Tag: western mass weddings

bride surrounded by flowers

A picture perfect wedding at Easthampton’s The Boylston Rooms

The photos from Jenna and Chuck’s wedding are so beautiful, aren’t they? Obviously due to their talented photographer, Kim Boualavong, but also because of the light-filled setting at The Boylston Rooms and all the pretty details they chose – including mis-matched but complementary bridesmaid dresses, which are my new favorite thing!

bride holding flowers
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

Jenna’s bouquet was soft whites and neutrals, including me-grown dahlias and lisianthus, as well as roses, nigella, eucalyptus, anemone, and some local seasonal grasses for softness and texture.

groom
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

Chuck’s boutonniere complemented Jenna’s bouquet, and featured samples of almost everything she held, including the cute grass heads.

bride and groom
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

They got married in front of the beautiful big windows in Boylston Room East, and I created a flower and foliage installation for the arch to go with Jenna’s bouquet, as well as two hanging foliage chandeliers. They later moved all of these to the reception space.

bride and bridesmaids
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

Now for these dresses! I LOVE this so much! You can see that in addition to the colors in the dresses, Jenna chose to have her bridesmaids hold color as well! I used dahlias, zinnias, hydrangea, lisianthus, eucalyptus, and more grasses for their bouquets. They were really sweet.

bridal bouquet
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

A close-up of Jenna’s bouquet. Beauty all around!

bride and groom
Photo by Kim Boualavong Photography

Congratulations to the happy couple! The wedding was gorgeous, but now for the best part: your marriage!

Adrienne
bride and groom

Sweet summer pastels at Valley View Farm in Haydenville

A beautiful day, beautiful location, and a beautiful couple!

Christina and Cameron were married at the peak of summer at Valley View Farm, in Haydenville, one of my favorite locations to flower! They wanted lots of colors – which I love – and lots of variety – which I also love – and as many locally grown blooms as possible – LOVE!

All photos of this wedding were captured by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

bridal bouquet
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

Christina’s bouquet featured the very first of my dahlias, plus lisianthus, snapdragons, delphinium, celosia, and a few roses and eucalyptus thrown in for good measure.

wedding
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

We built this custom hexagonal arch for the two of them – I love how this looks!

bride and bridesmaids
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

Bridesmaid bouquets were similar to Christina’s, but smaller and a touch more simple. I feel like these dresses were made for the touch of light blue delphinium we added to the bouquets! Maybe bridesmaid dress designers should start calling the colors flower names? Just a thought…

wedding table centerpieces
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

The tables at Valley View are so amazing! They really look good no matter what you put on them. This centerpiece design is one I do often at that venue. I call it an “eclectic vase” design. Maybe it has another name? Anyway, as long as the food is plated (not passed, family-style) it’s really perfect for this set-up since it’s light, airy, casual, but really pretty. As a grower it also lets me use funky little flowers that I might not have a million of but which look great in these fun little containers. If you look at the vases on the far right and far left of this picture you’ll see I used anise hyssop – the little purple flower with the pretty green leaves. It smells like licorice.

flowers on a table
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

Christina and Cameron also worked with The Borrowed Teacup for their dishware. See that cute little bread plate? Vintage! Love it! The whole look was very much “old fashioned garden party.” So sweet.

bride and groom
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.

Congratulations to the happy couple! The wedding was gorgeous, but now for the best part: your marriage!

Adrienne
pink bridal bouquet

Hot pink for a warm night in the Berkshires

Jane and Matt were married early June, but it was a hot day in Stockbridge and the peonies were blown wide open and gorgeous by the time I had everything set up. I loved that Jane and Matt picked all the pinks for their wedding flowers – this timed perfectly with peony season.

(You’ll see in this entry that some of the pictures are by me, taken mid-day with full natural sunlight, and some by Rachel Leiner, photographer extraordinaire, taken towards the end of the day and obviously edited with her full expertise. I’ll make it obvious who took what but wanted to point that out since the colors are fairly different in the various photos.)

Special thanks to Samantha of Kaleidescope Events, the planner! She and her team kept everything smooth! I also really enjoyed talking to the grounds set-up crew at Chesterwood Art Museum, Stockbridge. They gave me the low-down on the gorgeous, (and really big!) arch in the garden.

bride and groom at ceremony
Photo by Rachel Leiner

See what I mean about the peonies? If you get married in June at Chesterwood not only can you carry peonies in your bouquet and have them in your centerpieces, but peonies line the walkway. So gorgeous.

arch with flowers
Photo by Adrienne Bashista, Passalongs

A side note for the gardening nerds out there: the groundsmen told me that the arch used to be covered in beautiful white clematis vines. So I guess in years past there wasn’t that much for florists do to it as the clematis formed a beautiful backdrop. But then the clematis started looking rough and so they consulted clematis experts from England to give them advice about planting a new variety – and they learned that it wasn’t the variety, but that the vine was in full sun that mattered. If you know anything about clematis you’d know that they like shady feet, and the base of this vine was exposed. So they decided to replant the clematis, but plant it on the back of the arch, which is less full-sun and also plant some big hosta near it to provide shade. Clematis geek-out over!

bride and groom
Photo by Rachel Leiner

These two are pretty gorgeous, don’t you think?

pink centerpiece
Photo by Adrienne Bashista, Passalongs Farm

The peonies in the centerpieces smelled pretty amazing. I mixed in a few roses, some stock, purple Siberian Iris, some foliage – and it was très élégant!

pink flower centerpiece
Photo by Adrienne Bashista, Passalongs Farm

I have about 50 mature peony plants right now and have about 30 more that I should be able to harvest from this year as they are 3 years old…and planted 95 more this last fall so yes – it’s safe to say that peonies are THE flower of early June for me. I spy a couple different varieties here: Shirley Temple, Bowl of Beauty, and an unnamed white variety that I brought with me when I moved from North Carolina – those peonies had been at our previous house for at least 25 years, but more likely 50! So I don’t know their name but they are big, white, and bodacious.

table with flowers and candles
Photo by Adrienne Bashista, Passalongs Farm

I really loved the simple, neutral color scheme that Jane and Matt chose. The grey and white linens complemented the deep pinks and greens of the flowers so nicely.

group of people at a wedding
Photo by Rachel Leiner

Congratulations to the happy couple! The wedding was gorgeous, but now for the best part: your marriage!

 

Adrienne

Pink is a fall color! Bright and seasonal flowers for a coastal Maine wedding!

Yanet and Jon’s wedding had to move from my neck of the woods (western Massachusetts) to Maine because of the pandemic, so last fall I loaded up the old minivan with my husband, loads of hot pink dahlias, a couple of flowers crowns – and off we went to the coast!

Photos by Novella Photography
Venue & catering: Hidden Pond Resort
Planner: Azalea Events
 DJ: Visual Sound Productions
Videographer: Eastty Weddings
Florist: (me!) Passalongs Farm 

arch for wedding
The couple wanted all the pink for their coastal fall wedding, and I was happy to oblige. This birch arch arch features eucalyptus galore, pink, red, and white roses, and pink and white dahlias.
little girl with flower crown
Yanet and her daughters each had flower crowns – so darling! I love making flower crowns – from little bitty ones like this one to Yanet and her oldest daughter’s “boho” crowns.
bride with parents
Yanet’s bouquet was made up of all the red and pink I could find – dahlias, roses, and lisianthus, to name a few, but also featured pops of blue, which had a special significance for her.
Yanet and her eldest daughter had matching boho crowns – dahlias and roses all the way!
banquet hall
Hidden Pond Resort’s banquet hall featured this amazing wire boat that I festooned with foliage. Table decor was groups of eclectic vases filled with more pink flowers.

 

"just married" on back of car
They rented a really cool antique car to tool around in after the ceremony. It was fun to decorate it with garland! Just married!

 

Adrienne

Fall Wedding Shoot at The White Room, Crompton Collective, Worcester

I was honored to be part of a wedding shoot this past fall – it pushed me out of my comfort zone (i.e. western Massachusetts – we were all the way in Worcester!) and connected me with a bunch of fantastic vendors! From cake to dresses to jewelry to place to photographer to tablescape, everything looked amazing. I thought that the coordinator, Kawinthi Fernando, of Events by Kawinthi, did a phenomenal job of matchmaking all the vendors to the setting, keeping us well informed and well organized, and corralling all of us the day of, which pretty much sums up the qualities of a good wedding coordinator.
Credits for the shoot:
Planning & Design: Events by Kawinthi; IG: @eventsbykawinthi
Photography (except as noted): Atlas and Stone; IG: @atlasandstone
Tableware & Linens: Peak Event Services; IG: @peakeventservices
Models: Aymbre @aymbs and Marisa @bettie.monroe

Continue reading “Fall Wedding Shoot at The White Room, Crompton Collective, Worcester” →

Adrienne

Turn of the century-themed wedding at Wisteriahurst

Jessica and Mike wanted a turn of the century themed wedding, and what better location than Wisteriahurst, the historic mansion and cultural center in Holyoke. After the ceremony they and their guests traveled to the Roosevelt Room at Union Station in Northampton – more of the turn-of-the-century theme as it’s the great hall of the railway station in Northampton, built right before 1900.

wedding party
I love how dark and moody this picture of Jessica and Mike’s wedding party looks. The darker pictures that Brian Marsh Photography took of the couple and their guests remind me of a John Singer Sargeant painting. So gorgeous!

Locations:
Ceremony: Wisteriahurst, Holyoke;
Reception: Roosevelt Room, Union Station, Northampton
Photos by Brian Marsh Photography

Continue reading “Turn of the century-themed wedding at Wisteriahurst” →

Adrienne
flowers on a table

A light, bright and (up in the) airy fall wedding at The Boylston Rooms

When I first met with Grace and Chris it was clear Grace had a vision for her wedding. She wanted her flowers to be unique – mainly orange, but not earthtones-of-fall-orange – orange and blue and white – with a very special element: balloons! Giant balloons! She showed me a picture of what she wanted and since I’m game for anything I said sure…but then was very relieved when she found a balloon specialist! All I needed to do was provide the flowers and foliage for the balloons, and voila – a super special tablescape was born.

Location: The Boylston Rooms, Easthampton MA
Photos by: Trish Kemp Photo
Balloons courtesy of Jexsy Balloons
Flowers by me! Passalongs Farm

Continue reading “A light, bright and (up in the) airy fall wedding at The Boylston Rooms” →

Adrienne

DIY wedding flowers @ Passalongs Farm

My husband and I met while working at a hotel that did assembly-line weddings. I was a banquet waitress and he was a bartender and most weekends we’d work at least 1 or 2 or even 3 wedding receptions. This was not a nice, historic hotel, mind you. It was a chain hotel with bad food and tired decor. It was the era of the Electric Slide and the Macarena!  Needless to say, when we decided to tie the knot a few years later we knew what we didn’t want: a wedding that in any way resembled our former place of employment.

So we got married under a tent in a local park, hired a natural foods chef caterer, served up craft beer and special wine, and a local farmer who my future mother-in-law knew from church did our flowers!  We were before our time! To be honest, we went this route because we hated the pre-planned package wedding places, but also because we had NO MONEY. I was a public school teacher in North Carolina at the time. My husband worked in a photo lab. We were pretty poor. Our parents helped us a little, but there were limits to their generosity. Our wedding was done on a serious budget.

I tell you this story because I understand and empathize with the folks who are budget conscious about their wedding. I really do! This is one reason why people go the DIY route: to save a little money.

But not everyone chooses the DIY option because of finances. Flowers are something people think they can DIY – unlike the venue or the catering or the cake or the dress. DIYing flowers is fun! Plus, it makes things a little more personal. If you have the time, energy, and enough people, it can be a special experience. Continue reading “DIY wedding flowers @ Passalongs Farm” →

Adrienne
wedding couple

Summer Sunset Colors for a Romantic Valley View Wedding!

When Dana told me she wanted her wedding flowers to be the colors of a pale summer sunset, I knew exactly what she meant. At the peak of summer, days in New England are long, just the right amount of warm, and perfect. And summer sunsets give way to summer nights! (Cue up Summer Lovin’, Grease soundtrack). Tell me more…

Pale summer sunset. Yellows, pale pinks, peaches…a perfect color scheme to match what’s growing on the farm mid summer! Plus a few sunflowers, because: sunflowers!

All photos by Kelsey and Liam, Ke-Li Photography.
Location: Valley View Farm

Continue reading “Summer Sunset Colors for a Romantic Valley View Wedding!” →

Adrienne
bride and groom

Fun + Feathers = A Bespoke Summer Wedding at Quonquont Farm

The photos that include Hilary and Ross’s flowers, courtesy of Lex and Jake, show a gorgeous couple enjoying an amazing, thoughtful, curated day, courtesy of Quonquont Farm in Whately, surrounded by family and friends…

…but the real story of this wedding (or at least the last half of it) was the bride’s Instagram feed, which showed an amazing PARTY that lasted all night long. When you get a text from the bride at 5 a.m. the next day thanking you for your amazing work you know a good time was had by all!

Photos of Hilary and Ross’s wedding: Lex and Jake
Location: Quonquont Farm

Continue reading “Fun + Feathers = A Bespoke Summer Wedding at Quonquont Farm” →

Adrienne