The Junkin Wedding

In November, we had the privilege of designing flowers for the Junkin Wedding at the beautiful Dove Hollow Estate near Longview, Texas.  Lacy chose a fall wedding color scheme and wanted to use lots of pampas grass in the decor. 

The pampas grass ring was a unique wedding backdrop / alter for the outdoor wedding. Logs at assorted heights held lanterns and a few fresh flowers and fabric were intertwined, along with the white pumpkins. The bride's family gathered up all of the pampas grass for us to use and we put it all to use! 

They only used a single wedding cake (naked wedding cake by Butcher Shop in Longview, florals added by Sharlette who was helping me with on site wedding set up.) 

Ah, the reception! Dove Hollow has a large modern barn with 33 foot tall ceilings. With the large open space, the use of some tall centerpieces, helps fill the space. We created 8 tall centerpieces with plumes of pampas grass and fall flowers on tall gold risers. This venue is wonderful to give you a floor plan, tailored to your specific numbers (there's no speculating on if you can fit x amount of guest and tables in the barn, they can tell you exactly how many will and still allow guest to walk around.) I knew the exact table layout ahead of time, so I was able to plan where each centerpiece would be placed and allow it to have a well balanced look.  

The bridal party was seated at long tables through the center of the barn. One tip we like to pass along to brides is to use their bridesmaid bouquets in their reception. The bridesmaid bouquets are the low flower arrangements on long tables. The girls were able to pick up the hand tied bouquets out of the mercury glass vases for the ceremony, then when they return to the reception area, they have a designated places to drop their bouquet, which only adds to the decor of the reception. Along with the flowers, there was assorted candles placed throughout the reception. I don't like seeing the bridesmaid bouquets discarded and simply laid in a chair and forgotten during the reception, so this is one option for utilizing them. (Others have chosen to display on the cake or food tables.) 

All the arrangements had not been set up, when the next picture was taken, but it gives you a look at this room. 

All of the above photos were provided by the bride and taken by her wedding photographer, Jamey Smith. 

The following pictures were taken by myself, as we were setting up everything. 

This ring was an idea the bride brought to me. It was something unique for weddings in our area, although we found several different styles of the pampas rings on Pinterest. 

(Moongate ring belongs to Dove Hollow Estate and we added all the pampas grass.)

You can see in this picture that we used as assortment of centerpieces, including lanterns and some geometric style vases. This gave some varying heights for the reception 

This picture shows the wedding party table, while the bridesmaids were carrying their bouquets, so you can see how we placed the mercury glass vases. Each vase had just enough water for the stems to get a drink. (When removing bouquets to carry, you simply take a paper towel to blot the stems dry. All of my hand tied bouquets are delivered that way, so they have water to stay fresh and hydrated for the wedding.) 

This is a close up of one of the bridesmaid bouquets - fall mums, berries, roses, eucalyptus, and plumes of pampas grass comprised all the bouquets. 

Sending our best wishes to Lace and Derek and wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness together! Thank you for letting us have a part of your wonderful day and for sharing your pictures with us!  

The Parish Wedding at the Venue at Efurd Orchards

In December, we had the honor of creating the florals for the Wedding of Raegan Efurd and Garrett Parish at the Venue at Efurd Orchards, near Pittsburg, Texas. It was a beautiful Winter Wonderland Event, just days before Christmas. Check out the beautiful pictures from the wedding photographer. Since I work from behind the scenes on wedding setup, it is always wonderful to actually see pictures of the wedding party carrying the bouquets and everything in action. 

A peek into Reagan + Garrett's beautiful winter wedding day ✨

Posted by Kelsy Addiline Photography on Wednesday, January 6, 2021

If you want to see even more details of their beautiful day, including the venue and reception decor, please check out their wedding video. 

(video seems to not appear on some mobile devices, but can be viewed at this YouTube link. )

Here's a few of the snapshots I took with my phone, while we were decorating the venue. They don't do near the justice as the photographer and videographer have done. 

Reagan was an easy bride to work with! She wanted red roses - lots of red roses, white mixed flowers, berries, and lots of draping Christmas greenery. They did not want "matchy-matchy" centerpieces on all the tables, so we made lantern arrangements in several different styles and used candle sticks, candelabras, assorted vases, and containers they had to create all the centerpieces. Inside the venue was primarily gold colors, while the outdoor patio section had silver. They held the rehearsal dinner out on the patio the night before and were able to utilize those centerpieces on both nights.  One specific thing we discussed was an arch completely covered in flowers and we made that happen for her. We had to work through a rain shower to finish the arch, although the rain stopped prior to the wedding and they were able to continue on with the outdoor ceremony, as planned. The Efurd family has built the venue, beside their famous peach and produce shed. The balcony overlooking the reception area was a new addition that was added and debuted at Reagan's wedding.  Be sure to check them out, for hosting your event. (Links to all their sources and contact info below.) 

Sending our best wishes and congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Parish! Wishing you many years of love and happiness together! 

Wedding sources include:

Venue:

The Venue at Efurd Orchards

Florist:

Janice East GypsyFarmGirl

Hair:

Brittany McKinney

Makeup:

Brooke Ellen Helms

Photography:

Kelsy Addiline Photography

Videography:

Chris Yates Films

Music/DJ: Christian Moreno w/ DJ Tronix

Catering:

Lori Metcalf

w/ Loris Eats & Sweets

Cake:

Calavera Cakery

Choreographer:

Laken Finney

Officiant: Pastor Dick Lindsey

Linens: A1 & 5S Rentals

Decorators:

Melanie Yates Bass

,

Kathy Rape

,

Stephanie Chance

,

Amy Efurd

,

Lynette Wiltse

,

Ronda Burns

, Janice East

I must add a special thank you to my team, that came together to help me create all the florals and set up that week - Angea and Sharlette, I couldn't have done it all without you. 

Haley and Justin's Wedding

Planning a wedding during a pandemic requires some creativity, but it can be done! Last summer, Kelly contacted me on Facebook and ask if I could create wedding flowers for her daughter's wedding, which was two weeks away. Well of course! That weekend was open on my calendar and we made it happen! Recently, they sent me pictures from the wedding and give permission to share a few of them. 

Haley and Justin, the happy bride and groom! 

How sweet is this - the bride with her mother and grandmother. 

I was able to source the absolutely gorgeous dahlias from a local grower that I had been reintroduced to at last summer's farmers markets that we attended. Along with the dahlias, we used roses and hydrangeas for the bouquets and added just a little touch of blue in the arrangements that were placed on pedestals.

As extra precautions, they even cut the wedding cake on the stage, so everyone would remain seated in the church and spaced out, along with having a live stream of the wedding, for others to view from home.

The bride presented her bouquet to her grandmother after the wedding, You can see the love and special relationship these two have. 

We had certain event attendance restrictions at the time and the family took all that into consideration when planning the wedding. That was one reason they waited till closer to time to make sure events didn't get completely shut down. I was refereed to Kelly by a mutual friend and then we discovered we had actually met at one of our shows in 2019. We did not have any face to face wedding consultations and when I delivered the flowers to the church, only the father of the bride was there. Even though it was limited, they still wanted to celebrate the wedding with nice floral arrangements and create a special day for the bride and groom.  I have often said, even though it was a rough year for many, there were also many things worth celebrating in 2020, just like this wedding and the love between this couple. 

Thank you Kelly for allowing us to create the flowers for Haley and Justin's special day and for providing the pictures for us to share. Wishing many years of love and happiness to the bride and groom! 

Wedding photographer was Amanda Cole with My Little Michelle. Find her on Instagram at MyLittleMichelle.

Flowers for the Spencer / Stanley Wedding

2020 has got off to a busy start! 

We were honored to get to make flowers for Madison and John's recent wedding. 

The Spencer / Stanley Wedding was held at Dove Hollow Estates in White Oak. Madison's colors were white, black, silver, and burgundy. 

Whenever Madison sent me pictures of arch ideas, she always said "but more flowers on the arch." This arch was big and we made sure it was full of flowers! 

 The view from the second story...

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of burgundy roses and callas.

 The front entrance of the elegant barn.

 Hydrangeas and iced branches comprised the entryway arrangement, where guest would sign in.

 Sharlette helped me with the on location work at Dove Hollow.

 The bridal bouquet was a cascade style arrangement with white roses, callas, and orchids. (Can't wait to see a picture of the bride carrying the bouquet, since I didn't get a great pic of it.)

 Always have my scissors nearby! The arch was huge at about ten high, so we climbed up and down the ladder a lot.

A couple of years ago, I give a presentation at a 4-H meeting. At the meeting, I officially met Mrs. Fite (although I had known of her for many years.) We talked and she ask for a business card. Later on, we discussed sewing machines, since she wanted to get one for her granddaughter. A few months later, she called me about flowers for her son's funeral. She had specific ideas and flowers she wanted to use and I was able to make the flowers for them. 

Last week, I got a call that she had died and left instructions for her family to call me and I would take care of it. They didn't tell me any colors, just that they needed a casket spray and an easel with ribbons on it (that was the only details that they give me.) That level of trust and respect for my work is truly humbling. I later talked to her sister on the phone and she said Mrs. Fite always talked about my work. 

I knew she had picked out a pink or red dress to be buried in, so I decided to go with a mixture of red roses, stargazer lilies, along with pink and purple mixed flowers. 

 Last week, I also wrote a blog post about living in small town America. The word "Community" was on my mind a lot last week. It was a community service type event where I met Mrs. Fite. It was a lady in our community that recommended me to the Spencer family, when they were wedding planning. It took a community of friends for me to pull off everything in three days (we also had the Mineola Antique Fair happening at the same time.) The best selling shirt at the fair was the "Rural Route" - it's a t shirt design inspired by our life and work in the rural community and apparently it resonates with many of you as well. 

My business depends on your referrals and an online community of support and shares. I am extremely grateful for all of you that are a part of our community! 

Here's to a great start of 2020! Looking forward to helping all of you in the coming year! 

The Hawthorne Wedding

A few pictures from the Hawthorne Wedding! It was a beautiful afternoon for an outdoor wedding and I couldn't help taking pictures beforehand as the horses grazed in the background! 

 Is she not the most precious thing ever?!? That look of awe in her face is priceless!

Congratulations to the Hawthorne's! Wishing you many years of happiness and love!