Japanese Touches

When people who were at the wedding entered the reception hall, they walked through an arch that was adorned across the top with a string of small electriacally-lit white paper Japanese lanterns. Out to one side of the arch hung a large paper lantern with several Asian decorative motifs. One of them was the Iwashige family crest.

I discovered the lantern, along with another like it, several years ago when I attended an estate sale in Willowbrook--the rich little city outside Hutchinson. The wife of the family whose estate was being sold had spent part of her childhood in China, and their belongings reflected her love of things Asian. I found the paper lanterns folded up and piled with other things on the floor of their home where the sale was being held. Idly, I picked one of them up to look at them a little more closely--and couldn't believe my eyes when the Iwashige family crest appeared.

There are many family crest variations on this pattern--dozens. But this was an exact copy of the Iwashige pattern. The Japanese name for family crest is kamon (Kah-mone).

Another distinctive Japanese touch was the flower arrangements on the round tables, although Beatrice, who works in the FB kitchen, commented that the style looked fitting for Hilda, even though it was a nod to Joel's ethnicity. They were beautiful--simple and elegant--her kind of touch.

Two of Hilda’s friends and I worked together to create the arrangements. That was a pleasure. With the right supplies, good instructions, and beautiful flowers, things can’t help turning out nice. The containers were shallow black circular trays, and the flowers were purple/lavender Dutch irises, with wire grass and solidaster. The flowers were arranged as though they "grew" out of the water in the trays, with solidaster at their base. The wire grass arched from one iris grouping to the other grouping at the opposite side of the "pool," with a few strands anchored in each grouping and extending to the sides. Clear? I doubt it, but maybe there will be pictures later.

To gather the necessary supplies, we cashed in on the benefits of my wholesale account at a floral supply company. I buy things there to process and market my field grown cut flowers. Kudos to Valley Floral for working so helpfully with us even though we didn’t quite fit the usual wedding customer mold.

After I left, others finished the arrangements for the bridal table and other guest tables–lavender and purple tulips and hydrangeas.