Ojala Floral Wedding Gallery for Emilee & Paul
Composition included ruffled roses in various stages of bloom, Lady Banks climbing roses, flowering dusty miller, local lisianthus and olive, citrus and rosemary grown on the East End.
All held back tears as she met Paul at the altar looking sharp in a handmade Italian blue suit. She handed her bouquet off to free her hands, finding Paul’s. Like that they stood for some time.
A june day in bloom
Emilee came to the gate of she and Paul’s beautifully tucked in East End home to greet me in a floor length Indian cotton, earth toned floral print lounging gown and bare feet. She walked me up a narrow pathway behind the house to point out where the matilija poppies grew. I stood in the late spring sun and clipped the smooth, graceful stems carefully as I admired the pure, oversized paperlike petals. Across the pool from where I stood was the main house outside of which was a flurry of activity.
Children played on the grass while adults set up chairs on the pea gravel. Further down the grassy slope, wooden farm tables were set into a U-shape. Ulrika and Rob of Harvest Café arranged serving ware on a great wooden table that I laid with fresh cut citrus branches within which they would set platters upon platters of vibrantly colored Mexican inspired vegetarian food.
I began placing centerpieces in an earthy palette of mustard yellow and brown accented with a myriad of fragrant silver and greens pouring from antique brass bowls of varied shapes and sizes. Composition included ruffled roses in various stages of bloom, Lady Banks climbing roses, flowering dusty miller, local lisianthus and olive, citrus and rosemary grown on the East End. I had placed a bucket of the clipped matilija poppy in the shade for the last moment, as the crowning and most special of elements.
I arranged more matilija in vases at the altar mixed with olive branches that grew adjacent. Emilee walked the aisle in a chic strapless, palazzo pant pleated jumpsuit on her father’s arm under the adoring gaze of friends and family. She clutched a romantic bouquet of garden flowers accented with feathered astilbe that shimmied alongside her long, golden tendrils as she walked. All held back tears as she met Paul at the altar looking sharp in a handmade Italian blue suit. She handed her bouquet off to free her hands, finding Paul’s. Like that they stood for some time. Sharing promises between the gazing faces of the poppies that had watched Emilee and Paul’s love grow for some time from where they perched quietly on the hill above, from season to season, awaiting this fine June day to come into their fullest, most magnificent bloom.