My brother-in-law and his new wife are a perfect match.  And when it came to their wedding, their personalities were evident throughout, creating a beautiful if unconventional event.  Held in the back yard of their Sedro Woolley house, it was a warm and family filled event.

The bride's dress was blue, the groom wore a skull tie and the arch was adorned with Creep, a spider/skull creature that was the first gift the bride bought the groom when they started dating.  Quirky but totally them.

 
Choosing the colors blue and purple, the bride let me design the flowers from there.  I adorned the arch, which they made, with gorgeous large purple and white tipped dahlias.  The blue was brought in with iris and additional greenery was added with hops and clematis vines.  The vases on the stands held similar flowers, with the addition of cosmos and butterfly bush.



A closer look a the arch and flowers.  Pictured are the groom and his mother, having a bit too much fun while taking pictures!



The corsages were made with these really cool purple and white dahlias.  The colors were streaks, like someone had painted them on.  Also included hops and verbena.



Dining tables were topped with vases of garden flowers: dahlia, iris, cosmos, oregano, pineapple sage and caryopteris.  I wasn't sure how the blue and purple would look together but was really pleased with the final designs.  Definitely helps to have such beautiful flowers to work with, all locally grown in Mount Vernon, WA.

Summer time finds me not only busy with weddings, but many social events happen now as well. MVHS class of 1976 held their class reunion at Carpenter Creek Winery in Mount Vernon, a beautiful location tucked against the foothills.  With no preference on flowers used or colors, I was free to design anything I liked.  What fun! The final arrangements turned out to be full on garden splendors, full of flowers and herbs and overflowing with vines.  One of my favorite looks for summer.



The main tables were rectangular in shape so I used these gorgeous green ceramic rectangular vases. The flowers and color palette fell into place when I spotted one of my favorite dahlias blooming, Bahama Mama.  It always reminds me of a sunset, with color tones of lavender, pink and yellow.  From there I used a ton of herbs, vines and other garden flowers in those colors.



Here is an overhead view of the arrangement, where you can see all the flowers used.  Dahlia, clematis vine, oregano, grasses, purple sage, lavender, salvia, echinacea, liatris, calendula and dianthus are shown.  The lavender blooms are from new french variety plants I put in my garden this spring.  They are producing the largest flower heads I have ever seen.  Super excited to continue using them in arrangements. 



Finally, several small arrangements were used at various tables.  Similar flowers were used, with the addition of the pink malva.

I had such a great time creating these arrangements and loved the final look.  Didn't really want to see them go!  Hopefully they enjoyed them as much as I did.