Rachel Ray Hosts "Wedding in a Week" with Julia Testa
It feels like the last few months have been a whirlwind here at Julia Testa. From our successful holiday season to our gorgeous new storefront retail home, it’s felt a little surreal, like a fairy tale right here in New York.
The magic continued when we were hired to do the floral arrangements for an episode of Rachael Ray (we know, amazing!). We couldn’t believe it when we got the call, but we knew we were up for the challenge.
Rachael explained that the “Wedding in a Week” segment isn’t done very often, but when a special case comes up, she still jumps at the chance – and for this special case, we got the chance to jump too.
A couple wrote in and told Rachael their story, and Rachael and company were so touched by it that they decided they had to sponsor their wedding. The bride and groom were high school sweethearts finally tying the knot, and the groom, Hunter, suffered from Stargardt’s disease, which caused his eyesight to start disintegrating at age 13.
Hunter wrote to Rachael for help getting the special glasses he would need to see his fiancee, Brittney, to propose to her on the show.
We were so honored and excited to have been chosen to craft the floral arrangements for the segment. The only flowers the show specifically asked us to use were red roses – Brittney’s favorite. We thought the bright colors might represent a slight challenge, given the teal bridesmaids’ dresses, but here at Julia Testa, making clients’ wishes come true is just another day at the office. We couldn’t wait!
We started by handcrafting a wedding arch using red, peach and pink roses, garden roses, spray roses and burgundy snapdragons, wild greenery such as ranunculus, quince, eriostemon and seeded eucalyptus, as well as antique blue hydrangea and red hanging amaranthus, to tie into Brittney’s color palette.
Then we made two four-foot-tall urns for the corners of the aisle to welcome Brittney onto the set using the same combinations. Quince is expensive, but we felt we couldn’t use anything else if we wanted to capture the wild romance and elegance of the occasion.
We only had two hours to get the arch and the urns constructed and set up perfectly. Designing a room for a crowd is one thing, but designing it for television is another! We had to make sure everything was exactly right so the viewers could share the romantic feeling.
Luckily for us, we made an extra, just-in-case floral piece, which turned out to be an absolute godsend, as it covered up a spot that otherwise might have looked bare on camera. That’s one of the things we’re really proud of: our ability to be adaptable in any situation.
In addition to the bigger pieces, we also put together five bridesmaids’ bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for both sets of parents and the groom, a bridal bouquet, a wall floral piece, and two long trough planters.
The set ended up being absolutely breathtaking. We were so honored to be a part of Hunter and Brittney’s big day – and we can’t wait to return to Rachael’s set.