Petals Bouder
- Aug 13, 2023
- 3 min read

Rooftop Wedding at Avanti on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado

This amazing couple asked for Colorado Sunset inspired florals featuring peonies and ranunculus for their late July rooftop wedding. Their ceremony and reception for 115 guests all took place on the top floor of Avanti Food Collective in downtown Boulder, Colorado on Pearl Street.

The Bride & Groom thought of every single detail. I mean, even his collar had the wedding date on it! They assembled an amazing and dedicated team to bring their event to life: Petals Flower Farm, Delilah Events & Wedding Planning, and Taylor Nicolo Photography.

I had promised the couple peonies but end of July is the very latest one can procure these flowers, which are at their height in May. While I experimented with cold storing some of the peonies harvested from our farm 2 months prior I was thrilled at the last moment to get some stunning peonies from a partner farm in Alaska (you do not want to know what they cost a stem).

To capture the many other stunning hues of our Colorado sunsets and take advantage of what our farm had to offer I added burgundy amaranth, blue thistle, scabiosa seed pods, pale blue larkspur, queen anne's lace, peach garden roses, mustard orchids, rosemary, mint, eucalyptus, Italian ruscus, and blushing bride protea.

If you know us, you know we use a huge variety of florals in our designs and this one was no exception! I think I also spy some yarrow, peach ranunculus, cluny ranunculus, and ivy for good measure!

The bridesmaids' bouquets and corsages had similar floral designs, just slightly more petite.

The color, movement, and texture of these pieces came out stunning and the photographer did a stellar job of highlighting them.

For the ceremony we had the unique challenge of fitting and constructing a Chuppah on the terrace, along with several rows of chairs for the 100+ guests. This amounted to a double arch of florals. The couple actually constructed the base with four poles in cement buckets, which we wrapped in seagrass baskets. Wind made it a bit dicy but the 12.5 pound buckets proved just heavy enough to withstand even the sail like effect once the top portion was mounted.

We built the floral structure in place, which took our team of three nearly 2 hours. First we attached large, fresh poles of curly willow which we then dressed in layers upon layers of blooms featuring dahlias, orchids, roses, and ranunculus, amongst other florals and greenery.

When the ceremony and photos concluded our team had about 30 minutes to deconstruct the arch and make the components disappear.

We then repurposed the florals around the venue as scattered florals and a few larger vase arrangements to frame the dance floor.

A fast and furious feat but totally worth it to extend the utility of the beautiful and copious florals that go into an arch. Thinking about having an arch or chuppah at your wedding?

We highly recommend them as they are THE piece that says "wedding!" They are the spot where most photos will be taken and memories created. They are also the most floral heavy and complicated design of the day. Check out our wedding costs post to better understand just how much of financial investment floral installations are as you decide if one is in our floral budget.

Avanti is a sprawling, non-traditional space for a wedding. Management and the Avanti crew did a stellar job of making the space perfect for the event. There was so much delicious food, so many creative beverages, and plenty of friendly and energetic staff to keep the party going!

From a floral perspective the unique floor plan meant we needed a lot of flexible florals for the event. Usually wedding reception florals consist of centerpieces and welcome arrangements. In this case the venue has a lot of fixed furniture and not a lot of space for dedicated, long tables so the couple opted to have various food stations and scattered bud vases around the area. While we repurposed for multiple uses every single stem and bloom in our very healthy floral budget for this event we still felt like we could have had twice as many flowers to really bring the flower power. But we are flower fanatics so of COURSE we always want more flowers!

Real Talk: Would we do another wedding at this venue? ABSOLUTELY. The space was superb for a summer wedding and made for easy mingling and a fun, festive atmosphere. This couple managed to bring an air of refined elegance to the space that made it feel exactly right for a wedding, even though there were not traditional reception tables with assigned seating or plated meal service. This way the guests could mingle and enjoy the view while still celebrating the couple we all showed up to shower in flowers and love!