The other week I had the opportunity to visit a spectacular venue here in Washington for the first time, Trinity Tree Farm. I was with a professional wedding association, Wedding Network Seattle, whose regularly scheduled chapter meeting was held that month at Trinity Tree Farm. Wedding Network Seattle (WNS) meetings rotate to different venues around the greater Seattle area and showcase a different team of vendors whose area of expertise creates a mini-wedding atmosphere. Th cocktail hour and mingling is always followed by dinner, which usually features an educational guest speaker. WNS is a wonderful way to get to know vendors, especially if you are new to the area like me!
Trinity Tree Farm is a working Christmas tree farm located in Issaquah, where you can select and cut down your very own tree. The farm has two event facilities, the Barn and the Lodge. Both can hold up to 150 guests and the Lodge (where our networking event was held) sits on top of a hill with views of Mount Rainier and Tiger & Squak Mountain. The Lodge is spacious, clean, and contemporary. It’s nestled in the woods amidst pine trees emitting a fragrance that almost reminded me of being back in Colorado.
Before all the members of WNS arrived and our chapter event started, I took some pictures of the Lodge at Trinity Tree Farm. In addition to the building itself, which has a ballroom, a covered foyer, and separate getting ready quarters for the couple, there are a couple of outdoor areas also designed to be utilized. An outdoor fire pit with benches is the first thing you see when you drive up to the Lodge right before the main entrance. Once could imagine guests relaxing around a cozy fire after dinner.
When I first laid eyes on the fire pit in my mind I saw a huge floral arrangement that would mimic an actual fire. How cool would that be?? And what a dramatic statement! The arrangement would have reds, oranges, and yellows. There would be lots of movement within the arrangement, almost dancing with rhythm as the wind blows.
Back at my studio I got to work on sketching out this fire floral arrangement. I decided the arrangement would include curly willow, dusty miller, red spray roses, red gomphrena, high and yellow flame rose (how perfect is that??), tiger lilies, montbretia, dancing lady orchids, and smoke bush (also very fitting!). Here is the visual draft that I came up with:
The other outdoor area at the Lodge at Trinity Tree Farm sits below the reception ballroom and is the perfect space for an outdoor wedding ceremony. Fixed wooden benches give a rustic, natural charm to the setting and the squared arch provides the framework for a beautiful backdrop, whose design is up to your imagination! Old growth pine trees surround the ceremony space, but you get little glimpses of the tree farm trees down below.
I sat with the picture of the outdoor ceremony space for awhile before envisioning the perfect backdrop. I started to sketch out an asymmetric design with a large floral spray on one side of the arch at the top and another spray at the base on the opposite side of the arch, but ultimately decided to nix that design. It’s one that I have done before and I really wanted to create something special for the ceremony space at Trinity Tree Farm.
Given that the facility sits in a woodsy area that reminds me of being in the Colorado mountains, I imagined myself in the Washington mountains. All that I have seen in my online research about Washington and the few outdoor areas that I have explored since moving here gave me a serene wooded visual when suddenly an image of a waterfall popped into my head. Then I thought how perfect would it be if the ceremony arch actually resembled a waterfall?!?! So I went about sketching this vision out. I decided upon a design that would include tons of mesh, silk, and satin ribbons of various widths for the streams of water. White ribbon, light blue ribbon, and turquoise ribbon would all flow down to the ground together. Embedded into these streams of ribbon would be the luxurious Phalaenopsis orchids with their huge, satiny white blooms. This would give the water streams more of a curving, zig-zag movement as the water flowed between rocks. Since western Washington is very lush with moss growing everywhere, especially near waterfalls, I would create vertical columns of moss within the arch, in between the streams of ribbon/orchids. Here is my vision for this magnificent waterfall wedding ceremony backdrop at Trinity Tree Farm:
If you are reading this post, are getting married at Trinity Tree Farm, and fell in love with either of these floral visions, I would absolutely LOVE to create one or both of them for your wedding. Can you imagine your guests being greeted and wowed by a fire-inspired floral arrangement or saying your vows in front of a glorious floral waterfall? Your wedding will be the talk of the town and will be THE wedding that influences Pinterest for other brides-and-grooms to-be years into the future. Let’s make it happen!
