Chelsea and Jamie, Orcas Island: Part I

For those of you who have been following the blog for the last few months, you will remember that Chelsea guest blogged about her experiences planning her August wedding on Orcas Island. Here are all the details and pictures from the big day!


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Chelsea grew up on an apple farm in Wenatchee, WA (the epicenter of Washington state's apple growing region) and in her senior year of high school she was nominated Apple Blossom Queen (an honor that meant she had to bring her tiara and gown to college with her so that she could be ready to attend a parade at a moment's notice).

On a weekend trip to Lake Chelan right after Chelsea and Jamie got engaged, Chelsea and I found a pile of vintage apple label postcards in a roadside antique store and inspiration hit. We would design her upcoming Orcas Island wedding to have a country, organic theme based around vintage apple posters.


Chelsea was a very hands-on bride. After I put together a mood board to help with the design direction, she immediately started scouring the blogs for ideas to make their wedding day special on a budget. She made the burlap table runners herself, spent a weekend sewing pennant flags, collected crates and crates of coveted blue mason jars and vintage bottles and glued lace cutout blue paper onto recycled cans for centerpieces.



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We even assembled the glass cake plates ourselves from platters, ashtrays and sundae glasses we purchased for pennies at Goodwill.


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Then Chelsea's sister Erica had a *brilliant* idea. She had been to an event for the WA wine commission and seen apples "tattooed" with logos for a sponsor company. We had been tossing the idea around of using apples grown by Chelsea's father as place card holders but this took things to a whole new level. Erica found a small indie sticker company in Seattle and commissioned them to design a small black heart shaped sticker with a C & J cutout in the middle. Two weeks before the apples were to be picked, Chelsea's dad and stepmother stuck the stickers onto the apples while they were still green. Apples turn red right before they need to be picked so the sticker blocked out the sunlight leaving a stencil in green on the red apple. They turned out perfectly!


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We added small paper leaves to each one and we had the perfect escort card display.


{all * pictures courtesy of Jonathan Steinberg, others by me}

David Stark for West Elm

If you haven’t heard of David Stark, I’m sure that you have at least seen his work in one of the many magazines or television shows he appears in monthly.  New York event designer to the stars, Stark is known for his out-of-the-box approach to design. He often takes every-day objects and crafts them into amazing sculpture for such corporate giants as Louis Vuitton, Conde Nast, Target and MOMA.





Now the rest of us can take home a little piece of Stark’s work courtesy of his new holiday collection for West Elm. The collection, which focuses on natural and recycled materials, features garlands, flowers and holiday trees made from newspaper and vintage gardening books and ranges from $4 to $39.



To promote the collection, Stark and West Elm teamed up to create a paper flower shop in West Elm’s flagship store.



Check out the video to see the enormous amount of work that goes into a production like this!

Winter Wedding Palette

I’m always disappointed that more people don’t get married in the winter in the Pacific Northwest. I love working with winter colors and coming up with creative ways to incorporate a warm, cozy feel to the day despite the gloom outside. Here are some of my favorite winter wedding palettes…

Navy and lilac with silver/gold accents: {Lobster & Swan via Classic Bride}

Crimson, baby pink and gold with forest green accents:
{Sara Gray Photography}

Lilac, snow white and black:
{Suzanna Dodson Photography}

All white with lots of texture:

{Clockwise from top left: The Knot, The Knot, Apartment Therapy}

Magenta, purple and chartreuse:

{Via bradfordreformer.com}

Tiffany blue, chocolate and white:
{Clockwise from top left: Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, The Knot, Petal & Bean}

Cake Toppers

The wedding cake is often the focal point of the decor at a wedding. If the invitation sets the tone of the day, then the wedding cake (or dessert display) is the sweet denouement. 

At Finch & Thistle, we are more than a little obsessed with the popular resurgence of vintage bunting in the last couple of years. Here’s a fun and unexpected way to incorporate it into your wedding cake.

 
A paper wreath adds a sweet touch to a handcrafted, rustic wedding. This sweet wreath and garland comes with DIY instructions from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Love birds have always been popular but these examples from Etsy are a little different from the white lace doves that adorned our grandmothers’ wedding cakes.



Or how about no topper at all? These cakes* are so beautifully designed and decorated that there’s no topper necessary.

{*All from Martha Stewart Weddings}