Tag: Martha Stewart

I’ve waited a long time to share the photos of this wedding that was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings.

Anyone who is familiar with my work knows that I love a neutral color palette.  Taupe… grey… champagne… blush… maybe touches of navy here and there.  Neutral colors are my favorite and definitely where I feel most comfortable designing.

Then I met the wonderful Ritt family.  They came in and colored my world with their bright personalities, love for people, passion for life and their request for a rainbow wedding.

I’m not going to lie… when I first heard the words rainbow and wedding, I wondered to myself how I was going to pull it off. They wanted it to be classy and sophisticated, yet fun and bright.  I remember googling “rainbow wedding”  and I was horrified with what I saw and it left myself wondering what had I gotten myself in to.  I was so far from my neutral color comfort zone and thoroughly confused as to how to pull it off.

I think that is what I love the most about this wedding.  I was pushed out of my comfort zone, and challenged to think bigger, better and brighter,  and the result was a wedding out of my normal box.  I learned so much from the mother of the bride, Laurie, throughout this process and not only came out a stronger and more diverse designer, but I think a better person too. Laurie reminded me why I started my business in the first place as she encouraged me to keep dreaming and perfecting good ideas until they became even better.  She pressed for me to give a particular reason why I did or did not like something in particular,  encouraged my talents, believed in my vision and in the end trusted me to just do my thing uninhibited.

I never thought I would do a rainbow wedding, but I am so glad that I did.  I couldn’t be more proud of the outcome and I am excited to finally share these photos from Belathee with you.

Make sure to also pick up a copy of the spring issue of Martha Stewart Weddings to see the 10 page feature of this affair.

The Ranch Studios perfect captured this wedding and made the whole day feel like a dream.  Make sure to check out the vide below.

I also have to give my wife and business partner, Jamie, a huge shout out.  Sometimes credit is only given to the visual design of an event and people just talk about how beautiful it was.  Even more difficult than pulling together a design, is pulling together and managing about 50 vendors who all have specific needs and requests. From determining timelines to figuring out how much lighting, power, and space was needed to making sure nearly 200 plus people were picked up and shuttled to the wedding….  Jamie handled every detail of this event and managed to pull off a seamlessly smooth affair with grace and ease.  She read through and responded to literally thousands of e-mails for this wedding and hours and hours of phone conversations to make sure everything was in place.  She is truly the foundation of this wedding and the really hero in my book.  This would not have been a smooth wedding had her skill set and discerning eye not been overlooking every component of the day.  She makes our partnership strong.

And the other key vendors:

wedding dress: Vera Wang

hair and makeup: Erin Skipley

custom striped linens: Choice Linens

mini cakes and macarons: The Sweet Side

stationery: la Happy 

rentals: ABC Rentals

Ceremony Venue: Union Station

Reception Venue: The Four Seasons 

The Spring Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine has hit the stands this week and we not only have a 10 page featured wedding, but we were also named one of the top 62 floral designers in the country! We feel so blessed and privileged to be part of this publication, and so excited to finally share this rainbow wedding we did this past summer. Here is a little peak at the article, but make sure to pick up the magazine to see the full spread!

Thank you Martha Stewart for all of the love and for coming to be part of Hanna and Bret’s wedding.

Below the hill from our apartment sits a beloved Seattle diner. It’s the kind of diner where people crowd the sidewalks waiting for their turn to be seated. It’s also the kind of diner that gets all decked out for Christmas. Their windows are painted with winter scenes. They have every part of their building outlined with bright multi-colored Christmas lights that are the size of regular light bulbs. The roofline of this place has a single file row of outdoor Christmas figurines that light up- well at least most of them still light up. Included in this line up is Frosty, baby Jesus and his parents, the shepherds and their sheep, Santa with all his reindeer flying toward the sky, a few candy canes, another version of baby Jesus with his parents and the wise men, and then a few more random plastic light up objects.

It’s a hot mess.

It’s tacky.

But I secretly kind of love it.

Normally the scene from this restaurant is something that would make me cringe (especially since we can see it from our bedroom window) but there is something about the mess of it all that makes me really happy. I think it’s because it brings me a feeling of nostalgia… like I’ve stepped back in time and I am a kid again.

I get the same feeling every time we put up our Christmas tree. As soon as the little white lights get plugged in, I am flooded with memories.

Like memories of my childhood when I would eagerly await the day that my mother and oldest brother would start pulling out the boxes of Christmas décor. I could hardly contain my excitement as I patiently waited for my opportunity to hang the ornaments. Ok…  truth be told… I probably didn’t contain my excitement and I most certainly wasn’t patient. I loved Christmas so much that I couldn’t hold it in! My family did not have much money, and our house was too small to hold a large tree so we had a fake plastic tree that was about four feet tall and sat on top of an old cart with rusty wheels. My mom always called it “old scrawny.” Looking back, the scene must have been actually quite pathetic, but I sure didn’t know it. I remember thinking each year that it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I would stare at it for hours. It felt so magical and special. I think decorating for the holidays is what started my love for design.

Christmas trees also bring back memories of college life. I wasn’t a normal college kid… at all. While my friends were busy spending their money on snow board gear, trips to Whistler and beer, I was preoccupied with shopping for my holiday décor and finding the perfect ornaments for my tree. I remember making a conscious decision to not study for my finals because preparing for my annual Christmas party was more important. Much more important. While my friends sifted through notecards and text books, I studied Martha Stewart magazines looking for inspiration. I laugh every time I think of these moments, but I also know the passion for creating those parties and decorating my tree was just another thing pointing me to the career I would eventually choose.

Perhaps the best memory of all that comes to mind when we put up our tree, is when I asked Jamie to marry me. It was just three years ago that Jamie sat next to the Christmas tree in my design studio and I got down on one knee, told her how much I loved her and asked her to be my wife. People often ask how I proposed… and I sometimes worry that I am going to disappoint them because there is no big story to tell.  There were no fireworks, video cameras, scavenger hunts nor any writing in the sky. It was just Jamie, myself, a Christmas tree and a whole lot of love. I wouldn’t change a thing. Especially the part where she said ‘yes’.

I think one of the fun parts of marriage is creating new traditions and memories that 20 years from now I will still recall when we start to decorate for the holidays.

What memories come to mind when you put up your Christmas tree? We love hearing from our readers and always appreciate the comments you leave for us.

photo credit: Matthew Land Studios