Weddingbee PRO

A weeks ago, I had the pleasure of working with Chenin Boutwell of Boutwell Studio and Alice Grisez (I'm a big fan!) on a wedding at the Fairmont Hotel that was held on July 4th.

I wanted to share one image by the talented Chenin. You can seem more of the gorgeous images from Lindsey and Chris' wedding on Chenin's amazing blog (love her soft romantic and fresh style).

Lindsey is holding an all peonies bouquet. Before everyone starts planning on peonies for July, please be warned -we treated these peonies with kid gloves. Lindsey's original bouquet was an all David Austen garden rose bouquet in a soft cream. I had planned to go with the all rose bouquet knowing that the chance of an all white peonies bouquet was very slim.

However, during our wedding planning process Lindsey told me how much she loved peonies and had her heart set on them but knew that the chance of getting peonies the week of her wedding was very unlikely. Never once did I let on that I secretly had an idea….

The week prior, I decided to hold 25 stems of white peonies from June 24th in my cooler. We set our walk-in cooler to a little below 40 degrees, and I babied the peonies for more than 7 days -keeping them hydrated, re-trimming them, placing paper around them to keep them from shattering and finally spraying the entire bouquet with Crowning Glory before we delivered them.

In order to make this bouquet, we had to throw out 10 peonies to get the 15 I needed to make this delicious bouquet. So, if you are even thinking about doing a similar bouquet, you'll need many more peonies in order to make it. I knew the chance I was taking and that is why I never once told Lindsey that I could deliver her the bouquet. Even the morning of the wedding I was nervous when I checked the cooler but the bouquet stayed beautiful (and yes, praying does help! )!!

Let me say one last thing, when Lindsey saw the peonies bouquet she was beyond thrilled. Her radiant smile and genuine happiness made my day (and the week of nursing the peonies) worthwhile. Though I knew that Lindsey would also like the David Austen bouquet that we made, I'm glad that she walked down the aisle with the peonies bouquet because it was a labor of love!

Congrats Lindsey and Chris! Thanks Chenin!!