A Hand-Picked "Practice Bouquet"

I love weddings in the Spring, when my rose garden is in full bloom, because then I can provide a live, hand picked "practice bouquet" for the bride at her rehearsal! This weekend I was able to surprise Gina with the bouquet below when she arrived for her rehearsal at Fogarty Winery.

The roses included: Climbing Eden (pink and white), Evelyn (yellowy/peach), and the wild looking Lyda Rose.

Since Gina's colors were various shades of pink, I created the bouquet incorporating many of the pink roses from my garden, and chose to wear pink for the rehearsal. It was a fun way to begin the wedding weekend we would spend together!


Meeting all of the people whose names I have been typing for months, is a fun part of any rehearsal. At Gina and Bryan's rehearsal, in addition to the 4 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen, 4 flower girls, and 2 ring bearers, I also met the groom for the first time! Bryan has been hard at work in Maryland, completing his medical internship, so had not been out to California at all during the 9 months I have been working with Gina to plan their wedding!

My good friend Ellie Warner, the Event Manager at Fogarty, and I worked together to orchestrate this rehearsal...once the family members, bridesmaids, officiant, groom and groomsmen are in place, it was time to coach the 4 flowergirls. They were naturals, as are most little girls between the ages of 3 and 8!

The two ring bearers, on the other hand, took a bit more coaching...Ellie was their personal trainer!

They did a masterful job of pretending they had the ring pillows, and staying closely in step...but they almost went straight down the right side of the ceremony site, instead of turning slightly to enter the center aisle...Ellie was there, right on time, to redirect their enthusiastic walk to where the rings would need to be the next day!

I had a wonderful time with Gina, Bryan and all of their family and guests during the wedding day. I will share my photos in my next blog entry, which will have to do until Gene Higa's images, and Weddings on Film footage, are available!