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More Wedding Flowers!

Posted Jun 13, 2017

I had the pleasure of doing a bouquet and boutonniere for our friends Genevieve and Will on their big day. You might recall that Genevieve baked our wedding cake, hand pies, and brought serving dishes for our wedding dinner, and helped us out with some of the catering service as well. So naturally it was a gimmee that I wanted to gift them wedding flowers! She told me she wanted purple with some white and green and that gave me free range to style up something lovely. I went to a local market the day before and picked out all the flowers, came home, prepped them and started building the arrangements. Drop off the next morning, and it was fun to see all together at the reception. The lovely bride told me she had so many compliments on them which was fantastic!

Here’s what I did! Flowers: dark purple statice, purple freesia, white roses, white snapdragons, lavender tulips, mini hydrangeas, leather leaf fern. I wrapped the stems of the bouquet in green ribbon and then a sweet vintage hankie. 3 shades of purple along with the white, dark green, and the limey green of the mini hydrangeas really made the monochromatic purples work! I just love how it turned out and was so happy to be working with flowers again!

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WEDDING Food and Drink and more Decor!

By lisaprice

In wedding, wedding weekend

Posted Dec 14, 2016

And now for wedding food and drink and a bit more decor! We wanted to have high quality delicious nourishments for friends and family. We like good food, local food, and handcrafted food. So, in honor of falling in love over tacos we had Donkey Taqueria here in Grand Rapids bring in the good stuff! It’s a favorite place of ours, if you haven’t been there you should go! We had 2 types of tacos, the potato for our veggie friends and pork carnitas for the carnivores, plus salad, rice, vegan beans, and let’s not forget the chips and guacamole for cocktail hour. SO good! The great thing about all this deliciousness is that you could make them up just the way you wanted so it really catered to all the friends and family, from vegan to vegetarian, to gluten free, everyone was super happy and thrilled when they discovered the menu. We’re talking seconds and people admitting to going up for thirds, ha.

Thank goodness Cat took a pic of her food plate, doesn’t this look SO good! Yummmm!!! All served on vintage dishes!

Oh my gosh, I LOVED how these all looked together. Here’s a close up of a couple more neutral vintage plates, vintage silverware, glasses, and my giant collection of vintage napkins sure came in handy!

Here’s a look at one of our settings. We moved the picnic tables provided by the venue into several neat rows, styling them with vintage dishes, my milk glass vases down the middle with our home grown zinnias, and fern leaves as the table runner. It was the perfect blend of color, vintage, and woodsy warmth for our fall wedding. As I mentioned before, dishes, and all sorts of vintage props can be rented from Deanna at Gypsy Soul Antiques! We sure had fun picking out all these gorgeous pieces!!!! You’ll love working with her!

And for drink we had a couple of amazing beers from Greyline Brewery. One of the smallest yet really the best brewery in all of Grand Rapids, or Michigan for that matter. It’s run by our talented friends, there’s no one that knows beer better, a la Nate Walser, supreme beer master. If you know anything about beer you just had an exclamation point go off inside your head. Go visit Greyline and you’ll find a cool old mid century style building on the NW side with sophisticated chill decor, great food, and lots of brew to choose from! And needless to say, our beer loving friends were QUITE pleased with the drink option. We also had some wine at the wedding, and coffee served up in my grandma’s 40 cup percolator and in vintage cups and saucers. I had a pic of the little kegs inside of the vintage laundry tubs but I can’t find it! They fit quite nicely and right into our decor!

Here’s a shot of the sewing machine bar that held coffee, wine, cups, and cups for beer. Deanna and Doug created this piece just for me with vintage sewing machine tables on each end and an old door in the middle. How fitting, wouldn’t ya say!

A little cake close up, loving the doilies, and there’s a peek at the pies. I used some vintage yardage I had a bolt of for the table to add a little color and vintage style. I see the table is ready to intercept the taco goods here too 🙂 Oh and how cute is the cake on the large jadeite stand!

Now, let’s talk cake! Our talented friend Genevieve made a darling little carrot cake for us, yummy! I purchased some orange doilies made of sugar for some simple decor on the outside and used a little handmade ceramic cake topper I purchased years and years ago in the early Etsy days from a store called Melabo. Simple and sweet! In addition, Genevieve made some hand pies, oh my, SO good! They flew off the table as I knew they would! I loved having little pies at the wedding. As you may know I find pie quite sentimental, as I’ve posted before, I used to make pies with my grandma growing up and her rolling pin and pastry cutter are among my prize possessions. We also had more of those delicious apple fritter holes we had at the brunch, heaven. You should also take this opportunity to check out Genevieve’s CSA here in GR, Save the Season. AND she’s the chef at Life Fuel, a healthy meal service here. She’s one smart talented lady!

So pretty! The jadeite stand from Deanna at Gypsy Soul is the perfect piece to display the cake!

It’s SO appropriate that the pic of these hand pies is a little blurry. They went FAST! Apple, cherry, and blueberry, that’s what my grandma used to make for us three kids. I love it so much!

Now here’s a little takeaway we made. My mom and I and then my mom and dad canned delicious little jars of homemade marmalade using my grandma’s recipe. Another little way to bring her into my day. I then cut little pieces of vintage fabric for inside the lids.

And here’s a shot of our head table. I wanted something different and a little special of course. We were seated in front of the gorgeous stone fire place, bunting and a paper flower accented it while a sweet framed vintage print of 2 orioles sat on the fireplace. I styled 2 vintage fiberglass Herman Miller chairs from home into the mix, just the right color! We had a small table we could easily get in and out of, a feature floral arrangement, and a thrifted orange sheet worked perfectly under the vintage doily plastic lace tablecloth we got together at an estate sale. Lovely delicate features setting our table off from the rest. I also styled a small table for family with a vintage tablecloth and special floral arrangements.

Here’s a fave pic of us.

All in all it was the most beautiful relaxed day filled with great food, drink, dear friends, and family, and most of all love.

I adore this pic, surrounded by the beauty of nature in a quiet spot away from it all. We look forward to the future together. Growing like these beautiful trees in the ever changing landscape of life.

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Wedding attire and accessories!

By lisaprice

In events, wedding, wedding weekend

Posted Nov 17, 2016

Wedding attire… Well, here’s what we did. We established our color scheme, girls in navy and guys in navy with touches of brown, orange, etc. We then gave our party free range on their attire with those simple instructions. We certainly wanted to feel like ourselves and we also wanted our wedding party to be comfortable and reflect their own style. Everyone looked amazing! It was super fun to see all of our favorite people looking so gorgeous and awesome! Some of us did have a little help with hair and makeup from the amazing, talented, and awesome Rebecca Gohl. We got engaged and I quite immediately messaged her to see if she was available on our date! She was, I’m not even kidding when I say I would have changed to the date if she was not, that is how good she is. I had also previously hired her for Naomi when my brother Stephen and her got married.

Here we are with our wedding party on a gorgeous and warm late September day. And yes, I had a bro-maid in my bridal party. Forget the traditional rules, we did what we wanted and it was great!

Now let’s talk about our attire. Stephan and I both felt like shopping for a suit and traditional wedding dress didn’t quite feel right. SO here’s what we did, we added wedding attire to the list of our usual thrift store runs and we picked up a nice menagerie of mix and match pieces for him. We ended up spending a whopping $15 on his outfit, and another $35 on some sweet shoes on clearance. He looked great, like himself, and I think honestly like he fell out of a late 70’s JCPenney catalog in this pic, perfection!

Now onto me, a much more difficult case. I’m not a fan of clothes shopping. I never like anything, it’s too expensive, it doesn’t fit right, never fits my bust, annoying, ick ick ick. I knew I needed to start right away. I scoured the mall looking at formal dresses, more casual white dresses with a 60s vibe, hit a couple of big bridal boutiques, thrifts of course, and I was coming up short. I didn’t really like anything or what I kinda liked was of course waaay too expensive and also not available in time, I was also re-confirming I didn’t like all white. I then purchased a dress on clearance that was way too big and was going to have it remade, but couldn’t find a place I was comfortable with. Then, a friend of ours told us about a lady opening up a new shop in South Bend, Indiana. It’s called Hourglass Bridal. She specializes in custom and sample gowns, works with all sizes, and everything in the shop was under $700. I immediately scheduled an appointment and my mom, our friend Judy, and I had all the time we needed as Angie schedules individually. I liked 2 gowns, the fit of one was perfect but too traditional and also white, the other had the elements and color I was looking for, so I ended up ordering a custom gown combining the two, and the kicker is it came in in less than 2 months, and was $470!!! Yes, a custom wedding dress under $500 in less than 2 months, worth saying again. I’m telling you the price because it’s insane as far as wedding dresses go, especially custom. Anything even close to this already in the store would seriously be at least $1200. Angie also has an amazing seamstress she works with, Diane, of Diane’s Sewing in Osceola, IN. Amazing work, amazing price! These 2 ladies are gems and really really know what they are doing! Go see them if you’re in the market for a wedding dress, formal dress, or need alterations. It’s worth the drive, trust me. And another great perk, I was able to support 2 awesome small independent businesses as well!

Here I am super happy and excited! I love how the dress turned out.

Accessories: Cute shoe pic, yep.

I grabbed these sorta late 60s early 70s looking shoes at Nordstrom rack, and then I nabbed a vintage gold clutch at the thrift store. I made a hair comb for myself with some family items. Grandma’s comb, a blue leaf from her hat, a button of her’s, and a handmade doily from the Price side. I purchased a small off white silk rose and sewed it all together. I wore a string of pearls that was an add a pearl necklace given to me by my cousin. I entwined it with a set of my grandma Price’s baby rings that were made into a necklace and given to me long ago.

And I also sewed a ring bearer pillow out of some fabric from my grandma’s, and the fake rings were from my parents wedding pillow.

And by now you may know I’m a sentimental sap. I adore meaningful things, things with stories, and items with family history. So, when we got engaged I had an idea about my ring, and since I’m not much of a jewelry person it was extra important to me to have something very special and sentimental to wear forever. My grandma Price had her wedding and engagement ring made into another ring after my grandfather passed away. I’ve had her ring for sometime and have worn it on a couple of very special occasions. I wanted to have it remade into something that felt more like me, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go. Over the years I’ve seen the work that’s come out of Metal Art Studio here in Grand Rapids. I knew they would do a great job and create something I would love and treasure forever. So I had my grandma’s ring lovingly remade. Before on the left, after on the right. I need a better camera with a micro lense, I can’t do this ring justice. It’s way more beautiful in person! They created a modern twig engagement ring with offset large diamond and 6 tiny diamonds on the band, and then my wedding band in the same pattern with small diamonds is attached to the diamond creating the illusion that it goes through. I wanted a modern looking bezel set ring, with a natural element, with the diamond lowered so I wouldn’t catch on things with my busy hands! I just love it!

And finally here we are together! Taking a little walk in the wildflowers. What’s so sweet about this pic is that Stephan had leaned down and picked a little dried flower pod and is holding it in his hand. It was such a beautiful happy loving day in so many ways!

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WEDDING FLOWERS!

By lisaprice

In events, Uncategorized, wedding, wedding weekend

Posted Oct 27, 2016

Turns out I was super optimistic about all the things I could get done while recovering from a major surgery, like blogging, or thank you cards. Stephan and I just happily celebrated 1 month of married life while I’ve been on the mend! I’ve decided the best way to talk wedding details is in segments. SO, let’s talk one of my faves, wedding flowers! What does a lady do when she’s the one who usually designs the flowers?!? There’s no time to do them all, well maybe I could have squeezed that in magically but there were plenty of other things to do and enjoy like rehearsals, hair and makeup, and time with out of town family and friends, and then the relaxing. I picked the flowers out, ordered them up, and wrote recipes for the bouquets. Then, my trusty and super amazing friend Michele stepped up and did an outstanding job! We went and picked them up together, spent a little time prepping, and she took the reigns. I knew I was in great hands so it was easy to relax! Besides being an awesome friend, Michele is a talented artist and curator, check some of her work out here and while yer at it, check out the shows she curates at Kendall College of Art and Design if you’re in GR! Thanks to Michele and Cat for capturing a lot of these pics too!

Here’s what I did for some simple, colorful, and affordable decor. These tissue paper flowers, I LOVE them! They come in a bunch of different sizes and colors. I had a great time putting them together with part of my wedding party! I also selected orange tissue paper scalloped bunting, I do have a thing for scallops. It was a great way to pack a lot of color and punch to the walls, entrances, and our door backdrop!

Detail of our door backdrop. The doors are rentable from Gypsy Soul Antiques. I love the addition of the orange scalloped bunting and the 2 colors of flowers, so pretty! And I love that you can see through the doors to the the park and pathway, a lovely setting. And there’s our little love tree for our unity ceremony. I slip covered the bottom in some vintage fabric, we used vintage glassware to hold the dirt, and it sat atop a little vintage folding tray.

Let’s talk centerpieces! I gathered up about 45 vintage milk glass vases from thrift stores abound. Each table got 3 vases, a few other arrangements were strategically placed, and the head table had larger milk glass vases waiting for the bridesmaids bouquets. Now, I often advise not growing your own flowers because well they can be temperamental as far as growing season, you need to pick the freshest of the fresh, etc. BUT we grew 95 feet of gorgeous zinnias from seed at a friend of ours place! They were stunning all lined up and blooming. They actually started blooming several weeks early, but we were in great shape for picking, AND we had a back up plan with a local farm so we knew we were all good. We picked up seed packets in all the appropriate colors and they were just the pop of color I had imagined! Plus we had fun planting and pre wedding harvesting together! After the rehearsal brunch a couple of my bridesmaids assisted me with the centerpieces and BAM they were done! A big thanks Mary and Toby for being the best flower growers in the land! xo

The bouquets! Orange, yellow, and green was the theme to repeat the wall decor and pop with the ladies navy dresses. I couldn’t actually get the green eyed yellow roses I really wanted from my wholesaler, but I replaced with yellow roses saving a little loot in the end. SO, yellow roses, orange roses, orange spray roses, kermit pomps, trick dianthus, ferns leaves, fennel from our yard (another win and money saver) PLUS yellow freesia, kangaroo paw, and hosta leaves for my bouquet and the special boutonnieres and corsages. I loved the punch of color the flowers gave and it was a great early fall color combo.

Michele’s busy feet taking a rest as we look down on the ladies bouquets. So pretty!

And here’s what it looks like when you put 15 gigantic ferns and 20 mums in a mini van. My best pal Cat and I had some fun in greenhouse land.

Here’s where the mums went. I used them to perfectly mark the aisle! I loved the little daisy style in white with just a subtle yellow center. A sweet and perfect path for our early fall wedding. We had a short ceremony so we chose to forgo chair rental and anchored the front with 2 vintage benches for family and special guests.

FERNS! I could NOT wait to see this vision in real life! A dozen giant ferns were hung from the beams of the venue. We also used fern leaves as table runners. What a lovely lodge building with giant wrap around porch, beautiful natural park setting, wildflowers, and all the things you need at a crazy good price might I add! Johnson Park is really a great spot! I just love these ferns and what they did to the room, some orange lanterns hung in between, some lights, and voila, magical! AND super thanks to amazing and awesome friends for doing a slam dunk job at setting up our wedding. It was hard to not be a part of the setup as I’m just so used to dreaming up the vision and then physically making or setting it up. I did do plan-o-grams to make it as easy and clear as possible and they really knocked it out of the park! Thank you friends!

Another view looking up, so pretty! I just can’t live without color, plants, and green, these FERNS! More on the blog soon- we’ve got more decor, food, details, and the dress to cover still!

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Flower Power Weekend

By lisaprice

In flowers, Uncategorized, wedding

Posted Apr 18, 2012

This past weekend I spent immersed in gorgeous blooms! Floral design has always been an avid interest of mine. In fact, most of you don’t know that this was my career plan after college. I worked at several floral places during college and a couple after. I’ve helped dear friends style their weddings and design bouquets and such over the years, so when the opportunity arose to do my largest event yet I jumped at the chance! So here’s the story of 30 centerpieces, 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, 2 wrist corsages, a cake topper, and a bunch of pretty little vases for things like cocktail hour and the gift table. You can imagine that quite a bit of planning goes into something like this! And of course, having a trusty assistant helps too! I had forgotten how much I love working with flowers! I hope I get to do it again soon!

7 am the day before the wedding, the car is getting loaded with oodles of flowers at the wholesaler.

Back home and thirsty flowers are quickly unpacked from boxes and into buckets.

Further processing gets you dethorned roses and stems stripped of leaves. Now let the real work begin! Well, almost, there was a 2 hour delay as we waited for the delivery of the cream ranunculus, which was of course in everything!

Centerpieces are starting to pile up on one of the work tables. I think I had about 11 to go at this point.

Whew! 30 centerpieces done and all loaded up for delivery Friday night. 4 elevator trips later, and they were all in place! Back home and onto the bouquets!

Oh and don’t forget the pretty little vases for the gift and reception table!

9 pm. Bridesmaids bouquets are done and will wait until morning to get their stems wrapped in ribbon. Some more work and calling it quits at 10. Good nights sleep needed here!

One of the guys boutonnieres. The groom has double spray roses and an extra little gift attached from the bride.

5 am Saturday, morning of the wedding, up and at em! Wrist corsages-check, cake topper-check, bouquets wrapped-check! By 7am I was ready for breakfast and to get myself ready for delivery and the wedding of course!

The gorgeous happy couple! Congrats to Alison and Rob 4-14-12!

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