Last week, my good friend, Michelle Gillette of Dramatic Events, asked me to partner with her on a table design for the wedding showcase at Denver Botanic Gardens. She wanted to create a romantic, yet unique table setting that was a perfect complement for these beautiful gardens. Here’s the final design. Read on for the story behind it!

Pink Romance Design

At the beginning of our design meeting, we decided to use a parasol as our focal point and signature piece. Our plan came together so quickly that we were ready to gather the elements after a brief conversation.

Michelle ordered the gorgeous linens, china, crystal, silver, table, and chairs from Event Rents. I was so excited when she forwarded me photos of the linens and place settings. I knew they would really add a soft romance to our table.

Next, we selected flowers from the fresh floral market. Gorgeous stems of orchids were our main choice. We also chose various other flowers in our color scheme. I’m no florist so I have no idea what they were, but I can ask my amazing florist friends if you would like to know.

The day of the event, we arrived to find our table in the shade (thank goodness). It was a very hot day, which is compounded when the sun is a mile closer (such as in the Mile High City). We started setting up and all was going smoothly, until… we realized that our centerpiece wasn’t coming together as expected. We’d planned to use floral foam to anchor the parasol’s handle in the base of the vase. Unfortunately, the foam we had was for dry arrangements, and was floating in the water instead of soaking it up and forming an anchor. Next, the foam started breaking apart and sticking to the inside of the vase. At this point, I started giggling and saying how I felt we were on a reality TV show. My solution was to use paper towels to stuff around the foam and hopefully keep it in place. That seemed to work. At the end of it all, Michelle created a gorgeous centerpiece and now we know how to recreate it for the first bride who wants to do a parasol flower arrangement (we’re taking requests!).

We also incorporated our raspberry pink shawls as the chair decor. Michelle created the custom-designed jewelry to adorn the shawls.

Jewelry adornments for shawl chair decor

The look came together and got some great comments. We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed creating this look.