Finch and Thistle

LBoL: New, Edgy, Budget Wedding Photography

finch — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:44 +0000

Two local photographers I know and admire have set up a new photography business, Lightning Bolts of Love and asked me to help them with flowers for their website shoot. I was thrilled to work with them both on this new venture and am super excited to see a different look and style of photography come to the Northwest. Take a look through the images below and if you are looking for an edgier take on the typical wedding look, give Kip Beelman or Jeramie Shoda a shout via their website: www.lightningboltsoflove.com.

Grow, Cook, Eat

finch — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:00:18 +0000

Two summers ago, I worked with my friend Willi Galloway and photographer Jim Henkens to style a photo shoot for Willi’s book, Grow, Cook, Eat. You may remember that I posted some behind-the-scenes images from that shoot here. Well Willi’s book came out at the beginning of this year and is already on its third printing! It’s a beautiful book with helpful gardening tips for growing all kinds of fruits and veggies and recipes for eating all parts of the plants. I could not be more proud of my friend and encourage you all to pick up a copy at your local Anthropologie, West Elm, Williams Sonoma, Amazon and select local bookstores.

Facebook Giveaway!

finch — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:54:34 +0000

We’re hosting our first Facebook giveaway! We know you love Finch & Thistle and we would be honored if you would share our Facebook page with your friends.

As of right now we’re a mere 30 likes away from 400 fans and when we reach 400 we’ve got a very pretty little something to give away. If that’s not enough to motivate you, we’re going to give away a free floral arrangement* when we reach 450. So who’s up for the challenge?

*you must be local to the Seattle area for the floral giveaway but not for the other one :)

So what are you waiting for? Get to likin’!

lately…

finch — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:11:26 +0000

I’ve been playing with flowers in the studio, dreaming of Africa, playing in Portland, Paris and Amsterdam, designing summer weddings and spring parties, and styling several gorgeous shoots…almost in that order. What about you?

*did you know you can follow us on Instagram? Check out @finchandthistle for real time updates on our work, the studio and life in general!*via Angela + Evan Photography**via Abbey Hepner Photography*

See why I’ve been so bad about blogging lately?

Kerissa + Chris: Neutral Elegance at Hotel Alexis

finch — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:32:59 +0000

To say that Kerissa was a DIY bride is a major understatement. Kerissa and her family hand crafted every single element of her wedding down to the vegan cake table. Every. Single. One. She scoured the interwebs for vintage keys, milk glass vases and shutters for the escort card display, baked the cookies and desserts, crafted fabric pom-poms and paper peonies, stitched button covered napkin rings and table decor….and on and on. The only thing left to do – her flowers (although her uncle did grow all the white dahlias that we used). Needless to say, I was not surprised to see the gorgeous details on Style Me Pretty a few weeks ago and I want to share some of them with you here.

Kerissa chose a beautiful neutral color palette that looked wonderful against the exposed brick and chandeliers at Seattle’s Hotel Alexis and made all the hand crafted details shine.

The dessert table was surely the pièce de resistance of the night. Kerissa is a talented vegan baker (and available for weddings and parties…more on that later) and she poured her heart into the display for the sweets and cookies. I also loved that she incorporated beef jerky sticks for her husband Chris even though it didn’t match the color or food scheme. Marriage is all about giving and compromise, right?

The tables all had vases of tissue flowers and real flowers to add freshness and color to the evening. Kerissa’s uncle presented me with buckets and buckets of beautiful organically grown dahlias which I incorporated in the centerpieces and bridal bouquets. In fact, they were so organic that a lot of little earwigs also partied at Hotel Alexis that day.

It would be remiss of me to mention the beautiful images taken by the very talented and very sweet Abbey Hepner. She captured the mood of the day perfectly and has many, many more images from this Alexis Hotel wedding on her blog.

And about all that baking...Kerissa was kind enough to work with me on a styled shoot and party a couple of weeks ago that I will be sharing here soon. Her cake and cookies were so delicious that there wasn't a single crumb left to take home at the end of the night. Here's a sneak peek from the Finch & Thistle Instagram account...

*all wedding images courtesy of Abbey Hepner*

Style Me Pretty: Twice As Nice

finch — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:51:25 +0000

We are thrilled to have had both a styled shoot and a wedding featured on our favorite wedding blog Style Me Pretty in the last two weeks. In case you missed them, our Winter Farm shoot was featured last week and Chris and Kerissa’s Alexis Hotel wedding was on there yesterday. There are too many amazing images to share so I will post Chris and Kerissa’s wedding separately. I styled and designed the shoot based on Chantal’s original, rather tongue-in-cheek, root vegetable Pinterest board. The Root Vegetable title was supposed to throw people off the scent and instead became the primary inspiration for the farm shoot! I used striped kraft paper from Packaging Specialties instead of table linen and secured it to the table with fabulous gold flecked butcher’s twine. I had great fun in Spokane over Thanksgiving sourcing vintage bowls and pails and found a lot of the amazing props hiding in the old barn at the farm itself. The vegetables were actually from my own garden! I wanted to flowers to be very rich and vibrant because I knew the likelihood of gloomy winter weather so I used deep burgundy, reds and purples with paler greys and lilac to contrast. I loved the ornamental cabbages instead of peonies or garden roses. They just fit so well with the theme but were still soft and pretty and I used lots of grasses, berries, herbs and foliage for a country, wildflower style bouquet.

Partying Mad Men Style

finch — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:17 +0000

We’re back from our amazing trip to Africa! I’ll share some pictures when I’ve had time to catch up on the hundreds of emails and voice mails that were waiting for me back at the office, but in the meantime here’s a set of pictures guaranteed to make you smile.

Back in November we did a 1961 Mad Men themed birthday party for a client on Mercer Island. Decorations consisted mainly of smoking accoutrements: candy cigarettes, bubblegum cigars, cigarette holders, chocolate cigars, vintage glass ashtrays etc with a few flowers thrown in here and there for good measure! I scoured estate sales and thrift stores for retro decor and worked with Kip Beelman to set up a fabulous photo backdrop so guests could do the twist with Sophia Loren. DJ Tony Schwartz played hits from the 50′s and 60′s that kept guests on the dance floor and he was assisted by Shake Bartenders who provided the smoky signature cocktails. The amazing spread was catered by Ristorante Doria and the bold polka dot and jewel tone linens came from BBJ. If only Don and Betty had put in an appearance…

In the press: Seattle Met B&G and Seattle Bride!

finch — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:14:37 +0000

Have you seen the newest issues of Seattle Met Bride & Groom and Seattle Bride magazines? We just got a copy of each and were thrilled to see several mentions of our work. Jennifer and Jerry’s August Palace Ballroom wedding is featured in the real weddings section of Seattle Met with lots of space devoted to the design and floral elements and I am also quoted in the Destination Weddings section about my own wedding at Alderbrook Resort.
As if that wasn’t enough, Seattle Bride features the fabulous apple “tattoo” escort cards from Jamie and Chelsea’s Orcas Island wedding in their local weddings inspiration section.

On Safari…

finch — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:00:58 +0000

…well mostly, give or take a three day layover in London visiting my family and a few days in Mozambique and Mauritius…but yes, we’re taking the next four weeks off to travel to South Africa and visit my husband’s father and brothers. I’ll be back in the office on February 14 complete with a pre-written already scheduled blog post for your enjoyment (how’s that for organization?) So until then, just picture us sipping sun-downers on the back of a Land Rover in the African bush and I’ll see you in February.

I took this picture on my first trip to Madikwe in 2005. Hoping to see lots more of these guys…

Lisa & Josh – A Fresh, Modern Wedding at The Edgewater

finch — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:35:59 +0000

Let me just say that I absolutely loved working with Lisa. Adored might be more like it. Not that I don’t enjoy working with all my clients, but Lisa hired me a full year before her August 2011 wedding, knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t change her mind once. Let me repeat that: NOT ONCE. Sure, she let me suggest ideas and decor elements but her vision was unwavering: green, cement and rust with trees and branches incorporated somehow and a clean, modern look. After a summer of vintage weddings, it was a breath of fresh air.

Lisa’s bouquet was white and green with exquisite lady slipper orchids and grasses and her bridesmaids carried green and rust bouquets that popped against their slate grey dresses. Josh and the groomsmen had boutonnieres made of poppy pods, dusty miller and curly willow twigs.

We used cement vases and settled on three styles of centerpieces – a taller one with curly willow branches, a shorter fuller one and a low vessel filled with succulents. To incorporate the tree theme, we purchased birch votive holders from Etsy and used three on each table.

But of all the beautiful images by Angela and Evan Photography, I think this one is my favorite…