I just put my winter socks on as I am writing this and thinking the heat may have to go on tonight. I am not quite ready to bid adieu to Summer until I have reminisced just a little bit more about SUMMER. There is no better time to be in Portland. The weather is pure bliss. We enjoyed some lovely, quintessentially Summer days hanging out by the Willamette River, visiting Oaks Park, Manzanita, Mt. Hood, lemonade stands, barbecues with friends, flower festivals, swim lessons and so on.
I do want to share my brother in law, Lucca, and his fabulous bride, Rhonda’s Campground Wedding with you. The event took place at Barview Jetty County Campground in Tillamook County. We could not have had a more glorious day and warmer gathering of friends and family. The bride and groom really set the tone, which was casual, relaxed and fun with lots of good food and wine.
My husband and I offered to do “the cake” which evolved into a cupcake tower. Our dear friend, JoAnn Andriese, a super talented designer living in the Bay Area, was planning to do the flowers. She was unfortunately called away and unable to make it at the last minute. She already had a succulent concept going for the beach wedding so we took her ideas and reluctantly ran. I consulted her via text about purchases and concepts along the way and somehow, along with the help and inspiration of the groom’s parents, pulled it together for our dear newlyweds.
So here are some pictures of the campground wedding. Enjoy!
Cutting the Cake
Provided by Bayfront Bakery in Garibaldi
More cake shots
Aunt Judy made a refreshing lemonade ginger punch with a frozen whirling iceberg of sliced lemons, limes and orange raspberries. We used a vintage glass punch bowl and platter.
Italian chocolates and Jordan almonds were served in a vintage silver platter. In fact we brought all of the silver serving ware from our wedding for others to use as serving dishes. My husband and I collected a lot of silverware in preparation for our wedding almost ten years ago. Weddings are always the perfect excuse to get out your silver and punch bowls!
And here are some pictures of the newlyweds at a scenic overlook with a stunning view of the beach:
Bouquet was made of protea, bridal blush, sedum, beach grasses, and a few pink roses.
Rhonda’s dog, Pearl, with ribbon and rose. She was one of the ring bearers in the wedding.
Channeling JoAnn, we were able to somehow get the planters, bouquet and corsages done. Here is what we came up with.
It is not so hard to do this really, although I was intimidated at first. Find a silver punch bowl, urn, or other container…then place a liner, followed by dirt, then the plants, fill air pockets with more dirt, cover with Spanish moss and add shells if you want and Voila!
Hard to know where to start with all the plants and and planters. We also used roses for the individual table arrangements.
The succulents, orchids and roses we used were from Trader Joe’s and the Proteas and Bridal Blush was from Sammy’s Flowers (www.sammysflowers.com), the sedum was from my in-laws garden and (don’t tell) some pearly everlasting wild flowers and grasses were found growing by the beach. The planters were all reused existing household items like a vintage colander, a copper urn, a silver punch bowl, a Paul revere bowl, and a few other random planters. We used the mixture of silver with copper, which was a really nice blend of metals. We also added some found shells to the planters. Not too rustic and not too formal.
My dear husband made the cupcake tower out of plexiglass disks he found at a garage sale and attached them with a long threaded metal rod through the center, each tier attached by air duct adaptors! We made the cover out of natural canvas and burlap.
Here are some before shots.
Some foraging along a path to the beach resulted in a lovely assortment of grasses and wildflowers. We used a lot of lichen, moss and interesting branches we found also. All in all it was a fun, adventurous wedding for a great couple.
Oh, I almost forgot. I made the bride and groom a custom pillow from STUDIO TULLIA. Their initials were monogrammed in slate blue over a blueberry blue ticking and accented with the same cream grosgrain ribbon found in the bridal bouquet. The colors were inspired by their wedding cake choice of blueberry cake with butter cream frosting. A momento for a beautiful day. Congratulations Lucca and Rhonda!
If you want to see more images that I used for inspiration, feel free to check out the images I collected on Pinterest: 
