Real Wedding: Jessie and Mac

Our heartiest congratulations to our wonderful couple, Jessie and Mac! Our beautiful bride's vision for a purple-themed wedding is a sight to behold at Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur's ballroom, bathed in warmth and love, exuding a cozy ambiance for several hundred family members and friends. We have many beautiful shots of this breathtaking evening, captured expertly by our friends at Jim Liaw Photography - thank you so much.



Jessie and Mac, thank you for entrusting us with the most important first day of your lives together and for letting us at Wishing Tree play such a big part of your celebration. Also, for sharing your wedding with our readers! Now, onwards to the photographs!!




A grand wedding like Jessie and Mac's couldn't be complete without a grand entrance lined with these walkway stands. Tall enough to impress but not too tall to overwhelm! We used sturdy white branches for these stands, and piled on the blue hydrangea, dark purple eustoma, pink dianthus and lilac roses, with simple ornaments of hanging tealights on white satin ribbons and a touch of green ivy. As Jessie wanted an effect of "city lights" for the reception, we added rattan balls to the ceiling, decorated with fairy lights for a little extra magic.





Every one of the over 60 guest tables in the ballroom featured a beautiful centerpiece. We created two types of Jessie and Mac - a tall centerpiece for the tables immediately circling the couple's main table, and lower centerpieces for the others. Other than purple berries and purple and white alliums for the lower centerpieces, all guest table arrangements comprised of lilac roses, dark purple eustoma, purple limonium, pink dianthus and calla lilies.




We love details! Clockwise from top left: White and purple alliums with purple limonium, ferns and white calla lilies; purple limonium and purple allium for, cymbidium orchids for the reception table; purple berries for corsages.




And of course, the masterpiece for the new bride and groom's table. Three large cylinder vases dominate the tablescape with lush blooms, gorgeous textures and rich purple hues with specks of red. Instead of arranging the stalks of calla lilies in the vases, we let them hang outside... Which was great for attaching the tiny mokara orchids and crystals at the ends! In addition to detail, another important aspect of floral design is dimension, don't you think so?





We also did a something different with the bride's and groom's chairs by decorating with long stalks of white allium, ivy and ribbons. As the evening progressed, purple lighting filled the room. Together with lit candles, the ambiance and mood are nothing short of romantic, cozy and magical!

Real Wedding: Caroline and Greg, Part II

Welcome back to Caro and Greg's wedding at The Club At The Saujana! This wedding is just filled with so much gorgeousness we don't know where to begin. Well, we could start with the amazing photos - taken by Jim Liaw Photography, of course. Our deepest gratitude for the beautiful memories captured!

After Caro and Greg's intimate garden ceremony, held a couple of hours before sunset, the wedding party moved indoors where a romantic, elegant banquet was held.




The evening was filled with warmth and intimacy, decked out in blooms of white and green, dark wood furniture...and a lot of candles!

We used several types of flowers for the evening reception - all white, all romantic and textured. In the top picture, you can see roses and cymbidium orchids. The bride's bouquet comprised of eustoma, roses and phalaenopsis orchids. And in tall glasses filled with water, more cymbidiums!





This tabletop arrangement was a real feast for the eyes. It is actually a counter top that separated the open cooking area from the formal dining area - and it provided for an amazing backdrop for the evening. The wooden candlesticks and hurricane candle holders were the Hotel's, and suited the decor perfectly. It's always such a pleasure to be able to use original decor items from the venue itself.





As this was a small and very intimate and warm dinner reception, we used low table arrangements on guest tables so everyone could see and chat with one another. We don't need guests to keep peeping left and right throughout dinner to speak with someone sitting just across from them!

To keep the cut flowers upright and in their place, we filled the glass vases with OPP plastic pieces. These also look great for texture as they look like little chunks of ice, which also reflect more light off the tealights and mirrors.





Congratulations once again, Caro and Greg!! May your marriage be filled with the laughter, love, warmth and joy that infused your wedding so beautifully. And thank you for sharing your treasured life event with us!

Real Wedding: Caroline and Greg, Part I

Garden or outdoor weddings are increasingly gaining popularity in Malaysia despite our weather, and couples are always on the search for the "perfect" lawn on which to celebrate their union. Unless you know of a private home or estate with a spacious, landscaped garden, your only other choices are the hotels and resorts here.

One of our favorite places, and relatively little known among Malaysians is The Club at The Saujana - a boutique hotel situated next to The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur, that prides itself on luxury, exclusivity and privacy. Here is where Caroline and Greg's wedding took place.

The low trees and plants in the well-manicured garden were perfect for a cozy, intimate and romantic wedding. It's always important to have greenery at eye-level so a garden decor set-up looks good. Of course, any garden wedding needs a great photographer to capture all the loveliness and the details! For Caro and Greg's wedding, we have Jim Liaw Photography to thank... as always!




The vast amount of greenery at The Club at The Saujana made it very easy to bring Caro and Greg's vision for a white and green theme to life. From the white chiavari chairs in the ceremony area to the white roses on the bridge, as well as the backdrop of lush white dendrobiums, jasmine, ribbons and pearls dripping from the trees.

If you look closely at the first picture, you will see a huge clay pot on either side of the bridge. These were filled with supersized jungle ferns that were rolled into tall cones. They were literally sourced from the jungle just for this wedding!



Lining the aisle and giving off a lovely fragrance are the handmade jasmine and dendrobium pomanders, attached to chairs with tuber roses. And in the blue paper cones, white rose petals for guests to shower upon Caro and Greg as they pass.

As the wedding ceremony was held in the evening, we placed candles and tealights on the bridge and hung more tealights to the tree with white ribbons, all to be lit when the sun began to go down. It was quite a magical evening as you can imagine!




Our beautiful bride Caroline chose a white bouquet to go with the theme. We went with "romantic" and textured blooms, wrapping white eustoma, white roses and white phalaenopsis orchids with deep green leaves and an elegant white ribbon.

Click to see for Part II of the wedding!

To each her own bridal bouquet

Do you remember bridal bouquets of the past? If you can remember that far back, about 10 years and beyond, all we had here were roses or carnations with sprigs of baby's breath or something similar. No one remembered or cared about what brides carried in their nervous hands.

The bridal bouquet does more than give you something to do with your hands; it is the crowning glory for your outfit!

No matter your style, you will always be able to find the flowers, colors and arrangements that best suit your personality and the theme of your wedding. All you need is a little forethought and planning, as your favorite flowers may be seasonal and may not be available for your wedding date.

Here are some of our recent bridal bouquets, which we hope can give you an idea of how different the styles and mood can be, and what kind of bride you would imagine when you see their bouquets :)




Our bride, Gan Eng, chose to carry a round bouquet (known as "nosegay") of soft pink peonies, pink parrot tulips and pink eustoma - sweet and romantic just like our bride! Peonies are a traditional Chinese symbol of the happy marriage, and tulips represent "the perfect lover".

If you wish to use peonies for your wedding, remember that they are seasonal and available from May to June and October to December. Tulips, on the other hand, are available all year round but they will require advanced reservation.



Left: Jun Yee's bouquet, Right: Caroline's bouquet

For our bride Jun Yee, who chose a Classic English theme for her wedding, she carried an elegant bouquet of lady pink roses and pink hydrangea with a touch of white eustoma and a modern twist with rust orange calla lilies.

Calla lilies represent a majestic beauty, and its unique shape and color is wonderfully used as part of a monochromatic color palette mixed with other flowers of different shades. The combination of flower types truly tantalizes the eye with its textures while maintaining its sweet, romantic mood with a contemporary touch. All flowers in this bouquet are available throughout the year and easy to obtain.

Caroline chose an all-white theme with a touch of green for her classic European wedding - a theme that is mirrored in her bridal bouquet as well. Comprising white roses, white eustoma and white phalaenopsis, Caroline's quiet elegance and beauty is also represented in her romantic bouquet. The flowers in this bouquet are also available all year round.




This bouquet is a little bit different, as it represents both the bride and her groom! Our bride Melissa loves the color green, while her groom loves red.... and we are more than happy to create this special bridal bouquet for the wedded couple. For Melissa's bouquet, we used maroon peonies, white rananculus and African green brazelia for a unique twist. Again, peonies are seasonal and are available from May to June and October to December, while the rananculus and African green brazelia and available all year round.

Caring for your bouquet:
To keep your bouquet looking fresh before your big day, place your bouquet in a vase of water and store in a cool place and in an upright position. During the wedding, spraying your bouquet occasionally will help prevent the flowers from wilting in our hot and humid weather!

Real Wedding: Janice and Desmond

Congratulations, Janice and Desmond! Thank you for letting us be a part of your big day and sharing your wedding with us at the Wishing Tree Blog. Big thanks to Jim Liaw Photography for capturing the lovely pictures.

Janice and Desmond's wedding dinner reception at Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur was a picture of romantic, lush elegance.... like the equally elegant bride and groom. Janice was clear about the ambiance and colors she had imagined for the perfect evening reception - a romantic autumn filled with rich, deep hues of reds and maroons, a touch of peach and green. Oh, what lush ideas!

The centerpiece was a sight to behold, especially against a warm, "golden" backdrop that was easily accomplished with fairy lights and white linen. Touches of white from organza ribbons, candles and the elegant wedding cake really brought the whole theme together.




Deep red, maroon and peach-colored roses were the stars of the centerpiece, but it was the dendrobium orchids and Anne Black orchids that gave it the winning edge - we love how the tiny Anne Black orchids trail down and around the centerpiece and provide so much texture. Plump cymbidium orchids were arranged on the table together with Salix branches, lots of deep maroon rose petals, candles and even more Anne Black orchids... So much gorgeousness and texture all around!!

If you thought you saw peaches in the centerpiece - you were absolutely right! Fresh and sweet-smelling, the peaches are the perfect complement for the color palette and to "lighten" up the autumnal ambiance.

The entrance to the ballroom was done up a little bit differently, thanks to Janice's creative input. She did not want the usual flower arch for the doorway. So we created a beam made of branches and decorated with Taiwan ivy and Anne Black orchids. We hung white organza panels from the beam and secured them with posies made from deep red and maroon roses and Anne Black orchids, which were also strung up and put on the organza. We loved the rustic mood of this floral entrance. And lining the walkway of the ballroom - lush floral stands, dripping with Taiwan ivy and organza ribbons, crowned with big, beautiful roses and lots of candlelight. It's like a grown-up version of Midsummer Night's Dream, but in the autumn!

So, friends, readers, and brides-to-be - don't be afraid to use just one color for your event, whatever the color may be. Whatever you choose is bound to make a sure statement. Just remember to trust your floral designer to create the best ambiance for you and be open with him or her when it comes to ideas :)