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11.30.2008

November Wedding Pictures

This post is incredibly long, but I've been wanting to share some photos from the wedding last weekend!  It went very well and I was really happy with how everything turned out.  It was a huge wedding, and it required TONS of work, but it was well worth it and I've gotten a lot of great feedback.  I'm hoping to generate some more business from it too, as my next wedding is in May.  But doing this wedding just confirmed to me again, that this is exactly what I should be pursuing and this is definitely how God has gifted me.  In the middle of all the stress and work, I found myself totally happy and enjoying every minute!  I LOVE working with flowers, I LOVE weddings, and I like creating "something out of nothing."  I'll walk you through the details and let you see what has been consuming me for months!  Enjoy :) 
Some of the flowers I picked up on Thursday.  We went with a fall palette and the flowers came in so beautifully.  I LOVE those mango and cranberry mini calla lilies.  Aren't they gorgeous?

Some of the flowers and greens we used for the sanctuary, personal flowers, and reception.  I had very detailed notes about where I wanted to use every single stem!

I worked all weekend in Trav's junior high room.  It came in handy to be married to a Pastor and have access to the building when I needed it!  These are some of the eiffel tower centerpieces for the reception.  This is a shot of the first stage when I started adding greens.  

The bridal bouquet.  I LOVED this.  It turned out better than I hoped.  Christa wanted mostly white with a touch of color like we used for the rest of the bridal party.  This was one of my favorite bouquets I've ever done, mostly because I love the fall color scheme!

Kind of a blurry shot of the bridesmaids bouquets.  We kept their bouquets very colorful and centered around those gorgeous mango calla lilies.  

A shot of all the bouquets together.  6 bridesmaids' bouquets and the bridal bouquet.  

The way the centerpieces looked the night before when I was finished greening them.  I could almost have kept them that way!  I love a mixture of greens.  They were much prettier the next day with flowers however :) 

On Wednesday, we worked on the sanctuary of our church.  We have a huge, huge worship center and it's very hard to pull off a wedding in there.  It's just so mammoth that it took some vision to try and bring this together.  I thought using the pillars at the back of the aisle would help "close off" the back of the church and bring everything forward.  Here is a preliminary shot of what it looked like from the bride's view before she walked down the aisle.

We used my cylinders and floating candles all over the worship center. I wrapped them all with the striped ribbon that we used for the wedding party and the reception.

4 different sizes here, 30", 20", 14" and 12".  They were gorgeous when they were lit and glowing!

A Pastor's view from the front of the aisle looking back at the worship center.  You can get an idea of the scope of size we were working with.  Not easy to do.  We swagged the aisle with white organza and bows.  I don't work with tulle.  I don't like it.  

We also used tons of cylinders and candles on the stage to try and soften the size and make it more intimate.  

The candleabras and columns and of course the very red curtain.  Perfect with a fall color scheme but something to think about for the rest of the year.  

The trinity candleabra in the background and unity candle table in the foreground.  We kept it very simple with just greens and some sparkly branches I found at my wholesaler.

Close up of the greens, glitter branches and bow.  I loved how they turned out. 


                                                            Trinity Candles 


Unity Candle


More cylinders and candles and some flowers honoring Grandparents who have passed away and couldn't be there. 

A view of the completed stage with the austrian curtain dropped.  That curtain really helped bring the whole thing together and make the stage look smaller. 

 Blurry, but you get the idea.  It was very pretty in there with the lights dimmed and candles lit.

 All different kinds of corsages and bouts. for the wedding party and family.  Fall palette again.


                                                  Final Bridesmaid's Bouquet.  

                                                  Final Bride's Bouquet.

The toss bouquet for the reception.  It's usually laying next to the cake on the cake table :) 

The urn centerpieces we used for the parent's tables.  Roses, hypericum, and greens.


The finished eiffel tower centerpieces.  53 tables total and we had these on 12 of the tables. 

A close up of what I put in them.  Roses, orchids, hypericum, daisies, mums, and mini carns.  
  

The commons area of our church where the reception was held.  It snowed that day and the view out the windows that night was GORGEOUS!!  Picture this with low lights and candlelight...Very pretty!


After we lit the candles and before the wedding started.  Such a pretty glow in the room.


The tables that didn't have flowers had 3 of my cylinders with more floating candles.  They were just as pretty with the glow of the ribbon :)  Seeing that salad makes me hungry again!


The girls in the bridal party.  They wore black dresses and that was a perfect backdrop for their flowers!  I was a happy girl when I saw everyone together :) 

A bridesmaid and groomsman.  You can see both of their flowers well in this picture.  

The groom, Justin, and one of his groomsmen.  I especially loved Justin's bout.  I made sure to match it with Christa's bouquet.  

The bride's parents.  Dave is our mission's pastor and his wife Wendy is a good friend of mine.  She and I spent lots and lots of time together over the last few months!  What a sweet encouragement she is to me.  She looked stunning in her dress.  She is the Mom of 5 kids and you'd never know it!  

The groom's parents and also friends of ours.  Daniel is our former Senior Pastor and Rosie was one of my scrapbooking friends :)  We miss them but they are now missionaries that our church supports and Daniel travels all over the country speaking and encouraging other Pastor's and leading church leadership teams in prayer.  Rosie was also gorgeous that night and had such an amazing dress.  These 2 Moms were looking great!!  

Christa and her bridesmaids.  Such a gorgeous picture of each of them and not too bad of their flowers either :)  

The happy couple, two Pastor's kids :) Congratulations Justin and Christa!  They were darling and so sweet.  They got to spend Thanksgiving in Mexico...Sounds good to me!!  

13 comments:

MiMi said...

OMG everything looks absolutely gorgeous! You definitely need to be pursuing this because God has definitely blessed you with a great talent in this area!

Those mango calla lilies are amazing! And the bouquets are incredible! I LOVE all the cylinder candles and those eiffel tower centerpieces are stunning.

It must have been so much fun helping to make someone's special day so perfect!

Jordan said...

The flowers turned out beautiful!
Great job!!

Erin said...

Absolutley Amazing, I live in MN and will send people your way! I am a starting photographer and have a few weddings lined up for this summer as well as know a lot of people who are engaged. Your work is amazing. Do you have price sheets?!?!

Erin Schuler

Erin said...

I just posted a comment above and was wondering if I could email you. I would love to put you on my partners page on my website! Simplyclassicphotography.com! Let me know what you think!

Erin

Stephanie said...

Erin, thank you for the comments and the opportunity to add me to your partners list. I would love that! I will get on your website and contact you that way, but in case you check back here, you can also email me. My email is:
the_armstrongs03@yahoo.com
Stephanie

Jesse and Stacie said...

Pretty flowers!! I love the snow in the background as well!

Faith said...

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!! You did a fabulous job. I cannot imagine how much work that took, but it had to be so much fun!

Rebecca Jo said...

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!! Everything looks stunning! Very elegant! And it looks like ALOT of work!!! I'm so impressed. There isn't anything that just doesnt take my breath away - the colors are beautiful...

BIG pats on your back!!

Amanda Hoyt said...

That is all just beautiful!!!!!
Hugs and prayers,
Amanda

sheltonfamily said...

What else would we expect from the amazing steph! Mike even looked at every picture and was amazed. How did you find time to do all of this? It was also fun to see who the bride and groom were. How neat that God knit them together. Miss you guys!

Jenna said...

Oh my lands! It could not have been more beautiful!!! Wonderful job - I bet they'll be talking about the flowers at their wedding for a LONG time. Loved all the pictures!!!

petrii said...

Oh my stars ~~ how beautiful!! You are sooooooooo talented!!! I have never seen anything like those eiffel tower centerpieces ~~ gorgeous.

Thanks for sharing these amazing pics.

Have a Blessed week,
Dawn

Heather said...

Great job, Steph! You are very talented- everything looks gorgeous!
OH- and CONGRATS on the baby girl!!! WOO HOO!!!