ENGAGEMENT PARTY

We love weddings at Salt Harbor, but it is great to get to design a party now and then, and Mary and Chris definitely know how to throw a party. They chose Eagle Point as their venue and picked an amazing band, Party on the Moon. Millie photographed the party and will be photographing the wedding this June. We are working hard to design the wedding, which will be a Hampton-style event at Airlie Gardens.

Bald Head Wedding

Mary Catherine and Phil were married last October on Bald Head Island. They wanted a really organic event that captured the essence of the island, and so we incorporated driftwood, grasses and rocks to create the feel of the natural environment of Bald Head. Lisa from Bella Rose Photography expertly captured all of the details!

FEATURED IN THE KNOT

Emily and Justin's wedding from the fall of 07 is featured in this season's edition of The Knot. It is wonderful when clients see the importance of both great details and florals and a phenomenal photographer, like Millie. The result is a magazine-worthy wedding, like this one! Emily had wonderful style, and we loved being a part of her big day! The images of the magazine were pulled from Millie Holloman's blog.

SNEAK PEEK

About twice a year, Millie Holloman and I get together for a photo shoot. Last month, we set up some shots at The Balcony on Dock and Level 5. For this photo shoot, my assistants (whom I could not live without!) and I dreamed up 6 vintage themes to tackle.

Millie sent over the first of some photos today and they are AWESOME! She is so amazing! I wanted to post a few of the shots....there are tons more to come!

Art deco just seems so perfect for The Balcony...

This one I was a bit worried about-- a retro 60's graffiti theme. Turned out to be a favorite for everyone. We even added some removable graffiti to the front window. Larger images to come!

This one was one of my favorites. I wanted to bring in a hint of my literary background-- so we designed a 1930's inspired literary table. The gorgeous wood backdrop for this shoot was the theater seating at Level 5.

BEACH WEDDING

Stephanie and Blair were married this May on Wrightsville Beach with a reception at The Balcony on Dock. Their colors were navy and green and this worked wonderfully with the location and the style, which was a natural twist on vintage. Thanks to Anne McGowan for capturing the details!

AN AIRLIE WEDDING

Megan and Craig were the such a cute couple with really great taste! From the beginning, Megan had great ideas and wanted to combine a contemporary garden feel with a subtle touch of Japanese influence. To incorporate this, we covered the tent poles with fresh bamboo and strung glass lanterns between them. See the results below.

How cute is this?!!

This season, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing photographers from all over North Carolina. And every time I do, I have the same thought--good design and style means absolutely nothing without a great photographer! I am forever grateful to the photographers who are able to let us appreciate the atmosphere of an event long after it is finished. These photographs are by Brooke Mayo. Her eye is great and these photographs are wonderful.

Springtime wedding

I cannot say enough how much of a difference the photographer makes!! White Box Weddings shot this wedding and the results are wonderful! Abby and Kevin had such a great sense of style. Kevin is also a wedding photographer, so the couple paid extra special attention to the details!

They wanted to incorporate some lounge seating and so we set up this area and they completed the space with the wonderful photograph from their engagement session.

Rehearsal Dinner

From my first meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Lanier, I knew their event would be delightful. They had simply great ideas and were so eager to create a really natural, elegant dinner. They had seen the name rocks on a display table I had done for the Balcony's open house and wanted to incorporate them with branches, moss, and river rock. They also wanted to fill each window with candles, which produced such a wonderful light in the room. The Balcony is one of my favorite locations! With its wooden floors and exposed brick walls, it creates such a beautiful canvas for events like these.

Millie Holloman came out to photograph Brooke and Hugh's rehearsal dinner, and I was so glad! Her work always reproduces the atmosphere of an event with such accuracy!

We hung the escort cards from a huge vase of curly willow.

The Bottle House

We set up this table in the bottle house, which made for some wildly colorful photos! This color scheme (apple green and navy) seems to be one of the most popular this year. I have several weddings coming up using these colors with a variety of themes. Millie captured some wonderful angles here!!

Naturalist's Table

Airlie Gardens has the most amazing spots for a photo shoot. We found this one off the path a bit, near the water. With the tree overhead and Spanish moss draping down, it was the perfect place for this table. I love to incorporate wooden elements, like these bowls and chargers and the polished wood floral container. For favors, we used a tiny burlap bag of bulbs tied with a few acorns and the place card. The flowers (a mixture of tulips, muscari, hydrangea, thistle, and berries) were arranged in a vegetative style to carry through the natural feel. More great photographs from Millie Holloman!

Another Table

Some more wonderful shots by Millie and her staff. This table might just be my favorite color scheme. Green is of course really big right now, but when used with laguna blue (the color of this linen from Party Suppliers), the result is subtle and interesting. By using colors close together on the color wheel (greens and blues, yellows and greens, oranges and yellows), you create the calm feeling of monochromatic with a little more dimension and interest.

I love to find interesting way to display place cards.

These were tucked between two pieces of maple branch.

One of my favorite shots at Airlie!