Perfectly Styled: Willowdale Estate

Willowdale Estate , Topsfield MA

August 11, 2017

C & J's  wedding at Willowdale Estate had so many personal details that made their special day so beautiful. C had a very clear vision and we loved working with her to make her dreams come to reality for their big day.  The end result was a classic Willowdale garden party with lush greenery and blush and white flowers. 

The cocktail hour took place inside of the mansion where guests could take in the real beauty and history of the estate. It's such a unique building, and it's one of the rare wedding venues that are just as beautiful inside as it is outside.

The ceremony was held outside in the courtyard surrounded by gardens that are constantly in bloom throughout the entire season. C & J choose our birch arch to frame them during their vows, which we styled with greenery and fresh blooms.  

The guests dined and danced the night away under Willowdale's gorgeous sailcloth tent. We decorated the tent poles with lush greenery which added texture, dimension and a lush feel to the tent. 

This bridal bouquet is one of my favorite with blushes and whites and many kinds of greenery creating texture in the bouquet. We used roses, spray roses, lisianthus, ranunculus and dusty miller with a mix of eucalyptus . We finished the bouquet with an beautiful ivory ribbon with long tails giving it an extra romantic look

For the Bridesmaids bouquets we used lush hydrangeas, roses, spray roses, astilbe and an accent of greenery to make the bouquets pop off of the girls blush dresses. The dainty baby's breath floral crowns is a fun summery touch and looks great! 

Vendor Love:

Floral Design & Event Styling: Meredith McCarthy Floral Design & Event Styling

Venue: Willowdale Estate, Topsfield MA

Photography: Zac Wolf Photography 

Dress: Watters

Cake: Frederick's Pastries

Hair: Katy Allen

Makeup: Sarah Elizabeth Artistry

Stationery: Impress Me Designs

So Much Love: Crane Estate

Stephanie and Matt both grew up in Ipswich.  I also grew up here, so I wasn't surprised to hear that they both love the beach.  It's a way of life around here!  The Crane Estate is such a special place, and when you grew up at the beach, there's no better place to be married than on this beautiful property with it's sweeping ocean and beachside views.  These two were so fun to work with - they are very much in love, and it shows.  

The Bridesmaids and Groomsmen got ready at separate homes and then went to the Crane Estate to put on the finishing touches. The Bride's room at the Crane Estate is the perfect place for bridal portraits before the ceremony begins.

The couple had their first look and formal photos in the Italian Garden on the grounds of the Crane Estate. The Italian Garden has recently undergone an extensive restoration which brought back many of the original features including the lush garden planted just the way the Crane Family would have had it, along with beautiful water features and turreted teahouse structures.  It's very picturesque and perfect for a first look! 

The ceremony was on the back lawn of the Estate with a view of the rolling allee and of course, the beach and ocean. On a clear day, you can see all the way to Maine from the back lawn of the Estate.  The couple choose an arch with lush greenery and blush and white flowers.  The arch really famed in the couple and created a pretty backdrop for their photos.

The view from the reception tent at the Estate also overlooks the ocean and Crane Beach.  In the tent we created three different centerpieces for the dining tables to make the space have a lot of dimension and texture.  The flowers were full and lush in blushes, nudes and whites with greenery.  The driftwood centerpieces are our favorite and most loved design so far. 

Details and Styling

Photography - The Harris Company
Justice of the Peace - Rick Perry - Gloucester Weddings
Signs - Antea Amaroso Design
Catering  - Fireside Catering
Cake - Cake for Occasions
Band - Hot Mess Band
Venue  -  The Crane Estate, a Trustees of Reservations Property
Dress - Hayley Paige

Venue love: Beauport Hospitality Group

The Beauport Hospitality Group owns and manages three unique luxury wedding venues in historic Gloucester, Massachusetts. We love creating beautiful florals and styling events at all of them! 

Each of the Beauport Hospitality Group venues has a unique style and feel. Whether you are planning a nautical wedding on the Beauport Princess, a classic romantic wedding at the Cruiseport or a elegant seaside soiree in the Grand Ballroom at the beautiful Beauport Hotel, the Beauport Hospitality Group has the perfect venue.

Each of the venues are nestled on the coastline of Gloucester Harbor and boast the perfect backdrop for any style of celebration.  

Take a look at just a few of our  favorites from 2017!

Grand Ballroom at the Beauport Hotel

Cruiseport Gloucester

Beauport Princess 

Summer Elegance at The Cruiseport Gloucester

Jessica & Mike, The Rose Garden at Lynch Park and The Cruiseport, Gloucester

Jessica and Mike had the most perfect elegant summer wedding.  With the ceremony at Lynch Park in the Rose Garden, and dinner and dancing at the Cruiseport in Gloucester, their guests got a taste of some of the most picturesque spots on the North Shore!

The Rose Garden is beautiful, and needs only to be enhanced to create the perfect setting for any wedding ceremony.  Since there is a lot of color in the garden (so many beautiful types and colors of flowers!), we kept our pieces very neutral in color and elegant in design to help the garden to feel like a natural part of Jessica and Mike’s overall wedding design.

The pedestals and urns I chose for the altar pieces nicely fit in with the architecture that acts as the backdrop to the ceremony.  We used a mix of whites, blush and greens to complement the color palette of this wedding.  Hydrangea are always a nice addition to pieces like this because they are so large and textured, they help everything to feel a bit bountiful.  Also, they just scream summer!

Jessica and Mike have the most adorable daughter, Kennedy, who was the perfect little flower girl for the ceremony.  She was amazing!

Jessica and Mike chose so many fun details for their reception decor, I love the signage created by Antea Amoroso Design for the dessert tables, and other little touches throughout the room.

I created a simply beautiful mix of high and low centerpieces in the same white, blush and green color palette of the ceremony.  These neutral but summery colors are a great choice for the Cruiseport Ballroom.

I loved the sweetheart table design. With the addition of the floral garland on the fireplace behind Jessica and Mike, and the love seat for the two of them to sit on, it was a very special and beautiful spot in the reception design.

All of the details were planed perfectly by Mollie of Mollie Marrocco Events. She was so helpful and loved every minute of the floral design and event styling process!! It is great to work with a wedding planner that loves flowers as much as I do!!

Alvah Reida Photography perfectly captured all the details at this beautiful wedding, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!  Be sure to also watch their video, captured by one of our favorites, McElroy Weddings.

Rose Quartz & Serenity Blue at The Willowdale Estate

Caitlin & Justin, The Willowdale Estate, Topsfield 

Every year, the color that Pantone chooses as the “color of the year” drives a lot of the trends that we see in wedding flowers.  For the first time ever, in 2016, Pantone chose two colors of the year - rose quartz, a soft pink, and serenity, a periwinkle blue. Caitlin came to me with the inspiration Spring Romance, and using these two colors as the theme of her wedding at Willowdale, and I was excited to work with the palette!

It can be hard to create a look with light pink and blue that is sophisticated and more “wedding” than “baby shower”, but by using blue pieces that have gray tones in them, and also mixing in some more neutrals and deeper colors, we were able to put together a beautiful look for her and her new husband, Justin.

Enjoy the photos, taken by Erin McGinn!

Winter Glamour at The Hellenic Center

Chelsea and John, January 28, 2017, The Hellenic Center, Ipswich 

Chelsea and John had a gorgeous winter wedding at the Hellenic Center in Ipswich.  I love, love, love a winter wedding!  It’s so exciting as a floral designer to work on a winter project in New England, because it’s a little bit rare, so I get to work on designs and themes that are different then my normal style.  It’s always fun to get to do something new and exciting!

Chelsea knew that she really wanted a cascading bouquet, which was so perfect with the rest of her bridal look.  I love the photos of her with her fur wrap and bouquet.  So classic and elegant!  

The color palette was wintery with greens and deep reds, but still timeless and not to “theme” with the addition of some pale blush and ivory. I used a mix of roses, lots of winter greens, berries and other smaller blooms to give everything lots of texture, and to help blend the color palette.  The mixtures of tones and textures really worked together in these pieces.

I really loved so many of the details at this wedding, but I was especially excited about the ceremony pieces.  These were a huge focal point for the entire evening, and I spent a lot of time making them just perfect! I carefully glued white orchids to all of the branches and adorned them with hanging votive candles that gave it a romantic glow. After the ceremony, the arrangements became the backdrop for the sweetheart table.

I also loved the cascading piece I created for the mantlepiece.  We used lots of different lush greens and blooms for this, which gave it a natural, romantic look.  Wintery, but not Christmasy!

I loved working with Chelsea and John, and I am excited to be working with John’s sister this July!

Amazing Winter Wedding at Willowdale Estate

We love Willowdale's winter mansion weddings, they are so cozy, romantic and intimate. Willowdale and their planning team go above and beyond to create a beautifully styled mansion with rustic decor. This wedding was so great to be apart of, the couple had so many personal touches and details from the amazing birch arch dripping with florals to the lanterns that lined the aisle and the brides dress was to die for!! Enjoy the photos by  Bharat Parmar, my favorite!

A Winter Ball at Alden Castle

Stacey & Matt, December 19, 2015, Alden Castle, Brookline

This was a really fun wedding to be a part of! The bride and groom, Stacey and Matt were awesome clients, really fun to work with.

Their venue, Alden Castle is amazing - nestled in Brookline, this historic mansion has been revitalized and made into a high end wedding venue with a modern vintage vibe by Longwood Events.  Stacey and Matt were married at Christmas time, and seeing the mansion decorated for Christmas felt so festive and simply beautiful.

Stacey has the best taste (one of the reasons I loved working with her so much!).  The decor fit the space so perfectly, she had the perfect vision for this event.  Every detail was thought out, and the dresses were amazing - from her dress to the bridesmaid’s all-gold dresses with different patterns (to die for!), down to the flowers girl’s tutu dress, all were perfect for this white winter wedding!

I had the pleasure of seeing Matt and Stacey get married, which is one of my favorite things about this business.  I don’t always get to stay through the ceremony, but when I do, I love to see everything come together.  It was such a sweet and romantic ceremony.

They were married in the Ballroom, in front of two large all white arrangements with tall gold, curly willow branches that set the tone of what was to come later in the evening when we flipped the space for dinner.

After the ceremony, the guests were whisked away to the Modern Club area where they enjoyed cocktails. In order to get to the modern club area you have to go through the private lobby of residents that live in the towers on-site. The resident’s lobby was decorated so elegantly for Christmas - It was gorgeous, and complemented the work that I did for Stacey and Matt perfectly.

While the guest were having cocktail hour, my team and I and the other vendors were putting the finishing touches on the ballroom. Once the guest returned back to the ballroom room it was transformed to an elegant ballroom, set for dinner and dancing, dripping in white and gold.

The arrangements were a mix of tall and low styles, with all white flowers. The flowers were white hydrangea, roses, and spray roses with a touch of greens.  The styles we created felt like they fit the Estate, like we were sent back in time to a 1920’s Christmas ball!

Kelsey Dewitt was the Photographer at this wedding, she did a really beautiful job capturing the Spirit of the evening. Detailed Engagements planned everything perfectly for Stacey and Matt's day. The entire team was wonderful to work with, credits below!

Don’t miss their video, captured by Three Belles Productions!

Vendors

Photographer: Kelsey Dewitt

Video: 3 Belles Productions

Planner: Detailed Engagements

Dj: 617 Weddings

Summer Garden Party at The Crane Estate

Arielle & Jordan, August 30, 2015, Crane Estate, Ipswich

There are a lot of historic wedding venues on the North Shore, and all of them are really beautiful.  One of the great things about holding a wedding at an Historic home is the fact that the houses and the settings are so beautiful that there isn’t a lot that needs to be “done” to them to dress them up.

I love when clients who are getting married at a historic venue come to me with a vision that will enhance the natural setting, and not something that tries to fight with the aesthetic or the uniqueness of the venue.

Arielle and Jordan were married at The Crane Estate in Ipswich this past August, one of my favorite historic venues to work at because of the natural beauty of the property.  Arielle’s vision for her wedding was a 1920’s inspired garden party, which is absolutely perfect for the Crane Estate!

Jordan’s father is an award winning grower of Dahlias, an amazing wedding flower - they are big and have tons of texture but are also soft and romantic and come in nearly any color you can imagine, so I love to work with them.

I was honored to be able to incorporate tons of Jordan’s father’s Dahlias into their floral designs.  They are gorgeous.  Jordan’s father worked endless hours to make sure his flowers look amazing for their special day. It took a lot of collaboration  from the both of us behind the scenes leading up to wedding to get the job done and the outcome was truly worth it.

For the tall centerpieces I sourced gold candelabras and wrapped them in ivy and greens and added in blush and white dahlias.  I really loved the look of the candelabras in the estate, they looked like they belong in the Crane’s inventory!

For the lows centerpiece tablescapes we used a large gold urn with spilling over greenery. I added in dahlias, roses and astilbe in whites and blushes to achieve a romantic straight from the cutting garden look.

For the ceremony I created two urn arrangements that marked the aisle and also gave guests a tease of the decor to come later in the reception. I sprinkled petals down the aisle and used my custom built birch arch  covered in tons of greenery and dahlias to create a ceremonial Chuppah.

This was a beautiful event with a great team of vendors: catering by Timothy S. Hopkins and amazing photography by Kivilo Wedding Photography.

Stunning Petal Aisle at The Hellenic Center

Kristin & Brian, June 20, 2015, Hellenic Center, Ipswich

Kristin and Brian were married at the Hellenic in Ipswich, a venue that I work at a lot.  I loved getting to see their photos because they did everything just a little differently than most brides and grooms who get married there.

They all got ready at the Garrison Inn in Newburyport and also did their first look there.  I really love the photos that they took around Newburyport, they are a really nice contrast to the Hellenic Center, and give more variety to the photos they have with eachother and their best friends.

The flowers at this wedding were special for a couple reasons.  First of all, the peonies were perfectly in season and really couldn’t have been more beautiful (check out Kristin’s bouquet!).

My favorite detail though, was the petal design I created on the ceremony aisle.  I used 600 roses to create this look, it was a lot of work!! But really worth it.  That rose petal design down the aisle, mixed with the tree (perfectly in bloom!) behind them, and the hanging mason jar aisle markers created a real statement for their ceremony. 

In the reception, again, Kristin and Brian did things just a little differently - they used long tables for the family and bridal party tables and rounds for the rest.  I love this mix and really lent itself to a mix of different size and shaped centerpieces.  It’s just a bit more visually interesting than all round or all long tables, and it worked perfectly in the space!

Kristin and Brian wanted to stick to a light, neutral palette of whites, creams and blush pink.I used I used mostly hydrangeas, roses and peonies which gave a soft, springy feeling to the entire celebration!

Check out the amazing photos by Silver and Salt Photography (and that cake by Topsfield Bake Shop, yum!).