THE CAVENDER DIARY

When my dear friend Laura, who moved to St. Louis a few years ago, asked me to do the flowers for her wedding…my first thought was all white… or white with lime green. Isn’t that what most typical brides want these days?

Then I got the “Save-The-Date” card.

And the invitation…..

See what I mean?

This was definitely not a “white floral” wedding, or typical bride. Her gown, after all, was going to be navy. Laura and I agreed that her floral colors would be; bubble gum pink, orange, turquoise, purple, chartreuse, and lipstick red. Rick, the groom-to-be, likes whatever Laura likes….isn’t that easy?

Having never been to St. Louis, Jamie and I spent the day before the wedding taking in the sights…. which is pretty much just the Gateway Arch.

They don’t tell you this before hand, but the trip up to the top of the St Louis Arch is Scary-as-Hell. I do NOT recommend it if you are acrophobic, or even slightly claustrophobic. The accent to the observation deck is in an almost windowless pea-shaped car the size of 1/4 of a Fiat. It took us, and the 4 other hefty midwestern strangers shoved in there with us, 4 minutes to get up there in that round coffin…..coming down it take 3 minutes. Thank you gravity. They also forget to mention that the arch swings from side-to-side. It’s supposed to be “slight”, most people don’t even notice. Jamie and I are most definitely NOT “most people”. We both felt the swinging immediately. After a 2 hour wait, AND a 4 minute nightmare inducing accent, we lasted about 1 minute and a half before we had enough swaying at 600 feet in the air.

Still worth doing if you’re ever in St Louis….but I only recommend it for the truly fearless. Like bungee jumping naked.

We mailed everything we needed ( vases, votives, tools, buckets, a watering can, ribbon,  everything…) weeks before the ceremony. All we had to do was pick up the pre-ordered flowers from the wholesaler before the 2 hour drive to the Chaumette winery in Missouri wine country. Did you know that Missouri had a wine country? We didn’t either.

Here’s our flowers soaking up water in our hotel room before we moved everything to the rental car. Mostly roses, but there are also pincushion Protea, chartreuse spider mums, tulips, Dianthus, and Hypericum.

After a 2 hour drive through twisty Missouri back roads, we arrived at our “UN-Map Questable” destination. Just look how beautiful the Chaumette Winery is…..

The cabin we stayed in was in this clump somewhere…I think the bridal party took up most of these cabins. They were A-Ma-Zingly cozy. Our cabin had plenty of room to do the centerpieces. We opened our french doors overlooking a pasture full of cows while we worked on the centerpieces.

The ceremony was held in a charming free-standing chapel on a hill overlooking the breath-taking winery property.

Laura wanted silk hand-tied flowers for the chapel so she could save them and make a wreath later. We made them in advance and shipped them with all our supplies.

They look very close to the “real” flowers we used for the reception. Dalias and Peonies were on the bill for the fresh centerpieces, but unavailable in April…so it was good to at least have some represented in silk.

I love pictures of the bride and groom right after the ceremony. Bubbles all around.

The reception was in the wine barrel storage room, an intimate spot under the main tasting room of the winery.

Jamie and I wrapped ribbon around cylinder vases in advance…and then picked up those colors in votives from an online candle site.  All of Laura’s colors look extra vibrant on simple white cloths.

Laura likes a little sparkle…if you look closely there are tiny colored rhinestones set into the flowers.

Since the room was so intimate, we filled it with colored votives and synthetic gems to reflect all the candle light.  The bride’s mother found these cylinder vases, they were just perfect to bring some height to the mantle.

As soon as I saw these gems, I knew that Laura would just love them. The candlelight made them glisten like “real” jewels.

An A-typical bride would never have a typical wedding cake. Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Ho Hos…..Oh My. We stacked the Hostess treats on tiered cake plates.

Even the cake topper was a one-of-a-kind idea..tokidokis of Ciao Ciao and Adios….the ” ‘Till Death Do Us Part ” couple.

Happy First Anniversary Rick and Laura.

We had a great time at your wedding, and we’re so thrilled that we could have been a part of it as well.