JL DESIGNS: October 2010

5 months ago, i had the pleasure of working on a photo shoot for the newest edition of southern weddings magazine...jen from green wedding shoes, the ladies of 100 layer cake and emily from once wed were all asked to design a spread with the idea of "what a southern wedding means to them"...when jen emailed me and asked me to come on board i was ecstatic! and nervous...

we met for dinner, looked at each other and said "how can we do this shoot while staying true to ourselves and our california roots?"...i mean, neither of us is from the south...i have never even BEEN to the south (i don't count the florida keys or washington dc - ha!)...so designing an entire shoot around what it "means" to me was going to be tricky...

we decided to go with our first instincts of traditional southern elements (green tomatoes, cotton, lace, bourbon, iced tea, magnolia) but we added in some of our own cali twists (succulents, tomatillos, rum mojitos, poppies)...hope you enjoy the mash-up!!!

style file: traditional south meets california cool

color scheme: peach, cream, mint, tan, brown

elements: green tomatoes, succulents, cotton, tomatillos, mint, wood, lace, magnolia, poppies

this was my version of a "socal" bouquet - peach parrot tulips, blush and coral poppies (california state flower of course!), minty green succulents (which are found all over our state beaches), finished in crochet lace and a gold/pink cameo...

jen designed the ceremony backdrop using strips of fabric and hand-made paper magnolia blooms...we accented it with extra laces i brought in, as well as some rustic crates and glass apothecary jars full of green tomatoes, tomatillos and raw cotton...jeni from found rentals loaned us her wood benches and oversized bell jars...

for the tablescape, we went with one of jeni's light wood tables and a mismatched assortment of bistro chairs...wildflower provided the gorgeous lace overlay and white hemstitch napkins...

i wanted to create something low and dramatic down the length of the table...and something i hadn't seen before...so i started with a larger piece in the center, which was made up of magnolia leaves, white lilac, queen anne's lace, raw cotton, succulents, mint and green wheat...i then added tons of green tomatoes, succulents, tomatillos and raw cotton to both ends to create one long, linear piece...

a cute little tomatillo adorned each napkin setting for a pop of color...

cant get enough of these overhead shots steph took...

for my "southern" bouquet, of course i had to go with 2 things KNOWN for in the south - cotton and green tomatoes - uhhhh....which actually were tomatillos in this case - they are smaller and easier to work with ;)

boutonniere of cotton, mint and green wheat...

jen came up with a fab idea of a "mint station"...the idea is guests could muddle their mint with 2 types of sugar and a variety of fruit and top it off with bourbon + sweet tea (southern style) OR rum and peach nectar (cali style)...