Chelsea Clinton’s florists

According to all the buzz about Chelsea Clinton‘s wedding, celebrity florist Jeff Leatham and Boston shop Winston Flowers will provide the flowers for Chelsea Clinton’s super secret and exclusive wedding in upstate New York.

Jeff Leatham of TLC’s Flowers Uncut

Mr. Leatham, pictured above, is artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris and author of two books — Flowers by Jeff Leatham and Flowers by Design — after getting his start at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. He’s a pretty busy guy — not only does he do celebrity weddings like, oh, Eva Longoria’s, he is also the star of TLC’s Flowers Uncut.
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Wedding Venue: Pelican Hill Resort

Looking for an exclusive, ocean-view spot to get married? Then you probably want to check out Pelican Hill in Orange County.

Pelican Hill Resort sits above a huge, swanky golf course in south Orange County. I’ve not had the fortune of ever attending or decorating a wedding here, but I do have friends in swanky places. And my friend says that one of the nice things about Pelican Hill is that they only schedule one wedding a day, unlike other venues that try to squeeze at least three weddings into a room or facility per day. From a decorator’s point of view, that is a huge help. But there is a drawback to such an amazing venue — simple decorations won’t cut it against an amazing rotunda overlooking the ocean.
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Orchids, leis and more orchids

I knew my coworker Jessika was getting married, but little did I know she was planning one of the most gorgeous weddings I’ve seen in a long time.

Jessika recently got married and graciously allowed me to gawk at the incredible photos by Harvard Photography. And make no mistake — obviously, I had nothing to do with these amazing flowers, but I do sort of know the florist behind them. These gorgeous decorations were done by Catherine Hillen-Rulloda of Avante Gardens in Anaheim, who is married to Phil Rulloda, who did a book with Silverio Casabar, who was my mom’s mentor. Small world!

Anyway, you don’t want to hear about my six degrees of separation. You want to know about the flowers!
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Eric and Ashley – a riverside wedding

As I enter the home stretch of my pregnancy, I’ve invited others to guest blog their decorating experiences here. A huge thanks to Matt, who works with a florist in New York. Any others interested in guest blogging their decorating experiences, friends’ weddings or just want to ruminate on their favorite decorating trends should shoot me an email at darleene -at- weddingdecoratorblog.com. Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!

My name is Matt, and I am very excited to be guest posting for you today.

I work at a florist in Upstate New York, and this summer I had the opportunity to do an amazing wedding and reception at one of our client’s summer house in the beautiful Thousand Islands.

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Balloons instead of flowers for your wedding reception

Weddings probably seem like a constant business — after all, people are always getting married — but those close to it know better. Every year, there is always downtime — usually Christmas until February. And the recession isn’t helping matters either — spending on wedding reception flowers is down to an average of $369 in 2009 from $385 in 2008, according to the Wedding Report.

Flickr photo by onedeuxthree

But unlike the wedding industry, which I’m sure is going to try and figure out ways to make brides come back to vendors, I’m going to suggest another way to save money on decorating your reception. How about balloons?
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Decorate a gazebo for your wedding

Springtime always makes me think of outdoor weddings and ceremonies. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but except for last Saturday, the weather in Southern California has been absolutely gorgeous and temperate. So if you’re taking advantage of a picturesque gazebo, like this one at Almansor Court in Alhambra, you should definitely take heed of a few tips I have to offer for decorating it.

Tip #1: Use a really bright color. Most gazebos are painted white (although there is the odd brown one), so just about any color will pop against a gazebo. Of course, I’m very partial to fabric as decoration, and on a gazebo its especially nice, because then things are all floaty and blow a little bit in the wind. Don’t give too much loop to the fabric, though, or it could catch something.

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House wedding in Malibu

They came, they saw, they got married. The wedding that I’d been preparing for the past few months came and went Saturday.

How’d it go? Well, Jinah got married, so that went off without a hitch! Everything that needed to be decorated was decorated, and I didn’t fall off any ladders, thank God for that. I’ll show you what I mean in a minute.

However, as its Monday morning as I’m writing this, I do have to confess I am still in recovery. Saturday was a lot warmer than I thought it was going to be so I didn’t bring water with me as I decorated that morning. I think the combination of not drinking any water till about 3 p.m., all the time I spent in the sun, and the lack of sleep (I have a tendency to not sleep right away when I know I have to be up early, so I ended up getting about 4 hours) left me groggy and headache-y most of the day and Sunday.

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