Alison & Steven

This wedding was my first wedding since moving back to Portland. I was approached with the idea of doing this wedding last winter while I was in the throes of change. We were living with my parents, looking for jobs and trying to buy a house. I had literally no idea what my life was going to look like in 9 months but I took the plunge and said yes. Less than 2 months before the wedding I lost my job at a local flower shop that closed their doors only a few months after I joined on. I struggled with knowing what direction I wanted to go. For a few weeks I helped an ex-coworker get a daily floral delivery business out of her garage up and going. That experience, paired with discovering I loved Lyft driving and thoroughly enjoyed working on Alison’s wedding turned the light bulb on. I had always feared business ownership. I will run someone else’s business…but taking on the total responsibility scared me, but now I could see not only the possibility but the vision and the excitement.

Alison and Steven picked Grey Gables Estates in Milwaukee, OR as their wedding venue and it couldn’t have been more perfect or more beautiful location for their hint of vintage garden wedding. Alison chose lavender and sage as her primary colors but gave me free range to play with other color tones and textures. On market day I had a partial list of flowers I knew I wanted to use but I let myself be inspired by the fun, seasonal bunches that the local farmers brought in. Giving an itemized list of flowers that will be included in a wedding design is so limiting. You can never predict the seasonal and new varieties that local farmers will bring in, neither can you predict weather and which crops will fail or come in looking puny or slimy. To get the best quality design a designer needs freedom to be inspired up to the last minute. That’s what Alison did and it exceeded all of our expectations.

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