November Wedding 2017

Trying to come up with the "perfect" title for this blog post is difficult.  So I have opted to keep it simple and to the point. 

This wedding was large, elegant and I worked closely with some of the best wedding vendors in the Shenandoah Valley.  Most of whom I have worked with many, many times- even have enlisted their services for my own wedding in 2012. 

The setting for this wedding was at the gorgeous, historic George Washington Hotel in downtown Winchester, VA.   The Ballroom doubled as the Ceremony location with its focal point mantle decorated with candles and flowers in blush and ivory.   This mantle is one of the easiest (in my opinion) to decorate- it is large enough and wide enough to allow for a variety of design and decor options. 

The Bride requested a cascade in soft blush and ivories, touches of burgundy, and a accents of silver foliage. 

Dahlias were the focal point of the bouquet.  Dahlias are extremely popular in the fall, especially for weddings.  As a designer, I tend to handle dahlias with care.  I was so worried I was going to receive bent petals, popped off heads, or other dahlia-dilemmas...they can be really tricky to work with when you want every petal to be perfect.  Thankfully all shipments came in flawless and the 'Cafe Au Lait' dahlias were gorgeous- 

The Bridal party wore navy dresses in various styles with coordinating bouquets of blush, burgundy, and silver foliage.  Here is one of the bouquets in progress : 

I design almost every hand tied bouquet in the European style- meaning once I am finished it can literally stand on it's own because of the rotation of the stems. 

The Bridal party :

 


The Ceremony:

One of the personal touches this couple incorporated was their love of travel and all the places they have been.  On the place card table in the Lobby, luggage tags were used to send guests to a location themed table in the ballroom. 

The reception tables were decorated with similar elevated arrangements sitting on water filled pilsner shaped vases.  Due to the scale of the arrangements and weight, transportation and placement on the reception tables took place after the guests had exited the ballroom. 

The reception arrangements required a separate delivery trip and assembly in the staging area adjacent to the ballroom:

 This is called a room"flip".  By and far, the banquet staff and wedding coordinators made the transition seamless. The reception: 

It was a wonderful wedding and a huge shout out to all the vendors for the phenomenal work:

The George Washington Hotel, Amy VanMeter Events, Julie Napear Photography, 

The DJ Connection, An Affair To Remember Videography, The Lucky Cakery,

SAS Studio

2015: A Brand New Year, and a New Color- Marsala

A new year, a new Pantone Color for the year- Marsala! I picked this image because it shows accent colors of berry reds and blues to compliment:

A few wedding ideas to follow this color scheme:

Red roses, red dianthus, light blue delphinium, pink heather, 'garnet glow' mini callas, hypericum berries. 



A boutonniere of red hypericum berries, pink heather and salal leaf with ribbon accent;







A flower girl halo below of heather, boxwood and hyacinth blooms secured with silver bouillon wire.  Texture with minimal weight is more comfortable for little girls (and increases the chances they will wear it for the entire ceremony!)

and an even deeper contrast with bright and dark blues, plum purple and shades of reds and burgundy. 

Shades of Purple

This year's wedding season is drawing to a close. The big color (again) this year was purple followed closely by dark blue.  So here's a look back at the color schemes that were chosen by a few of my brides to compliment purple.  First up is a purple/lavender/pink combination.  The wedding was outside at the lovely Whitehall Manor in Bluemont, VA.  Photos courtesy of StephanieLeighPhotography

Purple stock, pink spray roses, dark purple mini calla lilies, cream roses for the bride and similar bouquets for her attendants.

The Groom: 

The table centerpieces continued the color scheme inside for the reception on grey table linens.   

Another wedding was less formal and occurred at a gorgeous private residence in Winchester.  The attendants were all wearing various shades of purple dresses so the bouquets were a mix of purples and lavenders, very wildflower feeling.  Pop of yellow to break up the purple.  Bouquet features freesia, fresh lavender, globe amaranth, veronica, trachelium, stock, fresh wheat and a person favorite-ageratum. Photo by Me

Image courtesy of SamStroudPhotography:

  

The flower girl halo being modeled by my daughter, italian ruscus, plumosa and fresh lavender; 

 photography by me. 

Another completely different, bold color scheme to compliment deep purple/aubergine dresses.  The bride's bouquet featured dark purple hydrangea, purple lisianthus, purple stock, ageratum, lavender alstroemeria, 'Orange Unique' roses, and orange lilies. Photography by me.  

Submerged orange mokara orchids gave simple but bold color to the reception tables at the Holiday Inn Blue Ridge Shadows.  

If you prefer traditional, high contrast, or wildflowers; many choices are available to you year round with a purple color scheme. 

Why choose a professional floral designer?....

Why you should use a professional florist for your wedding or special event:

We are professionals.  We design flowers every day, all day, for many occasions.  This is not a “hobby” for us.  We have spent years in college or other floral design programs, and also have industry accreditations that back up our expertise in floral design.  (see www.AIFD.org, the American Institute of Floral Designers)

1. We know the inside scoop on flower growing conditions/availability.   We talk to our suppliers on a daily basis.  Emails, Texts, Phone conversations.  We will know when a particular flower is not available due to drought, flooding, insects, crop problems, etc.  and are able to plan accordingly.We also know how long it will take to get this:
   

    to look like this: 

   
2. You want to know the person designing your flowers has done this before.   A professional floral designer has designed numerous wedding bouquets, centerpieces; in every imaginable color scheme and style. 
   

   
3. Designing flowers is time consuming and labor intensive.  The industry average from start to finish for a small arrangement is 15-20 minutes.  Imagine the complexity of a bridal bouquet.  Now you are talking 30-60 minutes depending on style and flowers.  This is for a professional to design it.  If you plan on DIY, double those numbers.  Then add all the centerpieces, bouquets, corsages, etc into the time total and you may be looking at 1-2 days of designing.  Do you have that kind of time prior to your wedding day? Probably not.  Professionals know how to schedule their work load to accommodate designing multiple weddings, adding staff and working extended hours to make sure everything is ready for you special day.  
   

   
4. We will tell you Silk a.k.a. Permanent Botanicals will cost the same or more than their fresh counterparts.   Why? If you want realistic looking flowers, that will photograph well, than you will want top quality silk flowers.  The cheaper the flower, the cheaper it will look in your pictures.   We beg you to not go to the big-retailer-who-will-not-be-named and purchase cheap discount silks for your wedding day. 
5. We know about budgets.  We do.  We want to give you the best possible wedding within a budget you are comfortable with.   We are here to make your life easier, not more stressful.

We really, really want you to be a repeat customer and refer us to your friends & family.  That is why every wedding is so important to us.  We see the big picture beyond the wedding day.  Your best friend’s wedding, your first anniversary, your first child, flowers for your table at the holidays.   Your decision to trust us to deliver beautiful flowers is our number one priority

Las Vegas Part 4:The Rest of the Story...

So it's been an exceptionally busy month and my blog slipped by my To Do list! (for those that know me- Imagine that- I forgot something! )  I still have more pictures and fun things to share from Symposium in Las Vegas.  First up:

The flower arrangements in the Bellagio and Ceasar's Palace were A-MAZ-ING! It may be hard to get prospective from the picture but this arrangement was huge and gorgeous and I wanted to pack it up and take it home with me.  Unfortunately, the casinos tend to frown on that, so I just "ooohhh" and "aaahhh"-ed from a distance.

Now here, I was torn between the beautiful flowers and the stunning Dale Chihuly blown glass flowers suspended from the ceiling.  If you aren't familiar with him, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly

I thought these ceiling decorations were pretty cool.

The Program "Innovative Approaches to Interior Decoration" by Araik Galstyan featured these HUGE spheres, from 6' - 10' (at least) diameter, decorated with all kinds of flowers, mosses, wire, leaves, accents, etc. 

Not the best picture, but hopefully you can see the weaving of floral materials.

To give you an inside prospective to how these spheres were used in the show, and what exactly a floral runway show looks like:

Stay tuned.....more to come!

AIFD- The American Institute of Floral Designers

AIFD is an organization the promotes credibility, creativity, ethics and education throughout the floral design industry.  Every year around the 4th of July they hold their National Symposium (think runway shows in Paris and Milan) in a different city each year.   The Symposium consists of days of back to back programs, all presented on stage in a huge ballroom.  It is really something to see.  Our group takes over the entire hotel/conference center.  There are flowers in the lobbies, elevators- everywhere.  It's a great event for retailers  to recharge their batteries.  Here's some pics from previous events:

Abstract Designs to get you thinking...

Christmas Ideas (Boston, 2010)

Mirror Ideas(Boston 2010)

Wedding Flowers Runway show(Boston 2010)

Holiday Screen (DC,2006)

Merchandising/Party décor (DC, 2006)

So this may give you a little insight into the proportion of the event.  1,000+ people from around the globe in one place, at the same time, sharing ideas, creativity, education.  It's a great experience.  And this year it's in......LAS VEGAS.  I am SUPER excited as I have never been to Vegas and haven't been able to go to a Symposium since Boston.  I will post lots of pics after I get back to share all the fun and beautiful things I see. For more info on AIFD visit www.aifd.org

 

 

May Weddings

I haven't blogged in awhile mainly because the Month of May is CRAZY.  Not only did we have to be shut down during Apple Blossom Festival, the following week brought Mother's Day, 3 Proms (!), SU graduation and Nurses week- ALL in ONE WEEK.  Scheduling 3 proms mother's day weekend is insane for many reasons, but I won't go into that right now...that's a whole other blog post.
So finally after all that crazy, I thought (initially) the following week with 4 weddings wouldn't be that tough.  Unfortunately  my long time partner in crime (i.e. designer) had moved on to another opportunity closer to home.  Good for her, bad for me.  So it was me, myself, and I designing all the daily arrangements (funeral, hospital, birthdays, etc) and designing the weddings.  I got it all done and my designer did come in one night after her other job to help me out for a few hours.  (and I am so thankful she did).  With all the daily work I got a late start on the weddings and worked late into the night Thursday and Friday. Here's some pics:
One wedding inside the cooler waiting for Saturday delivery

Wedding #2 inside the cooler waiting for Saturday delivery:

Some other pics from this weekend's weddings:

Submerged orchids The bride's bouquet

Centerpieces in metal cube vases

Centerpieces.
(I apologize for all the weird spacing, but I haven't gotten the blogging format down to perfection just yet)