art of tablescaping and I heard it was standing room only due to a great interest in his workshop. I know of at least one bride-to-be who got inspired by his designs! (Ned helped design the flowers for my wedding and he guided me though my first bridal bouquet back in 2001!)
Here are some signs of spring from the Vermont Flower Show…
A pansy from Sam Mazza’s Farm.
Gotta love this little begonia, too.
Jericho farm, Arcana, had purple primrose on display.
How cute are these little porcelain vases by S Designs of Maine?
A floral frog. Frogs date back to the 16th century and today they’re most often used in Japanese Ikebana designs. Simply fill the vessel with water and place freshly cut flowers on the spikes.
We were happy to get a little taste of spring this weekend. What do you look forward to in the springtime?
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