Happy Father’s Day to my husband, Jeff! I couldn’t do anything without him. Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, and all the fathers out there who work hard at raising their children.
June is a busy month.
Monday we are decorating a blue, white and silver graduation party with balloons. This is a house party that has been postponed because of the rain. The weather is just not cooperating for the outdoor parties this year!
Thursday is Project Graduation at Nomad’s for Rockville High School. Our theme is Hollywood, and we are using balloons and set pieces to transform the venue. One of the most popular things we do is take pictures at Senior Prom of the graduates while they are dressed to impress. Actually, I didn’t go to Prom this year. Most of the seniors go to a local Garden Center that has beautiful grounds with bridges and a pond. I was able to grab seniors and put them against a plain background. I asked them to “Look like a Movie Star!” Some of the kids don’t know what to do, but some of them light up! The best pictures get blown up to 16″ x 16″ and are put on a big film reel. The rest of the pictures are 8″ x 10″ and are put on mylar film reels to decorate the hallways. At the end of the night, the grads can take their pictures home. I even have some parents call to ask for copies!
![8" x 10" Hollywood Stars](http://mjdecorations.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/dsc08923.jpg?w=300&h=225 "8" x 10" Hollywood Stars")
Next weekend, there is a tent wedding at Maneeley’s on Saturday. We are finishing the tent poles this week. The tent is huge and is supported by 5 poles that are 22′ high and about 18″ around. The poles are metal with scratches and ugly marks all over them. To make them look good, we cover them with white embossed vinyl material, (which is weatherproof), and silk ivy. We leave this on all season. If we were using other fabric or tulle, it would get very dirty and buggy. So, we found this vinyl that covers the pole and stands up to the weather. It doesn’t give the puffy, flowing effect that some brides want, but tulle can always be added to achieve that look right before the event. Check our website to see pictures of the tent later this week.
Sunday is a wedding. The Bride lives out of state, so we are meeting with her this week. She is using one of the popular combinations of the season, pink and green. We are mostly using the pink color, Azalea. Her chair sashes will be in green. We have found that colors become popular based on the colors that are being shown in the bridal shops. Chocolate Brown was very popular last fall. Pink in all different shades and intensities has been extremely popular this spring.
Check back for new pictures and to see the upcoming events for July!
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The Summer/Fall issue of New England Gala Weddings Magazine is out, and a wedding that we worked on last summer is featured in the magazine!
We were hired to help the caterers coordinate the set-up and breakdown of the wedding. The bride had a design book with every element clearly shown so that the tables would look exactly the way she envisioned her wedding. The bride and groom had design backgrounds, so they wanted their wedding to reflect their Portuguese and Puerto Rican heritage as well as their unique sense of style. We worked on decorating the tables, chair bows, candy table, cake table, place card entrance table and patio. The venue gave us 2 hours to complete the set-up of the whole wedding. Between the caterers and our crew, we never moved so fast! Correlation Productions provided the lighting which gave the Wadsworth Mansion a club atmosphere. It was a beautiful result. We broke down the wedding that night and trailered everything back to the Bride’s family the next day. Many of the elements were rented, but the bride was able to borrow many items from friends and family to make the whole thing a little more affordable. They ate inside and danced outdoors. If the weather had been better, (it poured right before the reception), the whole thing would have been perfect. The hardest part of the day was when the whole bridal party came tumbling into the front hall out of the rain while we were still trying to decorate. They started moving around in the rooms, and just generally getting in the way. We worked around them, but we didn’t have much time for set-up anyway! It was fun, energetic, beautiful and very vibrant and exciting. It was fun to work on a wedding that had such a bold color palette and to work with a couple that was so excited about their wedding.
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Tent poles can be all around the outside of a pole or frame tent. If the tent is open, you will see them, and they usually aren’t pretty!
We covered these with tulle, ivy and a few flowers.
This is a frame tent with a liner. It is not as high because
there are no center supports. The liner and support covers
give a really elegant, finished look. Be aware, tent liners are
usually as much as the tent. They can be quite expensive. If
you think that you can drape fabric to look like this and save
some money, it is really difficult to get this look on the cheap. We added
lighted hanging lanterns and uplighting to finish the look.
These 25′ high tent poles are a real challenge. This tent stays up all season, from
May to October, so we can’t use tulle or fabric or it would be filthy within a week
or two. So, we cover the poles with an embossed vinyl, put silk branches at the top
and swirl ivy down the pole. We needed a lift to get that high. We have used
a ladder in the past, and it’s impossible to get high enough.
Here’s a wedding tent we decorated. It was a very large tent and it posed
a real decorating challenge because the poles also had lights and fans
attached to them. We used the vinyl fabric and ivy again because it was
fast. We didn’t have much time to decorate this tent.
We have several more tent weddings booked for August, so check our
website, www.mjdecorations.com for more pictures of tent decor in
the future!
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We recently did a Country Western Themed Wedding. It was a lot of fun for us, and it allowed us to step outside of the basic wedding box to create an atmosphere that was fun, but still a little formal.
The bride and groom were honeymooning on a Dude Ranch in Montana, and they wanted to bring that feeling to the wedding. The groom wanted steer horns and a ranch feel. We brought in bales of hay, lighted greenery and sunflowers, mason jar candles, cowboy hats, milk cans, horseshoes, red gingham and red bandannas. We used canvas and rope with raffia bows to decorate the head table, but the underlights added sparkle.
The ceremony was held in the gazebo.
Gazebo Detail
We brought in straw bales for guest seating. Everybody was in jeans and western wear except the parents who were seated on chairs.
The gazebo was decorated with a horseshoe, up so the luck doesn’t run out! The sunflowers matched the reception flowers. The guests threw handfuls of straw instead of rice.
We built a chuckwagon for the outdoor social hour. The fly was perfect to hold the platters of cold appetizers. We used a few details to try to make it look authentic. An old iron skillet, a lantern, a bullwhip, firewood with an axe, and we even coiled up a snake under the front wheel!
Chuckwagon
Here are some of the other details that made this wedding special!
Locking Gift Card Box
Saloon Doors
Cowboy Boot Arrangement at Entrance
Cupcake Table with Horeshoe Backdrop
Straw Bale Centerpiece
Come back at the end of August to see our Red and Gold Vietnamese Wedding as well as our Beach themed Birthday Party. We are also doing an Afro-Centric wedding in September that should be very beautiful and different!
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