Sowing the Seeds of Love: How to Transform Your Reception Space Into a Garden of Enchantment
The Jewish Exponent
Weddings Special Supplement
January 27, 2005
Jennifer Platzkere, a center-city Labor lawyer, wanted her September wedding to Arthur Snyder to be more than just beautiful. “I wanted my wedding to have sense of connection,” she says. “I wanted to be married in a place that was personal.” She envisioned her wedding under the arbor, a natural chuppah of wisteria, in the backyard of her parents’ Merion home. But the space was a little small and the arbor bloomed in late spring, not in September. And like all brides, Platzkere worried about the weather.
Rather than abandon her vision, Platzkere moved it indoors – to the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware. Working from pictures of the wisteria arbor in bloom, floral and event decorator Donna O’Brien, of Beautiful Blooms Design Studio in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, constructed a chuppah of birch branches covered with curly willow and bittersweet berry vine and adorned with black schwartz and mango calla lilies, green hydrangea, red grapes, and orange vanda orchids suspended on gold wire. Cranberry colored votive candles hanging from the chuppah cast a soft glow.
“I felt like I was in the Garden of Eden,” sighs Platzkere.
The Garden of Eden. The Morris Arboretum. Longwood Gardens. You can transform any room into the enchanted garden of your wedding dreams – with some advice from our team of floral and event decorators.
Make a Memorable Entrance
The entrance to a reception sets the mood by making guests feel transported to a different place. To create a garden ambiance, both O’Brien and Dale Lieberman, of Petal Pushers in Huntingdon Valley, suggest constructing an archway of curly willow intertwined with greens and flowers, either over a doorway to soften the look or free-standing to create the impression of an entrance. Potted trees or plants, greens arrangements and flowers in containers that complement the reception décor can also define the entrance and set the mood. O’Brien also decorates inside doors with wreaths of flowers to create an outdoor feel.
Work the Room
“Each of our rooms is unique – because each of our brides is unique,” says Lieberman. An event decorator, Lieberman plans the entire indoor environment to reflect the bride’s vision. “Some facilities are beautiful and need only a little personalization,” she says. “Others need a little bit more help.”
The focal points of the reception – the sweetheart or head tables, the cake table and the dance floor – should be highlighted, while any less desirable features – kitchen doors, plain floors or commercial carpeting, and ceilings that are too low or high – can be downplayed in ways that also enhance the ambiance. Fabric draped on walls and ceilings softens and changes the color of a room. Design elements with a garden look, such as screens or trellises adorned with ivy and fresh flowers, potted trees and floral arrangements in urns or on pedestals, camouflage dark corners, food service staging areas and kitchen doors, and enclose the space, creating a more intimate atmosphere.
To create an indoor garden, Lieberman stages vignettes throughout the room – garden benches, birdbaths filled with flowers, or garden statues, surrounded by potted trees or decorated trellises. Lieberman also encloses the dance floor with a white balustrade roped with garlands of greens and flowers, accented at each corner with square white columns topped with floral arrangements or, for a more formal garden look, tall columns topped with arrangements of greens. She also suggests an arbor or trellis decorated with blossoms and greens to highlight the cake table and frame the bride and groom during the cake cutting.
Many event decorators also advise highlighting the bandstand. Music is an important part of the reception and the guests’ attention will be focused on the bandstand during toasts and speeches. For a garden-themed reception, Lieberman sets the bandstand against a painted backdrop, a trompe l’oeue of a provincial garden with stone columns and urns. O’Brien prefers a simpler treatment, with dark draping and flowers or potted trees at the corners, so the bandstand recedes into the background.
Lighting can also dramatically affect the mood and style of a room. Uplighting (lighting from underneath) creates a softer glow, while pin-spotting (lighting from above) creates drama and focus. Colored lighting is also popular. “Color will greatly change the basic elements of the room,” says Lieberman. Changing the color of the lighting changes the mood of a room, which Lieberman likes to do when the ceremony and reception are in the same space. Candles create a more subdued mood, especially for an evening wedding. For a romantic garden look, O’Brien suggests hanging votive candles in birch branch trees or dressing potted trees with pinpoint lights.
Outdoor style furniture also enhances the garden ambiance. Tables and chairs in wicker or wrought iron suggest a less formal garden look, while bamboo style Chivarie chairs in gold or other colors work well for formal evening weddings. Bill Godshall, of Rose In Bloom in New Hope, likes whimsical accents such as umbrella tables decorated with greens and flowers to bring the outdoors inside. Chair covers, swags, ribbons and flower garlands or wreaths can also be used to decorate chairs for a garden theme.
Set A Beautiful Table
Most event decorators recommend the largest portion of your decorating budget be spent on table centerpieces. “That’s what people are looking at for five hours,” quips Godshall. Rich colors and a mixture of arrangements in different shapes and heights add depth, texture and drama to a room. “Twenty centerpieces, all the same, no matter how beautiful, become boring,” notes Lieberman.
The type of garden you envision – formal English garden, provincial garden, or wild flower garden for example – will dictate your choice of flowers and how they are arranged. For her wedding on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jennifer Platzkere wanted a harvest feel. She wanted to celebrate the Jewish New Year and new beginnings. “I wanted the flowers to look open and natural, as if we’d gathered flowers from the garden, only with a little more thought and organization. I wanted movement and lightness in the arrangements.”
O’Brien created two different table arrangements using Platzkere’s color scheme of rich fall jewel tones mixed with lime green. For the tall centerpiece, she filled the bottom of a fluted glass vase with cranberries and constructed an arrangement of Chinese lantern flower, lime green mini orchids, bittersweet berry vines, gloriosa lilies, green ivy, chocolate cosmos, amaryanthus, and curly willow branches hung with orange vanda orchids on gold wire. The base of the arrangement was surrounded by moss decorated with more orange vanda orchids and lime green votive candles. In contrast, Platzkere’s low centerpieces were much simpler: a profusion of blooms in oranges, purples and greens arranged in shallow gold bowls with natural elements like fruits and berries, for a bright pop of nature. A single orchid was placed on each napkin.
O’Brien uses seasonal flowers and other natural elements to create tableaus that spilled onto the tables. For a fall wedding, she suggests filling pumpkins with flowers in vibrant shades or adding pods, bouquets of handwired acorns and harvest fruits and berries to centerpieces. In the spring, she likes inserting brightly colored blossoms into flats of grass for a park-like feel. Creating a garden look appropriate to the season will keep your decorating budget under control, too. Trying to construct a garden with out-of-season flowers is both difficult and expensive, cautions Godshall.
Interesting containers and other design elements add visual interest to your garden decor. For Platzkere’s ceremony, O’Brien nestled votive candle holders filled with cranberries and floating gold candles in galvanized copper window boxes lined with green moss. Lieberman creates interesting natural arrangements using ordinary objects in unusual ways: bouquets spilling from flower pots tipped onto their sides, greens and blossoms woven around the bars of a wrought iron birdcage, and wire hanging baskets filled with moss and flowers. Both women use water elements in their arrangements. O’Brien likes floating flowers, berries or candles in water filled containers. Lieberman submerges entire arrangements in large glass bowls.
Table linens add color and drama to your tables and showcase your arrangements. O’Brien often custom designs linens to complement the bride’s color scheme. For Jennifer Platzkere’s reception, she used an undercloth in a deep cranberry color topped with a shimmering sheer overlay in the same shade to showcase the table centerpieces. Lieberman, Godshall and Jeffrey Cooper, of Mitzi Associates, advise using overlays, table runners and napkins to enhance the look of basic tablecloths provided by facilities or caterers.
Your Enchanted Wedding Garden
Jennifer Platzkere had a vision of her wedding day: “I wanted to be surrounded by beauty and nature.” With the help of Donna O’Brien, a floral and event decorator, Platzkere was able to bring that vision to life. “Every part of the day was realized the way I imagined it,” Platzkere says. With the help of our team of floral and event decorators, your wedding dreams can come true too.
Our Team of Experts
Jeffrey Cooper
Mitzi Associates
2537 Mt Carmel Avenue
Glenside, PA 19038
215-887-8799
Bill Godshall
Rose In Bloom
142 South Main Street
New Hope, PA 18938
215-862-7085
www.RoseinbloomNewHope.com
Dale Lieberman
Petal Pushers
2381 Philmont Avenue
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
215-938-9590
www.Petalpushers.com
Donna O’Brien
Beautiful Bloom Design Studio
311 West Maple Avenue
Morrisville, PA 19067
215-736-9100
www.Beautifulblooms.com
Other sources:
Jennifer Platzkere Snyder
215-545-4307
Platzkere@BlankRome.com
Possible Sidebars
Finding The Right Floral Or Event Decorator For Your Wedding:
References, references, references! Who did your sister, your friends, your second cousin use?
No references? Local wedding guides and articles (like this one) are a good start. You can also get recommendations from the synagogue director, facilities manager or caterer. They see and work with many professionals.
Comparison Shop. Not just for price but for style, availability, and ability to communicate. Web sites are also a great way to see a floral or event decorator’s work.
More references. Get and check references directly from your candidates.
Reputation and experience. A great reputation and years of experience are great, but not always necessary. If you like the decorator’s work and have checked references, then working with decorator from a small or startup business may be right for your style and your budget.
Comfort, communication and trust. Comfort, communication and trust are essential to your relationship with a floral or event decorator. If you don’t feel a connection, find another professional that you are more comfortable with.
What Your Floral Or Event Decorator Needs To Know:
Your budget. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you and your event decorator will need to decide where to spend your money. Be honest and upfront – most decorators can accommodate any budget. If they can’t, give them the chance to tell you so.
Your dreams. How do you envision your wedding and reception? What flowers do you love? Bring pictures from magazines.
Your nightmares. What don’t you want? Do you hate roses? Does the groom hate flowers with a strong scent?
The practical details – what (kind of ceremony and reception), where (are each being held), when (both season of the year and time of day), who (how many in the wedding party, parents, others honored in the wedding party that need flowers, how many guests/tables, who is paying for the wedding to avoid differences of opinion and squabbles) and how (any special logistics)
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