Textural Dried Natural Elements for Wedding Flowers

When you are designing your wedding flowers, the first thing that probably comes to mind is fresh blossoms. It is true that fresh colors are wonderful, but they are not the only thing that can be used to create interesting and beautiful centerpieces and bridal bouquets. A fantastic way to add texture and visual interest to your wedding flowers is to incorporate dried natural elements.

There is an abundance of different dried elements that can be worked into wedding arrangements. Any florist will certainly be able to access a wide variety of dried seed pods, vines, branches, and more, but will the bride who wants to make her own centerpieces and bouquets. These items are widely available at craft stores and on the internet, along with the instructional materials to show you exactly how to work with them. This is great, because it can allow you to design floral arrangements for your wedding that are one-of-a-kind pieces, whether you work with a professional or make them yourself.

More and more brides are finding the appeal of wedding details which have been handmade, whether it is their gown and jewelry, the invitations, or their bouquets. And yet, it can be intimidating to think about making your own wedding bouquets, so many brides who attempt it will end up creating very basic arrangements. However, dried natural elements are so easy to use that almost any bride can learn to incorporate them into her bouquet. For autumn, you could make a wonderful bouquet using mums in shades of russet and orange, combined with dried preserved mini-sunflowers and stalks of natural wheat. So simple, yet so pretty and autumnal.

There are also dramatic dried lotus pods, pine cones, dried rose petals, and all sorts of other natural elements just waiting to be included in your wedding. These interesting dried pieces give your wedding centerpieces and bouquets a wonderful natural earthy quality with fantastic visual appeal.

Favorite Fall Wedding Favors

Autumn is a great time of year, and there are all sorts of things that evoke the spirit of the season. When you are selecting your wedding favors, it is nice to seek out those with an autumnal flair. They will make an especially nice token for your guests to take home from your wedding.

When it comes to wedding favors, what guests particularly enjoy are edible treats. There are all sorts of tasty fall treats that you can offer. Pick one that fits the general style of your wedding as well as the time of year. For instance, if you are having a fairly casual wedding, with the bride in a simple dress and silver handmade wedding jewelry, you can go with a fun and casual fall favorite, like a big, beautiful candy apple or a caramel dipped apple. Your guests will adore the sticky, nostalgic take-away.

Personalized wedding favors are always pleasing. For an autumn wedding, one unique idea would be to present each guest with a small bottle of a fruit wine, such as one made from Northern Spy apples. You can have custom labels printed for the bottles with your names, wedding dates, and a brief message to your guests. To make the gift even more special, tie a decorative wine stopper to the neck of each bottle.

Of course, one of the most distinctive things about fall is the characteristic autumn leaves. A simple but charming fall wedding favor would be a pair of leaf shaped cookie cutters tied together with a piece of plaid ribbon or raffia placed at each guest’s seat. Use the copper cookie cutters, which are much prettier than the plastic or tin ones. Attach a small tag to each set of cookie cutters with a thank you message on the front, and your favorite cookie recipe on the reverse. This is a favor that can be assembled inexpensively, but it is something that your guests will actually find useful and enjoyable.

These are just a few of the top ideas for fall wedding favors. Feel free to design your own special favors that explore the scents, flavors, or colors of the season. Your guests will be sure to enjoy your carefully selected favors.

Family Style Wedding Receptions

One of the more popular ideas for a wedding reception is to serve the food family style. At this type of party, all of the food is placed on the table in large platters that are passed around, rather than having a waiter serve each guest an individual plate of food. Family style service can be less stuffy than traditional plated dinners, and yet more gracious than a buffet. Here are some ideas on how to arrange for a family style wedding reception that your guests will love.

Family style catering ties in with the trend favoring fewer long reception tables over many small round ones. The idea is that this type of set-up is more relaxed and convivial, allowing for a welcoming and intimate reception. It is almost like everyone just happened to stop by your house for an impromptu gathering over good food and great conversation. Sort of like what happens at the end of that show “Everyday Italian” on the Food Network, where all of Giada de Laurentiis’ friends and neighbors show up for a casual yet elegant feast in her backyard.

Certainly, there are some occasions when family style service might seem out of place. For instance, if you are planning a black tie wedding, with everyone in their most formal attire and special handmade wedding jewelry, the more traditional plated dinner service would be much more appropriate. Family style service also tends to limit your menu options more than a buffet or food stations, so that is another consideration.

The types of food that work best for family style service are generally the ones that most families like to eat together. Italian is a very popular choice. It is easy to get good Italian food, it is not particularly expensive, and almost everyone likes it. Italian cuisine is also a great idea if you will be having some vegetarians at your wedding. It is quite simple to have one platter with a meat-free pasta, and another with meatballs and sausages for those guests who enjoy meat. Comfort food is another fantastic option for a family style wedding reception. Your guests will be delighted to be served classics like homemade mac and cheese, slices of meatloaf, and bowls of yummy veggies. When you are looking for a way to unite your friends and families into one big happy group, you might just find that family style service at your reception is the perfect answer.

Charming Ideas for Personalizing a Wedding

Your wedding should be more than beautiful, it should be personal. There are some wonderful ways that you can make your wedding tell your own story. These are charming ideas for personalizing your wedding.

Nothing is more personal than photos. There are quite a few ways in which photos of the bride and groom can be incorporated into the wedding design. At one recent ceremony in a rustic yet elegant barn, the entrance to the site was lined with photos of the bride and groom, showing the timeline of their lives. It began with baby pictures, and went through the years, ending with images of the happy couple together closest to the door to the ceremony. In keeping with the rustic setting, the photos were clipped to a clothesline with old fashioned clothespins, which was just perfect.

Another neat way to put your personal stamp on your wedding is with the table names. Rather than the standard numbers, choose names that have meaning in your life together. They could be the names of places that you have visited together, the names of your favorite authors, or anything else that refers to a shared hobby. Not only will these unique table names add character to your reception, they are a great conversation starter for your guests.

Speaking of favors, they can be a wonderful thing to personalize. They should also tell a story about the bride and groom. For instance, if the bride loves to make homemade jam or the groom makes his own maple syrup, little jars of these homemade delicacies would be ideal wedding favors. If the bride and groom are avid skiers, a little Christmas ornament in the shape of a skier would make a great winter wedding favor. The wine enthusiasts could share their hobby with their guests by giving out small bottles of their favorite vintage or a box of wine charms.

One other charming way to personalize your wedding is by giving special little gifts to the people that are a part of it, such as the bridesmaids and mothers of the bride and groom. One bride that I knew had pretty white hankies embroidered that said “mother of the bride” or “grandmother of the groom” and so forth to give to each close family member. Some brides will have delightful pieces of wedding jewelry handmade to give to their mothers and grandmothers.  It is a delightful way to add character to your wedding and to make it more meaningful for your entire family.

Decorate Your Wedding With River Rocks

One of the hottest trends in weddings these days is to use elements that feel organic and natural. For a design element that can feel both earthy and Zen, check out river rocks. These smooth little stones can be used in a surprising number of ways to add a wonderfully natural feeling to your wedding.

The river rock unity ceremony is a perfect addition to an outdoor wedding. It will fit right in with the type of wedding where the bride is wearing a simple flowing gown and handmade jewelry. The naturally free-form style of handmade keishi pearl wedding jewelry is a wonderful complement to the earthy stones. You can also think about using a row of river rocks down each side of the aisle to define the walkway.

A very pleasing and easy idea for your escort cards is to use a metallic pen to write the name of each guest on a smooth stone. It is the ultimate DIY project; just be sure that whoever wields the pen has good handwriting. Give the escort card table more flair by arranging the river rocks over a bed of wheatgrass or a woven mat. It is a low-key and yet elegant way to display your escort cards.

The centerpieces will lend themselves to the river rock idea wonderfully. You can use a bunch of the smooth stones to anchor the floral arrangements in clear vases. Another idea is to let the river rocks themselves stand alone as a decorative element. Arrange a trio of low clear or white vessels in the center of each table. Fill one with river rocks and the other two with natural elements such as moss or sand. It is a very chic Zen centerpiece design. For any bride hoping to give her wedding a modern earthy feeling, smooth river rocks are the perfect addition.

Homespun Wedding Details

There is nothing as special as a wedding that feels very personal and unique. One of the best ways to make your wedding feel uniquely your own is to include some handcrafted elements. These are some ideas for homespun wedding details that will add charm to your special day.

Homespun details are especially nice at country or informal weddings, as they will make your guests to feel almost like they are in your home, rather than a wedding venue. One of the best places to start is at the end: the wedding favors. This can be a perfect area to try your hand at making something, or to give a homemade look to a favor that you purchased. A great example would be a homemade jar of jam wrapped in a red check cloth. Tie a little note to each jar with a piece of cotton string or twine thanking your guests for being a part of your wedding.

Your homespun details can also be a part of the bride’s attire. It is often nice to have some sort of a wrap to wear in the evening over your bridal gown; a very cozy style would be a handknit shawl. Another thing that is nice to have handmade is your wedding jewelry. Handmade wedding jewelry feels so much more personal because you know that it was carefully crafted by human hands, not stamped out by a machine.

A very nifty idea for your wedding is to make your own paper flowers. They can be used in bouquets, boutonierres, wreaths, and more. Tissue paper flowers have a beautiful delicate look, and they also make a fun momento of your wedding. Paper flowers will also allow you to have your bouquet be any color that you like, and will even save you money. Just be sure to start your paper flower project a long time before your wedding date!

The Modern Vintage Wedding

You may be asking yourself, how can I design a wedding that pulls together the best from the past, while still feeling fresh and current? The answer: a modern vintage style wedding. Read on for ideas on how to combine these two contrasting styles into one fabulous event.

The way to bring vintage and modern together successfully is to mix them shamelessly. For example, a Victorian style wedding gown would be made of lace and have a high collar and long sleeves (a revival that was popular in the 1980s). The updated version would feature a beautiful soft lace, but the cut of the gown would be much more streamlined and pared down, such as a spaghetti strap lace sheath wedding dress.

Your accessories can also give a nod to the past while still feeling fresh and updated. One of the hottest accessories on the red carpet this year was the clutch handbag. This style of bag has been in style in many different time periods, and you can find some fantastic original vintage beaded clutches in antique shops or even on ebay.

Handmade wedding jewelry is another detail that is perfect for the modern vintage wedding. Choosing pieces of jewelry for your wedding that are handmade one by one from beautiful gems like pearls and crystals goes back to a time when craftsmanship was revered.

Another great element for a modern vintage wedding is letterpress stationery. This is a very old style that has become very much in vogue over the last five or ten years. You will often find letterpress invitations with cool retro motifs such as birds. The color palettes are also that cool retro modern look; you see lots of brown, mixed with pink, sky blue, or mint green. It is the perfect way to set the tone for a modern vintage wedding.

5 Spring Centerpiece Ideas

Spring is a time of renewal and romance, making it the perfect season for a wedding. When planning the decorations for your springtime wedding, be sure to take advantage of all that the season has to offer. Here are five ideas for spring wedding centerpieces.

1. Planted bulbs. One of the first signs of spring is the beautiful bulbs that push through the earth, signalling the end of winter and the beginning of spring.  For a fresh centerpiece that says, “Welcome Spring”, decorate your tables with low planters featuring bulbs such as hyacinth in a tidy row.  Keep the containers fairly informal – a particularly nice look would be ones in a handpainted tin.

2. Peonies are one of the favorite flowers of spring. They are lush, romantic, and just achingly beautiful. They make a gorgeous spring centerpiece, as well. To really showcase their beauty, gather an abundance of peonies in a range of pinks for a fresh from the garden look. You may get them from the florist, but the idea is that it should look like you picked them that morning.
   

3. Lilacs are one of the most lovely and fragrant spring flowers. They are available in the signature lilac color (of course), but also pretty shades of pink and white. Lilacs would be gorgeous centerpieces when dripping from large footed garden urns. You could combine the lilacs with other flowing elements such as ivy. Because they do have a scent, you might find that lilacs are best used for outdoor receptions, so their aroma does not become too cloying.

4. Some brides love the look of more handcrafted and natural centerpieces. These are the brides who will choose the more hands-on look of handmade wedding jewelry over pieces that are mass produced. This type of bride will enjoy centerpieces that look less contrived. Instead of highlighting one or two elegant flowers, mix a variety of springtime blossoms with other natural elements, such as flowering branches.
   

5. One more great idea for spring centerpieces is to take inspiration from a classic spring gala: the Kentucky Derby. The signature of the Kentucky Derby is the mint julep, which is served in those wonderful little silver glasses. You can easily find versions of the silver glasses online, and they look fantastic filled with a few open flowers. Garden roses and peonies make especially nice choices.

Rich Brown Accents for Your Wedding

Brown is one of the richest and warmest colors. It can also be very elegant and sophisticated, without the harshness of black. Used as a main color scheme or in combination with another color, brown is a wonderful choice for a wedding color palette.

The color brown actually has many great variations. There is deep espresso, warm milk chocolate, and light mocha – that sound delicious, doesn’t it? The lighter shades of brown are lovely for an afternoon wedding, and the deeper tones are perfect for the evening.

Brown is also a color that can be used in conjunction with many other colors. For weddings, espresso brown is often added to pink or sky blue to give those colors a sophistication that they would otherwise lack. A very fresh and modern wedding palette can be created by mixing brown with lime green, and for an opulent look, try using chocolate with copper.

The bride and bridesmaids’ attire will set the tone for the wedding, so this is a good place to use your brown accents. Brown makes an excellent choice for the bridesmaid dresses. A brown dupioni or satin is gorgeous for weddings year round; for a winter wedding, indulge in luxurious chocolate velvet.

You can also have wedding jewelry handmade to coordinate as your bridesmaid gifts. Sparkling Swarovksi crystals in chocolate would make a beautiful accent to brown bridesmaid dresses. Create necklaces and earrings that combine the brown crystals with clear ones to keep the look from getting too heavy; the effect will be stunning!

Brown can be used in many additional parts of the wedding. A stunning brown flower is the chocolate cosmo, which actually has a soft chocolatey aroma. For brides who prefer white or ivory bouquets, ask your florist to tie them with a chocolate satin or velvet ribbon. The deep brown ribbon will pop nicely against the lighter color of the flowers. A brown ribbon would also work very well with a pink bouquet, for a pink and brown themed wedding.

One of the most versatile colors that you can use to decorate your wedding is brown. It is a great choice to add sophistication or to tone down a very feminine color scheme. Brown is one of those colors that can be worked into almost any wedding to great effect.

Cornucopia Centerpieces for Your Wedding

Looking for a unique wedding centerpiece with auspicious symbolism? Then look no further than the cornucopia, also known as the “horn of plenty”. A symbol of abundance dating back to the 5^th Century B.C., the cornucopia would make a beautiful addition to any wedding table, especially in the autumn.

The traditional cornucopia is a horn shaped basket that has fruits and vegetables spilling out of it to symbolize an abundant harvest. This would make an unexpected, and very festive, fall wedding centerpiece. Each table could feature similar fruits and vegetables, or you could pick a color scheme for each on, such as shades of gold or shades of green.

The rustic and informal look of a cornucopia would be ideal for a fall harvest or Thanksgiving time wedding. It would work very well in a setting like a field or a rustic barn. This would be the type of wedding where the bride wears a casual wedding dress with handmade wedding jewelry, and the bridesmaids wear rich fall tones with wedding jewelry handmade to match.

For a spring wedding, look for cornucopias in white wicker. Instead of vegetables, fill them with spring flowers. Choose a wide array of types of flowers in the whole range of pastel colors to spill forth onto the tables. Pair them with linens in fresh spring colors like lilac or pale apple green.

The cornucopia itself can be dressed up with flowers or ribbons. Sheer organza ribbons can be woven into the basket for a touch of color, or wrapped around the basket for a feminine touch. Small flowers can easily be tucked into the weave of the cornucopia to make them even prettier.

Summer is another great season to think about cornucopia wedding centerpieces. A pale basket in a natural color would look fantastic with either flowers or fruit spilling out. The fruit does not have to be strictly decorative, either. Imagine ripe strawberries as a delicious summer treat for your guests. You could even have some dipped in white chocolate. Yum!