Weekend in Lembang part 3 - Imagining A Garden Wedding

After a bit of refreshingly morning walk around the El Shadai complex, it's nearly 8 am, so the mist had thinned and sunshine had emerged. According to schedule, we're supposed to have a morning mass right here in the courtyard overlooking the valley.

Everyone else still enjoying breakfast or having a morning walk so the courtyard was still empty when we took the photos. It's quite beautiful really, since the courtyard faced east so we could see sunshine emerging as the background. Seeing this view, as a florist I couldn't stand imagine...

What would it look like to have a wedding here ! Hmmm..., no arches like the usual garden party, since it will obstruct the view. Just simple flower stands along the stone path plus chairs for the guests...

And both of you exchanging vows with the sun as your witness slowly poured its warmth and light above the hills... (as bonus this view was also nice as wedding photograph background)

Ok, back to reality again..here's a close-up on the altar....Yep, since the pastor couldn't arrived before 9 am, we just have to do it without him and the mass proceed without communion *sigh*, the good side was the mass only took short time :))

and the flowers... the white ones are especially cute, kinda like mini white corns...

By the way, we learned something after the mass finished, which was nearing 9 am, the glare and heat risen so if you would like to make a morning wedding at an open garden facing the sun like this, make sure the guests equipped with hats.... and now you may continue imagining...

Note:

Wisma Elshaddai. Jalan Sersan Bajuri 59, Lembang,

The 24th Anniversary of Margriet

Congratulation to Margriet that has been 24 years old today. It’s such an age of young woman who is blooming showing its beauty.

Starting with morning mass at church of St. Peter Cathedral lead by Pastor Leo van Beurden, OSC.

After the mass, members of Margriet gathered in Simon room at the first floor of the function building. Chit chat each other, drinking coffee, tea or lemon while waiting the others and Pastor to come.

The party opened with opening pray then the chief of Margriet, Mrs. Trees, gave a short speech. She stressed the importance of commitment in a social service/organization like the group of Margriet. Though it doesn't mean that we commit to a person but to God himself. Then the advisor of Margriet, Mrs. Helena, continued that because of the help of God and His mercy, Margriet could be developing as it is today and has become a solid group of floral designers. The last speech was from Pastor Leo. He thanked Margriet for its faithfulness decorating St. Peter Cathedral since it established 24 years ago and hope it will enhance the beauty of the altar decor. At last he prayed, 'May God bless, guide and give healthiness to each members of Margriet and her family. Amen'.

30 minutes passed, then time to blow the candles, eating birthday cake and had spaghetti bolognaise. Truly it was too early to say lunch but not a problem as everybody looked to enjoy. Hmm, yummy. While eating, there was a floral demonstration by Mr. Agusman using garden flowers and foliage such as a kind of ginger flower, kadaga leaf and cordyline leaf. Since we are in the Season of Lent till next month and there will be no marriage during the pre-Easter or in the other word it is a kind of 'time off' month for Margriet. Some members suggested to go somewhere for refreshing, so after a few minutes discussion, then it was decided to go a picnic as well as do reflection. Picnic is going to be held in a rose garden in Cihideung next month. Then the party ended at about eleven o'clock. See ya at the picnic next month.

For all of you who are reading this post, here is the floral demonstration step by step:

1. Prepare 2 containers each containing 2 pieces of wet oasis, then put them horizontally elongated. Prepare the flowers, foliage and accessories  or complements to be used, and placed them all near your working table. Now ready to arranging flowers
2. First place some willow/salix/twigs (painted white and tied into one previously) on the left and right ends of the container. (picture 1)
3. Place 3 medium-sized of phyllo leaves on the left and right outer ends of twigs, and some small foliage on the sidelines of the twigs
4. Fold some cordyline leaves with the help of wire, then put at the center front, and so do the leather leaves and phillo leaves. They formed a circle. (see picture 2) 

5. Place 5 ginger flowers in the middle of the circle as center point of views or focus.
6. Place 6 hydrangea surround the ginger flowers
7. Placed 8-9 gerberas in front and behind the twigs with different height. Perform this on both sides. The shape should be symmetrical so pay attention to the height on the left and right. (picture 3)
8. Place the leaves of kadaga and phyllo at the front below around the container.
9. Cut roses approximately 10-15 cm in height and then put them in groups between the twigs and hydrangea, each for 1 dozen on the left and right.
10. Finally, attach 3 white calla lilies parallel the twigs in different level of height and tilt angles. Because calla lily flower has a quite soft big stem, so be careful when attach it. Once you attach, do not revoke. So make sure it has been attached to the desired place. If you often revoke, it will damage the oasis and the stem. The easiest way is to notice the tip of the flowers and make sure it leads to the angle you want.
11. Cover the visible oasis with foliage such as ruscus and leather leaves. Finished.

Wedding Flower Bouquet: Rose Dolce

It's a quite different wedding bouquet as 'Margriet' floral designers rarely use dolce roses. This kind of rose has pink colour with rather darker tone on the tip of its petals.  Beautiful roses, aren't they?

Floral Designer: Team Margriet

Weekend Retreat in Lembang part 2

Finally morning came, let's get out of this bunk beds and explore ! it's around 5.30 AM and the sun just rising....

First of all: breakfast. We filled our bellies with hainanese chicken rice (not bad, albeit the chicken a bit overcooked), marinated egg (not bad) and crispy fried meatball (yummy).

Breakfast done, we started exploring, mmmm...the fresh air and the mist....The mist used to be seen in Bandung but can only be seen in Lembang these days, so this like nostalgic.. As this is a vast complex, lots of plants and flowers can be seen, like this flower, bird of paradise ....

 bougenville...

heliconia...

silver dollar leaf ...

Exploring further, we entered the pine forest... 

It turns out there's another house in the complex, we thought the owner might reside here... , and in their garden we saw .... A tree house!!!  we wanted to explore further but stopped by the sight of the big dog ...

So we walked back nearing the main gate.... mushroom...  very cute, isn't it?

blue hydrangea

there's also a pond...

African lily...

After walking around and taking some pictures, at last we must gather again for the morning mass. Wait for our next post since the view was fantastic !!!!

Note:

Wisma El Shaddai. Jalan Sersan Bajuri 59, Lembang 

Wedding Decor: Orange-Yellow Theme

Cute, isn't it? This heart shaped congratulatory wreath is not part of the church decor, but I put it on the post because in Bandung I've rarely seen congratulatory flowers other than the usual board flowers. Made by Zahraa Floral & Decoration, the  wreath comprised of pink roses and carnations, white chrysanthemums and daisies and filled with foliage. I do hope cute congratulatory flowers like this used more often in the future!

Back to the usual wedding church decor, this is how the decor look from the entrance. Bright orange hued colour that can be seen from a far...

The side and front view of the flower centerpiece in front of the altar

So bright and colourful!! Love it, orange really good to brighten a room, especially under the afternoon light. The flowers used are rose mohana, anthurium, hydrangea, lily sorbone, yellow and white snapdragon, statice. The foliage is ruscus, phylodendron and 'song of India' or dracaena reflexa. The picture below is the flower arrangement in front of the psalmist altar.

The floral design at Mary's statue and the close-up.  Here, it didn't use lily sorbone but orange gerberas instead.

Close-up detail on the candles stand flowers and the floral design for chairs. Besides the flowers mentioned above, they also used poms, leather leaves and scheflera for the chair decor.

The wedding bouquet and bridal candle, very tropical in bold colours 

The ring pillow and bible tray, unfortunately we didn't know who the decorator is.

Note:
Church decorator: Team Margriet

Weekend Retreat in Lembang part 1

Some time ago me and mom went for retreat with our fellow 'Krisma' friends of about 100 persons at Wisma El Shaddai in Lembang area, we stayed one night there and we'll share some lovely flower pics with you!! Since this is too long for one post we'll divide our adventure into 3 parts, let's begin...

Finding this wisma isn't difficult since it's located along the main road, but  the best is you drive slowly since there's no big sign board. The name and street number are just painted on the gate. This is the view from inside the complex, the white gate is the main gate, at the left side of the gate there's a function room pictured above and behind the pine trees are the parking lot.

and near the parking lot we can see a few villas with a pool in the middle. Wanna see inside ? No, you can't ahahaha... You see, these lux villas were for the comittee of 'Krisma' only, and we, humble participants would stay in smaller rooms in nearby building.

So reluctantly we left the villas, across the parking lot and walk down the road bridge.

From the bridge we can view participants' building for tonight, right wing of the top floor used for terrace and dining room as seen at the picture above and left wing used as function room for the retreat and mass. Our rooms located below, and to my surprise : it's bunk beds !!!! Sheeesh, I haven't slept on bunk bed since high school. And moreover a room was for 6 participants. Gosh!!

Let's think about the bunk beds later, and we proceed with afternoon tea (the cakes not bad) and looking around the complex, right behind our building is beautiful valley view.

There's other similar building like ours, which was occupied by another group, also a large gazebo covered with vines, I think El Shaddai tries to make many function rooms at different location to cater the guests' needs.

Back to our building, at 17:00 the retreat began, just like a usual retreat it lasted until night.

Finally it's dinner time... I have to admit the scene here at night was quite romantic. The dinner tasted quite good, consisted of rice with chicken teriyaki, vegetable pork luncheon soup, claypot tofu and fish crackers.  The food was not bad at all for a 'homestead' scale. After dinner we had more discussion and so on (yawn)...

The retreat that day was concluded with holy mass (yawn..yawn). I couldn't wait for the following day, haven't got the chance to take lots of flower pictures that day, but would do that first thing in the morning. Meanwhile let's sleep...on a bunk beds shared with 6 people.

Note: 

Wisma El Shaddai, Jalan Sersan Bajuri 59, Lembang, West Java

Church Decor on Ash Wednesday: Dried Flowers and Foliage

Time surely flies by, cause it's almost easter already!! Gosh I can't believe over two months has been passing since we started this blog, hohoho..

Well, enough the chat, our inspiration today is about dried flower arrangements. As you can see from the first picture, the arrangement consists of dried scorpion orchids, and dried foliage such as palm leaves, phillo, asplenium or in Indonesia called as 'kadaka', fern, pine, and gold painted ruscus etc.

The crowd waiting in line to get the imposition of ashes at the second mass of Ash Wednesday today. 

The flower arrangement in front of the altar

The twin flower arrangements on Jesus and Mary statues

detail of the flower arrangements

Decorator: Team Margriet

Wedding Decor This Week: A Green Tone Flower Decor

A bit different from the usual wedding church decor dominated with flowers, today we will show you a green tone flower decor that mainly used leaves instead of flowers.

Although not many flowers used, the decor still looks elegant. So don't be afraid to ask your florist for leaves decoration if you want a green theme wedding. Shown here are side and front views of the flower centerpiece in front of the altar.

Details of flower arrangement in front of the psalmist altar. Flowers and leaves used on the decor are white gerbera, chrysant, kermit, schefflera, phillodedron, bromelia and dracaena reflexa or in Indonesia usually called as 'song of india'.

The Margriet ladies on duty Mrs. Helena, Mrs. Trees,  Mrs. Fang Chen etc.

Front and side detail views of the chair's flower arrangements.

Too bad the floral designers' name is unknown, but I think their ideas to use fresh flower decoration on both ring pillow and bible tray is great! My only curiosity is how they gonna put the rings.. mmm... on top of the flower petals, perhaps?

Detail of the flower arrangements at Jesus statue

Church Decor by Team Margriet
Florist for ring pillow and bible tray is unknown. If you know please inform us.