Of Flowers and Family

Shortly after florist Lisa Pritchett launched the award-winning Lilium Floral Design in Colleyville in 2008, daughter Taylor spent the summer between college and grad school working for her mother. By the time Taylor was supposed to pack her bags, she’d fallen in love with Lilium and decided to stay. Nine years and countless client weddings later, the mother-daughter team would tackle their most personal project to date — designing the flowers for Taylor’s July 2018 wedding to Zach Zender.

“I’ve always gravitated toward a neutral palette for flowers,” says Taylor. Adds Lisa, “Taylor loves the garden look. Given that the reception was at the Modern, I felt we needed a modern twist, something different.”

Being industry professionals, the duo felt some pressure even though they were working for themselves. “People couldn’t wait to see what we came up with,” says Lisa. “My husband said, ‘You need to knock this out of the park.’ ”

Featured prominently in the bride’s bouquet were crisp white phalaenopsis orchids. “It has always been one of my favorite flowers,” says Taylor. “I love the way they drape.” The bloom would reappear in the groom’s boutonniere. The bridesmaids’ bouquets gathered together hydrangeas, Playa Blanca garden roses, ranunculus and orchid blooms. The couple’s mothers were given small bouquets rather than corsages, a mix of Playa Blanca garden roses with greenery. With Marty Leonard Community Chapel decorated with ferns that naturally complemented the garden theme, and which they were asked not to move, Taylor and Lisa decided to leave the architecturally dramatic space untouched. Keeping things understated at the ceremony would make their fanciful design for the reception an even bigger surprise.

Guests arriving to the Modern were met with a stunning vision in white, a simple color palette taken to dramatic heights. Most striking were the 300 clear test tubes suspended from Lucite frames, holding hundreds of white ranunculus. “There is nothing prettier than hanging flowers,” says Lisa. The display stretched 16 feet for a dramatic installation over the head table. On the tabletop were floating white gardenias, both beautiful and fragrant.

On the guest tables, tall Lucite centerpieces, made for a Lilium event several years ago, featured a pavé of flowers on all four sides. There, Taylor brought in some subtle color with silver brunia berries, dusty miller and greenery together with ranunculus, roses and scabiosa, a play on the Modern’s silvery gray feel with its concrete walls and big windows. “The beautiful thing about Lucite is at night, when the lights are down, it disappears,” says Lisa. “It appears like the flowers are floating in the air.”

One challenge for the mother-daughter team would be that unlike other venues, the Modern is open to the public until 5 p.m. daily, so there would be a very narrow window for setup before the 7:30 p.m. reception. With both women at the wedding ceremony, they trusted the speedy execution of the vision to the rest of the Lilium team. “I had a staff meeting Friday and had typed up a list of who was doing what,” says Lisa. “When those doors open, it’s like this Mission Impossible thing.”

As she left the ceremony, Lisa’s phone buzzed with a text from the first friend to arrive at the reception, who wrote, “The room is absolutely stunning and breathtaking; people are stopping on their way in and going, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”

In addition to the hanging installation and centerpieces, a flower wall served as a photo booth backdrop, fresh flowers adorned the bride’s hair, orchids were re-created in sugar on the wedding cake, and white rose petals were thrown as the couple made their exit.