The Reserve at Perona Farms
Venue: Perona Farms
Photography: Caroline Morris Photography
Emily and Bryant's wedding took place on August 15, 2026, at The Reserve at Perona Farms in Andover, New Jersey. Twig Gardens designed the florals in a joyful late summer palette of raspberry, pink, coral, golden yellow, and orange, using dahlias, zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos for a garden-gathered, wildflower feel from ceremony to reception.
When Emily first shared her vision with us, two words kept coming up: wildflower paradise. She wanted flowers that felt happy and alive, colors that radiated summer joy, and a celebration that felt lively from the first step down the aisle to the last dance. It was the kind of dream that makes a florist's heart skip, especially in mid-August, when flower fields are at their absolute peak.
What Makes The Reserve at Perona Farms Special for a Summer Wedding?
The Reserve is one of three wedding venues on the Perona Farms estate in Andover, a family-owned property in Sussex County that has been welcoming guests since 1917. Reimagined in 2025, The Reserve leans into the romance of a Tuscan villa, with natural stone, warm wood, arched windows, and crisp white walls. Its garden ceremony space sits beneath a soaring glass roof that retracts, so couples can celebrate in open air on a clear day and stay comfortable if the weather turns.
For a florist, that combination is a gift. The neutral stone and white walls let saturated color take center stage, and the daylight pouring through the glass roof makes every petal glow. Slender potted cypress trees and strands of bistro lights give the space the feeling of an Italian courtyard, which made it the perfect stage for a loose, garden-style design.
A Color Palette Full of Summer Joy
Emily's palette read like a late summer garden in full bloom: deep raspberry, soft pink, coral, golden yellow, apricot, two shades of garden green, and a bright pop of hot pink. Her favorite blooms included dahlias, zinnias, craspedia, lisianthus, feverfew, black-eyed Susans, garden roses, cosmos, and snapdragons, so we built the design around those textures and filled in with marigolds, celosia, coneflowers, asters, and airy grasses.
The bridal party brought that palette to life in the most fun way. Emily's bridesmaids wore mismatched gowns in raspberry, tangerine, coral, butter yellow, and hot pink, and each bridesmaid carried a monochromatic bouquet matched to her dress. Emily's bridal bouquet was the piece that tied everything together, weaving every color in the palette into one lush, garden-gathered arrangement with extra greenery and trailing texture.
Up close, the bridesmaid bouquets show how much personality a single color family can hold. One bouquet glowed with orange marigolds and zinnias. Another paired creamy dahlias with butter yellow zinnias and chartreuse celosia. A third mixed pink coneflowers, magenta asters, and deep red blooms for a rich berry tone.
A Stone Mantel Ceremony Backdrop With Movement
The heart of the ceremony space at The Reserve is a stone fireplace with a rustic wood mantel stretching about nine and a half feet across. Rather than covering it edge to edge, we designed a tall, organic arrangement that rose up from the mantel and spilled over the edge, with hanging amaranthus trailing toward the hearth. A second cluster of blooms gathered on the lower ledge around a pair of black lanterns, and a smaller arrangement anchored the base of the fireplace.
That asymmetry is what gives a garden design its sense of ease. The flowers look as though they grew there, leaning toward the light and tumbling naturally, which felt exactly right for Emily's wildflower vision.
Along the aisle, six low white planter boxes overflowed with dahlias, marigolds, zinnias, lisianthus, and soft grasses that arched out over the turf. Paired with the white garden chairs, they framed the walk to the mantel without blocking a single guest's view.
How Did the Ceremony Flowers Carry Into the Reception?
One of our favorite parts of this design is that nearly every ceremony arrangement had a second life. After the ceremony, the Twig Gardens team moved the mantel florals to the sweetheart table, so the couple sat surrounded by the same flowers they said their vows in front of. The six aisle boxes became centerpieces on the long farm tables, each one surrounded by bud vases of single stems and clusters of glass votives.
Repurposing gives couples more visual impact from every stem, and it keeps the design feeling connected from one moment of the day to the next. At the reception, the warm wood tables, navy napkins, and black bentwood chairs made the coral, pink, and marigold tones look even brighter against the backdrop of The Reserve's tall arched windows. Cocktail tables and round guest tables received bud vases and votive candles too, so color and candlelight filled every corner of the room.
Why Late Summer Is Ideal for a Colorful Garden Wedding
August is one of the most abundant months of the year for wedding flowers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Dahlias, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, celosia, and coneflowers all hit their stride in late summer, which means couples who love bold, joyful color have an incredible variety to choose from.
The secret to a wildflower look is letting each bloom keep its natural shape. Mixing large focal flowers like dahlias with smaller, playful textures like cosmos, grasses, and celosia creates the kind of movement that feels freshly gathered rather than formal. A mix of low arrangements and single-stem bud vases also keeps tables open for conversation while still feeling full and festive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is The Reserve at Perona Farms? The Reserve is located on the Perona Farms estate at 350 Andover-Sparta Road in Andover, New Jersey, in Sussex County. It is about an hour's drive northwest of New York City.
Can you have a ceremony at The Reserve if it rains? Yes. The Reserve's garden ceremony space has a retractable glass roof, so the ceremony can stay in the same beautiful setting in any weather.
What flowers are in season for an August wedding? Late summer is peak season for dahlias, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, celosia, and coneflowers. These flowers are ideal for colorful, garden-style wedding designs.
Can ceremony flowers be reused at the reception? Yes. At Emily and Bryant's wedding, the mantel florals moved to the sweetheart table and the aisle arrangements became centerpieces on the long guest tables.
How do you make bridesmaid bouquets match mismatched dresses? A monochromatic bouquet for each bridesmaid, built in the same color family as her dress, ties a mismatched bridal party together. The bride's bouquet can then blend every shade into one arrangement.A Thank You to the Team
A Celebration Full of Color
Emily and Bryant, thank you for trusting us with a day as joyful as the two of you. Watching your wildflower paradise come together under that glass roof was one of the brightest moments of our summer. If you are dreaming of a colorful, garden-inspired wedding of your own, we would love to hear all about it at Twig Gardens.
