Recently, one of may very savvy brides shared with me her approach to having a fabulous day while not breaking her bank account, or her parents’.  It struck me as incredibly smart and I can really see this trend taking hold.

Rather than a full sit down dinner for her reception, she chose to have a cocktail reception.  Immediately following her ceremony, guests were invited to leisurely lounge and mix while a menu of wonderful appetizers were tray passed by strolling waiters, as they sipped some good California wine.  Cocktail tables (30″ high boys) were set up on the lawn in the garden with small elegant centerpieces.  A live jazz band played throughout, a beautiful cake was cut, family and friends thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the Bride and Groom headed out at about 9 pm.

I love the relaxed, yet swank approach that this brings to a day that is often shrouded in formalness, assigned table seating, strict timeline and heavy tradition.  Think about bit sized elegance, cocktail napkins, maybe a signature cocktail, a wine bar, fewer hours of entertainment, no china rental and a clever spin on tradition.  Added bonus: some serious “green points”.

Be sure to work with an awesome caterer that features an innovative appetizer menu and isn’t afraid to create something just for you.  Many of my favorite caterers in the area can also create sweet or savory stations that your guests will completely swoon over.  These are a few of my very favorite caterers in our area that I would trust implicitly with such a feat:  The guys over at Two Cooks Catering not only feature wonderful bites, but their staff is first class.  Jennie over at Trumpet Vine Catering offers up a personal touch and stunning presentations while being absolutely flavorful.  The team at Epic Weddings @CateringUnlimited.com can create whatever your heart desires, and setting a new trend themselves, with a decadent wedding brunch menu.  Check out some great ideas for a personal touch and new signature cocktail ideas on Wedding Ideas Now.

Get creative, have fun and enjoy!

What if, there was actually something to engage your guests into interacting with each other over a cocktail or glass of champagne?  Something that brought extended families and friends together, laughing, interested, interacting and creating an atmosphere of ease, setting the mood for lots of celebrating to come… Voila!  The Ice Breaker and the “coolest” cocktail hour and reception that any of your guests will participate in.  You have to check this out, once you’ve experienced it, you will not forget it and you’ll be thinking about it for months.  A professional Ice Breaker is the guy that entertains even the guests that don’t want to join the party on the dance floor, but still want to be a part of the wedding festivities.  And how fabulous will you seem to your guests – to have thought of this?

Right here in SLO town, we have an incredibly talented and internationally recognized entertainment master of magic and mental mystery.  Ok, and he’s just a great guy.  I’ve seen him at birthday parties and weddings and am always enthralled with the buzz and excitement his brand of “magic” brings to a crowd.  Definitely check Rich out – I think his entertainment will be a huge hit on your memorable day.

We loved working with this bride, and on the day of the wedding, we were completely captivated by how beautiful this couple was.  The team at Mike Larson Inc. captured the essence of this beautiful day.

To see this complete featured article and more fabulous pictures please visit StyleUnveiled LA real weddings.  A great place to find wedding ideas and great vendors.  Also check out other panacea event floral design weddings featured on this site.

The combination of bright colored spring blooms in shades of green, orange and gold, kept the feeling of the day fresh and vibrant.  Organic elements were intermingled through out with interesting greens, green fruits and moss to provide an earthy, rustic vibe.

The custom rose petal monogram and swirl design, created the perfect pop of color to the ceremony in the garden.

Moss initials on the doors of the barn, accented with clusters of flowers were the perfect low key welcome element to the celebration to come in this historic California barn.

Centerpieces of spring blooms, moss & fruit were created as little gardens on each table set in copper buckets.  Some of the garden-scapes also included manzanita and hanging crystals.

A simple sprig of orange freesia was tucked into each napkin, greeting the guests and sending off a subtle fragrance.

This custom wash on the dance floor was taken from the damask design on Carley & Matt’s wedding invitations.  Our favorite lighting experts over at Kramer Entertainment DJs & Lighting produced this effect as well as all of the color washes on the cold stone walls of the barn, warming things up and creating an inviting and festive atmosphere inside and outside the barn.

To see more pictures of our beautiful weddings at Santa Margarita Ranch click here.

Lighting can create ambiance and set the mood for sure, but more important to us, as your floral stylist, is that a great lighting company can pin spot light each table to show off your vision.  We love to sit down with the lighting designer and work out a lighting plan with high visual impact that will be an image, etched in your memory for the rest of your life.  This is about that WOW moment when you first walk in the room and see how incredible it looks – in the dark, there’s simply nothing to see.  Recently, in part due to the state of many wedding budgets, we’ve even noticed that  even simple centerpieces vastly benefit from some lighting.

Truly, this element of light can make the biggest visual impact out of anything that you do for your reception.  Of course there are, what I consider bonus elements that can really create a fun and upscale feeling to your event.  Up lighting, dance floor washes and special effect lighting can each play a part in transforming a room from nice – to ridiculously awesome!  In June, we worked with the lighting team over at Kramer Entertainment DJ’s & Event Lighting to enlighten a wedding reception in the Chai Barrel Room at the beautiful Meridian Vineyards.  Definitely one of our favorite wedding venues, we coordinated concepts with Zach, the lighting designer at Kramer Entertainment & Lighting and Laura at TOS Events, to create a beautiful and cohesive presentation.  Below are some great photos from Jill Hewston at Allyson Magda Photography.  These images represent what a great team of professionals can bring to your wedding day.

To check out more fabulous examples of flowers & lighting design check out these posts on our blog or see more beautiful weddings at Meridian Vineyards.

Our gorgeous bride, Darcy, consistently honed in on simple garden varieties of blooms in soft shades of cream, white, blush and green that were in keeping with the surroundings, maximizing the impact of each element that we designed for her.  While most couples choose the gazebo for their ceremony focal point, we turned the ceremony around to face Judi’s natural blooming screen of white climbing ice burg roses.  Our romantic silk arch looks like it is floating on the trellis among the blooms – I love how it turned out!  Creamy French flower buckets full of white blooms were hung on all the aisle chairs with platinum satin ribbon, and then in a brilliant plan of the bride’s, we reset them as centerpieces for the reception in the rustic chic barn.

Catering by the Sea Shanty of Cayucos and wedding cake by The Cakery.  To see more about this wedding check out Mike’s blog and click here to see more weddings that we’ve styled at the Dana-Powers House.

And here’s the big thing… she has perfected recipes that are vegan & gluten-free!  Have party guests with dietary preferences? Recently, I hosted a sweet 16 brunch at my home for my niece who happens to have celiac disease (gluten intollerence).  It has always been rough for Skylar at family celebrations, as a good dose of wheat flour is included in most sweet treats.  I ordered several flavors of Amy’s small cupcakes AND lemon bars – all gluten-free.  They were fantastic and my nice Skylar was completely delighted.  Everyone completely enjoyed the varieties and savored each little morsel.

Definitely check out what Amy can bring to the dessert table for your next party or celebration.

Our bride flew in for one weekend from Beijing, China to plan her entire wedding.  Fortunately, she hired the Central Coasts’ Mark Padgett Event Design to bring some of the best local wedding vendors together for her and she chose the beautiful Meridian Vineyard Chai Barrel Room to host her beautiful, one of a kind reception.

From our one meeting with the bride, we worked closely with Mark on the design and came up with a sumptuous and romantic approach that transformed the room into an opulent California ballroom.  Mark engineered stunning columns of soft light intermingled with his decadent crystal chandeliers over the dance floor washed with pattern.  We used our classic silver and crystal candelabras, adorned with lush white arrangements of white orchids.  A low version of the centerpieces were modern low arrangements of pavé large white mums in metal containers with votive candles in the middle of them – the result was pillows of glowing flowers.  To provide a little “pretty” at the table level for the high centerpieces, we set incredible gardenias in silver votive holders.  The subtle fragrance to the room, set the tone for a beautiful celebration.  Cuisine provided by Two Cooks Catering and of course the entertainment delighted the guests for hours – the guys over at San Luis Jazz Band.  Zach, our favorite lighting designer set the room alive with focused light – allowing the centerpieces to wow the guests on entry.  Stunning night!

The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa held the ceremony part of the day. Julie Wilson Photography shot stunning photos of the family and bridal part in the parish garden.  Deep espresso silk dresses provided the perfect background for lush bouquets of purple, lavender and green orchids – loved these!  The little flower girls carried espresso silk boxes of white orchids with a Tiffany blue ribbon handle.  Custom silk pillow of lush white mums and ribbon were carried by the ring bearers.

Dana, a good friend of one of my all time favorite brides from 2005, brought some great tear sheets and ideas to our consultation appointment.  We developed a palette of beautifully simple and elegant blooms in shades of white, green and brown.  In keeping with the Mission and the rustic California feel, we decided on elements from our Wrought Iron collection for the reception at Robert Hall Winery.  Our wrought iron candelabras lit the Paso Robles evening with soft candle light.  Curly willow was wrapped around them to add some funky natural elements and stunning green cymbidium orchids were tucked in to the willow to add some color.  The simplicity of this look was really striking.  The other version of the centerpieces incorporated our wrought iron stands with hand blown glass bowls.  Each one featured three fragrant gardenias floating in it.  Super simple – but classic.  The subtle fragrance immediately sets the tone for your guests to have a great time.  The linens were a khaki shade of taupe and chartreuse napkins brought more of Dana’s favorite color to the table with a menu card tucked in the fold at each place setting.  Our personalized candy bar provided a little sugar for guests to enjoy through out the evening.  To complete the ambiance at the winery, perimeter up-lighting maximized the winery’s architecture while providing an incredible back drop for the party.

Melissa at Kramer Entertainment DJs and Event Lighting kept the dance floor full and moving.  The incredible lighting was also provided by Kramer Entertainment DJs and Event Lighting.  The dinner was catered by my soul sista, Jennie Sturgeon over at Trumpet Vine Catering and was beautifully presented, including my favorite signature appetizer – mission fig & prosciutto torte.  The night was topped off with milk and home made donuts for the road, also provided by Jennie.

Many thanks to the incredibly talented Amy Wellenkamp at Amy Wellenkamp Photography for sharing her awesome photos with us.  She is truly and artist!

The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. Asclepius became jealous of his pupil; Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower, according to Wikipedia.  Try to beat that story of origin! More recently (1000 BC), their earthly history is found predominantly in China and during the T’ang dynasty (618-906) peonies were often part of a bride’s dowry settlement as they were of such great value.   Read more details about this incredible plant and bloom, often used for medicinal purposes, at La Pivoinerie D’Aoust.

About a year ago while researching some other information about peonies, I came across a wonderful author, Lisa See and read her novel Peony in Love.  Set in 17th century China the Yangzi River Delta, it is based on a true story and I was mesmerized and found a whole new appreciation for this stunning bloom.  I highly recommend this historical read for your summer beach bag!

Both my mother and grandmother had stunning peonies in their gardens when I grew up.  I remember the excitement of finding one of those tight bulbs encrusted in a waxy green shell, peeking through the leaves and the great anticipation of what would come in the following weeks. For me, they are associated with all that is wonderfully female, gracious and good.  When pressed to tell someone my favorite variety, the peony ranks in the very top of many.

All photos from the BloomDiva’s 3GS iPhone.