Anniversary 2014

October was anniversary month for Husby and I.  Wayyyyyy back on October 27th in 1995, he asked me out on our first date.  I was 14, he was 15 and we went to a haunted house.  That same night he also asked if I would be his girlfriend ;)  

Fast-forward 6 years later and we were married on October 27th, 2001.

Now we have been together for 19 years, married for 13of them and have two beautiful children.

Annnnnnd, I still have my wedding flowers!  That's one of the benefits of using fabric flowers; they can last forever if cared for properly.  

For our first married Christmas my parents gave us a curio cabinet that now stands in our living room.  That is where I keep my wedding flowers, the red rose ring box that Husby proposed with, our wedding stemware and a few framed photographs.

Since it was anniversary time and I was feeling all romantic, I thought I would photography my flowers to share with you.  Walk with me down memory lane...........

My Wedding Bouquet

This was a large, tear-dropped shaped bouquet of white fabric roses and ivy leaves.   Woven into the roses were strands of white pears and lengths of satin trimmed sheer ribbon.

I didn't make this bouquet.  My manager at the time (Liz) made it for me as a wedding gift.  Liz taught me absolutely everything I know about floral design.  When she came into her position, and saw that I had ability, she immediately took me under her wing.  Liz would go to the library on her own time, just to find educational materials that I could learn from.  She spent hours working with me, coaching me to be my best.

The most memorable event for me was when she said, "Jennifer, a good designer can do anything, even if means designing out of the trash."  Then before leaving for the night, she showed me a photo of an arrangement that she wanted me to create (a Hogarth Curve) and told me I could only use what was in that day's scrap bucket.  I couldn't choose colors, structures or materials, I could only use what was in that bucket!  Well guess what?!?!  I did it!  Not only did I accomplish that particular arrangement, but I learned that no matter what the design challenge is, I can figure it out.  Liz gave me both skill and self confidence, and I will always be grateful!

Liz (Tina Elizabeth Peyton-Thomas), if you are out there, somewhere in California I think, hit me up! I have searched and searched on facebook, I can't find you.  I would love to hear from you!

Husby's Boutonniere

I made this with a white fabric rose, ivy leaves, white stephanotis and a tiny bit of gold ribbon.

My Sister's Maid of Honor Bouquet

I made this and the other bridesmaid bouquets with red roses and ivy leaves.  I also added a few tiny seed pearls here and there.  The Maid of Honor bouquet was the only one to feature the gold tassel.

Maid of Honor Bouquet

I added pearls everywhere!  

My dress was a princess style ball gown with lots and lots of tulle in the skirt,10 layers to be exact, and I wore three petticoats underneath.  Each petticoat was trimmed in yards and yards and yards of white lace that my Granny sewed on for me.  I added pearls to each and every point in the lace, on every single yard of fabric.  The train was five feet long and I wore a cathedral length veil that was 9 feet from the top of my head to the end of the dress.  To the veil I added sequins that matched the sequins on the bodice of my dress.  It was beautiful, and I will always remember my Granny at her sewing machine as she told me that I would be the 'belle of the ball' :)

Fun Fact:  After all was said and done, the dress weighed about 20 pounds!

This is how the tables were decorated at our dinner reception; white table cloths, red and white fabric rose petals, faux ivy leaves, faux stephanotis blossoms and gold heart-shaped confetti.

I have a wedding memory box where I kept the VHS recording of the ceremony, photography negatives......yes, I said VHS and negatives!  Inside I also keep the leftover table scatter that is pictured above.  I love that I can go to the closet, open a box and pull out the decorations that we used for our actual wedding.

The photo above is also a page right out of my wedding scrapbook.  I used a white sheet of paper to represent the white table cloths, and glued all of the table scatter in place.  Now I have a little representation of our wedding tables right in an album!

  

A Side Note:  This scatter was also used on the white aisle runner at the church, and as part of the Bridal Shower decor.  

For the Bridal Shower I used long lengths of tulle to criss-cross the room similar to the way one would use streamers.  To each length of tulle I glued this mixture of scatter.  You can see how when designing I like to continuously repeat the same theme.  From the Bridal Shower to the Rehearsal Dinner to the Ceremony to the Reception, the same colors, textures and types of flowers were repeated over and over again.  This gives cohesiveness to the overall design.

And did you catch me?  I keep saying; "I...I...I"  Yep, it's true.  I designed my own Bridal Shower...Wedding...Baby Shower...Baby Luncheon.   People like to host these parties for me and I'm all, "Thank you so much!  Don't worry about decorating or purchasing any of the items, I'll take care of it!"  When really I should be standing in a circle of designers-anonymous saying, "Hi.  My name is Jennifer and I can't relinquish creative control.  I think about design all the time, sometimes I get so inspired that I can't even sleep at night.  I have notebooks and papers everywhere, I'm always writing down ideas. I can't go anywhere without mentally redecorating the space that I'm in"....and so on and so forth.....  Hahaha!

Anniversary Dinner Table

Here you can see how I put those leftover decorations to good use.  The fabric petals, leaves stephanotis and gold confetti were happy to rest on top of our green tablecloth.  I also added a few miniature golden wedding rings tied with gold ribbon.  These were left over from our wedding programs, which were rolled into scrolls and 'sealed' with the rings.

Baby Girl had a lot of fun using these decorations to dress up our dinner table ;)

Bonus Pic:  Wedding Bells

When I was going through my albums.....(yes albums, as in most people have a wedding album, I have three and a scrapbook).....I came across this picture of some bridal shower decorations.  I thought I would add it here to show you how simple plain white paper wedding bells can be dressed up.

I found the wedding bells while treasure hunting with Granny (hee hee) and they came in two sizes.  I used gold spray paint to lightly mist the bells here and there before stringing them up with lengths of white tulle.  I also added tulle bows, faux ivy strands and gold curling ribbon.  Each string of tulle had one large bell and one small.

Here they are hanging in my parents garage before the Bridal Shower.  I'm sure my Dad loved the additions to his 'man-space' hahaha!  He was a good sport though, never complained ;)


I had a lot of fun going through my memories.

I hope you enjoyed my trip back in time, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014