Pink City Hall Wedding {the Reception}

Long overdue but life and wedding season has been crazy busy. Kids are back in school, I'm back in school this week, I still have about 12 more big weddings to get through before finals and the Holidays and then I'm off for a month between mid December and January..it's going to be awesome. This summer went by super fast.

Here is the final post on the Pink City Hall Wedding In San Francisco.

Part 3 Let Them Eat Cake
Part 2 The Set up
Part 1 The Bouquets

Here is one of the two centerpiece we used for the tables. The centerpiece was an all orchid arrangement of a combination of light pink to fuchsia Phalaenopsis orchids surrounded by clear cylinder vases with floating candles in them.

The table linens and gold accents on the napkin ring holders and the plates were so pretty.


Here is centerpiece two, a rose pave in a clear cube vase. On top of the flowers sit three vases in varying heights with water and floating candles.



These pave centerpiece took me about an hour each.
Here's the design I played with to start. I took a picture with my camera phone when I realized I would be sitting there for the next 8 hours or so pave-ing my little heart out.

Here is a last minute Buffet piece we made for the Antipasto table.

The Dessert buffet looked delectable once it was set up! Wish I had taken a picture of it afterward.

The Ice Bar was sweet. I think I need one of these at my next wedding. :)

A few random pics of the room and details.

The staircase to the upper level in City hall was lit with Bao and Crystals name :)

The ceremony pieces had to be taken down from the staircase and re-purposed around the room in various areas. The room was filled with flowers and orchids everywhere.

This is a mini version of the bridal bouquet to place on the head table for the bride to toss and it just glowed in the lighting there.

So all in all, it was very successful and beautiful event. I am very lucky that Crystal is just the sweetest person, she made it really easy to work with and she was just gorgeous on the day of! All of her gowns were beautiful and she looked stunning in them. Bao hi five'd me like 4 times at the end of the night, lol, the only thing I wish I could have shared with you was the crazy grooms cake of him sitting at his computer with 9 screens!
So I thank C&B for allowing me to share in your special day.
I wish you much love and success in your marriage! : )

{And they lived happily ever after...}

Pink San Francisco City Hall {The Set Up}

Here's the beginning post of this particularly large wedding: {the Bouquets}

Now onto the crazy set up. First of all, let me tell you I obsessed over every last little detail and flower for 30 days straight. I had been in touch with the lovely bride for months of course, but we changed the style and look of the wedding 3 times. I'm talking a complete haul over. We ended up with a mixture of the three. At point there was an after lounge involved, but in the end, it was nixed.

The last 30 days was crazy. I had to go to the fire department in SF to clear the votives, which didn't pass, I had to re-shop (for the best price) the tallest votives I could find which were UG-LAY ,so I had to use vases which tripled the cost right off the bat. I switched orchids vendors because two weekends before this event, the 15 orchids bunches we ordered came in under our standard of excellence for a white wedding that I will post once the photographer sends me pics, and I find my memory card. So we had to add $9 per bunch to our already huge order and then the tall vases we ordered were sold out a week before I picked them up (yes, 5000 vases in the inventory was depleted) and the other company I went with charged $6 more per vase...YIKES!! But, that is to be expected in this business. Just imagine, $1200 worth of vases.

When it all comes down to it, it has to make dollars and sense or what you love to do, you will not be able to if you are not watching your bottom line.

But here was the plan for the day:
The Task: To set up the ceremony area with 10 arrangements, set up the arrangements on the escort card and antipasto tables, along with 18 cocktail tables all between 2:00 pm and 4:45pm.
THEN the couple would get married between 5:00 to 6:00pm during which we would be hiding in the back room getting the centerpiece and dessert buffet pieces ready.
Finally at 6pm we would have the guests move up to the cocktail area and then have 1 HOUR to wait for the caterers to move the the theater style chair set up, roll in the tables, and then have us place 18 centerpieces down. Sounds easy? Not so much. Each centerpiece had a trio of vases filled with water in different sizes that need to be placed at each table filled with water, and then the candles dropped in and lit.....


So after we cleared the security check, unloaded the trucks, parked the cars(Thanks for the passes Pam!), dragged everything upstairs in what felt like 30 trips we finally started on the ceremony area at about 2:30pm.


Here is a picture of us setting up shop in the North Light Court of San Francisco City Hall.

These are all the cylinder vases waiting to be filled up with water.
Our shortest vase was 7" and the tallest was 47".

These all had to be taken to the first landing of the stairs of City Hall and let me tell you, these vases were HEAVY! Well...I wouldn't know because I didn't pick them up, but judging by the sweat running down Daniel and Durojaiyes faces as they lifted these vases, I figured they were as heavy as they looked. hehehe!

The tall floral arrangements were only made about 70 percent of the way. Once we got to City Hall we had to fill them in with the Phalaenopsis orchids and the rest of the roses.

Here we are in full action getting those done while the rest of the crew was on water and cocktail arrangement detail.
I told everyone wear black. Think: WAITER. lol,
BIG Thanks to
Allison, Daniel, Durojaiye, Debbie, Monica, Michelle, Mary,Melissa, and Tania for all your help!

These arrangements stood almost 4.5 feet tall!
Michelle and I worked

Here is Michelle working on the orchid placements.
That girl can work an orchid like it's no one business!!!!
Michelle and Julian were married 2 weeks before and it was her lovely all white orchid wedding I worked. ; ) She was a beautiful bride and her wedding was GORGEOUS! I can't wait to share her pics.

So then just as we are finishing up at around 4:30 pm the Fire Marshall come in for an inspection. DUMDUMDUUUUMMMM....he told us we could not leave all the vases up there on the stairs.
WHAAAAATTTTT?!?!!?! Are you kidding me? Do you know how heavy these are? This is the look we want, whaaa....? Naturally I didn't say that I jut started laughing when they told me...

Jessica, the wedding planner,( in the blue) finally convinced him to let us keep it up there for the ceremony and that they would be moved after wards. She's so good at what she does! I laughed at this pic because she has her head cocked to the side like she's trying to convince him that he's nuts, there will be no earthquake, we will be FINE....but he said no. So after the ceremony they were moved. Oh and that also had to get done in the 1 hour allotted time. grrrreat.

Here is the finished ceremony site! McCalls turned the lights on and it was magical.....gold and pink splashed everywhere.

While the guests were arriving and the couple got married, we were busy in the back room getting the centerpiece ready to go. Here are the tables {sans centerpiece} that McCalls set up. Fuschia linen, fuchsia napkins with a gold napkin holder and gold rimmed plates.

We set up the pave centerpiece cubes down without the trio of glass vases and floating candles so that they would be partially set up and easier to assemble once we hit the hour of truth.

The second centerpeice was a 6 vase cluster of vases: 3 with phalaenopsis orchids draped over one side of the vase, the other 3 with floating candles to give us light.

Then they told us the dessert table no longer accommodated our design and that we had to par it down to two vases. wwwooonderful.
The arrangements would be visible from 3 sides instead of just a front view, so we quickly had to turn this pink hydrangea floral arrangement into an arrangement to match the ceremony flowers...in 15 minutes.

Here is Michelle filling in from the bottom and I am filling in from the top.

Even with our ups and downs of the day, lack of rest and food, we were running on time. Stay tuned for the next post of pics which include the actual reception and end product. : )

Side Note:

I worked 7am - 11pm Wednesday, Thursday, and 7am - 1am Friday and 7am 2:30am the day of....I was beat. I also had forgotten to order my water proof stickers for the bottom of my vases and I called out for help on Facebook and a few friends came through with great ideas, but Jennifer from Green Quince offered to make them for me last minute! SCORE! She has the CUTEST Etsy shop ever and her invitations are so beautiful that I had to take her up on her offer. I was so grateful for her help. Look as my cute stickers : )

Vendors and Links:

Green Quince

Dreams on a Dime

McCalls Catering and Events

Raspberry and Navy Blue {Part One:The Church and First Reception}

{Raspberry and Navy Blue Bride}

This wedding was a pretty big one for me so I will break it into three sections: The set up of the Church ceremony and reception number one, then the personal flowers, then set up of reception number two later that same day.

So basically we met up a few months ago to plan the flowers for the big day and we had to brainstorm on how to make the most out of the flowers considering that the couple had to decorate three separate areas that day.
They definitely wanted to decorate the church with two large ceremony pieces and then also decorate the pews. We also had the task of decorating 28 tables(!) in the first location, then 17 tables in the next location. Whoa is right.

{cue the violins}

I got up super early to get things going, think I'm exaggerating, check out the view.

People think its so much fun to work with flowers, and it is; but it's labor people! I get up at 4am, I wash buckets, I pick bundles of greens and flowers, and strip roses down, and drag everything around carefully so that it looks perfect, and then at the end of the day I get to go back to my studio and clean up!

Ok, ok! I really do love my job so I will stop. :)

The first location is pretty open but a little sterile so the color of the raspberry hydrangea was very much needed to liven things up.

So we got to work in our little station putting together the raspberry colored hydrangeas together with the navy blue ribbon to hang on the pews. Since we had so much to set up we had access to the church at 10:00am which was awesome but the ceremony didn't start till 3pm so we made sure to water tube the hydrangeas to prevent them from wilting.

I'm quite proud to say I personally harvested these beautiful pink hydrangeas for the wedding myself!

Once we water tubed them and slipped on the Navy Blue Satin off they were to decorate all 28 pews.

I really hoped that she was happy with the aisle decoration, I personally loved the colors!

The idea was that the pew flowers would be brought over from the pews after the ceremony and dropped into a pre-greened vase that was waiting on the tables so that they could be reused.

I loved the personalized favor boxes that they made!
Aren't they cute?!


The room was starting to come alive with color.

These two large arrangements would be placed in the front of the tall alter. The short one was for the check in table.

Here's a close up of the smaller arrangement.
Hot Lady Roses, pink dahlias, fuchsia dahlias, hot pink cockscomb,lime green cockscomb, super green roses, and the raspberry hydrangea.

Next up are the personal flowers.

Yellow Wedding Flowers(Part Two: The Set up}

{Yellow Wedding}

We set up at the Church in Concord California at St. Francis of Assisi on Saturday afternoon and let me tell you, that Caldecott Tunnel was no joke! It took us forever to get there and we arrived just in time to see the event before us loading and getting ready to leave.
We had 30 minutes to set up two large arrangements, one check in floral arrangement and fourteen pew decorations and pin on a slew of corsages and boutonnieres.
yeah.bananas.


The men arrived first and here are the boutonnieres.
The soft yellow rose with the variegated ivy and myrtle was the grooms boutonniere and the yellow with salal and myrtle was the groomsmen boutonniere.

By then the bride had arrived with the bridesmaids and the flower girls so I was happy to race over to give her the bouquet and snap some pictures.

This is the Brides yellow bridal bouquet.
We had played around with orange and yellow and then finally settled on Pale yellow with some pops of bright yellow and a soft white. The roses are Polar Stars, Latinas, Creme dela Creme, and Skylines. There is a little bit of pale yellow stock in there too.

The bridesmaids bouquet were four different types of roses, pale yellow stock, white tansy, and pale yellow and saffron carnations. Slightly brighter than the brides bouquet and the yellow bouquets popped beautifully against the creamy yellow dresses they wore.

So pretty!


But the flowers girls...they were ADORABLE!
I told them they were the most beautiful flowers girls EVER and they beamed. :)
Before I knew it it was time to line up!
Here are the bridesmaids checking out their bouquets.

I just loved the color of the dress they chose!

As soon as they made their way out, here came the bride.

One last picture, and I hopped in the car to make it out to the reception venue.
The Bridges Golf Club is a really beautiful place. I really should have taken better pictures of the high ceilings and scenic views but I was way busy.
We set up two different centerpiece.
One was a garden style floral arrangement in a clear glass vase and the other was a hurricane vase filled with river rock a candle and 5 roses. We sprinkled rose petals around the tables.
Every wedding I do the flowers for I take a picture of table 15 because it's my lucky number.
Is that weird?

The head table was a long table that seated the entire wedding party. We were simple in the approach. I lined the edge with rose petals, small bud vases with single roses were staggered across the length of the table and in between would sit the vases with the yellow bridal and bridesmaids bouquet.

Look at these Skyline roses, aren't they gorgeous!!!???

I added the finishing touches and then here came the bride and groom.
They were kind enough to let me snap up a picture and I thanked them for letting me help them with the flowers and we were off!

The bride and groom had been planning this during her pregnancy and the I never got a chance to see their baby boy! He is two months old, can you imagine trying to plan a wedding?!?!
Brave, brave people....they did an awesome job thought. The dress, the venue, the paper products, everything was really, really nice.
Guys, I thank you for letting me be a part of your day, I hope you much love and success in your marriage! : )


They lived happily ever after....