It Was the Best, Man

I had the best day yesterday. It was a gorgeous, mild, sunny day here in San Francisco, and I got to take a day off from my typical nursery duties to do a job setting up flowers for a wedding!

A herd of arrangements, in the room they had set aside for me to stage them and fluff them after their car ride.

It was really fun. I’d done a bit of catering earlier in life, so was prepared for the organized chaos of setting up an event. My friend Patrick Lannan, the designer at Flora Grubb Gardens who has done so many of the garden designs I’ve installed, was behind me getting this gig. Officiating the ceremony was none other than Jane Wiedlin, former guitarist for The Go-Go’s! I didn’t get to meet her myself, sadly, but did see her scurrying during cleanup after the ceremony.

The two grooms are Patrick’s good friends and housemates. It was great to see them finally have a chance to marry! They’re great together, and have been so for years. Now, they’re married. (Congratulations, guys!) Patrick was the Best Man for one of the two, and also made all the arrangements for the wedding. Thirty-seven arrangements, two bouquets (for the mother of one and their good neighbor friend, who “gave them away” in the ceremony), and several boutonnieres. My job was to set them up.

The Observation Post, before the caterers began transforming the space. Nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge out the window!

The venue was spectacularrrr. The Observation Post in the Presidio National Park is often used for just such events. Sweeping views across the water at the north end of the City, with the Golden Gate Bridge off to one side, and Alcatraz off to the other. Just stunning. It took about four hours to set the space up. Again, Patrick did all the arrangements himself at home. They were gorgeous arrangements in subtle variations of green, made with flowers, branches, tillandsias, and succulents, the latter two of which he wired onto floral wire so that they would be able to act as flowers with stems for the arrangements. I delivered them all, and worked around the caterers, placing centerpieces (“dropping the arrangements” in their lingo) at each table and putting individual small Tillandsia air plants at each place setting. The end result was fantastic!

Entry table with seating cards to greet the guests.

The entry table arrangements, stage right.

Entry table arrangements, stage left, with a bowl for guests to drop in well-wishes for the grooms.

The arrangement on the bar. I loved what the sign talks about – they had an internet gallery setup so that guests could upload photos and they’d pop up in realtime on the screens around the room.

A small arrangement in a viewing nook.

A small arrangement for a sitting nook.

A table with setup complete.

Place settings each had a tillandsia.

Place settings each had a tillandsia.

Round centerpieces on round tables, and…

… and square centerpieces on square tables.

The arrangement for the ladies’ room.

The arrangement for the men’s room.

They’re almost done setting up the ceremony space, but the rest is all set.

Heading out, with my part complete. Flower duty done. 🙂