A Cabbage Parterre for the Courtyard Wedding

A parterre is essentially a geometric garden.  

A  level space that has an ornamental arrangement of flowers or plants

 creating a formal garden space.  The beds may be edged in stone, 

or tightly clipped hedges like boxwood to contain the flowers. 

 For the outdoor wedding, I decided a small parterre would be nice at the 

base of the stone wall, as it will be a focal point during the ceremony.  

 Above the wall is the arbor terrace, which is a small grassy area 

where the vows will be exchanged.  

The wedding is best described as an intimate affair, 

with less than 30 people in attendance. 

 My wish was that even though the wedding would be outdoors, it

would still have a formality about it, and a bit of storybook glamour.

 This bed was overrun with mint, and you may recall we had an iron bench

 flanked by these two large urns filled with flowers. 

 My son and I carefully removed the flowers from 

the urns, leaving the draped greenery that had tiny white flowers.  

After we removed the colorful summer flowers, he planted ornamental

 cabbages in green and white, and some silver dusty miller.  

 The urns look quite formal now, in a garden style fashion.  We plan to have cut roses in 

water vials tucked in between the cabbage leaves for a dash of romance.  After laying out

the Belgian white mums with the green and white cabbages, and a few more dusty millers,

the bed is now ready to be filled with potting soil.  Old reclaimed cobblestones were added at 

the start of the bed to create the outline of the parterre.  

The effect should be quite beautiful when all is said and done.  

 For the dining elements, the bride and groom and I have been on a few expeditions looking for a few additions to add to things we already have for the table settings.  My French antique monogrammed napkins will be tied together with this pretty embroidered gold and blush pink ribbon.  Pink and gold touches will be the color palette for the table, set on a ground of white.  I have stacks of vintage gold rimmed dinnerware that will set the right note of elegance and formality inside the wedding tent.

Gathering elements to express the style of the wedding is such fun. 

 Having a vision, and then piecing it together, from 

the table, to the garden, to imagining how the evening will unfold brings

me much joy. 

A little side note:  I have a new computer, and it is a whole new learning

process on how to get my photos loaded and edited and placed in the blog

format.  So this post is a triumph, and I hope to get up to speed soon

as there is much to share.  I have also started watching my granddaughter Reeve

three days a week, so she is my priority on those special days.