Emilie & Alex

A September wedding in West Michigan offers a special sort of magic. Add in the enchanting backdrop of the Big Lake, a parasol-dotted ceremony set against the bride’s parent’s home, a sailcloth tent filled with thousands of stems of locally grown flowers and foliage, and a little (we’ll admit it was actually quite big) rainstorm for a kiss of good luck, and you’ve got it all.

Aside from Emilie and Alex’s joyful nature and their loved ones’ eagerness to see them married at last, one of the most memorable elements of our team’s floral design efforts was including Aunt Mary’s dahlias into our arrangements and installations. Midwest-grown flowers - specifically dahlias - are some of the most pristine and perfect blooms, available as early as mid-July until whenever Mother Nature surprises us with the first frost of the season. And when a bride has a treasured Aunt with a field full of watercolor-inspired blooms kept aside for the occasion, the designs become so much more than homegrown. We know Earth, Wind & Fire sang almost 50 years ago about the specialness of September, about chasin’ the clouds away, but even on the cloudiest of Saturdays love and joy still abounds.