It was an absolute joy getting to work with Delaney and Mikey for their elegant Forbes Farm wedding on Saint Simons Island. It was one of our first times visiting this new one-of-a-kind wedding venue, and it did not disappoint. 

Forbes Farm

Forbes Farm is the newest wedding venue on Saint Simons Island and is a must-visit. This marshside wedding venue provides a stunning southern backdrop with the perfect Lowcountry atmosphere.

With indoor and outdoor event spaces to choose from, you truly can’t go wrong with this Georgia wedding venue. The outdoor area features immaculate lawns, open-air patios, and classic southern views. While the indoor spaces are truly exquisite. The indoor reception space is an elegant wood frame structure with crisp white walls and exposed wood accents. One of our favorite features in this venue is the breathtaking chandeliers in the ballroom. We can’t wait to bring these ceilings to life with beautiful blooms!

Elegant Fall Wedding Design

For this Forbes Farm wedding, our couple opted for a warm, rich-colored palette with autumn tones. We used lots of burgundy, chocolate, dusty pink, and white blooms in the floral design.

Deep burgundy tones were incorporated throughout the design, from the velvet bridesmaid dresses to the wedding day stationery. Even the groom’s outfit change featured a velvet burgundy jacket.

This autumn-inspired color palette popped in the reception space, where it was paired with white textured linens and natural wood accents.

Forbes Farm Wedding on Saint Simons Island

Delaney and Mikey’s wedding ceremony took place on the Forbes Farm lawn overlooking the marsh. The couple opted for low-lying floral arrangements as the backdrop to their ceremony, which were brought to life with autumn-colored florals.

After the ceremony, guests headed indoors to the reception space for an elegant evening of dinner and dancing. For the guest tables, Emily Burton Designs went with a tasteful neutral design where the floral centerpieces were a focal point and were a warm pop of color. We opted for clean, classic, and crisp ivory tapered candles to not take any attention away from the romantic florals.

No detail was forgotten for Delaney and Mike’s elegant black tie affair on Saint Simons Island. We were so thankful to get to work with one of the newest Saint Simons wedding venues and would love to help bring your Forbes Farm wedding to life! Reach out to see if we are available on your wedding date and to book your consultation call today!

Vendors

Plan + design: Emily Burton Designs
Photo: Esther Griffin 
Venue: Forbes Farm 
Dress: Bridals By Lori 
Shoes: Jimmy Choo 
Rentals: Beachview Event Rentals

Lindsey and Jonah were married on an early fall day in the sunken gardens of Crane Cottage at Jekyll Island Club Resort in Georgia. Their Jekyll Island Club wedding featured the most gorgeous blooms with muted fall tones and lush textures. It was the perfect fall wedding on Jekyll Island.

Jekyll Island Club Wedding 

Lindsey’s family frequently visited Crane Cottage at the Jekyll Island Club Resort during family vacations. They knew the picturesque lawns and gardens on the immaculate resort property would make a wonderful place to invite their friends and family for their wedding. 

The couple loved the southern setting of this Georgia wedding venue and the exceptional service that the club provides. This ocean club wedding venue provided space for a beautiful garden wedding ceremony and intimate al fresco reception. One of our favorite things about the Jekyll Island Club Resort is the stunning oceanfront views that are perfect for couple portraits during golden hour.

Fall Wedding Flowers

For this fall wedding, our couple opted for a wedding color palette with dusty rose and navy blue. So, we incorporated muted fall tones that matched their wedding color palette into the bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquets. In addition, our team opted for a mix of textured florals ranging from Scabiosas to Delphiniums and even Butterfly Ranunculus for the bouquets and finished them off with delicate silk ribbon.

Their asymmetrical floral wedding ceremony arch included a mixture of roses, spray roses, and lush greenery. We lined the aisle with large arrangements billowing in fall blooms and repurposed them later in the reception at the head table. The wedding ceremony flowers were breathtaking and looked beautiful in the garden backdrop of Crane Cottage.

On the guest’s tables, we opted for medium-sized floral arrangements in white ceramic vases that paired perfectly with the white architecture of the cottage. These floral centerpieces included similar blooms to the ceremony with the addition of white dahlias and a pop of red from coffee berries. We loved how the contrast of the floral arrangements looked on the navy blue linens.

If you are planning a Jekyll Island Club wedding, we’d love to talk with you! Our team loves to bring your dream wedding florals to life through gorgeous designs and flawless execution. So, head over to our contact page to fill out our inquiry form to start the process!

Vendors:

Photographer: Shauna Veasey
Planning + Design: Browne + Towers
Venue: Crane Cottage Jekyll Island Club
Hair + Makeup:  Paulina Perez 
Cake: Sweet Luncheonette 
Linens: BBJ La Tavola
Rentals: Beachview Event Rentals 
Signage/Paper Goods: Em Paper Co. + Sugared Fig Paperie

Danielle and Tucker’s rose-infused Crane Cottage wedding at Jekyll Island Club turned out beautifully! From the beautiful Georgia wedding venue to romantic wedding design, this couple and their guests were treated to a magical southern summer wedding. 

Crane Cottage Wedding at Jekyll Island Club

Nestled in the private gardens of the Jekyll Island Club lies Crane Cottage. It is an Italian renaissance style building that is a dream wedding venue for a romantic garden-inspired wedding. Crane Cottage is the perfect place for a southern wedding, with indoor and outdoor spaces for guests to enjoy. The Gray Harper team loves any opportunity to design a Crane Cottage wedding at the Jekyll Island Club. We have designed many ceremonies in the sunken gardens in the past but loved how Emily Burton Designs used the space differently. The planning team opted for a tent in the sunken gardens and the ceremony on the lawn under an old Live Oak tree covered in Spanish moss. Thus making this an completely outdoor wedding.

Southern Summer Outdoor Wedding 

It was a challenge pulling off an entirely outdoor wedding in July in the South. However, due to inclement weather, we had several plans to ensure our couple’s vision went off without a hitch.

On the wedding day, it was stormy and rained on and off. So the entire vendor team kicked into full gear to transition from plan A to plan B and set the ceremony up under the tent. Thankfully the skies cleared just before the ceremony, and we could pivot back then to plan A so that our couple could have their dream wedding ceremony on the Crane Cottage lawn.

Southern Floral Design

The floral design for this Crane Cottage wedding was lush and romantic, with lots of roses. Yellow roses were significant to the couple, so we incorporated pops of yellow garden roses throughout the design.

A soft pink, peach, and yellow pastel color palette was incorporated throughout the space, and it looked beautiful in the tent. We included a mixture of tall and short floral arrangements at the guest’s tables. We also accentuated key areas like the bar and stage with lush blooms of Delphiniums, Smilax, blush pink Hydrangeas, peach roses, and lush greenery. The ceiling installation above the dance floor was a favorite feature and a stunning focal point in the tent. Filled with pink and white Delphiniums and lush greenery, this ceiling installation took the guest’s breath away.

Working on Danielle and Tucker’s Crane Cottage wedding was an absolute joy. We love any opportunity to work at beautiful Georgia wedding venues with as much character and personality as the Crane Cottage at Jekyll Island Club. If you are a Southern wedding planner or a newly engaged couple looking for help with your floral design, we’d love to speak with you! Head to our contact us page and fill out an inquiry form today!

Vendors

Photography: Anna Shackleford
Planning & Design: Emily Burton Designs
Catering: Jekyll Island Club Resort
Cake: Cathy Huber Cakes
Hair + Makeup: Paulina Perez
Wedding Dress: Henri’s Cloud Nine
Florals: Gray Harper
DJ: Island Sound
Lighting, Tent & Chairs: Beachview Rentals
Fireworks: Pyrotecnico
PaperGoods: Dogwood Blossoms
Videography: Danielle Shackleford

Do you have a plan for your wedding flowers at the end of your wedding? As wedding floral designers, we want to share with you some important factors to consider before you decide if donating your wedding flowers is right for you.

Consider This Before Donating Your Wedding Flowers

Consider the timing

For a Saturday wedding, flowers arrive in our studio on a Tuesday, which means they were shipped to us on Monday. With that being said, they were most likely cut at the farm the week prior. By the time we are able to donate the flowers (i.e., the following Monday), they are no longer in their prime condition and are most likely wilting. At this point, there is not much we can do to extend the life of these blooms.

Change the narrative 

I often hear from guests, “oh, what a waste all these flowers are now,” so I wanted to discuss this further from a florist’s perspective.

The flowers used for our floral designs are specially grown and cut for this purpose. You would not typically see this caliber of florals growing naturally on a hillside to enjoy. That is why we ensure that the blooms we use in our designs are at their prime during the event so that our clients and their guests get to enjoy them to their fullest potential. After the vast number of hours put into meetings, designs, and prep work for these floral displays, it is simply not a waste to only enjoy them at your event.

Consider the climate 

Given that most of our weddings are in a hot climate, this severely impacts the lifespan of your floral arrangements. Our client’s events are often outdoors; therefore, the flowers can spend an entire day in the heat. Typically after a day of sitting out in the heat and after a week since they’ve been cut, the flowers are starting to not look their best. So, by the time Monday rolls around when your flowers are donated, you are left with significantly fewer blooms that survived the heat.

Donating comes with additional labor 

As much as our team would love to donate every piece of floral and greenery used at your event, we simply do not have the time or manpower to do so, nor is it advised to.

When donating your wedding flowers, we do not donate the flowers “as-is.” At your event, each arrangement is broken down carefully, sorted by the good and bad, loaded back into our van, and returned to the cooler for the night (or the next day as many of our events are several hours away). Once your florals have returned to our studio, we then redesign everything in hospital/hospice-friendly arrangements and containers, then deliver it to your donation location. Due to this additional labor, manpower, supplies, and driving, we need to charge for this service. 

The Gray Harper team is more than happy to help you with donating your wedding flowers after your event. We will evaluate which blooms are in good condition and put together donation-friendly arrangements that may extend the life of your flowers by a day or two. During your floral design consultation, ask our team for more information on the additional cost associated with donating your wedding flowers and if it is right for you. 

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Vendors

Photography: Yellow Bird Visuals   
Design + Coordination: Design Studio South  
Florist: Gray Harper Florals   
Cake: Vanilla And The Bean 
Venue + Caterer: The Alida Hotel  
Rentals: Savannah Vintage Rentals  
Linens: Nuage Designs  
Wedding Invitation + Signs: Idyll Paper  
Day of Paper + Signs: Low Country Paper Co

One thing we love about weddings is how every couple has a unique personality and unique style. Celeste and David enjoy a dark aesthetic with gothic undertones. So, we wanted to honor their style and personality through a dark and moody wedding design that had bold pops of color. 

Dark and moody wedding design

We worked alongside Design Studio South to bring our couple’s dark and moody wedding aesthetic to life through their floral design and wedding decor. 

The couple wanted everything to be dark, from the black taper candles, turquoise velvet linens, dark-colored flowers, and greenery. Everything reflected our couple’s dark and moody wedding aesthetic.

Dark and moody wedding flowers

We were inspired by the bride’s vibrant turquoise-dyed hair for their floral design, so we ordered some dyed preserved foliage to match. It’s safe to say the dyed foliage was a huge hit! 

For this unique dark and moody wedding design, we ordered custom-painted anthuriums from Haus of Stems. I’d been wanting to use these for a while and knew this would be the perfect event to showcase them. Our team incorporated the stunning painted anthuriums into the bridal bouquet and altar backdrop.

Inside the reception space, chandeliers were covered in dyed teal plumosa and hung above dramatic wedding tables. These dramatic wedding tables were set with dark and moody wedding flowers that were incorporated into tall floral centerpieces and low floral arrangements.

My favorite element of the day was the breathtaking floral wedding ceremony arch! Complete with the purple alliums popping up from the ground, this dramatic altar backdrop was meant for this couple.

We don’t often get requests for dark and moody weddings, so it was a fun challenge for our team to pull off this dark and dramatic wedding aesthetic for Celeste and David. Not only was the design a fun challenge, but they were all-around dream clients to work with. If you have a unique wedding design that you’ve been dreaming about, we’d love to help bring the floral design to life! No wedding aesthetic is too abstract or unique for the Gray Harper team! Reach out to find out how we can bring your dream wedding aesthetic to life through beautiful blooms!

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Vendors

Photography: Cait Carr Photo 
Videography: Jones and Company
Design + Planning: Design Studio South
Florist : Gray Harper Florals
Venue + Bar: Victory North Savannah 
Catering: Daniel Reed 
Cake: Vanilla and the Bean 
Hair + Makeup: Bride Side Beauty 
DJ: W Smith Music
Photobooth: All About You Entertainment 
Rentals: Event Works Rentals + Ooh Events + Save Event Rentals
Linens: Nuage Designs
Transportation: Kelly Tours
Invitations, Menus, Programs + Escort Display: Jen Simpson Design
Welcome Sign, Table Numbers, Bar Sign + Escort Cards: Low Country Paper Co

Last March, we had the honor to work with Kathryn and Jeffrey on their floral design for their destination wedding in Georgia. We worked with the couple to design their florals for their welcome reception, wedding ceremony, and wedding reception.

When choosing a Georgia wedding venue, having a beautiful garden setting was essential to Kathryn and Jeffrey. So, the two decided on the Jekyll Island Club Resort, a historic wedding venue on the Georgian coast. With a picturesque Southern setting, this quaint little island is the perfect place for a destination wedding in Georgia.

Behind The Wedding Design

During our initial consultation, Kathryn shared that she wanted a floral design with mainly white blooms that incorporate pops of subtle blue and soft blush flowers. In addition, it was important that her wedding flowers complimented the lovely garden setting of Crane Cottage and its immaculately landscaped sunken gardens.

Kathryn’s family had a special sentiment to the blue Irises. So, a special mother’s bouquet was created for Kathryn’s mom that incorporated this important family flower.

With the wedding boom in full swing, we knew some challenges would be upon us. What was unexpected was that these challenges would come so early into the year. Many florists and designers have had to navigate flower shortages and floral shipping delays; this wedding was our first experience managing these floral shipping delays. Kathryn’s flowers were actually stuck in Tennessee for two days before we could get our hands on them. Thankfully our amazing Gray Harper team jumped in as soon as their flowers arrived to help bring this beautiful floral design to life!

The Wedding Ceremony

Kathryn and Jeffery got to enjoy a magical outdoor wedding ceremony in the sunken gardens of Crane Cottage. Part of their wedding and floral design was to continue celebrations at an outdoor reception on the lawn. Unfortunately, due to unpredictable weather, we had to make a rain call earlier in the day. So, we decided to move the reception indoors to the Jekyll Island Club Resort’s ballroom. As unlucky as this change in plans was, our couples indoor wedding reception turned out beautifully, thanks to an incredible vendor team.

Kathryn’s bridal bouquet included the most stunning combination of white blooms with pops of soft blush Ranunculus. Her bridesmaids held smaller bouquets that complemented this lush bridal bouquet. Each bridesmaid bouquet included petite dusty blue florals along with soft blue and pink ribbons that complimented their dusty blue bridesmaid dresses. One of our favorite design elements of this wedding was the paper cones filled with white rose petals. Kathryn and Jeffery had their guests throw rose pedals during their processional, and it was absolutely magical! 

The Wedding Reception

Long wooden tables were set up under a magical array of twinkling lights and subtle greenery inside the ballroom. Dusty blue accents were sprinkled throughout the reception design with the inclusion of blue napkins, blue water goblets, and light blue Tweedia flowers in the centerpieces. While soft pink florals were highlighted on the wedding cake and added to the centerpieces. From votives to vases, delicate accents of gold complimented each table, while the guest place settings were finished with individual sprigs of olive.

Even though our couples wedding had a few minor bumps along the way, we are so pleased to see how this floral design came together. The combination of subtle blue, soft blush, and classy white blooms brought this wedding to life. We love working with couples to bring their floral design visions to life and incorporating special touches along the way. So be sure to reach out and start your wedding design process with us!

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Vendors

Photography:  Brooke Roberts Photography
Videography: Square City Productions
Coordination: Design Studio South
Venue, Catering + Bar:  Jekyll Island Club Resort
Florist:  Gray Harper Florals & Styling
Hair + Makeup:  Brides Side Beauty
Baker: Vanilla And The Bean
Officiant:  First Coast Ceremonies
Rentals:  Beach View
Reception DJ:  Island Sound Live 
Transportation:  Martins Vintage Rides 
Bride’s Dress:  White Magnolia Bridal 
Bridesmaids Dresses: Azazie 
Groom’s + Groomsmen Attire: Mens Wearhouse
Paper Goods: Minted