A wedding wreath and live event painter

 The final week has arrived and it is all coming down to the details. This courtyard wedding is taking place outside, and there will be different areas that will host certain functions.  The little garden shed will be the place where the wedding musicians will set up to play the classical music for the cocktail hour upon arrival, and then the traditional Here Comes the Bride wedding march.  Our wedding is nontraditional in the sense of place and so it makes sense to us to have things a bit differently than a "regular" wedding.  We are having cocktails and hors d'oeuvres for guests when they arrive, much like you would at a party.  And I like to think of this as a party, instead of a wedding, as I plan out the details.  Makes it less stressful, and more exciting that way.  Who needs the stress, right?  

A pretty wedding wreath adorns the french door of the shed, and I will be hanging a pair of gilded candelabras beside the door as well.

 A fern wreath got a few bunches of silk lilly of the valley and pink roses to give it the romantic classic fairytale look I am going for.

 This morning Piper was running around the yard and I snapped a quick pic.  The gravel area infront of the shed is where the musicians will set up to serenade us....and a few steps below is where we are creating the cocktail lounge and bar to start the party off when guests arrive.  That area is still a work in progress.

This view shows the lovely parterre garden and the white belgian mums are beginning

to put on their show.  The arbor above is where the couple will exchange vows, and that

will be decorated with some tulle and a similar floral treatment, with tiny white lights

to give the storybook twinkle that every good fairy tale should have.

Two special ways we will capture this event are having an amazing photographer,

my friend Matthew Mead and his equally amazing wife, Jenny Mead.

(Ellen McHale, Jenny Mead, Matthew Mead, Amy Chalmers)

They are shooting the wedding, and in their hands, I know the story will be told

in a most beautiful way.  I feel incredibly lucky!

 The other amazing way to remember this night,

 will be a painting created during the event by the one and only

  Sheila Foley, a live event painter!

She will set up her easel and paint the wedding scene during the wedding! GASP!

 I am enchanted by her paintings and how she captures the mood

 and the people at the weddings she paints.

This painting was my favorite, the mood, the whimsy and the fairytale quality 

all portray Happily Ever After in a moment captured in time, that speaks to a lifetime ahead.