East Coast Meets High Plains

This past weekend, Beyond the Vine was fortunate to be part of a beautiful wedding at the Durham Museum here in Omaha. The museum, which was formerly Union Pacific Railroad's Union Station, is an architectural gem built in the Art Deco Style. The bride and groom chose this location because of their love of travel and more specifically because of its direct link to train travel and their own history with traveling on trains to see each other during their courtship. The bride currently resides on the East Coast, but is originally from Omaha. She returned to her 'High Plains' roots because of her love of this region and her fond memories of growing up here. The groom hales from the East as well, but his favorite flower is the sunflower so with her love of the High Plains and his love of sunflowers they are a match made in heaven!

When the bride originally came to me with her ideas, she said the overall feeling she wanted for the flowers was, "East Coast meets High Plains." I'm sure at the time I looked at her with a baffled expression, not exactly sure what that meant. After months of planning meetings, lengthy emails back and forth, and many phone calls, I think we pulled it off. The starting point for all designs was goldenrod, the State Flower of Nebraska (Solidago is the cultivar used in the flower shop). This rich golden yellow wildflower was perfectly fitting for the "...meets High Plains" part but how was I ever going to incorporate the "East Coast" part of her theme?

The bride also felt that the space at the Durham had a masculine quality and she wanted to be sure that the flower and color choices incorporated a sense of femininity. You will see from the photographs that we did this by choosing a color palette consisting of yellow, lime green, pale pink, hot pink and mauve. I had my doubts about these colors at first, but once I held the flowers in my hand, I fell in love with this rich, yet feminine palette. More importantly, the bride also fell in love with the colors.

In addition to being in a location that referenced the travel theme, the bride chose many other details as a 'through line' for her theme. Miniature suitcases, also called train cases, were used for half of the centerpieces on the guest tables. Each train case was different but contained the same floral arrangement, helping to unify the decor in the room. The other half of the tables contained an elegant glass pedestal holding a traditional arrangement with a mix of lilies, orchids, larkspur, stock and roses (a combination of elegant and wild flowers). Three vintage postcards were incorporated into these arrangements depicting the Union Station Building in the 1930's.

Each table was given the name of a city that meant something to the bride and groom. Place cards with the guests' names and their corresponding City or table name were inserted into silver luggage tags that also served as the guests' keepsake memento from the evening. Additional travel references could be seen at the guest book table and could be heard after the ceremony! Instead of bubbles or tossing bird seed, each guest had a toy wooden train whistle that they sounded as the bride and groom marched out of the ceremony and downstairs, 'track-side' in the museum for their cocktail hour.

The staff at Beyond the Vine extends a heartfelt 'Congratulations' to the newlyweds!