Diane Jamison Flowers

What We Did For Sam and Jennifer

On an unseasonably, delightfully cool day on a private beach in Montauk, New York, Sam and Jennifer were married at sundown in the exquisite golden light of a late summer sunset.  This northeastern beach with the flavor of early fall in the air was the inspiration for the look and style of the wedding.

Our crew arrived the night before.  We settled into a local motel along with our flowers, supplies, linens and great enthusiasm.  Out-of-town weddings can be very trying . . . not only can the weather be a problem but if you forget to bring anything you won’t be able to go back and retrieve it.  A very hot or cold day can have all your perishable goods with you in your motel bathtub.  Fortunately, on this occasion no one had to sleep on a bed of roses!  Early the next morning the trucks and crew moved out to the wedding site.  The ceremony was to be on the beach at high tide while the reception and buffet dinner were to be in a spacious, weathered wooden boat house/pavilion open to the sea.

We set up our mobile flower studio near the caterer’s tents.  Arrangements and supplies in hand, we trekked what seemed to be 10 miles across the sand to the wedding site, only to have the wind pick up and threaten everything with blowing sand and an angry sea.  As we are not native shore people we feared a storm was rising and turned back at a run, arrangements once again in hand.  Fortunately, we had a rain contingency plan that involved using the boathouse for the ceremony.  A rain contingency plan is an absolute must for all outdoor weddings regardless of the time of year.  As we reached our trucks a small squall blew over, the sun came back out and no dangerous jelly fish washed up on shore, so back out we went.

The backdrop for the wedding ceremony were three old wooden chests I had found in a junk shop.  We filled the chests with pampas grass, beach oats and other grasses and greenery while large shell-colored dahlias, large scallops and other shells and lavender sea fans spilled to the sand.  (We brought all of the materials with us from the city as we cut nothing from the natural environment.)  Interspersed in these three “arrangements” and lining the “aisle” were amber votive candles on pillars in hurricane glass.

The bride carried a bouquet of sea oats, scallop shells, specimen snail shells, mini starfish, champagne roses and mini sunflowers.  Her junior bride’s maid, 12 year old Alician, carried a shell-trimmed wicker basked of mini sunflowers, grasses and lavender.  Our flower girl, Annette, had other design ideas, however.  She was to hold a miniature version of Alician’s basket but, looking over our contribution, she immediately handed it back.  She ran a short way away to the remains of the morning’s sand castle still strewn with colorful plastic pails and small shovels.  Annette selected a sunflower yellow pail and, with a purple shovel, filled it with just the right sand and ran back to us.  Being, as she was, a professional flower girl, she knew her job.  She solemnly took her place in front of the bride and shoveled out the first shovelful of sand.  Who could have ever planned this?  Look out for this future event designer!

 

“Captain Bryan”, six years old and brother of Annette, was chosen to be the ring bearer.  He felt a ring pillow was far too ordinary for such a momentous occasion.  He requested instead a “pirate chest” for the rings and asked if it could be decorated with “starfish, shells and diamonds” (his very words).  We were happy to oblige.  Captain Bryan wore his formal pirate costume made especially for him by his mom.  We are here to report that he looked dashing.

To compliment a simple tea length, off-white gown with matching shawl, I made a tiara for the bride fit for a mermaid.  It featured small specimen shells, white coral, copper, glass and gold beads.  The gentlemen wore boutonnières of small sea shells and natural raffia.  The mothers wore corsages from the sea of small, beautiful shells and strung gold beads.

The flower girls wore crowns of delicate white scallop shells with strung gold beads and natural raffia ties in their lovely, long hair.  The bride’s maids wore in their hair combs of white scallop shells, sea foam and gold beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To enhance their pale sea green summer dresses, the bride’s maids carried a blushy caramel-colored rose called “Camel”.  This cluster of roses was surrounded by sunset colored scallop shells bound in natural raffia.

The centerpieces were arranged in terra cotta scallop shell containers.  We used delphinium, mini sunflowers, viburnum berries, grasses and sea oats with shells and starfish “swimming” among the flowers.  The table linens were a pale sea green with an overlay of grass cloth.  The napkins were in tones of sand, raffia and sea green and were tied with raffia and small bunches of sea oats.  The tables and surfaces of the pavilion were strewn with amber votives.

The moon rose over the silvery waves, the sky as clear as a diamond.  After dinner, during the dancing, many new romances twinkled like stars along the beach.  Alas, the sun came up the next morning, the night’s magic became legend immortalized on film, and back we went to the city.

What We Did For Them