She said "Yes"!

Normally when I get a call about weddings it is after the proposal is made. I was so excited and honored to be asked by the mother of the groom (before he was a groom) about places where he could ask the big question. The groom was coming up for Thanksgiving and bringing his girlfriend with him. I was trying to think of a spot that wasn't closed for the winter, wasn't too cold, and would be completely memorable. Not easy this time of year, let me tell you! Luckily the Christmas tree lighting in Anchorage's town square was happening the day after Thanksgiving. He decided to ask the beautiful bride when the tree was lit. This will be one Christmas tree lighting event that two people in particular will never forget!

Tena and Terry

I received a call from Alaska Bride and Groom asking if I knew of any cute, little chapels in Alaska complete with stained glass windows, steeple, and pews. I instantly thought of this little church in Fairbanks. It is in Pioneer Land, the First Presbyterian Church.
That call reminded me of a couple that was married a couple of years ago but I had never posted the images because they were not digital files. So today I decided to go ahead and scan to jpeg. Tena and Terry are from Texas and had always wanted to come to Alaska. So they decided to start their Alaskan Adventure with a wedding. It was just the two of them, their mom's and the officiant. Short, sweet, and completely charming! Focus Unbound took these great pictures.
The colors Tena chose for her flowers were beautiful, deep reds, and oranges. They contrasted nicely with her white bouquet. We brought the flowers up from Anchorage the day before and spent the night in our hotel room making the arrangements. The boxwood wreaths on the door were just the right touch to add to the charm of the little church.

Northwest Trade Show

I recently had the opportunity to go to the Northwest Trade Show in Seattle. It was fun to go and see what kind of things are available to us Alaskans from out of state. Yes, the shipping can be expensive to rent even the linens from companies in the lower 48 but sometimes it is worth it. It was nice to meet some of the vendors face to face as well. Some of them seemed very eager to do business up here. Here are some of the booths that were at the show.
This one was my favorite. Aria Style made up the booth. Aria started out as a floral designer and then grew to include all elements of event decor. Everything tied together, even the pipe and drape that was behind the table set up. One thing I loved were the acrylic chairs. They really added a lot to the overall look of the decor. www.ariastyle.com is their website. This booth was fun too. The cork place holders caught my eye. What a fun addition to a Mediterranean themed event.

I have been wanting to use wheat grass in a wedding as a decorative element for awhile now. It was fun to see someone use it in their exhibit. I think a bed of grass to hold table seating cards would be fun for an outdoor wedding. This designer went with a golf theme. The center of the table is covered by a golf umbrella with beaded crystals hanging from the rim. They used golf tee's as holders for the seating cards. Fun!

This exhibit had super tall pipe and drape. The white drapey fabric hung alongside crystal garlands that were lit with spotlights that made them shimmer brightly. I love the funky chair. :)

wedding stationery

It's that time of year again when bride's are thinking about their save the dates and invitations for their guests. I really like to design stationery that reflects the style of the couple and I LOVE when a bride is actively involved in making sure it is just right. Here are some projects that I have been working on these last few weeks.I love this "tree" save the date. It has the initials of the bride and groom carved into the trunk. The bird on the top of the card is cute too. I think if I were to have my wedding all over again my save the dates would look something like this one. :)
These save the dates are actually magnets. We designed the picture and wording and sent it in to rigidmagnets.com who made the magnets exactly like the graphic design we emailed to them. It worked out great. I made up a simple card with "invitation to follow" and adhered the magnet to it so that it would fit into an envelope nicely.This set was fun to make. I love the scrolling on it. The bride brought a pamphlet from her work that had scrolling that she really liked. I took a picture with my phone and then worked on designing scrolling that matched the pamphlet (which she had to bring back to work the next day). I love the dots too. Just a fun little added touch.

Kathy and Mike

Kathy was one of those brides that planners love to have as a client. She shared her ideas of what she wanted for her wedding day and basically handed over the reins. Love it!

She had so many fun "Alaskan" elements to her wedding day. First the wedding was held at the Native Heritage Center which is packed full of everything and anything Alaskan. This made for easy decorating, we kept it simple so as not to take away from what was already showcased. She and Mike reserved the whole facility for the night and had it open for all of her guests to explore. During the cocktail hour we had the Kicaput Native Dancers perform, my favorite part was when they had the bride, groom, and any other willing guests join them in a dance. I gotta tell you, Mike was a natural!! For favors Kathy found a lady in Valdez who provided the cutest little booty and glove ornaments.

Here are some photo's from the wedding- thank you Marie!

Fox Island

I was recently invited to go and do a site inspection at Fox Island Wilderness Lodge with Kenai Fjord Tours. They are looking to host some weddings on this remote island and wanted me to take a look.

What a fantastic place for a wedding!!! This island is so beautiful and you would have it all to yourself. There is a main lodge where the tour boats drop off their passengers for a salmon bake lunch. The lodge is plenty big for 100+ guests and the catering staff was amazing. We were dropped off at the same time and after lunch we were invited to stay the night in one of their private cabins while the other passengers loaded back up on the boat for a sightseeing tour.

Our cabin was a short walk down the beach. The beach is a rock skipping maniac's dream! And the view was absolutely breathtaking. We even went when it was raining, I can't imagine how awesome it would be if it were sunny.

If I remember right there were about 5 private cabins and a "common area" cabin. This smaller common area is where we had our dinner and breakfast the following day. Chef Chris prepared our meals and they were very good. The dishes were packed with fresh produce and seafood. For example my breakfast was a fritatta with a king crab sauce. wow! This smaller common area would be an ideal spot for the rehearsal dinner. It is very intimate, comfortable, and not lacking in Alaskan charm.

The private cabins are plenty big for a bride to get ready in. The staff is very accommodating and ready to help. I can't wait to plan my first wedding here!!

Pinja and Justin

August 8th was Pinja and Justin's wedding. I loved helping Pinja plan her wedding. She is from Finland and many members of her family were able to fly over and share her special day with her. The site was in the backwoods of hillside in Anchorage. This pad that we set up our tents and everything on was made about a week before the wedding when we all realized that the original site was just too muddy to work with. Justin luckily owns a company that has the equipment needed to slap a gravel pad fit for tents and a dancefloor together in a couple of days. Here is a picture of Valley Rental Center setting up their tents for the wedding. Pinja wanted a very outdoorsy, natural, and elegant feel to her wedding. The arbor was made by my Dad, Doug VanWingerden. He made it exactly how the bride wanted it to look. Just naturally beautiful. Awesome job Dad!

Pinja wanted some lights in the trees that we could light later in the evening when the main activities were over and things were shifting into "dance/party" mode. I found these cool little metal cages at Pier 1 for $1/ea on sale. I took out the little funky plant that was in it and replaced it with a candle. It worked great! They looked especially cool when the candle started to melt and drip through the cage underneath.

Our tables were long buffet tables set, two deep, so they were extra wide and long. We used standard white linens and then ran a wide runner of burlap over the white to give it a rustic feel. We set slabs of birch along the length of the table and topped those with fresh bread from L'aroma and set a bottle of red and white wine on either side. Then we filled in with the flowers and votive candles.


The cake was set on slabs of birch as well and surrounded by mini chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
My favorite part of the decoration were the mahogany chivari chairs. They just look so cool!

My favorite part of the wedding was how the bride came...on a bulldozer!

Big thanks to Carrie and Marie for the detail shots. :)

Emily and Mitchel

Emily and Mitchel were married on August 1st. After days of rain we were a little nervous about the weather, but it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Yay! I am sure Emily and Mitchel were thrilled because their get away vehicle was a sailboat. Loved it!

RaeAnn and Rodney

I have been blessed with some really awesome clients this last summer and RaeAnn, Rodney, and RaeAnn's mom Betty are definitely some of them! I loved the colors. Hot pink and a dark silvery gray. RaeAnn chose the Bayshore as her venue which worked out perfectly for the decorating that we wanted to do. We draped velon (a white plastic material that looks just like fabric when it is hung) to brighten it up in the room. We also hung paper lanterns in two different shades of pink. The rose balls that were hung in each window were sooooo gorgeous. They looked like they were not real, they were so perfect. Thank you Tandy for helping with the flowers! The dancefloor had silver and pink firework type beaded balls above it which looked great when the lights were on the dancefloor later that night. In the windows we hung more pink beads that matched the colors. I found the beaded curtains on http://www.shopwildthings.com/ (fun, cool stuff on that site).

Another great find was the table coverings. They are a pewter silver pintuck linen. Floor length. They looked fantastic with the white chivari chairs and square glass charger plates from valley rental center. To finish off the look we folded the white napkins underneath the charger plates so that they hung off the side of the table. As a centerpiece we did glass square vases with pink peonies and roses in different heights.

For the ceremony we set up a tent and covered the poles with white linen and attached an arrangement of roses, peonies, and seeded eucalyptus. Down the aisle we set up hooks where we hung flowerballs made of pink carnations. My favorite part of the ceremony decor was the way we put the petals on the aisle. I loved the swirly line of pink and it made the white petals that the flower girls tossed stand out even more. The bouquets and corsages were made by Blushing Blooms and added just the right touch to the wedding party.

I was so happy with the way the decor turned out and how well everything went together even the balloons that we had Valley rental center bring matched perfectly! I couldn't have pulled this set up off without the help of my incredible staff- Tandy, May, and my sweet hubby Chris.

Kaleb Baker from Chefstop made the amazing appetizers and dinner. The service and taste was fantastic. My personal fav were the crab stuffed mushrooms, Yummy!!

These detail shots were taken by my twin sister Marie VanWingerden who is a pretty sought after second shooter. She was actually at another wedding that day and took the time to come and take some detail shots for me and my blog. I love you Marie!

By the way, it was raining and blowing so hard on this day. Amazingly the rain and wind completely stopped just before the ceremony began and as the wedding party ended the recessional, it started to sprinkle again. Perfect timing!!!

John from ONDAGO mobile entertainment provided the cool gobo light (along with the great music) with Rodney and RaeAnn's names. Super way to dress up a dancefloor...besides the bride! :)
Thanks so much RaeAnn and Rodney for letting me be a part of your very special day!