One of the things I think sets this blog apart from other wedding sites and definitely from wedding magazines and those oh-so-addictive wedding shows is that I like to show pictures of real people’s weddings. A lot of the photos I’ve shown have been from weddings I’ve decorated myself, while others have been pictures I’ve found on Flickr or have picked up from friends. It’s sort of like attending a bunch of weddings in one blog post.

Photo by Belinda Long Ivey

This wedding was attended on July 4th by my houseguest and friend, Belinda, at Villa Del Sol d’Oro in Sierra Madre. (They have a terrible website.) Susie, the bride, adores pink so all the decorating touches had touches of hot pink. The cute little centerpieces by Casa Blanca Flower Shop were bowl vases, holding what appears to be hot pink, blooming Colombian roses, which have huge blooms. You don’t have to use roses for this kind of centerpiece, of course — gerber daisies, lisianthus, peonies (which can be more expensive than roses, depending on the season), ranunculus, and, what I would use — stargazer lilies — would totally work. But they wouldn’t be fully pink, but still gorgeous.

Photo by Sam Gonzaga

Here’s another photo of another wedding all my friends were at on July 4th. (Sigh.) This was wedding was Shruti’s, who posted here the other day. Shruti’s centerpiece is rather simple — a glass cylinder filled with water, holding a pink orchid, topped by a floating candle — but when you get the whole picture, you see it was juuuuuust right.

Copyright SVPathre, from Shruti’s Flickr stream

With 350 guests (if its 10 people per table, that’s 35 tables!) no wonder she went pretty simple! And, I know from what she’s told me that there were so many other details to the wedding that you can’t see just from the guest tables. I mean, honestly, the gold and blue chair cover sashes POP. And so does that table sash. What more do you need?

A friend of mine, who wished to remain anonymous, found this arrangement at a rehearsal dinner in Rancho Capistrano. Heheh, I can’t imagine what the actual reception flowers looked like! But yes, this one is still quite nice and I would happily have it at my wedding if I’d had a big wedding. (More about that later.) Want a close up?

This arrangement, in a pink box on top of a chocolate brown napkin (nice departure from the mirror!), has those burgundy dahlias, bubblegum pink gerber daisies and hot pink roses and even some baby roses, and a sprig of hypericum berries. Seriously, I think its adorable and should not be relegated to the rehearsal dinner.