Happy anniversary to Jen and Kyle Linehan!  This week they are celebrating their anniversary in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, so while they’re gone I thought I would reminisce about their crazy/wonderful wedding.

Jen and Kyle got engaged in July of 2010 and I knew from the minute that she sent me a picture message of her engagement ring that planning her wedding flowers was going to be a phenomenal and one-of-a-kind experience.

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Once we made it through the busy wedding season of the flower shop, Jen, Kyle and I got a chance to sit down and talk about what they wanted to achieve with their wedding flowers.  Jen, being the owner of Beautiful Blooms by Jen, knew that her flowers had to be something that hadn’t been done before.  Challenge accepted.

Kyle knew that the one thing he wanted was to incorporate the color blue into the wedding. As a florist I knew we would have to make sure that blue complimented the flower colors because Jen had always dreamed of pink flowers.  Jen decided that she wanted to do pink and white flowers and use blue in the bridesmaids’ dresses as well as some of her linens.  Jen is also a huge fan of phalaenopsis orchids so we knew that we would be incorporating those in her flower arrangements as well.

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Over the course of the year from engagement to wedding, Jen and I attended a number of floral design shows and paid particular attention to the wedding displays, gathering ideas to make her wedding special.

A few months before the wedding we sat down to finalize her arrangements and she decided to change her color palette to red, hot pink, and silver.

The week of her wedding was a gorgeous July week and I could already feel the pressure to provide Jen with the wedding of her dreams.  Yes, I tend to over-think and over-stress about weddings, but this being my boss and friend; I wanted to make sure that she was thrilled with everything.

The Wednesday before her wedding was not only the day that thousands of dollars’ worth of flowers would be arriving at the shop but it was also Jen’s bachelorette party on Put-In-Bay.  I can remember running around cutting in gorgeous hydrangea, phalaenopsis orchids, dendrobium orchids, carnations, spray roses, and four varieties of roses and then dashing to Put-In-Bay to celebrate with the girls, I also remember taking the last ferry back that night to make sure I was home to start creating her arrangements on Thursday morning.

Jen knew that she wanted a cascade bouquet for herself and hand-tied bouquets for her bridesmaids so we incorporated hot pink hydrangea, hot pink phalaenopsis orchids, red carnations, red intuition roses, pink intuition roses, sexy red roses, latin breeze hot pink roses, red spray roses, and hot pink nerine lilies.

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For the ceremony Jen decided on 2 large arrangements at the start of her aisle of silver manzanita branches, hot pink phalaenopsis orchids, hot pink hydrangea, pomanders of red carnations, and assorted roses.  She also received a gorgeous arch as a gift from her friends at NSTC that we were able to decorate with navy blue sheer fabric and 2 large arrangements of hydrangea, orchids, roses, and nerine lilies.  For the aisle we decorated with swirls of hot pink and red rose petals.

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For the reception, Jen knew that she wanted three different styles of centerpieces so we specially ordered hand-made candelabras, hot pink metallic pots, and red wax vessels.  For the candelabras I created a garland of phalaenopsis orchids, roses, hydrangea, and spray roses and a pomander of hydrangea, roses, spray roses, and nerine lilies that sat on top, we also used hot pink tapered candles.  For the metallic pots we created red carnation pomanders to hang from silver manzanita braches along with crystals and the base was an arrangement of hydrangea, roses and spray roses.  Her third centerpieces was three wax vessels of varying heights, one with an arrangement of hot pink hydrangea, one with an arrangement of red spray roses, and one with an arrangement of hot pink roses.

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The day of Jen and Kyle’s wedding started out sunny and hot and I started out early that morning with our helpers to create her centerpieces as the branch arrangements and candelabras had to be assembled on-site.  I was also nervous because I knew I would be attending her wedding and I wanted to make sure that everything was gorgeous despite the heat and would remain gorgeous throughout the night.  Stone Ridge is a gorgeous location for a wedding and Jen’s ceremony took place at her Mom’s friend’s house that had a pond and was adjacent to the golf course.  The chairs and arch were set up that morning; however we could not start doing the aisle petals and arch arrangements until right before the ceremony.

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Unfortunately, it started raining, a typical July thunderstorm, about an hour before Jen’s wedding, which meant that I was setting up the arch arrangements and aisle petals, in my dress clothes, in the pouring rain.  Luckily, it stopped raining about fifteen minutes before their ceremony was to start, however that meant that some of Jen’s guests and I had to hurry up to wipe down about 200 chairs.  Despite all of the drama leading up to their ceremony, the skies cleared and allowed Jen and Kyle to have their dream wedding on the pond.  They made such a beautiful couple as they walked down the aisle, both so happy to be joining their lives together, you could see their love for each other on their faces.

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Ceremony flowed seamlessly into the reception, in spite of the rain that started a few minutes after Jen and Kyle said their “I do’s.”  The reception turned out beautiful with the flower arrangements, the lighting, and Jen and Kyle surrounded by their loved ones.  We had a great time dressing up in their photo booth and showing off our sweet dance moves!

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Red Eye Photo Booth

I feel so blessed to have been able to share their special day with them, and truly grateful that they trusted me to create the flower arrangements for their wedding day.  Working with Jen the past two and a half years has been spectacular but I am extremely lucky to have found such amazing friends in her and Kyle.  I hope their first year of marriage has been as wonderful as they both are and I wish them many more years of love and happiness!

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I hope our future Brides and Grooms know that Beautiful Blooms by Jen is as dedicated to making their special day as spectacular as our own wedding days!  Jen and I are fortunate enough to be at the same ages as many of our Brides and she has been through the wedding planning process so she can relate to many Brides’ needs.  We are so lucky that we get to share a couples’ special day with them and see the love that they share, much like Jen and Kyle.

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Happy anniversary Jen and Kyle! Love, Meghan