anastasiaehlers

bride’s bouquet with peonies, patience garden roses, champagne roses, and sweet peas, collared with salal and tulle.

centerpieces with hydrangeas, stock, larkspur, roses, queen anne’s lace, and cotinus in mason jars. chiara and her bridal party put together the centerpieces once i got them going. didn’t they do a fantastic job?

ah king estate. i could live in this picture.

i’ve already shared these on twitter, but not everybody who wants to see is there.

if it’s true what they say about rain on your wedding day being good luck, then chiara and justin have more good luck than they know what to do with. the sky must have opened up just for them–saturday was the only rainy day we’ve had for a bit. i did hear yesterday that this has been the second wettest spring in something like 115 years.

chiara hosted a diy party for her flowers, and she could not have had a more talented, helpful, and fun group of friends and sisters to call upon for the occasion. our design time flew by as everybody put together bouquets, centerpieces, and boutonnieres before we turned the flowers over to the gentlemen to take up to king estate. their genius decision: hire a uhaul to transport piles of diy decor, cases of beer, boxes of flowers, and all the other wedding day stuff that tends to accumulate.

jayme elsevier was on hand at chiara’s to capture all the flower designing process. her and her husband, the couple behind the lenses of harvest moon photography, are serious about documenting the entire experience of your wedding–not just the ceremony and reception. they photographed mine a couple years ago and did a phenomenal job at our rehearsal picnic, and they’ve even tagged along with a couple as they applied for their marriage license. i can’t wait to see the photos they snapped this weekend!

p.s. wishing a very happy birthday to my gal tara. *hugs*

today i had the pleasure of venturing over to the cargo pick-up area by the airport. normal people never go here, and this is obvious. it’s a strange, flat no man’s land of nearly empty hangars and dilapidated flight school buildings. then, just for irony, there’s a pocket or two of snazzy new construction with perfectly generic and unidentifiable shrubberies tucked in the fresh bark mulch out front.

not a whole lot of people around, needless to say. very easy to get turned around, particularly since my phone told me that air cargo way doesn’t in fact exist in eugene. well, here’s proof to the contrary. naturally, as soon as i decided to stand in the street and snap photos of a street sign, the most cars i’d seen in the area yet drove by.

the flowers were snug in the cooler and waiting for me when i finally found the helpful woman with horizon air, and now they are taking a nice long drink to get ready for the diy party tomorrow. for which i’m extra excited for, since my buddy jayme from harvest moon will be joining us to snap some photos.

bouquet by old town florist, photographed by hayley young for oregon bride magazine

dear brides,

watch out. i may try to talk you into a biedermeier. don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds. they’re actually quite a lot of fun, as you can see above. too wild? how about something monochromatic with different varieties of flowers? done and done.

thanks for indulging me,
–a

so what the hell IS a biedermeier? it’s a style of bouquet made from distinct concentric circles of different flowers or colors. it’s a delightfully old-fashioned style of bouquet, precisely organized and stylized. it sort of reminds me of our relationship with nature in the context of the struggle for control. too deep? the term is actually descriptive of a whole bunch of design elements–architecture, art, interiors, and more–during the mid-1800’s in central europe. early themes of other biedermeier design forms include simplicity, function, security, and history. this makes so much sense when you look at the bouquets–splendidly straightforward and obviously intentional.

p.s. all of the bouquets from that feature in oregon bride are pretty spectacular. if you haven’t picked up your copy yet, you should. you just have to see the big glossy photos.

humble is not the word for the peony. nor are shy, homely, or understated particularly good ways to describe everybody’s favorite flower. the showy blooms might as well be as big as your head. they are so heavy that the plant can hardly support them, and gardeners must stake the stems or choose to appreciate the flowers lolling in the soil.

these show stoppers actually made my brakes squeal yesterday. yeah. i pulled over just to snap their photos. i don’t think anybody saw. i thought about covertly snipping one with the clippers i had stashed in my purse, but these were garden peonies, and not on my side of the fence, so that’s just wrong.

public domain image via wikimedia commons

naturally, a couple days before we started shooting, styled shoots became a hot topic at the fancy shmancy engage! 11 wedding summit, specifically how brides think they’re bogus. a couple of the blogs i follow, style me pretty’s backstage, and every last detail have both featured articles with their thoughts on the matter, and the comments are pretty interesting. the common theme seems to be that brides want to see things that are attainable, ideas they can actually execute without spending a bazillion dollars.

full disclosure: i don’t have a bazillion dollars to spend on styling a shoot.

full disclosure number two: i didn’t actually discover the fantastic fantasy world of wedding blogs till after i was married. (this is both a very good thing and a great tragedy.) either way, it means i have no concept of how a bride feels about styled shoots. so help me out here. inspirational? disheartening? silly? fun?

all i can give is my perspective. it was really great to get the chance to express a creative idea that i knew i wasn’t likely to find a bride for, since by the time folks get to me they tend to have broad elements like theme or style already chosen. it was also a fantastic way to connect with other local wedding pros and learn more about what they do–and they are great at it, folks.

do i want to do more? you bet. unless somebody hires me to sculpt a raincloud out of baby’s breath sometime soon.

these are not those pretty butterflies that flit from flower to flower, happily drunk on nectar. they’re the kind in your tummy. in two days, i get to come together with an incredible group of women (and a couple very obliging men) to take some pictures and eat some ice cream. no big deal. so why am i so nervous about it?

everything is going to be great. the flowers are ordered. the vases are free of price stickers and dust (or will be right after i post this, i swear). the chandelier is pink. the invitations are adorable. the cupcakes will be delicious. and all my favorite blogs and magazines are going to fight over the right to publish it. in fact, they’re going to pay us for it (rrrriiiight).

in all seriousness, i am beyond excited. and even more grateful. thank you thank you thank you to the kind folks contributing time, goods, and creativity to this shoot. check out their stuff–these people do great work, yo.

photos by anne nunn photographers
cake and sweets by carla of honeycrumb cake studio
paper goods by suzanne of my sunflower expressions
dress from the fantastic blush bridal boutique
linens and rentals by parties to go, coordinated by the helpful elizabeth
jenn and michael for standing around looking lovely
and last but not least, the muffin mill, for letting me borrow the most perfect set of chairs

again, thanks a bundle.

on friday, i locked my keys in my car. this was made especially foolish by the fact that i was a thousand feet down a dirt road and most certainly alone. my car had no real business being locked. but it’s a habit. tuck keys in purse, exit car, push lock, close door. usually, my purse is with me.

but no, there it was on the seat, with my phone tucked inside as well. at least i had my (mom’s) camera. better yet, i was in paradise, stranded at wet rock gardens flower farm in springfield. it was only sort of raining as i radioed friendly mr. kelly for help from the check in table. i poked around and made myself at home while susan sped to my rescue in her vw camper, bearing a cell phone.

peony

peony buds

the deer wandered off, bored with me (or laughing), and i wandered off in search of what i came for, peonies. my timing is impeccable. i need them this weekend, and they should be damn near perfect. one red bloom was open already, a pretty preview of what’s to come. susan showed up as it started to rain in earnest, so she took me on the driving tour of the farm once i got a hold of the mister to bring the spare key to my car.

chives

foxtail lilies (eremerus)

“if no farmer is handy…”

wet rock is on twelve acres tucked away by the mckenzie river in springfield. it’s run largely by only two people, susan and kelly, who’ve acquired and developed the property piecemeal over years. it’s the sort of place that can only be understood as a labor of love. the farm offers u-pick flowers and provides arrangements for local festivals (country fair, anyone?) and concerts and the occasional free-thinking bride. they host their own events as well, make giant soap bubbles at dawn, and pull weeds by hand. it’s a lot of work for one couple, but all of it is beautiful, even the bits that fall lower on the priority list than tending the plants.

viburnum

allium

“sometimes you have to pull the weed to get to the flower,” susan said as she was telling me about their u-pick flowers, nestled in more beds than i could count. “we don’t mind.”

i don’t mind either. i’ll be back this friday for the peonies and all summer long for the other treasures.

the cat litter bucket seems more appropriate today, now that saturday is a distant memory. i really must order myself some cooler buckets. there’s a diy party coming up, and i can’t very well walk into a lovely bride’s house with buckets full of cat litter flowers. or pool chemicals–not pictured here, but a frequent favorite bucket, perfect for very tall things.

excuse me, it’s well past time to go get reorganized.