a jubilee event :: wedding inspiration for the jubilant bride » flore

A Napa Valley inspired bridal shower in Connecticut

Candice — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:23:07 +0000

I’m so very excited to finally share with you the amazing bridal shower that my mother, grandmothers and maids planned for me back in June. It was an incredible day filled with so many wonderful women. I wish I could relive that afternoon every Sunday!! My very good friends and wedding photographers, Robert and Kathleen, joined us for the day and snapped these fantastic images! The day was also featured on my favorite blog, Style Me Pretty, a while back too.

The shower took place at my grandparents home — which is over 100 years old. It is a great place where we spend many holidays and the most important of occasions. We had a fantastic June day too, and spent the first half of the afternoon out on the front veranda sipping wine and pellegrino. My mom made a delicious and refreshing sangria, and hand chose some great wines.

A lot of my favorite things were on hand… wine, cheese, delicious fruits, veggies, and my friends and family. I can’t really take any credit for the design, look, feel, or details of the day. That’s all my mom! She did such an incredible job! There were wine maps (that I did make… but that’s it!!) that told guests about the wine we were tasting from Napa, a jar for guests to recommend a vineyard for Mike and I to visit on our honeymoon, and lots of pretty signs explaining what guests were imbibing. These little touches are a great way to transform your party and do something unique and inexpensive.

The delicious menu was catered by one of our favorite local restaurants, Jesse Camilles in Naugatuck. Carla and Larry did an incredible job on the food. The menu was really light and inspired by the region: citrus grilled chicken, dill and yogurt salmon, and carpaccio. There were a variety of delicious salads to pair with the meats too (my favorite the baby spinach with goat cheese… yum!).

Nestled on the North side of the house was a variety of pretty dining tables. My mom created purple table runners and used flowy white linen on the tables. The gorgeous centerpieces were created by Lori of Flore. They featured a beautiful variety of flowers such as dahlias, purple calla lilies, green hydrangea, white roses, and purple grapes!! Are they not incredible? So beautiful! My mom had been collecting wine corks for the occasion and had them spread around as accents in various jars. I love that touch (and do it often as they make a great centerpiece). I just love all the purples, greens, white, and oranges. It’s so reminiscent of the region and all the colors we saw while we were out there.

The delish carrot cake was a design collaboration between my grandmother and the talented folks at Let’s Eat Cake.

Guests took home red velvet cupcake lollipops, all hand made by my maid of honor and bestie, Corine. They were so delicious! Something even more incredible and awesome was the fact that Corine has started her own business crafting these and other yummy confections. Check her out: lovely-lollies.com.

What an incredible bridal shower — incredible day! Thanks for letting me share. Hopefully it inspires you to do something personal and unique for your friend or daughter’s bridal shower.

xoxoxooSimilar Posts:

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A Wedding Story: Jennifer & Brenda in New Haven, Connecticut

Candice — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:59:12 +0000

I was so honored to be apart of Jennifer and Brenda’s wedding. It was an emotional day filled with love, happiness, joy, and a fabulous purple martini. I can still remember when Jennifer and Brenda first contacted me — they said, “Girl, we’ve been watching WAY too much of Platinum Weddings and we need your help!!”

Event Ingredients

Photography: Robin Dini Photography
Floral Design: Flore Floral Design
Cupcakes: Sweet Cakes, Fairfield
Furniture Rentals: Signature Event Rentals
Linens: Cloth Connection
DJ: Todd Armstrong, Powerstation
Martini Luge: Bill and Jen of Ice Matters

On July 25th, 2009 they celebrated their incredible love for one another overlooking Long Island Sound at Anthony’s Oceanview in New Haven, Connecticut. Surrounded by 80 of their closest family and friends, they exchanged vows they had written for each other in an emotional ceremony. By their sides were their “Best Girls”, Brenda’s best friend and Jennifer’s sister. Their nieces scattered rose petals down the aisle and held onto their wedding bands. When they were pronounced married, they danced up the aisle to McFadden and Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” (precursor to the epic dance party to come, let me assure you!!). They had a modern and elegant wedding with shades of purple and orange. I love how they integrated interesting floral shapes into their bouquets — aren’t they fun and unusual?!

Jennifer and Brenda wanted to host an amazing party for their family and friends. We brought in white, sleek and modern lounge furniture from Signature Event Rentals. Their couches are so gorgeous! We also used these fabulous Lucite highboys and coffee tables that had an amazing light system. Bistro tables were draped in gorgeous violet pintuck linens, with varying arrangements of floating flowers (tulips, gerbera daisies and orchids). They were accented by orange crush linens on their candy station and martini bar. Take a look at that fabulous luge, created by Bill and Jen of Ice Matters!

Brenda had proposed to Jen on a wine cork (sooo romantic!) so we had wine corks for guests to leave messages of love and encouragement. Their fabulous orange and purple cupcake tower was created by the very talented Suzette of Sweet Cakes in Fairfield. I’ve worked with her on numerous events this year and her confections are not only beautiful to look at, but absolutely delicious!!

Jennifer and Brenda chose some of their favorite candy for favors — dum dum pops, orange jelly bellys, dove chocolates, hersey kisses. Delish! Jubilee Events provided the candy jars, scoops, and pretty little signs that we modeled after their invitations (also designed by us!)

Jennifer and Brenda had such great style and picked up decor items through out their planning. They added splashes of color to the lounge through pretty purple pillows. They used pretty candle holders with dangling crystals and orange votives on the highboys and found lots of cylinder containers for their modern centerpieces. Each month when they came up from their home down south they’d have a ton of beautiful little accent pieces for me. It was so fun and amazing to see their vision come together!

Big props to my girl Robin Dini for her amazing and talented artistic eye. She did an incredible job capturing the details and emotion of their day!

It was such an honor and pleasure to work with them on their spectacular wedding. Congratulations!!Similar Posts:

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A Jubilee Event: Jessica’s Black and White Grad Soiree

Candice — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:53:37 +0000

I think it is pretty awesome that Jessica just recently graduated with her Master’s degree. It is even MORE awesome that she threw herself a CRAZY swanky party in Oakville, Connecticut to celebrate her life milestone! When she contacted me a few months ago to design an event for her I was really excited to do so — a nice break from weddings! We had a ton of fun developing her ideas and came up with a fabulous black and white party that included delicious cupcakes from Cakes Unlimited, submerged tulips, gerbera daisies and orchids as centerpieces from Flore Floral Design, and a rockin’ photobooth manned by the ridiculously talented Robin Dini. I also custom created an awesome 5×5 black and white invitation to her event!

We brought in some gorgeous and modern white lounge furniture, including couches, ottomans, and coffee tables. Guests dinned on a lot of yummy appetizers with some Miami flair!

And for the photobooth? I’m sorry, it is a MUST have at any event! It was a huge hit too — almost 1,000 pictures taken of all her family and friends! Here are a few of the many awesome pictures taken that night by the new photobooth queen, Robin Dini.

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A Preppy Spring Inspired Tablescape: Yellow, White & Black

Candice — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:35:18 +0000

Last month Abby of Style Me Pretty asked all her Little Black Book vendors to dream up and create a DIY capable tablescape for her readers. I love any opportunity to dress up a table and quickly went to work on a simple Spring design using common household items. This tablescape was featured here!

Yellow has become my new FAVORITE color. I’ve become so inspired by it and now have a ton of new yellow cardigans, shirts and dresses. It has even worked its way into the redecorating of my living room this weekend! I love is cheery disposition and ability to brighten every room. The color yellow was my inspiration for this design and I set out to find all the pieces!

I didn’t have to look far — I opened up my pottery closet where I store way too many platters, dishes, and glassware. I pulled out items that we all have — a white cake stand (by Martha Sewart), some standard household vases (no doubt purchased at homegoods), and some vintage glass coke bottles passed down to me by my mom (a flea market or tag sale find, I’m sure). Real simple stuff, nothing super fancy, expensive, or unique. I knew I wanted to use these items but didn’t know what to put in them.

I took a drive over to one of my favorite florists, Flore in Southbury and asked the owner, Lori, what she had chilling in her cooler. Here is what I purchased on the fly:

1 stem white hydrangea
1 stem green hydrangea
1 ½ dozen circus roses
1 bushel of fancy yellow tulips (5 total used)
2 football mums
3 stems white lisianthus
Total Price: $60 wholesale

On my way home I stopped by the local fabric store to find something for our table runner. I spied some really gorgeous eyelet fabric and walked out with three yards (which proved to be a bit too much, but excess is always best!). I also popped over to the craft store and grabbed some yellow 8.5×11 heavy card stock (for the “charger”) and lacy inspired corner punch. Last stop: the dollar tree, where a good bargain is hit or miss. Fortunately they had some pretty yellow pillar candles and I scooped up two.

I had previously designed the menu card, which you can see, once I had decided on my color scheme. My inspiration for the menu was certainly my kate spade black and white tidbit plates, which I also incorporated into the tablescape. I love those plates! I had the menu cards them from a 8.5×11 sheet of standard white card stock and used this particular corner punch to add a little femininity.

After I had purchased my materials it was only a matter of putting it together. No one ever comes home with all the right ingredients and has a perfect centerpiece — there was a lot of playing around, new ideas, eliminations, and additions. In the end, this is what I came up with in about 20 minutes after focusing my ideas. I love it! After I was finished photographing it in my home studio, it graced our dining room table for the week.

Our tablescape can translate into any event and would look gorgeous at a wedding, mother’s day brunch, bridal shower, baby shower, or any other special occasion. You can dress it up, down, and adjust the formality pretty easily. Similar Posts:

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