September 8, 2009

Hi Everyone, tonight I am sharing a picture from the wedding of my younger brother and his wife, who were married way back in April of 1997. It was a fun wedding, I was a groomsman, as well as the designer of the bridal bouquet, groom's boutonniere, the flowers my mother carried and the tossing bouquet. This was a huge wedding, evening formal with literally hundreds of guests. The floral work load would have been too much for this designer, since I had to fly in from California only two days before the wedding, and be in the wedding party. As you can see from the picture, the bridal bouquet was huge. My sister-in-law had chosen and very traditional and simple white gown with long veil train and full skirt. Like Princess Diana, this bride's dress needed a full and flowing bouquet to compliment the dimensions of the the gown. I decided on a modified crescent shape with exaggerated cascade trail of plumosus fern and Italian Ruscus. The bouquet also included miniature calla lilies, freesia, roses, stephanotis, white wax flower, myrtle, and for that special touch... tiny paper mache honey bees wired in. The honey bees were a running theme, as they also appeared in gold on the bride's china pattern, "Duke of Gloucester" by Madahita. I wired the long trials of foliage and wired in stephanotis and freesia, then inserted the wired pieces through and extra large Lomey bouquet holder. In the holder, I inserted the heavier stemmed flowers like the roses and call lilies. My mother carried and Victorian era Tussie-Mussie containing white Iris (her favorite flower) and white waxflower. The mother of the groom sort of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to making the fancy wedding plans, so I decided to give her something a bit more special than the traditional mother's corsage. Since the bouquet was so large and involved, of course I designed a nosegay with the same flowers and added orbits of bear grass and long trailing ribbon to give a good visual effect as the small bouquet flew across the ballroom over the heads of many hopeful bride's-to-be. It was a fun and meaningful wedding that I am so grateful to have been a part of.

It was a huge wedding party as well. 11 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, 2 ring bearers, and 11 groomsmen! Whew, a very long processional and recessional started and ended the ceremony.

Royal Wedding Tidbit for the day... When George, the Duke of York (future Prince of Wales and King George V) married Princess May of Teck (future Queen Mary) there were nine bridesmaids, they were nine grand-daughters and one great-grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, the reigning monarch at the time.