The Junkin Wedding

In November, we had the privilege of designing flowers for the Junkin Wedding at the beautiful Dove Hollow Estate near Longview, Texas.  Lacy chose a fall wedding color scheme and wanted to use lots of pampas grass in the decor. 

The pampas grass ring was a unique wedding backdrop / alter for the outdoor wedding. Logs at assorted heights held lanterns and a few fresh flowers and fabric were intertwined, along with the white pumpkins. The bride's family gathered up all of the pampas grass for us to use and we put it all to use! 

They only used a single wedding cake (naked wedding cake by Butcher Shop in Longview, florals added by Sharlette who was helping me with on site wedding set up.) 

Ah, the reception! Dove Hollow has a large modern barn with 33 foot tall ceilings. With the large open space, the use of some tall centerpieces, helps fill the space. We created 8 tall centerpieces with plumes of pampas grass and fall flowers on tall gold risers. This venue is wonderful to give you a floor plan, tailored to your specific numbers (there's no speculating on if you can fit x amount of guest and tables in the barn, they can tell you exactly how many will and still allow guest to walk around.) I knew the exact table layout ahead of time, so I was able to plan where each centerpiece would be placed and allow it to have a well balanced look.  

The bridal party was seated at long tables through the center of the barn. One tip we like to pass along to brides is to use their bridesmaid bouquets in their reception. The bridesmaid bouquets are the low flower arrangements on long tables. The girls were able to pick up the hand tied bouquets out of the mercury glass vases for the ceremony, then when they return to the reception area, they have a designated places to drop their bouquet, which only adds to the decor of the reception. Along with the flowers, there was assorted candles placed throughout the reception. I don't like seeing the bridesmaid bouquets discarded and simply laid in a chair and forgotten during the reception, so this is one option for utilizing them. (Others have chosen to display on the cake or food tables.) 

All the arrangements had not been set up, when the next picture was taken, but it gives you a look at this room. 

All of the above photos were provided by the bride and taken by her wedding photographer, Jamey Smith. 

The following pictures were taken by myself, as we were setting up everything. 

This ring was an idea the bride brought to me. It was something unique for weddings in our area, although we found several different styles of the pampas rings on Pinterest. 

(Moongate ring belongs to Dove Hollow Estate and we added all the pampas grass.)

You can see in this picture that we used as assortment of centerpieces, including lanterns and some geometric style vases. This gave some varying heights for the reception 

This picture shows the wedding party table, while the bridesmaids were carrying their bouquets, so you can see how we placed the mercury glass vases. Each vase had just enough water for the stems to get a drink. (When removing bouquets to carry, you simply take a paper towel to blot the stems dry. All of my hand tied bouquets are delivered that way, so they have water to stay fresh and hydrated for the wedding.) 

This is a close up of one of the bridesmaid bouquets - fall mums, berries, roses, eucalyptus, and plumes of pampas grass comprised all the bouquets. 

Sending our best wishes to Lace and Derek and wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness together! Thank you for letting us have a part of your wonderful day and for sharing your pictures with us!  

Haley and Justin's Wedding

Planning a wedding during a pandemic requires some creativity, but it can be done! Last summer, Kelly contacted me on Facebook and ask if I could create wedding flowers for her daughter's wedding, which was two weeks away. Well of course! That weekend was open on my calendar and we made it happen! Recently, they sent me pictures from the wedding and give permission to share a few of them. 

Haley and Justin, the happy bride and groom! 

How sweet is this - the bride with her mother and grandmother. 

I was able to source the absolutely gorgeous dahlias from a local grower that I had been reintroduced to at last summer's farmers markets that we attended. Along with the dahlias, we used roses and hydrangeas for the bouquets and added just a little touch of blue in the arrangements that were placed on pedestals.

As extra precautions, they even cut the wedding cake on the stage, so everyone would remain seated in the church and spaced out, along with having a live stream of the wedding, for others to view from home.

The bride presented her bouquet to her grandmother after the wedding, You can see the love and special relationship these two have. 

We had certain event attendance restrictions at the time and the family took all that into consideration when planning the wedding. That was one reason they waited till closer to time to make sure events didn't get completely shut down. I was refereed to Kelly by a mutual friend and then we discovered we had actually met at one of our shows in 2019. We did not have any face to face wedding consultations and when I delivered the flowers to the church, only the father of the bride was there. Even though it was limited, they still wanted to celebrate the wedding with nice floral arrangements and create a special day for the bride and groom.  I have often said, even though it was a rough year for many, there were also many things worth celebrating in 2020, just like this wedding and the love between this couple. 

Thank you Kelly for allowing us to create the flowers for Haley and Justin's special day and for providing the pictures for us to share. Wishing many years of love and happiness to the bride and groom! 

Wedding photographer was Amanda Cole with My Little Michelle. Find her on Instagram at MyLittleMichelle.

Church / Alter Flowers

Church flowers are often placed in the alter in memory of a loved one or honor of a special person or occasion. The all white arrangement below was for the annual camp meeting service at Gilmer Apostolic Church. 

First Baptist Church Flowers in honor of my customer's mother's birthday. She always does pink roses, gladiolas, and stargazer lilies for her mother. 

A spring bouquet for Rosewood Baptist Church. 

Two all white arrangements that my customer was taking to Christ Episcopal Church in Jefferson, Texas, to place on the alter for their son's baby dedication service.

This was a silk centerpiece used at a memorial service. Following the service, the arrangement was being donated to their church, so they would have a new fall bouquet. 

This was a large alter type arrangement at the McWhorter Funeral Home Open House Event. 

A new silk arrangement was placed at the Gilmer Apostolic Church. Neutral colors were used, so that the flowers would be appropriate for year round use. 

Tropical flowers at First Baptist Church. 

I received the following text message, on Sunday afternoon, from the lady who ordered them. 

"The flowers were just beautiful. U have a wonderful gift to put flowers together. Eddie would have loved them as I did. Thanks so much for making my day."

This alter arrangement was for a memorial service. Garden roses and a mixture of white flowers, berries, pine cones, twigs, and assorted greenery was the customer's request for this bouquet, made in a galvanized tub.