Orcas Island Wedding Style

Handfasting

 Handfasting was the original way in Medieval Britain that couples joined in what we know as matrimony. By handfasting (actually placing of the couples palms in a way to signify the infinity sign) a couple was joined for a year and 1 day whereafter they could renew the handfast or not as they chose. Since access to clergy was not all that easy this made a great deal of sense. 

Today handfasting is used symbolically as a portion of a wedding ceremony. It is a lovely ancient (some say Celtic) tradition being kept alive.

I am glad I came across the term today.  It is fun learning where things come from and why. 

 

 

Hunting Hippos

Hunting Hippopatumi in Paris. 

Chocolate. A very dangerous medium. Not to be taken on lightly.

 

Yum.

A Bit of City

I was feeling a bit stale from a long winter and from staring out at all this natural beauty. Seriously, sometimes you really can't see the forest for the trees.

So my husband and I packed up and went on a trip from which we have just returned.

We struggled at first to decide where this much needed break would be, friends in the Caribbean, friends in Bali all tempted us but we realised pretty quickly it was a big dose of City that was needed.

My first post (in forever I know!)is about why that was a good choice, going city that is. I needed visual feeding.  

Coming up with unusual inspiration for Wedding decor that goes beyond bark and moss or can be ferreted out from the two dimensional world of my MAC is at times a challenge.

So it seemed to make sense to go to Paris. 

Isn't this just fantastic!

I know I can't bring the Musee des Moyan Age here (though I wish I could work there) nor can I time travel the ancient stone masons of France for my next project but I can certainly let them inpsire me....  how about for the next time I have a tent ceiling to decorate?

Ah, the jet lag siren song calls and I must answer. More soon dear friends. au bientôt.

Doing It Yourself

DIY is the watchword trend for this years weddings. I am seeing some fantastic results out of the efforts some of my clients are making. Really fantastic ideas. There is also a trend towards the vignette centerpiece such as this one.
Vignettes tell a visual story about the couple. Vignettes can create moods of joy, inspire fantasy, express ideas whether lofty or not. 

There are some fantastic blogs out there that inspire and inform vignette design? This is a new favorite.  This is an old favorite both of these blog spots  have provided me and many of my clients with great inspiration and hours of pleasure.

My DIY clients, my "please do it for me clients"   and my design associates  have universally benefitted from this blog spot. It transforms limited thinking and makes even the most colour shy person brave -The Color Collective. Really.

Though obvious it bears repeating: Color is key. By way of example I remember when my college roomate and I wanted to take a trip together during our summer break. I had a friend in Arizona and she had a friend in Colorado. We were both having a hard time deciding which way to go. She left up to me. No pressure there. When I really thought about it, when I closed my eyes to imagine myself in these places,  I realised I wanted to go to places  that were filled with Blues , Whites and Greens and not Reds, Oranges and Yellows. It was a visceral decision reached through somewhat unusual means and was very satisfying when I came to my decision. I ended up in Red Yellow and Orange but that is a whole other story.

Now a brief word to those Brides getting married in 2012 who feel their talents lay out side the demands of creative wedding decor - If doing it yourself stresses you out, don't do it.    You are not a bridal failure.

By my way of thinking and those who read my postings have seen my write any number of times:  your only obligation to your wedding- the singular thing that you must DO it YOURSELF -is to be present in the moment, witnessing from your heart.  Live it don't watch it.

Teal or taupe, paper flowers or real, buffet or homestyle in the end all fade from memory. It is your heart that goes on - (oh you know I just had to write that ! Celine).

Happiness

The snow was falling this morning. I woke up late a bit annoyed because I was behind. Behind on not much of importance but behind nonetheless. Sipping coffee and staring out the window into the falling snow made things much better. And then, I read this and my day went on into Happiness.

 

Happiness

Raymond Carver

So early it’s still almost dark out.

I’m near the window with coffee,

and the usual early morning stuff

that passes for thought.

When I see the boy and his friend

walking up the road

to deliver the newspaper.

They wear caps and sweaters,

and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.

They are so happy

they aren’t saying anything, these boys.

I think if they could, they would take

each other’s arm.

It’s early in the morning

and they are doing this thing together.

They come on, slowly,

The sky is taking on light,

though the moon still hangs pale over the water.

Such beauty that for a minute

death and ambition, even love,

doesn’t enter into this.

Happiness. It comes on

unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,

any early morning talk about it.

 

The Seattle Wedding Show

This last weekend was the 2012 Seattle Wedding Show. It is our second year doing it. It was intense, fun, demanding and very hard on the feet.  Fruitful? Well, we'll see.

I want to give a big shout out to Rosario Resort and Spa for including us in their booth. There is no doubt from the looks on so many faces as they passed by the booth and read the banner, the name Rosario holds powerful memories. Memories of romance,  childhood,  a first kiss, family time, whales and eagles, all that Orcas Island has to offer.  It was lovely to be associated with such a positive force.

Sarah McCulloch also deserves a big hug of thanks for her fixing our portfolio or rather rebuilding it and for making such a unique sign for Patina. Fan, Friend, Associate all hats worn with love. And we are very very grateful to her.

So here are a few pictures of our booth. Very bridal. Lots of pictures were taken by florists and brides and moms all of whom are getting married elsewhere.  Lots of man handling of the moss boxes trying to capture how it was done. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...I tell myself over and over....It got so that John would go up to people as they turned and twisted the boxes this way and that and say, "they grow like that on the island. We have moss box trees all over the place". Some people, actually quite a few stopped and stared with wonder in their eyes before they caught on. It was fun and funny.

 

 

 

2012 Wedding Trends

I don't have a clue. I have an opinion, I have a hope but I don't have exclusive knowledge. If I followed Jung I would draw from the collective unconscious, and perhaps that is what we do when we find ourselves defining the next thing and we end up being correct.

Last night I went on line to see what was being said about next year and though "faux vintage farm" is not being touted any more (the old Underwood typewriter next to the crate of oranges and the hemp laundry line of place cards) Vintage is still the parameter whether vintage funk (Mad Men meets Playboy Club) or Lace and gemstone brooches making the bridal bouquet. 

What I am noticing and what I am going to employ for this years Wedding Fair is the elegance of neutrals. That has always been a favorite of mine. But I adore colour, as the walls in my home attest so I am going to put in a dash of colour, strong colour here and there. The elegance of neutrals, a splash of colour combined with with mercury glass or milk glass, whites and beiges, champagnes and pale pinks are easy and safe, (safe in a good way not a wimping out - don't know what else to do way)The dash of colour is a finger to the fates.

Easy because life is so complicated and fast and most days come at us without mercy. Safe because although the future is never known there is some question as to whether sun really will rise (the next morning or at least in 2012).

 

And I guess that is what I am projecting as my opinion for the 2012 trend department.Please, do let me know what you think 2012 portends for style and colour, mood and texture.

So what does elegant neutral look like?  

photo by husband John Ginnes...

photo by Steve Horn...

 

and for that splash  of colour....

(photo credit not known but man I love this look)

Happy Merry to all.

When Is the End really the End?

There is an article from Huffington Post that is being shared on Facebook by Heather Sharpe  Senior Editor of the fabulous Style Unveiled wedding resource (I feel like I need a geneology tree to track back)about the End of the Vintage Wedding. If you feel a wind blowing it is the collective sigh of relief from  many designers and artists in the wedding world.

But not from me. Oh yes, I agree the vintage typewriter as a prop is as conceptually bruised and wilted  as the wedding flowers with which it once shared space.  But the authentic country wedding or the need to keep it fun for no money or the fact that you are a bride who cans their veg every fall or wants to play in that life for a while will keep the Mason Jar Motif alive. As long as life is complicated the appeal for simplicity as made manifest through objects from our collective past will always appeal.

However, the article suggests we will see the tide turn towards the elegant wedding, the more traditional - creating it from the same lace cloth as what made Lady Kate's wedding.

I contend that your wedding is a heart fantasy expressing itself on the earthly plain. Whether vintage or traditional, modern or eclectic, whimsical or magical, whatever words you choose - you want your wedding to be the expression of yourselves right at this moment; are any of us just one thing?

The only thing I know is the look of your wedding must be authentically you - to you - your heart. Your family and friends will know it and feel it as soon as they see it. And if next year if you find your self loving Bedemeir over Laura Ashley you can go with that flow for as long as it lasts - no matter if Huffington Post says so or not.

Lilin

I am looking outside my window out into the clouds that surround my home on this wet chilly November day. It is lovely in it's own wrap me in a blanket in front of the fire with my book lovely way.

It also helps to know that just about when this lovely becomes loathsome, sometime in March, I will leave Orcas Island for my friends new home in the magical world of Lovina Beach, in Northern Bali, in the nation of Indonesia.Lilin Beach Hotel is the result of the efforts made by Heather Stansbury and Bryan Benepe and I can not be more excited for them and more proud of them for the courage and vision and talents that they have brought to bear.  

Stay tuned there is some chatter floating around that in the not too distant future Patina Weddings will be collaborating with Lilin Beach Hotel to create wonderfully unique island weddings Bali Style. Namaste.

 

 

Affordable

I am thinking of a big garage sale we just held. Orcas Islanders love garage sales.  Furniture and rugs and decor accessories. Most new and lovely, that came from the end of a staging gig we did. The sale was held out of our storage space which was chock a block with great stuff. It was interesting to watch people as they 'experienced the stuff'.  Some chemistry begins and the energy shifts when you put people in a space that has stuff for sale priced way under retail.  I know it has had it's effect on me.

There was an estate sale about a year ago. I offer to help set it up  for a friend of a friend. At first I am all about the presentation, merchandising the heck out of a life time of goods. There is some really nice possessions being sold.

As a thank you for my efforts and to those others who are assisting we get first dibs on the stuff. I  don't really needing anything but my curiousity is piqued and bit of the ancient hunting instinct comes allive. And I look, and touch and pick up and put aside somethings with my name on it to purchase . The next day is the sale.

I arrive and decide to wander around the tables to see what was laid out after I left. At first there are only one or two other people wandering around. But soon I have ten people, twenty people joining me in the hunt, hunting for that perfect thing, what it is is yet unknown but when seen, I know I will want and I will discover a need  for it I never knew I had. It is obviously affordable because it is at a garage sale. Yippee! 

So I am picking up this pot and that frame. I wonder what I could do with another set of beautiful 700 count sheets.  I pass over the kitchen towels in stack all nicely tied with a ribbon. I am falling in love with some beautiful wind chimes.  As I look back  someone else picks up the stack of towels.  This creepy feeling of avarice comes noodling up from the bottom of my unconscious. Someone else made the kill opportunity I passed over.

Adrenline surges, my arms begin to fill with trophy's.

Soon I am going out of the garage sale with a load of stuff and a smile on my face which after awhile begins to melt in to a look of vague confusion (like Benjamin does on the bus when he finally gets Elaine to come with him in the movie The Graduate).  The satisfaction wears off pretty quickly. It was fun.  I would call this  a diversion, an hour of sport. Affordable fun sport.

Not all garage sales are equal. The one we held was like that and if I was a shopper and not a seller I would have gone all wonky in there. 

Hmm. We still have some stuff for sale! I wonder if that chair will fit in my office......