One of last week’s weddings took us to St. Bernadette in Monroeville, where we met Leaann Marie of Leann Marie Photography for the first time.  She was nice enough to let us use some of her photos here (they’re much better than the ones we take), and she has some more photos posted at Navy Blue & Green Wedding Details | Lee & Brian.

The bride’s bouquet was a hand-tied arrangement of green hydrangea, green hypericum berries, white spray roses, white roses and white freesia.  The bridesmaids’ bouquets were hand tied bouquets made from green hydrangea, green hypericum berries, green pomps and white roses.  Click the photo below for a larger version.

One we arrived at Oakmont, we had to laugh at the appropriately themed groom’s cake (click the photo for a larger version).  Setup was underway for the 2010 LPGA U.S. Open, so the historic course was bustling with activity.

Not to worry, Lee ordered a very classic stacked four tier wedding cake, which we adorned with more green hydrangea, green pomps and green hypericum berries.  Click the photo for a larger version.

The centerpieces were elegantly simple—a single head of green hydrangea in a large bubble bowl, surrounded by candles.  Click the photo for a larger version.

One cool part of Oakmont’s historic banquet hall is the fireplace with mantle on one wall.  The mantle was put to good use, as a showplace for the bouquets during the reception (click the photo for a larger version).  Some of the greatest golf champions have dined in this hall, but tonight all eyes were on the bride.

DJ’ing the wedding was our longtime pal Bob Pfeifer of Pifemaster Productions, who provides his recap and yet some more photos at Brian and Lee Stecko Wedding.  Good thing Lee likes to smile!

As we set up a wedding, we can tell when we've done a good job by the comments from the serving staff and others in the venue.  While we were setting up a recent wedding at The Edgeworth Club, a little girl walked onto the balcony overlooking the dining area and exclaimed "Wow!"  That made our day, and pretty much summed up what people thought about the flowers.

As guests passed through the foyer, they were greeted by a large arrangement of hydrangea, dendrobium orchids, pink peonies, pink garden roses, hot pink roses, peach spray roses, curly willow and mixed greenery placed in the curve of the club's beautiful spiral staircase.

Guests found their seating cards under a lush arrangement of white hydrangea, pink peonies, hot pink roses, orange spray roses, curly willow and mixed greenery in a cut crystal vase.

Prior to the reception, guests enjoyed cocktails in two rooms outside the banquet hall.  The living room was decorated with a centerpiece of pink stock, hot pink roses, white hydrangea, orange spray roses and pink peonies in a crystal vase.

The bar area was decorated with arrangements of white hydrangea, pink peonies, hot pink roses and orange spray roses in crystal bowls.

Guest tables were adorned with either high or low centerpiece.  High centerpieces were made of white hydrangea, pink peonies, pink garden roses, hot pink roses, orange spray roses and pink stock.  The entire arrangement was placed on top of a pilsner vase, with a single hot pink rose inside.

Low centerpieces were comprised of white hydrangea, pink peonies, pink roses, hot pink roses, orange spray roses and pink stock in a crystal bowl.

Designs for this wedding were created by Polly Berginc, AIFD.

Some of our favorite weddings we've been a part of have been held at the Butler Country Club.  We blogged  Butler Country Club as one of our Featured Locations in 2006 (http://www.bloomeryweddings.com/blog/FeaturedLocationButlerCountryClub.aspx), and two of the three weddings in their photo gallery were ours (one of which we also featured as our Hydrangea, Stock And Peach Rose Centerpieces).

The Club recently updated its wedding information page, including menu and bar selections.  This is a great opportunity to have your wedding in an elegant hall with top notch chefs and bartenders at your service (trust us, the food is fantastic).

Also, we'd like to congratulate the Club on its 100th anniversary this year!

One of the cool things about Greystone Fields is just how versatile the room is.  We've done a number of weddings there, and each time the room seems to adapt itself to the decor.  In one of our recent weddings, our bride wanted some very earthy, organic elements at her place settings and for decorations.  Our bride put a lot of effort into room decorations

The bride carried a hand tied bouquet of orange flame mini calla lilies (approx. price $120-$135).  Orange flame is very similar to mango, and is great for summer or autumn weddings.  The red edges and bright orange flowers pop against the light green stems, and the characteristic shape of each flower gives the bouquet a unique look.  Bridesmaids carried simple arm bouquets of several white calla lilies ($20-$30 each).

Centerpieces were composed of multiple elements, placed on a moss mat and accented with a green votive candle.  One of the floral elements was a cylinder vase filled with Bells of Ireland and dried twigs, with lily grass swirled inside the vase.  A second element was an orb of Kermit pomps perched on top of a shorter cylinder vase, with an aspidistra leaf wrapped inside.  The third element was a low bowl of orange roses and Kermit pomps, inserted into moss.

For the final element of the centerpiece, our bride made table number holders from twigs with dried leaves, and named each table for a type of plant.

The head table was adorned with three large bowls of orange roses, Kermit pomps and votive candles inserted into moss, sitting on a bed of moss and eucalyptis.  Vases of Bells of Ireland identical to those in the centerpieces were placed at each end of the head table.

Guests were greeted by a large orb of white carnations with placecards radiating outward, all resting on a bed of moss.  The driver was so thrilled to be transporting the carnation orb!

We've been a part of a number of other weddings at Greystone Fields, and we'll be posting more from those in the future.

Our manager Polly's neice was married recently, and as you can imagine, they chose beautiful flowers for their wedding and reception.  Polly designed and created the arrangements herself, but she said we could post them here as an example of her work.

Greeting the guests on the guest card table was a gardeny style arrangement of pink peonies, pink roses, pink spray roses and lavender waxflower.

The bride's bouquet was a lush hand tied arrangement of pink peonies, pink roses, pink and hot pink spray roses, lavender lilacs and blue salvia.

The head table arrangement was an absolute garden of pink peonies, pink and hot pink roses, pink snapdragons, white stock, pink carnations and lavender waxflower.

Guest tables were adorned with elevated centerpieces made with pink peonies, pink roses, pink spray roses and lavender waxflower (the bases are now available to rent for your wedding centerpieces).

Not to be left out, the bar was decorated with arrangements of pink peonies, pink roses, pink carnations and lavender waxflower in the same rustic container used for the centerpiece bases.

Araujo Photography has a preview video on their blog, where you can see more of the flowers and the beautiful Club at Nevillewood (gorgeous photography!).  Although the father of the bride is one of the inventors of the Frank Former, Hot Dog Man was not on the menu this night.

Our bouquet this time is a lush hand-tied bouquet of pink peonies, pink roses and pink spray roses.  This combination produced a soft, Victorian look, classic and timeless.  Approximate price, $145-$160.  Bouquet photo courtesy of Creative Imagez Photography Studio.

The stems were wrapped with a simple ribbon, and for a personal touch, a brooch of the bride's initial was attached to the ribbon.

The bridesmaids carried hand tied bouquets made of white hydrangea, pink roses, pink spray roses and lavender waxflower (approximate price $65-$75).

As with the bridal bouquet, each bridesmaid's bouquet was adorned with a brooch of her initial.

Centerpieces were made from the same flowers as the bridesmaids' bouquets, in rectangular glass vases surrounded by pink rose petals.  The reception was held at Westwood Golf Club.  Westwood was private, but is now a public course and the banquet facilities are now available to everyone.  Vickie sets a beautiful table, as you can see below.  Centerpiece photo courtesy of Creative Imagez.

This is also the wedding where we first met Hoffer's Video Productions, who as it turns out, live practically right across the street from our shop.  Funny how we had to go to Munhall to meet neighbors in our small town!

One of today's weddings took us back to Heinz Chapel, and then our first trip of this year to LeMont Pittsburgh. LeMont Pittsburgh is a AAA Four Diamond restaurant, and if the outstanding food and service aren't enough, there's always "the view".  Perched atop Mt. Washington on Grandview's restaurant row, LeMont Pittsburgh offers one of the most picturesque views of any city anywhere.  At right is a view of downtown Pittsburgh taken from LeMont's lower dining room, where our wedding reception was being held.  LeMont's home page has an almost identical view taken at night.
The wedding cake was white fondant with chocolate fondant bands, and did it smell good!  We added the circus roses and petals.
Centerpieces were made from white hydrangea, circus roses, hypericum and eucalyptis in a cube vase.  How about an elegant place setting overlooking downtown Pittsburgh?
If the Steelers are more your style, simply turn your head the other way, and your wedding guests overlook the Ohio River and Heinz Field.  Bottles of wine with personalized labels were favors for adults.  The children received small boxes of chocolates.

Note: Click the thumbnails for a larger view.  The top photo is taken looking north-ish.  The Monongehela is the river toward the bottom of the photo, the Allegheny is coming from the north.    The Ohio River starts right at the fountain, and the star shaped thing slightly to the right of the fountain is historical Ft. Pitt.  The bridge in the foreground is the Ft. Pitt Bridge.

We’re featuring two locations in one this time (yes, this was a Thursday night wedding—Thursday is the new Friday).  The ceremony was held at Heinz Memorial Chapel, and featured a hand-tied bridal bouquet of white oriental lilies.

The bridesmaids carried arm bouquets made of white roses, white cymbidium orchids and white freesia.

The flowergirl carried a tiny bouquet of white cymbidium orchids.

The reception was held in the majestic Mozart Room at Heinz Hall, where we met Tony Lee from Truffles & Flourishes Catering.

Centerpieces were simple vases of two dozen Black Magic roses, surrounded by the petals of an additional 6 roses. (note: when we compress these images, the dark red gets lightened a bit--we apologize, but if we didn't compress the images, they'd take forever to load)

The sweetheart table was a romantic setting covered with red rose petals and votive candles, set in the middle of the dining area.

For our first Featured Location, we want to share a beautiful rustic barn just north of Pittsburgh.  Betsy's Barn is part of Cheeseman Farm (warning: site plays music), located just off I-79 and Rt. 19 in Portersville, PA.  Betsy’s Barn is an authentic post barn, located amongst green fields and rolling hills.  In the photo below, a bar/buffet tent has been set up outside the barn.

The other side of Betsy’s Barn features a gazebo for relaxing, or in the case of our recent wedding, a place for a small ceremony.

Inside the barn, our bride wanted an elegant yet rustic look.  She attained the elegant part with floor linens, chair covers and sashes and fan-folded linen napkins. 

Her centerpieces were placed on squares of green gingham fabric and featured white hydrangea loosely arranged in mason jars (decorated with a handmade apple cutout), accented with small baskets of apples.  To help keep our bride’s costs down, we simply provided buckets of loose hydrangea, and she and her helpers assembled the centerpieces when they set up other parts of her reception.

For this wedding, Betsy’s antique buggy held a chapel-shaped card box.  In a previous wedding, this same buggy was the candy buggy.

The head table was arranged in a U-shape, and featured the same green gingham runners as the guest table centerpieces. 

In the middle of the U was a stunning cake fondant cake decorated with gum-paste flowers from Carol’s Cakes in Ambridge, PA (warning: site plays music).  We could smell this cake when we were taking the close-up photos of the head table, and it smelled wonderful!

Head table arrangements were made in small crates, and featured white hydrangea, pink roses, green hypericum and red and green apples.  In front of the couple was a larger arrangement, while two smaller ones were in front of the bridal party.

The bridesmaid bouquets wwere hand-tied arrangements made of white hydrangea and green hypericum berries.

The bridal bouquet was a hand-tied arrangement made from the same white hydrangea, green hypericum and pink roses as in the head table arrangements.

This month's featured bouquet is a tale of beautiful flowers in a beautiful setting.  The wedding was held at Laube Hall in Freeport, PA.  The guests sat with a gorgeous view of the Allegheny River and Freeport Bridge.

The bride's bouquet was a hand-tied bouquet and featured light blue hydrangea, white agapanthus, Bells of Ireland, white roses and white lisianthus.

Guests were seated on the lower patio, and columns were decorated with arrangements of light blue hydrangea, blue delphinium, white roses, white carnations, Bells of Ireland, and greenery.

To complete their outdoor altar, the couple rented our colonnade, pedestals and ferns, and added beautiful urns featuring the same flowers as the column pieces.

In case anyone is looking for Laube Hall in Freeport, PA, we can tell you that Internet maps don't know what they're taling about.  Laube Hall is located in the Freeport Community Park, which is only a couple minutes out of town on High St.  If your directions don't involve Community Park Rd., don't follow them.  Buffalo Valley Country Club is adjacent to the Freeport Community Park.  Even Google Maps has the location slightly north of reality (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=freeport+community+park+freeport,+pa&ie=UTF8&ll=40.709337,-79.67165&spn=0.021373,0.039568&om=1).  If you follow the link, you'll have to scroll the map up slightly to see the park.

Tags: blue hydrangea | white agapanthus | white roses | hand tied | bridal bouquet | Bells of Ireland | white lisianthus | The Bloomery | Bloomery Weddings | Butler Florist | Pittsburgh wedding florist