A week ago, I was cleaning my studio from the previous three weeks of prep work for Kristin & Brandon’s incredible cotton wedding. I’ve been referring to this wedding as “the cotton wedding” for months, and I shan’t stop now. While there were many other interesting elements at work to create this wedding decor, raw cotton played the starring role.

I met Brandon at a photography workshop last year. He attended the workshop, I created the floral decor. We hit it off. He was funny and personable and easy to talk to. When he brought his fiance Kristin to meet me a few weeks later, I was thrilled. I sat with the two of them for three hours, conducting the longest “consultation” that I’d ever had. We didn’t just talk about flowers and their wedding, we chatted about our families, how we grew up, and common interests. Kristin & Brandon had serious “couple style,” and their style meshed perfectly with mine. As far as client-designer matches go, we were a match made in heaven. And I was pretty convinced that Kristin & Brandon were a match made in heaven, too.

When Kristin & Brandon said that they wanted to do something really different, they had me hook, line and sinker. I LIVE for clients who want to push the envelope. The suggestion of raw cotton sealed the deal for me. I was 100% onboard. Furthermore, Kristin & Brandon were the ideal couple for me because they knew my style, loved it, and trusted me to implement it at their wedding however I chose. They basically gave me carte blanche. Okay, maybe not a blank check, exactly, but they sure did give me complete freedom to follow my creative whimsey.

The rustic, outdoor ceremony took place at the Oak Canyon Nature Center in Anaheim. If you haven’t noticed, rustic and outdoor are defining words for my design style, and I couldn’t have been more in love with this site. I also just have to give a shout-out to the ladies who were overseeing the site on the day of the wedding— they couldn’t have been more helpful. In this industry, I have had to work with difficult people- particularly at venues. The Nature Center staff members were a breath of fresh air (in fact, I’m finding most wedding industry professionals in Orange County to be a breath of fresh air- Los Angeles venues tend to be waaaay too uptight!).

For Kristin’s bouquet, I wanted something rustic, funky, and still incredibly happy… to suit Kristin’s aesthetic and her personality. I used raw cotton, balsa wood flowers, lily pods, green berzillia berries, silver brunia, eucalyptus pods, astrantia rosea, and lots of dusty miller along with other assorted sticks and pods. I finished the bouquet off with a wrap of burlap and raw cotton puffs adhered with wrapped twine, and lots of trailing twine, as well.

Brandon’s boutonniere featured a single ball of raw cotton, accented with asian willow and silver brunia, bound and tied off with twine.

Kristin’s gorgeous attendants each carried a bouquet of raw cotton, balsa wood flowers, and silver brunia.

Brandon’s attendants wore boutonnieres consisting of a single balsa wood flower and some sprigs of asian willow, tied off with twine. The boutonnieres were simple, but perfect. Totally perfect.

The mothers and flower girls carried tiny nosegays of balsa wood flowers with a collar of dusty miller, while the grandmothers wore corsages of raw cotton, balsa wood flowers and asian willow.

The pièce de résistance of the ceremony were the many, many, many feet of raw cotton, strung on monofiliment wire and suspended high along the aisle way. Kristin & Brandon & I came up with this idea during our initial consultation, and it really defined the aesthetic for the rest of the wedding decor. I won’t tell you how many hours I spent stringing the cotton… but each piece had to be pierced twice in criss-crossing directions (to actually hold the four “puffs” of cotton onto the pod) and tied off with a double knot to hold it in place. I strung several hundred cotton balls and it took me about three weeks of stringing off-and-on in the studio to get it all done. I also hung strung cotton from the wooden arbor that served as the backdrop for the ceremony.

At the reception (held in the tented backyard of a private residence), I “blinged out” the massive head table with an utterly amazing tablescape. I am a fan of tablescapes that are chock-full of details so that every time you look up from your plate, you notice something different and new. This tablescape did not disappoint (this photo just shows a very small portion of the table!).

The other guest tables had burlap runners with alternating bud vases filled with different types of flowers and twigs, and mini mason jars with candles. There was seriously something different to look at everywhere you turned.

Melody from the Sweet and Saucy Shop was onboard to create one of her de-freakin-licious dessert tables. I think everyone knows who Melody is, and rightly so. I ate three cake pops. I think I ate three cake pops the last time I was at an event serving Sweet & Saucy. I probably ate three the time before that. I’ve eaten a lot of cake pops. They are just too good. So good that I’m going to start dancing again tomorrow. For serious.

Anyway… this was my first wedding to work with Melody, and I had such fun designing with her! My husband, Sammy, acted as my assistant for this wedding, and he created the super-fab backdrop of burlap and cotton (over a wooden frame built by Brandon). It was absolutely perfect and I was uber-impressed with his mad skills. Melody placed all the deserts and together we decided where to add pieces of birch wood and little bud vases of flowers and willow.

I made the cake topper in about three minutes when Melody and I realized that we needed something special for the primary cake. Sometimes a time crunch allows creative folk to churn out some pretty fun stuff!

When I become friends with my client couples over the course of designing their weddings, it is the ultimate honor to be asked to stay as a guest for the reception. I was really touched that Kristin & Brandon invited me to participate in the festivities, and although I was tired and the evening was wicked cold, I thoroughly enjoyed all the fun and thoughtful details that made their wedding truly unique and truly THEM.

I hope that “make-your-own-s’mores” bars become the next big thing in the wedding industry. ;-)

Kristin and Brandon, I wish you a lifetime of happiness together.

And to all the amazing people who made this wedding possible… thanks. You rock!

Coordination: Eva of Red Velvet Occasions, assisted by Machiline and Lydia
Cake/Desserts: Melody of Sweet and Saucy Shop
DJ: Atmosphere DJ
Photography: Jasmine Star (all photos used with permission!)
Videography: DO NOT MISS this stunning video from Shade Tree Films!

• Posted: Sunday, Jan-31-2010
•  13 Comments
• This post was filed under Blog and tagged with: Real Wedding.