ROSE GOLD. I think my rose gold phone charger is what bonded us. Olga loves rose gold. As I pulled out my external battery charger, I had to exchange all the info on where to find it.

Here is a love story about one of my favorite blush weddings. It was in June…So PEONIES guys!!! Julia from WeddingWise also did a fun engagement blog about these two fun and amazing people. I borrowed a lot of info from there to tell the back story.

Where they met:

“We met at a wedding! We went to the same high school and our social circles intertwined A LOT; really, by all standards of socialization, we should have known each other in our angsty teenage years. But fate knew we wouldn't have liked each other back then. I was too flighty and shallow and Derek was too emo. Instead, I was a platonic date for our mutual friend to a wedding that Derek was also attending. The night is full of juicy details, but suffice to say, by the end of it he was smitten.”

The Proposal:

“I planned a trip to Ireland for Derek's birthday in 2015. He'd never traveled outside of contiguous North America and is quite attached to the Irish heritage, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to see a country I'd always had an inexplicable curiosity to explore and also infect Derek with the travel bug while doing some heritage hunting. I had also previously told Derek that if he proposes I either want it to be on a mountain or in another country. I know cliffs aren't actually mountains, but they are a dramatic landform! He proposed on the Cliffs of Moher, quoting one of my favorite lines from Pride and Prejudice.”



What is some good advice for newly engaged couples?

“Our engagement will end up being just over 2 years long. After the first 6 months or so I wondered why the heck we were waiting so long, but as the first year rounded out a few things happened. The stress I might have felt about planning the wedding mostly dissipated. I spent the first year obsessively looking at realistic ideas and reading a billion articles, it was a overwhelming. Plus, I am a people pleaser so I was constantly thinking about what others would think and wasting a lot of energy on unnecessary stress. By the time the second year started and Julia and I actually got down to planning, I'd had enough of the stress and was ready to make decisions and get going.

The other thing that happened was dealing with the idea of "forever" head on. That's not to say that we hadn't before, but after the engagement you start to realize what forever really means. You start to look at things differently, and start to ask yourself the questions you thought you knew the answers to before you got engaged. Our two year engagement has felt like how some people describe their first year of marriage. We didn't spend the whole of our engagement being overly excited about the wedding so we had time to really consider forever, together.

So my advice, newly engaged couples, is don't shy away from a longer engagement! Letting the excitement of the proposal die down a little isn't a bad thing, you'll get a clearer head which is always helpful when planning forever as well as a wedding.”

The Wedding Day:

“So as you know wedding days sometimes don't go as planned. It seemed like nothing could go right. Derek got food poisoning the night before the wedding and was in serious pain on the wedding day. A loud plane flew overhead during our vows, all but drowning us out. To top things off, it absolutely poured on our wedding day and the weather was quite chilly. Despite everything our love and smiles shone brightly through all!”

Adding emerald green to their color palette was a unique spin to the ever-popular white and blush. "Garden glam" was flawlessly executed with greenery garlands on the ceremony chairs, a bird cage card container bedecked with a cascade of flowers, rose gold accents and glittery runners at the reception and emerald green escort cards. - Kirsten Marie Photography

Olga, Derek and their guests paid no mind to the weather and proceeded to have the time of their lives eating, drinking, laughing and dancing the night away!

Here’s Olga’s review on Weddingwire:

Olga , married on 06/17/2017

5.0 View more

I was so lucky my planner pointed me in the direction of Gina. Our initial meeting was so friendly and laid back, she made me feel comfortable enough to express what I was truly hoping for with our floral design, even though my floral vocabulary barely goes beyond "peonies" and "blush".

Throughout the process she was very communicative, we messaged quite a few times to make updates, and she even asked me to help her find some display pieces that I felt matched our day a bit better.

On the day of, I was actually in a not so great mood due to a few factors not quite fitting into place, but then when I walked into our venue and saw all the work Gina had done I was instantly happy. The blooms were plush and healthy, I had told her I wanted greenery but nothing too wild and she delivered! My bouquet looked relatively large, but actually was quite light simply (I think) because of the plumpness of the blooms. The variety she used also really took my breath away.

Just so happy I got to work with Gina! Highly recommend her services!

Vendors the happy couple chose:

Photographer: Kirsten Marie Photography, Planning+Coordination: Julia P. Wedding Wise, Venue: Robinswood House Rental items: From the Ground Up Floral, Fanciful Rentals, Prop Gallery Events, CORT Party Rental, Dress: I Do Bridal Beauty: OffWhite Makeup and Beauty DJ: Darin Hanson Catering: Bakery: Delicately Sweet Confections Invitations: Minted

Thank you for reading! Here’s the secret sauce bouquet breakdown blog.

Florally yours,

Gina