Just this passed weekend I had the honor of putting together some centerpieces for the birthday party of a very close family friend. I ended up being really thankful for the opportunity to put these arrangements together for our friend, as her personal color preferences differ from mine and as a result, I stumbled upon perhaps my newest favorite Fall/Winter color palette yet! While earthy tones of red, orange & yellow are nothing terribly new for the season, it was the variations of each that I was able to work with and whats more, the gorgeous stems which happened to beautifully blend them all together!
*Photographs by Casey Fatchett Photography
When I first met with our friend in NYC’s flower district I headed straight to a favorite of mine, G Page. The selection of blooms is amazing and ever evolving however the best part is the wonderfully knowledgeable staff who clearly has had their hands in an arrangement or two! As we walked through I got a solid idea of what our friend was after, happily so jiving with unique & interesting blossoms! After parting ways I started brainstorming. The tables were going to be your traditional large rounds which seat up to 8-10 ppl, a common wedding set up. Going with centerpieces that were anything other then circular would have to just right to work, while working with something too circular would be, well, boring and never stand out. The last obstacle to consider was the age old ‘seeing the person across the table from you’. My friend was naturally drawn to low bulbous round vases, so we settled on those with the decision that I would ‘landscape’ some natural settings around it of moss & branch to break a bit away from such a circle like feel.
When Saturday rolled around I grabbed my best asset, my hubs {who actually adores the floral world & makes for a terrific sounding board!} and we headed back to G Page to grab the best & the freshest stems in hues of reddish-orange, yellows & greens. Keeping in mind the one flower my friend was overly drawn to, the Pin Cushion Protea, I used this as my focal point of the arrangement, which also allowed me to set the color tone as well. The protea’s available that day were a deliciously light orange with kissed tips of a faded red. I knew Ranunculus were my next move and as luck would have it, they had THE most amazing variations of, that of a reddish-orange whose petals peeped a gorgeous orange on the inside! This sort of color combination with flowers is lovely{outer petal in interior differing}, as the buds open up with warmth and time, the inside color reveals itself & taking on a second life and in my case, really start to tie things together!
Now having scored my 2 big ticket items, I needed to move to ‘fillers’, which pretty much resulted in us doing laps around G Page, comparing and contrasting various greens & other blooms that would ensure the volume of the arrangements would be what we needed. Ultimately we settled on beautiful fresh pure yellow freesia which would give the arrangements some abstract height with a real organic feel while giving a pure pop of true color. Next up was one of my all time arrangement favorites, Green Trick Dianthus aka the fluffy green balls. Believe it or not, these are part of the carnation family!
Having gotten to this point, I threw in a curve ball that the hubs was pretty vocal about not being on board with, leafy branches with petite berry clusters. Tried as he might, he wasnt getting his head around it, but I knew it would work, and better yet, was exactly what I needed for the styling of the entire centerpiece presentation as a whole, so I stuck to my guns. I knew that including just the right amount of branches into the arrangements themselves would supply a lovely floppy like feel, something super asymmetrical & abstract that would give a playful movement to the look overall, the key was using juuuuust the right amount.
The last piece to the puzzle was a flower that I long try to ignore, the out right carnation. I have no idea what, but I am a carnationist, I am completely a carnation snob. The hubs spyed a bunch that were perfection and it was simply too hard for me to ignore, a soft butter yellow with tips that were kissed with a reddish coral touch, literally THE piece to pull it all together! The beauty of the blooms were that they gave off a fire like feel, something which made me realize the collection as a whole, had a true fireside warmth to it. As I started to assemble each arrangement, each a bit different as was to give a natural free flowing feel, I began to see what was so appealing to the color palette to me. Working with softer reds that lean to orange, and likewise oranges that lean to yellow, there was a real aura of overall firey warmth, something that during the colder months, can ignite a feeling of a cozy heat from within.
To balance these fire like colors, the leafy greens & Green Trick Dianthus {fluffy balls!} brought a whole new angle to the arrangement, injecting a vibrant life of growth & energy, something that reminds us of spring & summer, there again, the warmth! I started to see orangey-reds and pale oranges with deep greens as THE perfect winter palette! Something that lifts us with its visual warmth & energy, a gorgeous way to bring some ‘heat’ into an otherwise chilly time of year!
*Photograph via Storyboard Wedding Instagram {Give us a follow!}
As I mentioned earlier, we wanted something interesting for the round tables, so we opted for a bit of a lifestyle look, presenting each arrangement with its own bed of moss which was surrounded by the petite berry branches. Everything came together beautifully and as an added bonus, the colors stood out in the dark wood night time light dining room! At the end of the night the arrangements were ‘auctioned’ off if you will and I was lucky enough to go home with one, one that turned out to be my favorite! The day after the event, with real warmth & water, the freshly trimmed stems really soaked everything up and as a result the blooms beautifully began to widely open showing all kinds of amazing new colors & life. I dont know about you guys, but I am utterly in love with this fireside palette, its a dreamy non?!