Monthly Archives: March 2010

I had the great fortune to indulge in a faerie dream that was swimming around in my imagination and create a beautiful and fastastical faerie and elf wedding.  I wallowed in making wings and costumes, and setting a beautiful stage on the magical ranch my husband and I live on.  I went a little crazy with it and the results have been published I am happy to say in Faerie Magazine  (summer 09) and is currently in Santa Barbara Magazine and is coming out in Elle mag in China in May as well as on numerous bolgs.  The most excellent photographer Elizabeth Messina captured the magic on film beautifully.  This was my faerie bride and groom and their magical owl,

To see the whole wedding go to the faerie gallery on my web site.

I know that most people would not go to quite these lengths in a muggle (non-magic folks) wedding so I have taken some of the faerie pictures and suggested what you could incorporate from them in your wedding,

Hold the ceremony outside at the base of an ancient tree.  Possibly add a garland around the trunk or hang a chandeliere from one of the branches.  You could easily purchase an old funky chandeliere from a thrift store and then cover it with moss or bark.  The day of the wedding add fresh greenery like Ferns and Ivy.  You can hang ribbons from the branches and then pin wishes to the ribbons or tie flowers to the end of the ribbons.  You could hang a big beautiful flowering basket from the branches off to one side of where you will be standing.  Keep in mind what the camera sees and make sure that nothing looks like it is coming out of your head in the photos.   You could place around the base of the tree trailing potted plants and flowers like Ferns, Petunias or Impatients for added lushness and color.  Hanging colorful lanterns looks very festive even if the ceremony is in the day time.

Bring natural elements into the ceremony such as having the rings brought forth on a moss pillow or on a lovely piece of bark.  Nestling rings in large shells or birds nests look beautiful as well.  Set a feasting table outside in the middle of a field/park/forest/glade/orchard/wherever natural.  Hang lanterns all around for twinkling light as the evenings draws near.  Use any type of lanterns or even a hodg podg of different styles.  If cold evenings are a factor you can rent mushroom heaters from a party rental company to scatter about or have some outdoor fire pits for a wonderful effect as well as heat.

Bring natural elements to your table such as plants (both green and flowering), cover any plastic pots with moss and tuck in lots of goodies like fruit, mushrooms, feathers, bark, branches, driftwood, shells, etc.  You can also add in sparlkey elements like beaded bits, crystals, personal momentos, pictures,  and lots of pretty glass containers for candles.

Make chargers for the plates out of feathers, moss, large green leaves or bark or other natural elements.  Add a bit of sparkle with gliter or colorful glass beads.

Set you cake outside near a tree or other beautiful vista.  Go a bit crazy with a lushious display of gorgeous candies, fruit and flowers.  It becomes a lovely focal point throughout the evening as well as makes for beautiful pictures.

I also created another wedding for a photo shoot with a magical/mid-summer-nights-dream feeling.   Christine Arnold took the following great pictures.  Most of what I created muggles could do.  I used lots of plants and natural material like tree branches and trunks, moss, mushrooms and bark.  I also used lots of outdoorsy items like garden figurines, old fashioned hurricane lamps, and mixed them with more elegant pieces like candelabras, Indian saris, beautiful goblets, and absolutely loads of candles and twinkle lights.  I really think almost anything can look beautiful in candle light and twinkle lights come as close to candle light as any electric light available.

Use large leafs as chargers, have short sections of tree trunks as risors.  Tuck in bits like pine cones and fun fruit and vegiatbles.

Make a green wrap or head wreath for some of the statues in the garden.  They should be decked out for the festivities too!

Use lots of candle elements like lanterns and pretty glasses with votives in them.

Even bottles with tall grasses in them look cool.  Go and trim your yard and tuck in the bits of branches, ferns, and succulents on the table.

Use lots of layers of mismatched fabrics for great texture.  Stay within a color story of 2 or 3 colors so it doesn’t get too messy and then use lots of variations of those colors.  Rent a simple inexpensive base linen for all the tables in the same color and then layer on lots of other fabrics.  I also like to include a natural fabric like burlap or gauze to reiterate the outdoor feeling.

Use lots of lanterns, it doesn’t matter if they match.  One way to keep things from looking too eclectic is to keep each table with like items on it.  So have one table with hurricane lanterns and then another table with more exotic lanterns.  Do not mix the two different styles on the same table.

Here I have used a vintage Indian sari that had wonderful gold thread woven throughout.  The colors for this event were browns and greens.

Here I use my own green sequened shawl over a long strip of brown velvet which was layed over the base brown linen.  I also swirled around the candle holders more fabric.

Hanging all over were large tree branches with the leaves still on them and curtains of twigs with Spanish Moss all interwoven with lots of twinkle lights.  Wrapped on several of the beams was dried Honeysuckle vine, again mixed with twinkle lights.

I also created a mini lounge with tree trunks with cushions on them and a brass table again on a small tree trunk. On the table were lots of river rocks and moss which would also look good on the dinning tables.

Just remember to bring outside items in and add a bit of sparkle.  It is the combination of rustic or natural elements with sophisticated glamour that is so alluring and beautiful.

“Faeries are seen not by the eyes but through the heart”

Brian Froud

Hoping your heart is open and full of love and wonder.

Photography by Elizabeth Messina

One of the weddings that my husband and I decorated was for a very sweet young woman who’s sister’s wedding we had decorated a couple of years before.  Unlike her sister she had a very small budget and was going to be married in a town quite a ways away requiring us to travel.  We were honored that she wanted us for her wedding but the small (almost nonexistant) budget and the out of town location made it difficult for us to say yes.  However it was now a family tradition that we should be a part of their weddings.  With a full heart but empty pockets we agreed.  The celebrations were to be in the gardens of a beautiful bed and breakfast up the coast.  When we started setting up we noticed an adorable orange kitten roaming the grounds being very friendly and generally wanting to be picked up and loved.  We were happy to oblige and with kitten on our shoulders we set up all the tables and decorations.  We assumed he belonged to the establishment and when the time came for us to disappear during the nuptials we set him down and assumed that he would go back to his home and dinner in the bed and breakfast.  Quite late that evening we came back to break down all the decor and then make the lengthy trip back home.  The little orange kitten was still on the grounds but now much more emphatic in his meowing.  We got it that he was hungry and in need of help.  We inquired at the desk and were told that he had just appeared earlier that day and that they could not take him.  We knocked on all the doors in the neighborhood with the same result.  Meanwhile he was nearly frantic in his need of food.  We already had 3 cats at home so we thought why not add one more to our family.  We packed the van with all of our pretty things and one very dear hungry kitten.  Needless to say we stopped at the grocery store first and the gas station second.  He absolutely devoured his food and then climbed up onto my shoulder and nestled into my hair for a long catnap.  At home we had an old crotchety cat whom we loved dearly but were afraid to introduce to the new kitten as he was likely to try to attack him.  Before we could set anything up our new kitten tore off and pounced on Scamp and started happily playing with him like he was his long lost friend.  Scamp had no choice and was playing before he could decide to be grumpy.  They have become fast friends, playing and sleeping together with the result that Scamp has become friendlier and younger.  We named our new orange kitten Nipper because he found us in Nipomo and definitely added a bit of a nip in Scamp’s life.   He also helped lead us to the next chapter in our life with cats which I will write about a bit later.  Just to tease you Nipper and Scamp have a few more playmates!

Meet Nipper…

Nipper and Scamp  

Full tummy, life is good…

“When we dance with the faeries, we dance with the reflections of our true selves and the true inner self of the world.”

Brian Froud

Photo by Elizabeth Messina

I got to be part of a crazy, fun tea party photo shoot the other day.  The Santa Barbara News Press in honor of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film that is coming out wanted to stage a tea party in the style of the movie.  Ray and Kathy of Village Modern Foods came up with some great whimsical ideas for the food and I did the decor.  We shot it at one of my favorite places, Lotus Land in their Shakespeare garden.  The News Press brought out a few kids from the Boys and Girls club to partake of the goodies and we all got dressed up in costumes.  Lots of fun AND I got to eat the food!  Usually when I create the party I am not there to eat.  That happens later when my job is done and I have gone home.  I might have to rearrange things in the future…  I like eating fancy food!

I set up a stack of suitcases as a chair as they did in the movie.

I also used black as a base color to keep it kind of edgy like the style of Tim Burtons films.  If it were all china and pretty colors it would look too sweet and traditional.

Each place setting had a black cloth under the plate to keep things from being too cute.  I used a miss-matched collection of my own china, tea cups, and silver wear.  I envision this party as being a bit of an impromptu gathering with pulling whatever you have out of the cupboard.  Nothing has to match, in fact it is better if it doesn’t.  The linens, black chairs and silver tea pots came from Glenn at Event Rents.  They have a great selection of beautiful linens.  I wanted the surreal colors of dream scapes and nightmares mixed with more traditional lace.  The photographs don’t show it but the linens had a great luster of different tones that came out in the sun light adding to the fantastical quality.  The tea cakes were equally wild made of watermelon radishes. Very tasty despite the name.  The tea was a cinnamon decaffeinated black tea, very good, though I could have used a bit of caffeine at this point.

Each table place had a napkin tied with a polka dot black ribbon and an old skeleton key.  I had way more tea pots on the table than you would normally need but in addition to containing tea they worked as decoration.  If you had enough pots each guest could have their own.  Believe it or not much of the china including the tea pots that I used came from thrift stores.  These wonderful shops are a tremendous resource.  You just have to go often to catch the goodies.

Each place setting had as a name “card” a bottle filled with water and food coloring and an old fashioned shipping tag with the guest’s name on it.  It is reminiscent of the “drink me” tag on the bottle that Alice drank after falling down the rabbit hole.  The scones were in a heart shape.

The Mad Hatter and a playing card disguised as Ray and Kathy from Village Modern Foods.                                                                                                                                             A great statue at Lotus Land.

Cheers everyone!!!!!

Photography by Elizabeth Messina