Climbing the walls

the new Anthropologie in London (first in Europe) has a living wall--irrigated solely by rainwater collected on the roof!  I've always loved living walls--the local Seattle zoo has one in the tropical rain forest house with orchids that is pretty spectacular when they are blooming. (Anthropologie wall pic from Print & Pattern).

A few others to admire...

From mosstika, installed on a roof garden in Brooklyn. Little tiny green sedums growing from between wood slats of varying sizes. (more photos of the process at designboom). Followed by a few more installations by Edina Tokodi of mosstika.  I love the living graffiti idea of many of her pieces.

America's largest green wall (the size of a doubles tennis court!) by PNC in Pittsburgh. When watered the required 15 minutes a week, it weighs 24 tons.

Patrick Blanc appears to be the master of the living wall, or vertical garden as he calls it. Check out the slide show on the opening page of his site. Crazy.

BEST save-the-date EVER!!!

You must watch this--even if you are not planning a wedding.  It amazed me.  It will entertain you.


I'm off to the airport to pick up Aunt Kerry.  LOVE it when the sistas come to town!  Ciao!

Sabrina's bouquet

 Cobra lilies, fern curls, green hydrangea, orchids, viburnum berries, scabiosa pods and dahlias; wrapped in remnant of Sabrina's lace dress. 

Today's situation

Geez.  It's busy out there today folks.  Don't panic, because I present you with coping strategies.

1)  Thank you Huffington Post, for providing us with the necessary and hilarious rules for getting through the State of the Union Address tonight.   Who said politics is dull?  Now I'm actually sorry to be missing it tonight for a client meeting in light of all the fun to be had, but I've got to work on the state of my own union.

2)  blah, blah, blah, iPad, blah, blah...I give you this. Because SERIOUSLY. 

3) If you just need a break from it all and you'd rather look at some loveliness, I can't compete today.  Just go check out these easy and fab directions for some seriously luscious gorgeousness over at 100 Layer Cake.

Real Weddings: Helen + Pat

Planning Helen and Pat's August wedding with Helen's mother was one of the very best experiences I've had with a mother of the bride.  Forget any of the old cliches...Robin and I had so much fun together on her visits up to Seattle from Southern California for planning, and we spent a lot of (very fun) hours on the phone making sure all of the details would be perfect.  Helen and Pat were unusual in that they wanted to simply be GUESTS at their wedding--such a novel but really quite brilliant idea for a bride that doesn't want to get to caught up in the planning.  Helen trusted that Robin knew her taste, and Robin really did make the wedding a gift to Helen and Pat.

The ceremony was held at Helen and Pat's alma mater, the University of Puget Sound in the charming little New England style chapel on campus.  The sweet wreathes on the door were the perfect announcement that a wedding was taking place.

The girls carried bouquets of orange milva, cherry brandy, and Alhambra roses mixed with sunset calla lilies.  Helen's bouquet had additional ranunculus, orange and yellow mokara orchids, scabiosa pods, and cobra lilies.

Tacoma's Union Station was the location for a vibrant and artistic reception.  The renovated former train station features several large scale works by the Northwest Artist with talent of mythic proportions; Dale Chihuly.  His "Monarch Wall" was the inspiration for the color palette, embroidered silk linens, and tiny hand painted feather butterflies that graced the table arrangements.  Some of the tables featured glass apothecary jars that we filled as if they were little miniature "Chihuly Gardens" with plants and tiny colored glass pieces and shards I'd collected.  (Chihuly often does installation pieces in some of the world's most spectacular greenhouses).

I feel so blessed to have been able to share in the planning and execution of this wedding, and I so enjoyed working with all of the talented people that helped.  Robin truly put together a fabulous team.  I also loved getting to spend the evening at the event and watching the magic come to life.  Other magic?  The beautiful toast that Helen's father gave.  I hear a lot of them, but his was truly a gift, with blessings and stories of remarkable love from all of the generations that came before Helen and Pat in their families. 

Ceremony Venue:  Kilworth Memorial Chapel at University of Puget Sound
Reception Venue:  Tacoma Union Station
Photography:  Wallflower Photography  (Thank you Scott and Laura for sharing your beautiful work!)
Flowers/Event Design:  Fiore Blossoms
Linens:  Choice Linens
Catering:  Snuffin's Catering (some of the nicest caterers I've worked with, and I was lucky enough to get to eat their really fabulous dinner!)
Artwork throughout Union Station:  Dale Chihuly
Glass votives on tables:  Glassybaby

(#34) Just a glimpse...

of inspired table numbers!  I'm working on an exciting project with my smart, sweet, talented friend Tara Bliven of Ephemera Press here in Seattle, so was looking through her blog this week.  How cute is this idea from one of her brides?  Each table number sign featured a picture of the bride and groom at the age that corresponded with the number.  Love it!

Table Topics

Working on designs for long tables for several upcoming weddings, and I've decided I'd pretty much be perfectly happy if everyone did long tables from here on out. 

Photo credits: 1. Jose Villa via Style Me Pretty, 2, 3. Elizabeth Anne Designs, 4. Amy Osaba, 5. Style Me Pretty, 6, 7, 8, 9. Meg Smith, 10. Tracy Turpen via SMP, 11. SMP

(#33) Just a glimpse...

of inspired programs. Charming paper bags full of toss petals from an even more charming wedding held on an organic farm on Cape Cod. The program order was stamped on the back. Photo from Max Wanger.

Real Weddings: Rebekah + James

Pictures from the very talented One Thousand Words Photography ladies, of a sweet wedding planned by Lily of Luminous Event Design. Lily designed the little bird motif that first appeared on the invitations, and then fluttered around on the various paper products throughout the entire wedding, and even landed on the cake.

Rebekah's color palette of gold, ivory, dark turquoise and chocolatey plum allowed me to use some of my favorite flowers. I love the luscious white peonies I managed to round up despite the November date, and the gold cymbidiums, leucodendron cones, dark viburnum berries, dark callas, and scabiosa pods beautifully reflected the season without creating a harvest look.

Planning: Luminous Event Design
Photography: One Thousand Words
Flowers: Fiore Blossoms
Venue: Pan Pacific Hotel
Macaroons: Honore Bakery

week in review {january 15, 2010 edition}

hanging rope beds (!) on Urban Grace, and more bedroom ideas the next day. I'm feeling the annual January urges to work on the house. Need to get my brain back in the wedding game.

A super simple, but sparkly and cheerful table anyone can do. Spring bulbs (they're all over the grocery and hardware stores right now, pre-forced for early blooming so that you don't have to do the work), pretty mercury glass or any votives you love, and icy glass. One secret that might not be obvious? Choose just two colors to design the whole table with, and make them two analogous (that means adjacent on the color wheel) as in the royal blue and stem green on this pretty table. Notice each color is just repeated a few times--green in the stems and napkins, blue in the flowers and napkin twine wrap. That's the secret formula! Oh, pic via Purple Area.

I'm definitely jumping on the Polaroid bandwagon. Not only have they hired the Lady I'm completely GaGa for as their Creative Director (brilliant! can't wait to see what she comes up with!), but when the re-release their classic, it looks like they're going to make a faux wood grain version. Groovy.

A real wedding all about fashion...the bride is the senior fashion editor for Marie Claire. Dress is a custom gown by Marchesa (If I was a bazillionaire, I'd flounce around every day in either Marchesa and Oscar De La Renta. i do charitable work while wearing them to make up for my silliness.), fabulous bridesmaids dresses with huge grey sequins by Burberry. The bride also had custom shoes made by Mr. Louboutin himself! I wanna see more of this one! (There's a little more in the February issue of MC, but not enough.)Photos by Charlotte Jenks Lewis, as seen on 100 Layer Cake.

I found a new-to-me blog this week that seems to do a better job of expressing what is in my brain than I do. So lovely.

And while we're on the subject of other blogs, if you are a flower lover and haven't subscribed yet to Flowerwild, you absolutely must. Kate Holt is extraordinarily talented. Just a selection of a few things posted recently. Notice it's white and black anemone season!