A wedding preview

I spent last week preparing for our last wedding of the year. Want to see a sneak peek?

It was a fabulous barn wedding and the perfect wedding to finish off 2014.

As with most weddings, this one was all about the flowers. The bride knew exactly what she wanted and we worked hard to deliver ...

The wedding took place at Strawberry Farms Golf Course in Irvine, California. It is a lovely setting for a fall wedding.

The ceremony took place on the lawn ...

We set up an area on the side of the barn for cocktails ...

And the guests dined and danced inside the barn.

It was a beautiful day and the perfect wedding. I can barely wait to show you the professional photos!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone - I hope you can find some time to relax ... I know I am in need of a little break!

Painted pumpkins, Fall flowers and a new chalk paint

It took me a while but I am embracing the change over to Fall - the colors that is (I am not loving the late sunrise and the early sunset!). 

I got out the paint brushes and had a little fun with some pumpkins this week. The warty ones are natural.

I used black spray paint, acrylic paint for the reddish-orange one and a new paint I found at Michael's for the blue one. It is by Americana Decor and is called Chalky Finish. It is similar to Annie Sloan's chalk paint and just like hers, there is no prep needed (my kind of paint!). 

It comes in a nice variety of colors and I found this chart that shows you how to custom mix even more colors:

I picked up a small 8 oz. jar of the color, Vintage, for $5.39 (40% off $8.99 with my downloaded phone coupon) and and used about a fourth of the jar to paint a chair I am working on for the wedding next month.

While the paintbrush was still wet I decided to throw some paint on one of the pumpkins I had. You can see it dried a bit more blue than the jar shows. 

I love that the blue is a pop of unexpected color ...

I used this paint for the gold stems.

I picked up some yellow Ilex to bring a little color inside the house too.

And this book came in the mail yesterday. You will LOVE it!

Ah, Fall. The year's last loveliest smile. 

Lindsay Letters

And it is Friday! That is definitely something to smile about. Happy weekend everyone!

Flowers for a princess, new pillows and my temporary office

I took a friend to lunch at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles yesterday (now that is a post in itself!!!) and on the way I stopped in at the flower mart to pick up some flowers ...

 

Because this little princess is turning three on Saturday and she is having a little bash.

Don't you wish you had natural ringlets like this?

I made some sweet arrangements to go on the dining tables ...

 And there will be plenty of cupcakes.

My youngest daughter (she is such a good auntie!) is taking out all the green sprinkles to get ready to decorate them. No green sprinkles allowed ... this party is all pink!

 And speaking of pink, I have a new pillow order I am working on.

 The fabrics are from Duralee, Pindler and Kravet. They will be going in this room:

I presented the first inspiration board (you can see it here) with orange accents and the client asked for pink instead. The teal ottoman was her favorite, but it was just a conceptual piece that I had found on Olioboard. But today, it showed up on my Facebook page saying I might be interested to know that it was being sold on One King's Lane. For $369. Nice! (Scary that my research is being tracked, but it was quite convenient!)

Elliot Velvet Cocktail Ottoman | One King's Lane

Arden Charcoal Rug | Lulu & Georgia

The rug is on its way, the media cabinet is installed, and this lamp is on it's way:

Navaeh Turquoise Lamp | Lulu & Georgia

Progress always makes me smile. Another thing I am smiling about is that we have a house full of kids right now. One is staying for a while and the others are visiting. To make room, we needed to make a few adjustments and so temporarily I moved my office out into the living room. It is not permanent, but it works for now. 

In fact, it is kind of fun being out in the middle of everything ...

And the view is great! Have a happy weekend everyone! 

Wedding bouquets and centerpieces

The wedding was, as the bride said, "magical". The night before, with the help of my assistant and a good friend, I made 21 centerpieces, 16 mason jar arrangements to go on the ceremony chairs, a dozen arrangements to use around both venues, and two bouquets; one for the bride and one for her sister who was her maid of honor. 

The lace is from the bride's mother's wedding dress.

Although I was worried about the flowers staying just the way I wanted them (I had visions of all the petals falling off the roses), they did well. I kept them in my refrigerator as long as possible.

 

I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out.

 I should have the professional photos to share soon ... aren't they a stunning couple?