1.Vintage postcard I found at the flea market 2.Home of DavidMetNicole 3. Fugenzo Cherry Blossoms 4. Martha Stewart Blossom Branches
I mentioned earlier that I was going to be helping out with a wedding shower. The bride has a fun, modern style and I wanted to capture that feeling for her party. We were dealing with a tiny decoration budget($50), so I wanted the most impact for the least amount of money.
There was a cherry blossom theme in the back of my mind, but I wanted to be careful not too have anything too kitschy. While searching for inspiration I came across a vintage 1907 postcard from Japan at the flea market. From this postcard I drew my color inspiration of scarlet red, pale pink and clear aqua.
With temperatures hovering around the 80's, this was supposed to be an outdoor party on a pergola covered deck. It dropped to a chilly 60 degrees that day, so we had to reluctantly move the party indoors.
This posed a problem as large pink lanterns were part of the decoration. Twelve of them were supposed to be swaying in the breeze tied from the pergola. Instead, we were now working with a small space with a ceiling fan and nowhere to hang the lanterns.
We decided to group them together and attempt to hang them from the fan. This did not prove to be an easy task, and we were working on it up until the bride to be walked through the door. So unfortunately, I don't have any final shots with everything settled and food on the table, but I did take some detail shots as we worked.
I knew I wanted to have some type of Japanese cherry blossoms branch to decorate the food table. I wanted the blossoms to be thick, like the Fuzengo variety, but the way I was doing it was taking forever. I decided to twist the paper instead of cutting individual flowers, which probably looks more like a rose, but it was close enough to the effect I wanted. I then just affixed the blossoms to a branch I found in the woods.
The tablecloth is actually a king sized bed sheet! I searched seven different stores trying to find an aqua one and came up empty. I happened to walk down the bedding aisle and the sheet caught my eye. When I'm determined to have something I will keep trying make it work. Though the biggest lesson I learned was to bring my own steamer to iron out wrinkles.
I wasn't in charge of it, but there was delicious food, including an oriental ramen salad that people couldn't stop eating. The bakers that did my food made this celebration cake, which reads Best Wishes. There was also pink sparkling sake that didn't last long;)
For the paper products I decided to go with a complete monochromatic look to keep the clean, modern feel going. I was set on having square plates for the party and finally found the perfect shade of red.
I went over the budget by $10, but I had fun sourcing this event. I tend to want to decorate with lots of vintage, so it was a change for me to go the other way.
