bloom floral design: Katy & Nick // Part two

Here's more of Katy & Nick.

They held their ceremony and reception on a Sunday morning at The Solarium in Oakhurst, a neighborhood of Decatur. Remember the design on the book covers from the previous post? Well, here it is again on their program. It is a symbol of "ship & sun" and is based on the Viking drawing carved in stone on the island of Bornholm in Denmark. Katy & Nick and their families have strong bonds and deep affection for all things Scandanavian. They both admire the design - simple, elegant and cut in stone.

Admired enough to both get tattoos of the "ship & sun" in the same place (see above photo). And, thanks to Nick's sister they have a framed version (a wedding gift) to hang over their mantel at home.

Next, the dress! What a stunning design by Mara Hoffman from BonaDrag.com.

Katy's bouquet consisted of white anemones, white calla lilies, white astilbe and fern.

Her sister (and maid of honor) wore a flower pinned to her waist.

Ceremony details - Nick built the backdrop for the ceremony using wood from old pallets. He had built a shed on his property and these pallets were left over from a delivery of lumber. They sat outside and weathered for several months before the big day.

The arch pays tribute again to Katy and Nick's belief in the importance of family. Pictures of relatives and ancestors covered the weathered wood.

Jessamine vine meandered through the photos to make it look like the arch had been there awhile. Weathered wood window boxes sat at the base of the arch and were filled with an abundance of greenery - bells of ireland and various types of fern.

Literally surrounded by family, they were married.

An interesting part of their wedding ceremony included the sealing of the 'trouble box'. In Katy's words:

The idea for the trouble box is that you place a bottle of something (in our case, red wine), notes from your wedding party and a letter from the bride to the groom and vice versa and seal it at the wedding so if your marriage is ever in trouble, you open the box, drink a little and read through the notes. We are big red wine drinkers so the idea of sealing up a bottle of wine with notes of love and encouragement from all our guests seemed like a great way to incorporate so many things: our love for home improvement, (how many brides get to say they weilded a hammer in their dress?), Nick made the box out of local pecan and we gave our guests the opportunity to leave notes Friday, Saturday and last call during the ceremony on Sunday morning. My mother-in-law barely made it! Then it was hammered shut, one nail in each corner by myself, Nick, our best lady and man. Our belief is that we are going into this marriage with realistic expectation, and while I hope we never have to crack it open, it's nice to know it's there, waiting for us if we need it.

Katy's mom wore a sweet little headband of ranunculus and fern.

Aisle markers of astilbe, anemone, and fern.

Centerpieces were vintage vase collections filled with anemones, ranunculus, astilbe, and fern...

along with mini terrariums of moss and baby fern.

Little Country Giants was the band that played during the reception. Katy & Nick had seen them play numerous times and had become friends with them. They even introduced the fiddle player, Rurik, to his now wife, back in 2008. The live music that afternoon fit perfectly with the light daytime vibe of the ceremony and reception.

Catering was courtesy of Sun in my Belly.

Katy & Nick are totally cat crazy, so since they couldn't have the cats at the ceremony, Katy surprised Nick with two HUGE portraits of their cats which hung in the entryway. Cocodrie Laroux and Orange were there in spirit and on the wall!