Romancing the Snow

By the time our first wedding of December arrived, on the 4th, I could categorically tell you what footwear does not work well in the snow – firstly, Ugg boots – not waterproof, and wet sheepskin is not very pleasant, and secondly – riding boots – while they may be warmer and water proof, they have no grip – by the end of December, I officially hate snow!!

Let’s get back to our lovely bride Jennifer who was married on 4th December in AbbeyLeix Church, followed by Reception in the stunning surrounds of Castle Durrow in Co. Laois. Jennifer chose our Candlelight Package to set the scene in for the ceremony – Wrought Iron Aisle stands dressed with Ivy graced the aisle, with dramatic candelabra either side of the alter, and Bay Trees at the front entrance, the glow of candlelight adding a little warmth to a bitterly cold winters day!

Playing on the snowy, wintery theme, Jennifer chose bouquets of white roses, green mini-chrysanthemums and fluffy gypsophilia sprayed silver. The bridesmaids, who wore black satin, carried smaller posies with the same flowers as the Bride, who looked stunning on the day, complete with fur stole as she posed for a photo in the Snug Bar at Castle Durrow. We also bumped into Rhona and Susan again from the Powder Room Girls who did (as usual) a fab job with all the hair and make up.

We also dressed the Candelabra for the reception with lots of fresh ivy. This really complimented the graceful ballroom at Castle Durrow and we had a hairy few moments at the side of the N7, in the snow, in the un-water-proof Uggs gathering some fresh ivy as we ran a little short!!

After all the work was completed, we decided to warm our poor cold, wet feet by the open fire in the Snug Bar at Castle Durrow and ordered a tasty lunch – smoked salmon on brown bread and a big pot of comforting tea, before heading back to Abbeyleix to collect our stands and get back to the workshop to clean up.

Filed under: aislestands,avalanche rose,candelabra,candelabra hire,candelight,candles,Christmas Wedding,Church Arrangement,church decoration,pedestal,pew end decoration — Tags: aisle stands, Candle Stands, castle durrow, Christmas Wedding, pew ends, powder room girls, PRG, silver bouquet, Smoked Salmon, Snow, Ugg Boots — Sinead @ 9:26 am on January 11, 2011

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Suzie’s Wedding – Regal in Monaghan, despite the rain!

On 10th July, Suzanne married Richard in Clontibret, Co. Monaghan. As with most weekends this summer, it rained, heavily, all day!! Lorraine and I loaded up the trusty van and headed on a road trip via Blanchardstown for Bouquet Delivery!

Suzanne chose to have something a little different for her bouquet, though we used one of our most popular combinations of flowers this season, calla lillies, avalanche roses and freesia. Suzanne opted for a structured, modern appearance, finished with variagated pittosporum foliage.

Suzanne’s 3 bridesmaids wore beautiful teal blue satin dresses (a very popular choice this year!) and carried posies of akito and avalanche roses mixed through with freesia and collared with pittosporum foliage. The two gorgeous flowergirls carried traditional baskets of flowers.

We made elegant corsages for the ladies of delicate dendrodium orchids and the lads wore akito rose buttonholes, the groom sported a calla lily!

In the Church, we provided our “Candlelight Package” – 10 Wrought Iron Aisle Stands dressed with natural Ivy, 2 Grand Candelabra - dramatic 7ft tall wrought iron candelabra that stand either side of Alter, with 5 pillar candles and dressed with natural ivy, pew ends decorated on this occasion with a single avalance rose bloom and trailing ivy. Finally Bay Trees guarded the front entrance!

Lorraine and I took the “scenic route” to Monaghan, via the N3, not the M1 as we were supposed to!! It took us 2 hours from Blanchardstown to get there, and 1 hour to get home!! Luckily as we always allow plenty of time we arrived with time to spare! This was the day that we decided we needed official RosieDays Raincoats!! We were drenched through several times that day – including our run from the carpark in Monaghan town to the hotel where we had lunch!!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: aislestands, bay tree hire, calla lily, clontibret abbey, monaghan, pew ends, wrought iron aisle stands, wrought iron candelabra — Sinead @ 10:22 am on August 9, 2010

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St. Kevin’s, Glendalough

Noreen & Corrie were married on 28th May in the scenic surroundings of Glendalough in St. Kevin’s Church. My sister and I delivered the bouquets to Noreen who was staying at the reception venue of Brooklodge and we took the “scenic” route from here to Glendalough over hills and dales in the Wicklow mountains!

With Lorraine away on holidays, I was a bit lost and was very grateful to have my sister along for company even if she was slightly terrified on the way with the hills and sharp turns!! And we met again the lovely Ian from Fireworks Video who had filmed my friend’s wedding in the same venue last year!

Noreen’s bridesmaid was to wear deep wine/red and so we selected a bouquet of the palest pink sweet avalanche and avalanche roses for Noreen and the same for her bridesmaid with added wine hypericum berries to catch the colour of the bridesmaid dress.

The bridal party all wore avalanche rose buttonholes with hypericum berry detail.

In St. Kevins, we dressed the pew ends with Ivory Tulle and a Sweet Avalanche Rose and for the Unity Candles we created an arrangement with fresh foliage including “Red Robin” to reflect the wine tones, hypericum berries and sweet avalanche roses with white freesia.

Filed under: avalanche rose,brooklodge,button holes,pew end decoration — Tags: bridal bouquet, brooklodge, Glendalough, pew ends, pink and white bouquet, St Kevin, St. Kevins Church Glendalough, unity arrangement — Sinead @ 9:34 am on May 30, 2010

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Spring Harvest!

When we first met with Tanya at the RDS fair in September 2009, we knew that she was a girl with a vision, and we were right!! At our second meeting in the office, Tanya, a very talented graphic designer came to us with moodboards and ideas and I got very excited with the plans!! The wedding was held on the 24th April in Durrow Church, Tullamore with a reception after in Lough Ree Yacht Club on the banks of the Shannon in Athlone.

Our inspiration images from Tanya were centrepieces with pears and bouquets surrounded by wheat! Tanya also particularly loved the bright Green Chrysant with is featured in all the bouquets, buttonholes and centrepieces. Tanya was also inspired by natural materials and thus came up with the idea of wrapping the bouquets with natural hessian material, which we also used to wrap some of the centrepieces with and the hanging baskets outside the Yacht Club.

For the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets, we used avalanche and sweet avalanche roses, mixed with bright green chrysants and hypericum berries. These were surrounded with a collar of natural wheat and finished with hessian material surrounding the stems, with pearl pins. The buttonholes were made using wheat, berries and chrysants and the mothers’ and grandmothers’ wore cymbidium orchid corsages. We also provided 2 gypsophilia pomanders mixed through with green chrysants and butterfly detail.

In the church (Durrow Church) we went a bit retro with the centrepieces in the Grand Candelabra – using all the flowers featured in the bouquets and centrepieces, along with pears and grapes and trailing ivy down one side of each arrangement! In the unity we used all of the above flowers along with some hot pink Dianthus for a splash of colour! On the pews, bunches of wheat, crysants and bear grass were tied with ivory tulle and lanterns guarded the front entrance to the church.

The reception took place in Lough Ree Yacht Club and guests were transported across the Shannon by boat to the yacht club! The function room was set up and looked amazing, Mary in Finesse Weddings provided the fairylight backdrop, crisp table linens and gorgeous twinkling globes on every 2nd table. Tanya wanted the centerpieces to be a little different and so we composed large rings for the base of the Globes using roses, chrysants, berries, pears, grapes and of course, wheat! On alternate tables we made low arrangements using the same materials, the base of each were covered with hessian material and tied with ivory silk cord, and as a little extra we decided to place a pillar candle in the centre of each! Finally, on each place setting at the top table, a keepsake of chrysant, rose and wheat was placed into each napkin.

As usual, Lorraine and I got typically lost as the new roads in Tullamore wouldn’t show on the SatNav – see, I knew it wasn’t just me!! But we got there and in plenty of time in our trusty Transit!

Looking forward very much to seeing Tanya’s photos when she gets back from honeymoon!

Filed under: church decoration,fairylight backdrop,room decoration — Tags: athlone, berries, bridal bouquets, centrepieces, church decoration, durrow church, fairylight backdrop, grapes, lough ree yacht club, pears, pew ends, table globes, tullamore, wheat — Sinead @ 10:28 am on May 12, 2010

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Rosie on the Green

St. Stephens Green, that is.

30th December saw us at the University Church on St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin’s City Centre. Laura and Paul tied the knot here, followed by a reception in The Westbury Hotel on Grafton Street.

As the ceremony was quite late – at 4pm, Laura decided she would like a romantic, candelight effect in the church so we set up the wrought iron aisle stands along the aisle. Dressed with natural ivy they really do add something special as you enter the church and walk up the aisle surrounded by candlelight. We dressed the alter rail with ivy and tealights and provided a large Unity Arrangement on the Alter itself, filled with White Avalanche roses and Eucalyptus foliage.

Laura’s own bouquet was an elegantly simple handtied posy of White Avalanche Roses mixed with white miniature calla lillies and finished with a soft ruscus collar, and ivory satin ribbon handle. The bridesmaids carried simple bouquets of white roses, finished with ruscus and navy ribbon handles to match their dresses.

We were also asked to do the table centrepieces for the Westbury Hotel, something that reflected the time of year, but that weren’t “too christmassy” so, I came up with the idea of groupings of large pillar candles at different heights, on a mirrored base to reflect the amazing chandeliers above the tables in the ballroom, and Laura had come across the gold mirrored tealight holders so we provided those on each table in addition to the pillar candle arrangments which were finished with a scattering of pine cones to reflect the wintery season!