Rebecca + Geritt: raindrops on roses

Rebecca and Geritt are so obviously in love and full of life! When we asked them what their favorite things were, we got responses like "roses, cooking, holding hands, stair races, going for walks together, and flour fights in the kitchen," just to name a few. Inspiration instantly sparked from their love story...they had so many favorite things about each other!..and so we turned to the classic tune from The Sound of Music, "These are a few of my favorite things" to take us down a planning path of whimsical details and playful puns :)

I love these "getting ready" shots from photographer Jamie Hammond. She really captured Rebecca's classic look, and calm, confident air that she had on her wedding day. She completely reminded me of Jackie O.

Being that roses were one of Rebecca's favorite flowers. Her bouquet was filled with all different shades.

Courtney Scowby of Brightly Designed did all of the paper elements for the wedding. We worked closely with her to make sure the different song elements would be highlighted with the paper elements; she did a great job capturing the feel!...and so the song began...

"Raindrops on Roses"

We loved the florals by Twigg Botanicals. She used bold reds, corals, oranges and soft pinks to both contrast and compliment the girls' soft blue dresses as well as the linens that draped the dining tables. Twigg alternated beautiful traditional floral centerpieces with these copper floral trays paveed with roses. If you look closely, you'll see the roses have also been kissed with crystal raindrops we sprinkled on top.

"Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens!" Ok, it was August, way to hot for mittens, but we were able to bring in the copper kettles with these beautiful centerpieces from Twigg. I really thought the copper element not only played into the song, but also added a unique vintage element to the overall look.

"Brown paper packages tied up with string!"

Rebecca loves to bake...always has. When she was a little girl, she used to make cookies and even had her own pretend bakeshop she called the Busy Bee Bakery. We thought this would be a perfect favor for her guests to enjoy.

"These are a Few of My Favorite Things"

From the bridesmaids soft blue tailored dresses and pearls, to the boys black suits, this picture is straight out of the vonTrapp family album! We knew the Darlington House would be the perfect setting for such an elegant style.

The bouquets all had a great mix of textures in them. The berries and dahlias added some fun to the traditional sweet-smelling roses.

"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes!" These adorable flower girls dressed the part and looked oh so sweet! I especially love the picture below with all of the girls surrounding Rebecca...babies and girls galore!

"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes!" ...again...August. There's no snow, but the girls sure look like they're enjoying themselves :)

"Silver white winters that melt into springs!"...or summer.

The roses at the Darlington House were definitely in bloom in summer and added such a beautiful, lush backdrop for guests to enjoy. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Probably my favorite look from the entire wedding was the head table. We teamed up with Twigg to create the "raindrops on roses" feel with, of course, copper containers, red parasols and crystal rain drops that were hand strung to shower the entire table.

"These are a few of my favorite things!"

The cake was another delicious confectionary creation from Michele Coulon desserts. We created the custom cake stand for Rebecca and Geritt with a vintage red fabric. Twigg Botanicals decorated the cake with the gorgeous tulips, berries, rose petals and delphinium. Quite the team effort!

We wanted to repeat the raindrop on roses feel over the cake. So we brought in more gorgeous umbrellas in the pinks, corals, reds and blues and scattered crystal raindrops on the rosepetals below.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels! OK, so logistically, it just didn't work to bring in cream colored ponies :) But crisp apple strudels? That we could do! Working with Crown Point Catering was a complete joy! They custom created the crisp apple strudel station that allowed guests to top their warm treats with ice cold vanilla bean ice cream. They even had fresh carmel sauce on hand for anyone who needed an even more decadent dessert!

"These are a few of our favorite things!" We put together an entire table of pictures of Rebecca and Geritt, and some items that represented all of their favorite things - cooking pots, books, a globe and even a football! It was a great way for guests to see how sweet their relationship was, and added a fun personalized touch to the night.

Each brown paper package, hand wrapped with love and care and tied with a soft blue string, had freshly baked cookies inside for "When the bee stings!" A cookie or two from Busy Bee Bakery would surely cure any bumble bee encounter. We turned to Flour and Flower Bakery to recreate Rebecca's chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.

I love the emotion in both of the Father/Daughter pictures below, Rebecca clearly has a wonderfully close relationship with her family. Rebecca's sister, Lauren (a previous bride of ours), never got to have her father-daughter dance at her wedding, being that her dad was serving a mission at the time, so we made sure they got to dance together for a very touching moment.

Something you may not know about me, is I was once an aspiring actress. Any of you who know me probably think this is really funny...but I was in The Sound Of Music in a local theater production. Needless to say, I'm a wedding planner, and NOT an actress, but to this day, I will never forget my one show-stopping line, "Maria!" That about sums up my acting career :) In all seriousness, ever since then I've been dying to do a wedding based on the beautiful details of this classic film.

This was such a fun and playful wedding, and thanks to all of the great people involved, everything really came together! We most likely have left you humming the tune as we found ourselves doing so many times throughout the designing, creating and planning process. But when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad! Thanks to Rebecca and Geritt for allowing us to create such a unique and fun wedding! Best of luck you two, we can't wait for all of the new favorite things you'll discover along your journey!