Katie & Scott at The Solarium in Oakhurst

 The Solarium in Oakhurst is an excellent venue for a ceremony and/or reception.  Or a rehearsal dinner, for that matter!   I've been promoting this venue ever since it opened.  It is in my neighborhood and I have attended many different types of functions there. 

This sweet little wedding was held in May and the bride was excited to use garden flowers in vintage tins and mason jars that she had collected. 

Bouquets consisted of daisies, roses, scabiosa, hydrangea, mint, astilbe, nerines, button mums and spray roses in a bright colorful mix.

Additional flowers such as sea thistle, tweedia, and cornflower along with ruscus and tree fern completed the summer, gardeny feel for the tables.

On of my favorite containers to use for gardeny, vintage, rustic weddings are old oil lamps.  The bases make very cool table centerpieces.

The groom at this wedding has his own landscape company so we actually bartered a portion of the wedding flower cost.  It's old fashioned, but they got wedding flowers and I've gotten some badly needed yard work done!

All photos courtesy of the bride's friend, Jessica Cobb.

Halloween Wedding!

The wedding of Christine and Phil was so much fun! They were married on Halloween at The Solarium in Oakhurst. There were so many cool things about the wedding, I don't know where to begin. And, of course, these photos are my own for the sneak peek. I can't wait to see the professional shots!

All kinds of flowers were used to top the jack-o-lantern centerpieces. The pumpkins were carved by all their friends at the rehearsal dinner. Pincushion protea, seeded eucalyptus, sea thistle, kangaroo paw, spray roses, dahlias, waxflower, hocus pocus roses, scabiosa and celosia were some of the flowers used.

And I tucked in tiny skulls to add a bit of sinister-ness!

Phil's boutonniere was a schwartzwalder calla - a purple so deep it is almost black.

The mom's corsages were black magic roses.

The bridal bouquet wouldn't have been complete without a spider...

Sea thistle - one of my favorite flowers to use.

Bridesmaids held chocolate dahlias, sea thistle, wax flower and schwartzwalder callas wrapped in platinum ribbon.

Now, Christine and Phil were married in the traditional gown and tuxedo, but after the ceremony they transformed into Morticia and Gomez! Their guests attended in costume and I saw a 70's basketball player complete with knee-high socks and short shorts, a tennis player, a renaissance couple, some hawaiian tourists with zinc on their noses, and some guy in the traditional "bear/gorilla" suit. It was hilarious!

They had a dj spinning vinyl, a giant cardboard tree with spanish moss and pinatas for later in the evening. The guest's favors were tiny ghost pinatas which lined the windowsills. It seemed like every detail was turned on end - I even think the guest book was a coloring book to be signed with crayons!

Certainly, not your typical wedding. Happy Halloween!