If you ordered stickr seals with your wedding invitations, you traditionally place them on the back of the envelope, so the center of the seal is right at the point of the flap.  In the days before envelopes with the glue already applied, not to mention stickers, this is the location wax was dripped and stamped with some sort of monogram or motif to hold the envelope closed.  In many cases these days, stickers have replaced wax seals, but wax seals are sometimes still used on formal wedding invitations, just for that Victorian look.

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.

If you’re having an outdoor wedding, one way to add a lot of decoration at a reasonable price is to use hanging baskets.  Early in the summer, retail baskets are usually small so they’ll last through the summer.  Late in the summer, you may have trouble finding baskets you like, and retail baskets may be strung out.  You could buy your own baskets at the beginning of the season, but then you’re left to care for a large number of hanging baskets—you’ll need to protect them from summer storms, water and fertilize them, and be sure to trim the plants as they grow so the baskets are lush and full for your wedding day.  That’s a lot of work if you don’t have the right facilities!

One option some local growers (such as Crighton’s Florist & Greenhouses in Prospect, PA) offer is to custom grow hanging baskets for your wedding.  Professional growers will keep your baskets safely in their greenhouses, using a proper water and fertilizer mix for lush growth.  Professional growers know how to trim back the vines and faded flowers (remember that each plant variety has a different flowering cycle) to ensure the plants are in fill bloom for your special day.  The baskets in the photo below are some of the 20 being grown for an August wedding at Butler Country Club.  These particular baskets will feature white petunias, white bacopa, sweet potato vine, as well as some other grasses and vines in a cocoa lined basket.  There is such a variety of colors of plants that can be used in hanging baskets that almost any color scheme could be matched or complemented.  Work with the grower early in your planning so ensure the best selection of plants and the timing of your baskets.

After your reception is over, the hanging baskets could be given away to your guests (as with centerpieces), or could be used as gifts for your bridal party and parents.

Pantone has released its Premier Vision report for Winter 2006/2007 at http://www.pantone.com/products/products.asp?idArticle=801&idArea=14.  Quoting from their website:

While the last few seasons have been a lavish display of color the news for Winter 2006/07 is that color is now taking on a different appearance. The color palettes seen at Premier Vision focused on the importance of using color in a more tempered manner. From a design standpoint fabric becomes a key focus for next season. While clothing shapes return in simplicity, the colors and materials used will help define the newness and interest.

For fall 2005 fashion in Europe was anything but uninformed or conventional. From a color standpoint there was a definite softening of the palettes and there was much more emphasis paid to solids, monochromes or simple multi-color application.

(we think "fall 2005" is a typo)

Styling your wedding after these reports is not for the faint of heart.  But the bride looking to be ahead of the curve in style and fashion might find this information more contemporary than the big bridal magazines.  We've seen the time lag from Pantone report and early trendsetters to mass market at about 2 years.  With that in mind, you can expect the color schemes and fabrics to be on the everyday racks for winter 2008.

Replacements for the traditional guestbook have been gaining in popularity over the past few years.  One of the most popular has been the guestbook platter—a large porcelain platter which guests can sign and the couple can display more easily than a traditional guestbook.  These platters make a great accent to a dining room table, or can be mounted on the wall of a room.  We’ve seen them in many shapes, and often these were difficult to find or expensive.  Recently, Cathy’s Concepts began offering affordable platters, and we’re happy to make them our Featured Accessory this time.  These platters are available in two sizes; the smaller one can hold 75–100 signatures, and the larger one can hold 200–250 signatures.  Each kit also includes the special permanent pen and care instructions.

Find the Guest Book Platter at http://www.bloomeryweddings.com/detail.asp?product_id=3005.

 Tags: Bloomery Weddings | guestbook | guestbook platter | butler florist | The Bloomery | Pittsburgh wedding florist

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

Scott Adams, the guy who draws the Dilbert comic strip, is getting married.  And he’s blogging about it.  Almost as a follow-up to our Stick to the List post, Scott talks about actually creating the wedding registry:

One of the curses of wedding planning is the whole gift-giving dilemma. This is especially acute for people like my fiancée and me because for us, all material goods fall into one of these categories.

1. Already have it
2. Don’t need it
3. Too expensive for a gift
4. What the hell is it?

Also in the planning stages now are the wedding favors:

Apparently the point of the wedding favors is to avoid embarrassing ourselves in front of the Pope or Martha Stewart or whoever else we invited. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any of my friends or family that would judge us by the quality of the wedding favors, as in “I kind of liked them until the whole bottle-opener-with-a-bow incident.”

And although the next statement starts another thought about wedding favors, it’s a sentiment a lot of grooms-to-be can apply to a lot of the wedding planning process:

My theory – already judged unhelpful...

Guys, raise your hand if you've been there.  That's a lot of hands.

Birchcraft has added 92 new invitations to our on-line store at http://yourinvitationplace.com/bloomeryweddings.  There are now 340 invitations on the site, which features on-line ordering with full preview before you order.  The website doesn’t feature every invitation Birchcraft offers, just a selection of the most popular ones.  We have 18 invitation books in the shop if you want to see them all, but that’s usually not necessary.

With our invitation website, you can shop for your invitations at your leisure, and preview exactly what your invitation will look like before you order it.  This includes typface and font color, with your wording!  Althouh we have a greater selection in the shop, we can’t offer the preview feature there, so online is a great way to shop for your invitations.

As always, invitations are 30% off every day (accessories such as napkins, matchbooks, etc. are 20% off everyday).

In addition to Birchcraft Wedding Invitations, you can order Regency Wedding Invitations and Carlson Craft Wedding Invitations online as well, with the same 30% discount every day!

Tags: Wedding Invitations | Birchcraft | Regency | Carlson Craft

A couple of posts ago, we reminded couples to remember their guests during the planning stages.  Well guests, rigth back at you. this time.  Part of being a wedding guest is the wedding gift.  For some reason, this causes otherwise rational people to freak out, wondering “What do we get them?”  This sometimes leads to gifts which, while well intentioned, miss the mark of true appreciation.

Let us illustrate this with an anecdote.  When someone we know was married, he and his wife received a number of beautiful crystal bowls, some of which were fairly expensive.  These bowls were given with good intentions, but not one crystal bowl was on their registry.  This was a young couple starting out—they registered for common items like a toaster oven and a hand mixer.  For some time after the wedding, the dog was fed from Waterford and Tiffany crystal bowls (honestly!), if that gives you any idea of what they needed vs. what they got.

If you’re invited to a wedding, you know someone closely involved—either the couple themselves, or their parents.  It’s bad etiquette for the couple to include a registry note in the invitation, but there’s no problem with them telling you if you ask.  There’s an easy way to find out—call whomever you know the best, mention you just got the invitation, pass along your verbal congratulations, and just ask—”by the way, where are you/they registered?”  We promise you, the couple will be thrilled you asked.  In today’s mega chain retail world, most couples have registered at Target/Dayton-Hudson, Macy’s/Federated Department Stores, Sears, Wal-Mart, etc.  Each chain has nationwide access to their registries, often on-line as well.  In many cases, the couples are registered at more than one chain. 

Easy!  And very much appreciated.  Do the couple a favor—stick to the list.  And let the dog eat from a dog bowl.

We received some nice press in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently.  We were interviewd for an article titled "Blogs offer new avenue for businesses":

Brides-to-be love to read anything pertaining to weddings. That's why the owners of a Butler floral shop reach out to them through a blog, or Web log, that invites their comments.

Richard and Kathy Dudley of The Bloomery post messages and pictures with wedding ideas: Mini bouquets can be made with a deep purple calla lily that looks almost black, for example.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_445885.html

Well, one thing has changed.  In response to the article, we have had new customers check out our blog and website.  They found our prom gallery, and came in to order their prom flowers.  Progress!

You can find our blog at www.floristblogs.com and our regular site at www.bloomery.com.

What's one of the major mistakes couples make when planning their wedding reception?  Forgetting their guests at their wedding reception.  Sure, nearly everyone remembers the guest list, the seating chart, the champagne toast, etc., but we're talking about something more fundamental.  Planners at the reception halls call it "bride worship", and it's the overriding notion that "this day is all about me".  That's very true, your guests are coming to celebrate your new union.  But they are your guests, and it's your responsibility to plan for their comfort.  Sometimes it means not choosing your favorite dish as the main course, but something more guests are likely to enjoy.  If you're having having your reception in a location that doesn't have many (such as outdoors or a private home), will there be enough bathrooms, changing stations, or places to relax?  Do any of your dishes contain allergans, such as peanuts, that might send a guest to the hospital?

Couples who haven't planned a dinner party are more likely to overlook some of this.  We're not talking about a "come over, hang out, and we'll order some pizza" party, but one where you plan and prepare the meals and entertainment.  If you haven't planned a party like this, it might make a good dry-run for your reception to do so.  Perhaps have both sets of parents over at one house, and the both of you pland and prepare the meals.

In the end, it is your day--a celebration of you--but it is also your responsbility to ensure the comfort of those who celebrate with you.  Congratulations, and have fun!