A New Hat

I wear a lot of hats. Not the cute cloches or buckets, or even a jaunty fedora. C'mon, I have curly hair! Major hat hair problems there. No, the hats I wear are of the proverbial kind: wife, mother, teacher, chef, laundress, knitter, seamstress... the list goes on. You likely have a similar assortment in your closet.

This past week I was able to try on a new hat for size - that of wedding florist and decorator! Daunting? Yes. Intimidating? Yes. Risky? Yes. Exciting? Yes. Fun? YES YES YES!! A church member asked me and another friend to "do up" her wedding. She ordered roses, hydrangeas, and peacock feathers and left the rest up to us, for the most part. Peacock feathers! Cool, eh?

It's one thing to see all the lovely DIY wedding projects on a computer screen, but it's quite another to pull it off yourself. Neither of us had done floral arrangements before. Ever. Decorating, however, we felt much more confident with.

I won't drag you through the whole long 3-month long process we went through to get to the big day, but I will share the results. I apologize for the blurry photos. I was a bit sleep-deprived and buzzed on coffee.

blue, silver, and peacock feathers were the predominant theme - bows like this adorned the pews and church windows.

one of two floral arrangements for the sanctuary - roses, hydrangeas, and feathers! I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the bride's bouquet or any corsages or boutenniers! Everyone wore peacock feathers, some with roses, some with baby's breath and blue ribbon. We are thankful to the bald peacocks that are roaming about somewhere.

a gymnasium was transformed into a atmospheric reception hall for 300 guests - blue organza table overlays with the church's matching blue chairs (our luck!) laid out under twinkly blue-ish LED Christmas lights

here's a closeup of the stage/backdrop area - my years of set design in high school paid off! The cake went on the central table. Pretty much everything you see was scrounged out of friends' homes, including the orchid arrangement on the pedestal. One of my grandmother's brooches was pinned in the center of the rosette above the feathers! The curtain hid a big drum set and other on-the-stage uglies.

Betta fish added to the exotic feel set by the peacock feathers. Each table had a mirror, feathers, marbles, and a blue betta fish. Flower seed packets were given away to guests, hand-stamped with the couple's new peacock monogram (designed by moi). Lots of families who helped went home with a new pet! The kids loved it! And speaking of kids - there were a LOT of them at this wedding! What's better than for little ones to see a Godly couple modelled for them? All the energy from the punch and sweet tea they guzzled was released through English country dancing. All ages joined in - all ages had a blast! That's my daughter in the gold shrug - and WHO is the guy next to her?? Hmmmm....

The cake was made by another talented church member. I was surprised to see the monogram pop up here, too! Aren't those blue chocolate roses amazing? I need to sit by this woman's side and learn her art so I can add another hat to my wardrobe!