Green Wedding Design at Songbirds Consignment

Songbirds Consignment held their Wedding Show April 2 and DianaDigsDirt provided a wedding arbor to greet guests and brides with the “Green” theme.

Color palette of red, white and a hint of pink. The main flower swag was designed using actual plants to later be used in the landscape or pots. Red petunias and carnation annuals provided color with apple blossom and dogwood branches filling in the bare spaces. Just packed with flower power!

Magnolia and Cytisus branches added horizontal form to the swag.

 

Outdoor pots, hanging ivy and a bucket of freshly cut greenery finished off the design.

“Green” wedding designs by DianaDigsDirt

 

Magnolia Leaves within Wedding Flower Design

Magnolia foliage provides many design opportunities like; centerpieces, decor, corsages, boutonniere’s and more. Above, a magnolia leaf serves as the background for lavender and indian hawthorn berries.

Here is a Helleborus bloom held by a magnolia leaf.

This design element can be utilized in a number of ways. Individual magnolia leaves were inserted into an orange and filled with Helleborus flowers. If used as a centerpiece, this element could be grouped on a table and layered at various heights, hung from the ceiling with tea lights, or individually placed on event tables. Using a larger fruit like a cantaloupe would provide enough space to insert an actual flowering plant. Fill with bird sees and a tea light and give away to your guests at the end of your party.

   Magnolia branches make excellent decor for any party or wedding by gathering plant material with assorted textures to hang on chairs, columns or doors. Very affordable and easy to assemble.

A Saucer magnolia bloom was used as a boutonniere along with a dried grass plume from the landscape and a sprig of Scotch Broom.

The coconut here was unfinished, but magnolia leaves would have been placed at the base of the Amazon Mist grass to hide the soil and add coarse texture.

  Topiary is an expensive event decor, but could easily be created from your landscape foliage.

Schedule a consultation and let’s look at what your landscape could provide fjor “green” design.

DianaDigsDirt of Cornerstone Garden

 

Triad Wedding Planning/Design Services

DianaDigsDirt is a landscape design/build company assisting recently engaged couples with “GREEN” solutions for their wedding day. “Green” does not mean cheap, granola or tacky, simply, you are demonstrating a conscious effort to minimize individual carbon footprints. Fresh flowers can also be incorporated into “Green” Wedding Designs, adding special accents and touches not obtainable due to seasonal restraints.

DianaDigsDirt Wedding Services

• Consulting-Designing-or Implementing of

Residential Landscape Wedding Ideas, creating an outdoor photogenic vignette for the bride and her maids reflecting colors, style, theme of the ceremony. Diana should be called at least one year prior to wedding date. This service is for those wanting a personalized outdoor scene for wedding photography, usually at the couple’s home or residence where she is preparing for the ceremony with bridesmaids.

• Consulting-Designing-Implementing of

“Green” Wedding Decor, Centerpieces, etc, by analyzing bride and groom residential landscape or those of family members to determine the possibility to create from existing plant material. This would include, plant foliage, berries, blooms, twigs, and grass plumes. If additional “Green” decor is needed, Diana can suggest installing certain plants to later on provide what is needed and what will grow on the property. We can also discuss including actual food within centerpiece design.

   

Fruits, nuts, various leaves and vegetables may add a conversation piece to  your special day

  

 

• Wedding Venue for Landscape Enhancements

If the Wedding Venue Location is perfect, but could use additional color, with the permission of the venue, additional potted plants could be brought in and later taken home by the couple or whomever makes the purchase. Below are fabulous arrangements for tropical themes. Outdoor pots come in an array of styles, shapes and colors, click here.

  

Attend our free “Green” event and workshop demonstrating centerpiece creations.

   

 

Principals & Elements of Professional Wedding Designs

Whether you are designing/planning a wedding, painting, creating interior rooms or a landscape, professionals hired to assist with the task, knowing how a great design is developed. Don’t be overwhelmed with this list brides-to-be, only a few are targeted for wedding ceremonies and rehearsal dinners. Choose 3 or 4 and run with it or discuss with  your wedding planner. My comments will be added in Dark Blue.

Six Visual Elements

               

We think of the principles as ways to work with and arrange the elements.

---

Some Design Principals 
or design rules (some creative artists purposely break rules) This list is an example list. 
 

Emphasis – say “Center of Interest.” It is about dominance and influence. Most artists put it a bit off-center and balance it with some minor themes to maintain our interest. Some artists avoid emphasis on purpose. They want all parts of the work to be equally interesting. Brides-this is you, the focal point or emphasis

Harmony – As in music, complementary layers and/or effects can be joined to produce a more attractive whole. The composition is complex, but everything appears to fit with everything else. The whole is better than the sum of its parts.

Unity – When nothing distracts from the whole, you have unity. Unity without variation can be uninteresting – like driving on a clear day through Western Kansas on the interstate. Unity with diversity generally has more to offer in both art and in life.  Of course some very minimal art can be very calming and at times even very evocative. Even a simple landscape can have a powerful effect. Centerpieces usually have unity by the objects or material pulling the centerpieces together, like the red petals below

Opposition – uses contrasting visual concepts. That same Western Kansas “big sky” landscape becomes very dramatic and expressive when a storm builds in the southwest. Principles can grow out of any artistic device that is used to produce an effect on the viewer. This is true when most wedding colors are black and white.

Balance is the consideration of visual weight and importance. It is a way to compare the right and left side of a composition.                      

© marvin bartel Asymmetrical balance is more interesting. Above both sides are similar in visual weight but not mirrored. It is more casual, dynamic, and relaxed feeling so it is often called informal balance. Radial balance is not very common in artist’s compositions, but it is like a daisy or sunflower with everything arranged around a center. Rose windows of cathedrals use this design system. Of course a sunflower can have many meanings and feelings beyond its “radiant” feeling. Farmers might hate it as weed cutting into their corn production. On the other hand, many of us can’t help thinking about Vincent Van Gogh’s extraordinarily textured painted sunflowers. Once we have contemplated those thickly expressed colors and textures with their luscious painterly surface, every sunflower we see becomes an aesthetic experience filled with spiritual sensations.

The butterfly below by itself is essentially symmetrical.  Both sides are similar in visual weight and almost mirrored. Because symmetrical balance often looks more stiff and formal, sometimes it is called formal balance. Of course a butterfly, even though it is symmetrical, doesn’t look stiff and formal because we think of fluttering butterflies as metaphors for freedom and spontaneity. It is a case of subject matter and symbolism overpowering formal design effects. This is a simple diagram of radial balance.

• Variety – You create variety when elements are changed. Repeating a similar shape but changing the size can give variety and unity at the same time. Keeping the same size, but changing the color can also give variety and unity at the same time. In visual composition, there are many ways you can change something while simultaneously keeping it the same.
• Depth – effects of depth, space, projection toward the viewer add interest. Linear perspective in the real world makes things look smaller in the distance. Some artists try to avoid depth by making large things duller and small things brighter, and so on, to make the objects contradict realism. Many artists don’t believe in realism even though they could do it if they wanted to. It seems too boring to them. Realism wouldn’t be art for some artists.
• Repetition – Some ways to use Repetition of the Visual Elements are:  
• Size Variation can apply to shape, form, etc. Notice how size can effect how close or far something can appear to be from the viewer.         

– ©marvin bartel Here the same butterfly is shown twice.  Which one appears closer? Note how size relationships create depth or space in a composition. Children in first grade can already recognize closer and farther based on size even though they wouldn’t typically use this in their pictures unless they were motivated to do so.

• Repetition can be used on all of the Visual Elements. If things are repeated without any change they can quickly get boring. However, repetition with variation can be both interesting and comfortably familiar. Repetition gives motion. This principal is almost automatic. Pick something and keep repeating for a dramatic effect, like centerpieces. Variegation comes in where flowers are not arranged symmetrically
• Variation can be used with all of the visual elements. See “Variety” above. You can do this with all the elements. Artists do this all the time. Brides, you can still have repetition, but add a little variation (adds interest and mystery). All the vases below have the repetitive element of the fruit and only the flowers are varied.  

Color saturation, sometimes called “color intensity” or brightness can also give a feeling of depth and space. Which of these butterflies are farther away? Most second graders can see this effect when they are asked to look for it. These butterflies create the illusion of depth even though they are all the same size.

© marvin bartel

Overlapping is often used by artists to create depth. Young children try to avoid overlapping in their work.

© marvin bartel

 Some information is credited to Marvin Bartel

For additional ideas and assistance, please contact DianaDigsDirt (professional landscape designer) specializing in “Green” Wedding Design. Diana @ justacloudaway.com

 

Choosing the Perfect Wedding Venue in the Piedmont Triad

Are you newly engaged and looking for the perfect outdoor wedding venue-magical, dreamy, ethereal, fairytale, or the garden of eden? Do these terms reflect how your day should be emulated in your wedding photography?

If you are visiting several wedding venues, ask to see photographs of the gardens about the time of your own wedding. Trees, shrubs, perennials and even grass will look different from your initial visit. Gardens are constantly evolving and completely changing color palettes (even the green family changes).

Many wedding venues provide outdoor structures, gazebos, arbors, pergolas, tents, covered porches (portico) or a veranda for the actual ceremony. Every bride has their own style and entitled to make suggestions by keeping silk flowers in their boxes. Several vines could have been selected to soften the gazebos below adding just green or another color. The silk vine below looks unnatural because vines do not grow perfectly around a column. If a green vine was installed and color was needed, small bouquets or even potted plants could have been attached, good for a “Green” Wedding.

Below is an example of fake flowers strung on a gazebo. Do you like this?

Many wedding venues provide pre-fabricated gazebos, a wonderful structure for wedding themes like, cottage-style or country. Some outdoor structures even have a Victorian feel.

Here is a smaller version located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Outdoor pergolas and structures will be included in your photographs, make sure every plant enveloping the site is blooming a neutral color so your photographs are in the same color palette.

Outdoor structures are built from various materials including, stone, wood, brick, wrought iron, PVC pipe or steel (like the one at Biltmore Estates).

  

Make sure you and your husband-to-be choose the perfect outdoor wedding venue for your special day. Think about structures, colors, materials, your color palette, plants on site and if sunlight may be an issue. You deserve your cinderella wedding!

 

DianaDigsDirt-Landscape Designer of Weddings “Green” in Nature

Providing Landscape Consultations, Plans, Installations and Speaker

Diana@justacloudaway.com

Join Diana for a brief talk regarding Wedding Landscapes-Open to All

February 24th, 2011    12-1:30

Asiano Bistro

2618 Lawndale Drive
Greensboro, NC 27408
(336) 288-8883

 

Triad Photography Sessions at Wildflower Walk Gardens

Say Cheese at Wildflower Walk with your favorite photographer. Diana Digs Dirt is providing a rustic, country-style, natural setting (at her home) for your portraits.  Not only does the site house antique farm equipment, animals too. Other outdoor vignettes (or scenes) include:

• Goat Pastures (inhabited with friendly goats, horses and a donkey)
• Hay Field (filled with wildflowers of white(asters-daisys), violet(red clover), blue(bachelor button) and gold)
• Small running stream in the woods with tiny beaches and tree outcroppings covered in moss and ferns

  

The 2 photographs below were taken by Tammy Councilman of Portrait Expressions by Tammy Councilman

• Barns, Barns and more Barns (all constructed of various building material)
• Old Farmhouse with wrap-a-round porch
• Wooded Area (with your choice of tractor equipment)

• Animal Stables
• Flowering Shrubs, Trees, Perennials, Groundcovers and Daffodil Bulbs
• Lush, green lawns
• Memory Garden with Bluestone Benches, Roses and Crape Myrtle Trees

• Wrought Iron Fencing
• Wooden Fencing
• Pergolas with Climbing Roses and Clematis

The local photographers listed below are partnering with Just a Cloud Away, Inc. ™ Journal, our local (monthly) free paper addressing loss and healing where stories are shared to educate one another on how we can Better Support each other.

Come to Wildflower Walk for-

• Wedding Photography
• Engagement Session Photography
• Senior Portraits
• Anniversary Pictures
• Baby Pictures
• Family Portraits
• Graduation
• and other moments you would like to capture in this type of natural setting

These photographers have their own distinct styles, please click on their websites to choose the company to best suit your family’s needs. The address of Wildflower Walk will be disclosed by the photographer for safety measures (this is the happy and floriferous abode of Diana Digs Dirt).

• Elizabeth Larson Photography
• Nyght Falcon
• Logan Jarrard Photographer
• Images by Misty Photography
• Dale Gurvis Photography
• Carisa Chee Photography
• Ever After Pictures
• Justin Nixon Photography
• Kristian Synder Photography
• Michelle Robinson Photography
• Andrea Halsey Photography, LLC
• Portrait Expressions by Tammy Councilman

The partnership is available as of January 27th 2011. Additional photos of Wildflower Walk found here. Book your session today to continue providing this resource for the Triad.

   

We thank the photographers and we thank our community for helping support the journal, “Where we learn from each other how to support one another”.

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

Dried Flower Design Wedding Bouquets-Personalizing

Adding personal touches to your wedding is highly encouraged in your flowers, favors, overall theme, or some other element, to impress your guests. Dried wedding flower bouquets were utilized in this Buffalo, NY wedding, not because of budget, but because of the reminder of how thoughtful her groom had been during courtship.

During the dating period, this bride-to be received fresh flower bouquets from her fiance and had hung them upside down to dry, after enjoying for a few days. During the courtship, enough flower arrangements were delivered to make beautiful wedding bouquets. They were used as the Bridal bouquet and bouquets for the bridesmaids too. this out-of-the box and “green’ idea was very intriguing for the guests with many inquiries.

The bridesmaids and bride-to-be gathered before the wedding to assemble with ribbons. this option provided additional money to be spent elsewhere within the wedding ceremony.

The bride was a designer, creative, and ingenious-also reflecting her personality.

This wedding bouquet alternative is not for everyone, but think about how you can add personality and personalization to your wedding ceremonies to create a day never to forget. With your creativity (or maybe with the help of a wedding planner) your day can be just as unique with the personal touches from the past.

join us at a free local event, “Celebrating Mother Earth in  Southeast Guilford” where vendors will be plentiful, helping you plan what “You” and your husband-to-be embrace in life. Also come to meet Divine WEddings and Beyond for all your wedding day needs.

Heppy Planning!

Diana Digs Dirt, your source for “Green” Wedding flower design

 

Reusable-Recycled-Ravishing Wedding Centerpieces

“Green” wedding centerpieces are gaining popularity because of dual purpose, looking fantastic on tabletops and either giving plants away to guests or bride and groom keeping them for planting within their residential landscapes.

Colors for the wedding were red, black, and white. Green is almost always included because of plant foliage. Most of the terrace tables were square, so while working on the tabletop prototype, white craft paper was utilized, red crayons and a personalized stamp was created to decorate paper.

Annuals used in the centerpieces including, begonias, impatiens, diamond frost, and periwinkle. Perennials used were caladium, ferns, liriope, creeping jenny and hardy begonia.

 

English ivy was a ground cover used in the centerpieces and at the base of the brides bouquet, cut from the landscape.

The brides maids bouquet and groomsmen boutonnières were unified by incorporating southern magnolia foliage pruned from the landscape.

     

Sweet pea tendrils were also designed into the boutonnières, adding unique texture (cut from the landscape).

What a beautiful venue for a wedding! Thank you for including me Tonya and Jeff

 

Memories are treasured and are always with us………

 

There are many ways to “think green” and personalize when planning a wedding! Call me for a consultation today.

 

Calling All Photographers of the Piedmont Triad

Wildflower Walk would like to extend their gardens for your outdoor photographic backdrops including;  goat pastures (friendly), tractors, stables, aged barns, wildflowers meadow, rose garden, hay-field, slow running stream with small beaches, wooded areas, pergola with vine, and flowering plants, green lawn area, brick walkway, and a pea gravel water garden where grounds are maintained  by Diana Digs Dirt and 360 Landscape and Lawn Maintenance.

      

The changing seasons are always presenting  new and wonderful backdrops for pictures including, family portraits, wedding or engagement, (no pets because of many animals onsite), or children photography. Why are we doing this? To raise money for the publication Just a Cloud Away, Inc. ™ Journal.

Your company will be listed as a supporter of Just a Cloud Away, Inc. ™ Journal. Our local and free, human interest paper addressing loss, healing, and memorials. Situations include those who have lost a loved one, pregnancy or beloved pet and the diverse pathways to a brighter day. Online journals listed here.

 

We ask for a $25.00 (per shoot) donation towards the journal for utilizing Wildflower Walk to offset printing costs and we will list your company and backlink on Diana Digs Dirt and Just a Cloud Away, Inc, ™ Journal Blogs. They receive a combined 400 daily users. Even if you do not use this offer, your company will remain listed. A win/win situation.

With your client’s consent, your company can receive added exposure by Diana Digs Dirt blogging of your photo session at Wildflower Walk, describing surrounding plants with an additional backlink to your site.

 

  

  

Please take advantage of this offer, we are hoping to continue Just a Cloud Away Inc. ™ Journal for our bereaved community members wanting to share stores of their loved ones passed while walking the healing journey. We will only learn through sharing how better to support one another.

  

 

 

Every photographer who donates will be recognized in print for the following month’s journal.

Please email, Diana (@) just a cloud away. com for the address and thank you for considering to support the journal.

If you are not a business and would like to have your photographer added to our list, please have them contact us.

Happy Planting!

Diana Digs Dirt

Landscape Design, Installations, Consultations and Speaking Engagements

 

Calling All Piedmont Triad Brides-VOTE HERE