Garden Gathering- Part 1

I have been neglecting my blog lately, mainly because I have been busy with design projects, took a nice trip to Aspen, and have worked on planning an engagement party for the past month.  I love throwing backyard parties, and I'm always looking for an excuse for a good party! Luckily, my friends Brynn & Palmer got engaged recently.  My talented friend Katrina (and one of Brynn's bridesmaids) from Come + Together in Charlotte was nice enough to help with the party. 

 We asked Lynette from The Bloom Room to do the flowers. The idea for the garden gathering was to use lots of interesting flowers like lotus pods, hanging amaranthus, coxcomb, swamp lilies, succulents, scabies pods, poppy pods, millet, crocosmia pods, dianthus, and zinnias. 


We also wanted to use galvanized containers, colored glass bottles, votives, and chalkboard signs. We used navy, light blue, white, and chartreuse striped and a coordinating kalediscope  patterned linens from Party Reflections.  Katrina saw a tent from a wedding shot by The Schultzes, and we thought it would be fun to have only a tent frame with lots of hanging lanterns (little did we know how many issues we would have doing this!!). We both pinned inspiration images on Pinterest.  

Images via Pinterest

After a month of planning, the party started off with a few setbacks. It started to rain while Party Reflections was putting the tent up in my backyard.  I didn't really realize that it was going to become a monsoon overnight and my backyard would flood. 
Yes. 
The day before the party. 

On to Plan B... Oh wait, we never really had one. Katrina and I were on the phone calling rental companies for options. I had my handymen start pumping water out of the yard. We prayed for sun. Finally, we decided to put a floor in the tent and create a carpeted walkway.

It continued to rain on Saturday as they were putting in flooring and hanging lanterns.  I had my 3 amazing handymen (Gayle, Linzey, and Shane) out hanging lanterns along with my electrician that was so nice to come help me on a Saturday! I'm really lucky to have such a good "team" from my interior design business. These guys say they will do anything for me. And I usually take them up on that.  

I asked Gayle if they could build 8 benches for the tables and he did an amazing job! Katrina had looked at rental companies around Charlotte, and no one had benches we were looking for to rent.

I'm so lucky to have people to come help out! Lynette from The Bloom Room was hanging air plants from the chicken wire backdrop my guys built for me. Christina from North Carolina Charm came to help Katrina and me. 

I had at least 10 girls at my house the week before hot gluing coffee filters to paper lanterns. My friend Christina was nice enough to help, and she blogged about how to make them. Even the guest of honor (on the right) came to help us! When we saw the inspiration on Pinterest, we had NO idea that it would take approximately 2 hours per lantern... and we did 25! In addition, I made over 50 different sized pom poms out of white tissue paper. It sounds easy, and it is, if you have lots of free time. 

It was definitely worth all our time, because the lanterns and pom poms turned out fabulous!! The idea was to hang them sporadically from the tent frame. 

Gayle and his guys did SUCH a good job building these benches. The navy, white, and kaleidoscope patterned pillows looked perfect on them. (However, now I'm stuck with 8 8ft long benches... if anyone wants them!!)

Poor Gayle. After building the benches I asked him to build 2 8 ft tall chicken wire backdrops to go behind the food and dessert tables. From the top, Lynette (Bloom Room) hung air plants and mason jars with tea lights from twine. 

Gayle and Lynette did a fabulous job! Katrina found this cute "grown with love" banner off Etsy to hang above the dessert bar. 

Dessert bar Preview! 
I'll blog about some of the foods and where I found the various containers in the next post! 

There were galvanized watering cans from Pottery Barn with various flowers on the stairs.

Lynette replanted several of my very very dead plants. 

I bought these garden stake torches from Gracious Nest, a vendor in Alexander Scott, where I sell my French antiques! 

I bought a wood arrow at Michaels and stained it, and then used my new wood burning tool (also from Michaels) to draw the couple's initials.  Then I hung this from one of the garden stakes at the front of the path. 

As you walk down the path toward the tent, you see the guest book table. I used a bistro table I bought in L'isle Sur la Sorgue, France. I found it at a market with no top, but my brother made a reclaimed top with wood from his barn, and then told me that was my birthday present. Very nice of him.

Katrina found this cool thumbprint guestbook and I ordered it from Love From the Thumb on Etsy. You leave your thumbprint and name on a tree with the couple's names and party date. The stamp pads come in cute wood boxes with initials on the top and the date on the bottom.

I found this cute chicken wire basket for cards off Etsy. 

The succulents in mini watering cans are from So Succulent Etsy.

The "B" and "P" brass branch letters are from Anthropologie. 

I bought the recycled glass votive holders at West Elm. 

I have to lay everything out before I can do anything with interior design, and this is clearly the case with events too! I brought out all my galvanized serving pieces from Pottery Barn. The idea was to use lots of bite size food and to put them on pots, trays, in little clear cups and tin buckets, etc.  

 I took over my dining room with containers. Before I set anything out, I like to make post-it notes for each one I'm using and see how much can fit in one container.

I made a spreadsheet with types of food I wanted and the kinds of containers I thought would work for them! Most of the food ideas came from Pinterest.

I bought these chalkboard stakes off Etsy from Mackensley Designs.  My friend Christina (North Carolina Charm) wrote food names on all the chalkboard sticks. The container for the fruit skewers is a triple condiment galvanized container from Pottery Barn (no longer available), which I filled with styrofoam and moss to hold the melon skewers.

I also made caprese skewers with two different kinds of mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil and put in an oval tin bucket with moss from Michaels. The chalkboard labels are from Braden's Grace Wall Art on Etsy.  

Starting to get everything together in my Dining Room a few hours before the party! My amazing friend Rachael is in the background making mini sandwiches. 

I found these cool bark tree trunk rounds with moss at Alexander Scott. They already had holes for flowers, but I thought it would be fun to stick waffle cones with caramel popcorn inside! My mom's friend was so nice to drive 2 hours to bring me my favorite popcorn from Kilwins. I put blueberry and vanilla yogurt pretzels on clay pots. On the rectangle tiered tray in the back are oreo brownies Christina made, and I'm sure she will post her recipe soon on her blog. 

 My friend Rachel is an amazing chef (and help in general) and she made little sandwiches. I bought "B" ,"P" and heart cookie cutters at Sur La Table. She used a different cookie cutter for the different types of sandwiches- roasted veggies with goat cheese and mini croque Monsieurs. I put them on an oversized bread board from Pottery Barn. 

Christina made veggie and ranch cups and put them on my galvanized metal 3-tiered serving stand from Pottery Barn. 

 We decided on Vodka Lemonade with Basil for the signature drink. I thought it would be fun to make ice cubes with blueberries (to go along with our navy theme.... but they taste great too!). Since it was a "garden" theme, I used a flower brioche molds from Sur La Table to make the ice cubes.

The signature vodka lemonade was served in these mason jar drink dispensers Pottery Barn just started carrying. I put it on top of a galvanized twig flower pot I already had to give it some height.  

I found these wood wine troughs at Pottery Barn! The one in the back is sitting on a moss platform. 
For the vodka lemonade I used disposable crystal cut glasses from Party at Lewis, added chalkboard labels and striped straws from The Party Fairy on Etsy. 

I ordered the napkins from For Your Party. Katrina found the cute garden inspired quote online.

The pictures of the party don't do it justice! The hours of hot gluing lanterns was definitely worth it!  

The flowers from The Bloom Room were amazing! My favorites are the Lotus Pods, Catscomb, and Scabiosa Pods. We used flowers in reclaimed wood boxes for the tables, along with recycled glass bottles and vases from West Elm, which just happened to be the exact colors of the linens! 

....and the grand entrance. 

Can't wait to show part 2 of the Garden Gathering this week! 

Congrats to Brynn + Palmer!