For the personal flowers, Wendy carried a stunning all-white bouquet of lisianthus, roses, freesia, and white mini cymbidium orchids. The bridesmaids carried bouquets made of lavender and purple stock, mini green cymbidium orchids and purple lisianthus. The flower girl carried a basket of petals and the bouts and corsages consisted of roses and orchids.

For the ceremony and reception, we were in The Pavillion tent. I actually stayed for the ceremony so I could help the venue turn-over the tent and place my centerpieces. The ceremony was really lovely and the officiant (a long-time family friend of the groom’s) was really energetic and really personalized the wedding to the couple. The flower girl also was really funny and shy and we basically had to guide her down the aisle–but it was adorable.

For the ceremony, we secured a plain aisle runner down the aisle and lined the chairs with purple hydrangea hung from green ribbon. The stage was decorated with the Unity candle and 2 large altarpieces. After the ceremony, the stage was torn down and the altarpieces were moved to the gift table.

The reception was quickly set up after the ceremony ended while the guests enjoyed cocktails and the bridal party took outdoor photos. In the cocktail area, we put the birdcage card holder in the area so people could delivery their cards safely and also added some petals and votives to the highboy tables out there.

Back in the tent, the guest tables were set and in the center I put our beautiful short, full mixed arrangements.of hydrangea, stock, roses, and germinis. The card holder was returned to the reception room as well and flanked by the two altarpieces. The cake was decorated with roses and orchids and the toss bouquet and petals were also added to the cake table. The head table held vases for the bouquets, petals and votives.

I really enjoyed working with Wendy to plan the details of her big day! I think everything was just awesome!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Lankenau!

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Photos Copyright Amy Christian 2010
Looking for an engagement, wedding or baby bump photographer? Check out her website.

At the beginning of this summer, I talked to my friend Thomas Slack and his associate Amaris Granado of At Studio Photography to see if they needed an intern. They met and loved Amy and the rest is history. Not only did Amy complete an internship with 2 of the best photographers in the city, but she also posed for them (this is one of the stunning images from an editorial bridal shoot).

Amaris just sent me this so I had to post it. Amy looks so gorgeous and Amaris took such a nice photo of her! (Another total bonus, Amy made that bouquet after one of the weddings we did!)

If you are looking for a great wedding photographer–obviously I know quite a few talented people! Definitely check out Amaris Granado of At Studio and Amy Christian of AC Design & Photography.

For more great wedding professionals–check out my RESOURCES page.

As some of you know, my wonderfully talented associate, Amy Christian, has been busy expanding her wedding-industry career and is now doing more event photography and day-of coordination, so we needed some additional help on the Kio Kreations team. We lucked out and found 2 very talented women to join the team!

Our first new addition is Tara Etrheim, who has a degree in Interior Design and is working on a degree in Photography. Tara is creative, talented at photography, and quite hilarious! She has been very helpful already to us in the past few weeks. Tara lives in Aurora with her husband of just over a year. She is originally from Minnesota and has been in Illinois for about a year. Welcome Tara!

Our second new team member is Monica Simpson. Monica actually found me a couple months ago when she was looking to work for a florist in Naperville. She has recently moved to the Naperville area and formerly worked at a floral shop in Florida where she gained her knowledge and love of wedding floral design. While I am not a traditional “floral shop” I could certainly use the talents of a freelance floral designer, so Monica was a perfect fit. So, now when we have large and/or multiple weddings, Monica helps with the boutonnieres, corsages and simple centerpieces and I focus on the bouquets, altarpieces and complex centerpieces and decor. She’s already helped with a few weddings and it’s been wonderful having an experienced extra set of hands. Monica just moved back to Illinois from Florida in the past few months with her husband of three years. They currently live in Naperville but she is originally from Antioch, Illinois.

I am very happy to have Amy, Tara and Monica on the Kio Kreations team. Kio Kreations has been growing fast; largely in part to the efforts of our talented team members and the stellar reviews of our clients. So thank you to Amy, Tara and Monica and all of our fabulous past, present and future clients!

Amy Christian

Tara Etrheim

Monica Simpson