Ballroom Elegance

This weekend I saw a truly amazing backyard transformation. It took skillful coordination and attention to detail on the event planner's part, but the result was simply stunning.

A tent was placed right behind the hostess' house, allowing the guests to enter through the front of the home, pick up their place cards within, and then be lead to beautiful set of french doors which opened upon the unsuspecting beauty within the pavilion.

Perfectly draped walls enclosed the well manicured shrubs of the yard. Gold chandeliers hung from swags of fabric twenty feet overhead. Satin linens clocked every table, with gold place settings immaculately arranged.

My job was to add warmth and grander to the setting with the flowers  I started with two large arrangements placed at the entrance way to welcome the guests. They were perfect balls of vandella roses, white hydrangea and white wax flower arranged in a lush mound of salal, to finish long pieces of ivy hung out of the over sized urns to create a time-honored style.

The four corners of the room had simpler urn arrangements, with areca palm fronds for height—a favorite look of the hostess.

The centrepieces were my personal favorite design of the day. Thirty-four vandella roses arranged with waxflower around a crystal candelabra—traditionally elegant and perfect for this event.