Royal Wedding: Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

The wedding world is a buzz today with the long awaited Royal Wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton.  I did not wake up at 4am to watch the wedding live since I will be attending a viewing party this evening filled with hats and tea...and Guinness, but I have been watching and reading clips about it all day.  What an exquisite event.  The pageantry, tradition and modern take were so beautifully put together that it has me wanting the fairytale even more now.

Of course, I have to talk about the flowers....
Kate hired English floral designer, Shane Connolly, to produce the classic English garden ambiance for the big day.  Check out these 20 foot tall English Field Maple trees that were specially brought in and potted to line the aisle in Westminster Abbey.

The trees will be replanted in the royal family gardens post wedding.  What a great way to keep a piece of your wedding around for the kids to enjoy.

How about Kate's bouquet?!  So sweet and simple.  It complimented her Grace Kellyish dress so perfectly.

Kate has a fondness for the meaning of flowers and took special care to incorporate flowers of significance for the Royal Family, the Middleton family and on the Language of Flowers.  Her bouquet included the following with their meanings:


Lily-of-the-valley – Return of happiness
Sweet William – Gallantry...and so adorable.  If only every guy had his name in a flower.
Hyacinth – Constancy of love
Ivy: Fidelity; marriage; wedded love; friendship; affection
Myrtle: the emblem of marriage; love.

Going a step further, there were even sprigs of myrtle from the plants that were used for both the Queen's wedding bouquet in 1947 and Queen Victoria's bouquet from 1845.  That's putting a lot of history into one little spray of flowers which leads me to wonder, what will happen to Kate's bouquet when the fanfare has faded?!  Instead of tossing the bouquet to all the single ladies at the reception, the bouquet will be returned to Westminster Abbey to be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.  But, what happens after that?!  Personally, a lovely painting would really work well with the tradition of painted portraiture that royalty loves to line their walls with.  My paintings are palace worthy, right?!  Too bad Kate and Will plan on living in a quaint cottage without all of the gilded gold walls.  A Reenie Rose painting wouldn't be a good fit.  Ah, guess I'll just have to wait till Harry ties the knot!

Coloring Flowers

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend, and for those Chicagoans, a non-rainy day.  I did not color any Easter eggs this year, but I have been painting a lot lately.  I think this painting is so appropriate for the season....doesn't it look like a bunch of colorful eggs emerging?  The pinks and yellows scream spring to me....now if we could just get the weather to catch up.

April Event Wrap Up

Last week was my final lap of my April event marathon.  A big thanks to Weddings 826 for hosting the event and having me partake in it.  I met a lot of really wonderful brides and reconnected with some of my favorite vendors (Larkspur and Dilly Lily).
Now I just have to ride this event wave and see what happens...

Weddings 826 owner, Suzi, and myself

April Event #4

The finish line is in sight...well, for now at least.  My final event for April is tomorrow (Thursday) at Weddings 826 from 5-7pm.  I've opted not to paint at this event due to my fear of being surrounded by so many WHITE dresses.  Though not a messy painter, I always seem to get paint somewhere; I just couldn't risk it.

This event is going to be lovely and full of all things floral.  Larkspur and Dilly Lily will be supplying the actual flowers while James Ciccotti shows off his bridal shoes and floral accessories, and we all taste treats by Flour Cake and Pastry.  I will be accompanied by a couple of my paintings that will hopefully draw in all the prospective brides attending.  I may name drop the 190 North gig here and there.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to drop it one more time on the blog for those that missed it.  Now you don't have to watch the whole show to see my gig....

Super Sunday

While all of Chicago was out and about enjoying the beautiful 80 degree day yesterday, I was continuing my marathon run...indoors.  Do not take this as a bad thing.  I was among some warm, sunshiny people that made painting indoors rather enjoyable.

April Event #2 found me at Christine Noelle Designs for their Bridal Bouquet Trend Show.  Look at the lovely setup they had with treats from Sarah's Pastries & Cookies.

  

Painting inside really wasn't so bad either since I was flooded with sunshine while sitting in the window.  I've never had such good lighting to paint with at an event before!

Love my new little promo pieces.  They are flower pens!

Big thanks to Leslie, Tori and Christine for their support and kindness throughout the event.  You ladies were a complete delight!

April Event #3 is out in the world now.  Yes, my 190 North episode aired last night and couldn't have been any better.  If you missed it, I know it will eventually be available for viewing on the 190 North website.  Thank you to everyone that has sent their praises to me already.  The compliments have raised my feelings about the whole thing from nervous and embarrassed to completely proud.  Yay!  Taking Reenie Rose to the next level!

April Event #3

Halfway there!  This is more of a special reminder than an event listing.  Set your dvr's (or vcr's in my case) for tomorrow night (Sunday) at 10:35pm (Chicago time).  The episode featuring Reenie Rose will be on the show 190 North on WLS-TV ABC.  I'm excited and nervous for my tv debut, so keep your fingers crossed that I (my work) shines.

April Event #2

A quarter of the way through this event fest marathon.  As promised, I am reporting back to you about last nights Spring Bridal Bash at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.  It was quite a lovely event with good food, music and people.  Check out these beautiful tablescapes by Botanicals....

Here's my cute little setup...

There were so many great people to talk to last night that I didn't get very far on my painting, but that's a good thing, right?

Now for April Event #2....
This coming Sunday, April 10th from 1-5pm, I will be painting on site again at Christine Noelle Design.  The studio is hosting the Bridal Bouquet Trend Show which will feature the top 10 bridal bouquet trends for the spring season.  I stopped by the studio today to check it out, and let me tell you, it is a stunning space that I am truly excited to work in.  Here's the invite:

click to enlarge

Keeping a nice steady pace with these events.  I hope I'll get to see you on Sunday, but if not, stay tuned for tomorrow's post for another special Reenie Rose viewing reminder.
Happy Weekend!

April Event #1- Spring Bridal Bash

The first two weeks of April are packed full of events and happenings for me.  It feels like I'm running a mini-marathon and each event is a mile marker....guess that means I'm only running a 4 mile marathon?  Eh, who's keeping count.  I guess the marathon challenge I'm giving myself is to blog about the event I will be participating in, and then write a "post event" blog the following day with info about the next event, and so on and so on.

The first event is tonight (Thursday) at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum from 5-8pm.  I will be painting on site during the event that will be featuring a slew of Chicago's top vendors.  LOLA Event Productions has put together a fantastic spread that includes a few of my favorite vendors:  Botanicals, Foodie Registry, Take the Cake and Toast & Jam.  

Click above to view the full invite

 I mentioned that I will also be painting at this event.  My new project is a gift for a couple that is very special to me.  Michael, the groom is a childhood friend of the family that is practically like a cousin to me, and Dani the bride is the sweetest girl I know....literally.  She is a baker in the St. Louis area that has started her own business creating custom cakes, cookies and cupcakes.  Being a part of the wedding industry is a special thing, and Sweet Pea's Cakes is certainly going to make it's mark as a go-to bakery vendor.

Back to the painting....Dani and Michael's bouquet painting is just sketched in, but painting starts tonight at the Spring Bridal Bash.  My plan is to have an update of the painting and event posted tomorrow.  Got my running shoes on and I'm hydrated....bring on mile one!!