Rose Meanings

Red Rose: Love

Yellow Rose: Friendship.

Pink Rose: Affection, Grace, Admiration

Lavender Rose: Enchantment

Orange Rose: Passion, Enthusiasm

White: Purity, Innocence

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. 

Wedding May 2014; Capon Springs Resort

I work with many brides who are not local. Some of whom I never physically meet!  With all the various means of communication today, face-to-face consultations are happening less and less.  This is one of the weddings where I did most of the communication via phone and email, pinterest boards, picture swapping in emails and the final day everything was gorgeous.  Wedding location was the secluded and serene Capon Springs Resort, Capon Springs WV.  It always reminds me of the resort from the movie "Dirty Dancing".

The Bride's bouquet; Hydrangea, lisianthus, sweet peas, dusty miller. Very soft and romantic.  

  
The wedding party.




The ceremony at the Music Pavilion:

 
The bride picked out her own clear hobnail jars that I filled with simple bouquets of hydrangea and seeded eucalyptus.

 






The reception was at the Sunset Lodge which overlooks the resort's golf course.  It is a huge outdoor space that is sheltered and features stone fireplaces.

I love when a bride personalizes her wedding with hand picked containers.  In this wedding, silver candle holders with glass hurricanes accented with seeded eucalptus, milkglass containers and compotes filled with hydrangea, lisianthus, and other assorted flowers.

The cake decor was a challenge actually.  Seeded eucalyptus stems are too heavy to individually place stems on cake layers.  So I hand wired the leaves and accents of fresh lavender for a light weight accent to be placed on the cake layers instead of inserted into the layers.

all photos courtesy of Ash Imagery, all flowers designed by Flowers by Snellings, Capon Springs Resort, May 2014

Guest Blogging Tuesday Sept 16th!

Head over to http://www.winchesterbridalexpo.net/ for our guest blog post about wedding flowers!

7 Things About Flowers You Need To Know

1. Fresh flowers have a shelf life. Somewhere between 3-7 days depending on the type of flower. it can be longer.   It depends on where the flower had to travel from before it got to your home.  Columbia? Holland? Canada? Russia?  Once you cut a flower from the plant it's technically "dead", we are just prolonging how long that dying process takes.  Farm > plane to US > Customs > Shipping via plane or truck (or both) to wholesaler somewhere in US > Retail florist > your house. That's alot of travel.

2. Fresh cut flowers do not like direct sunlight.  Again, you have a product that no longer needs the sun's rays to blossom, placing them in direct sunlight will only bake them.

3. Fresh cut flowers do not like extreme cold (below 40 F) or high heat/humidity (above 70-75 F).  Water freezes at  32 F degrees.  Flowers are made up of mostly water and plant cells.  If you need to store them in a refrigerator,  turn the knob to the warmest setting which will keep things cool without freezing them.  
    I once had a client mention in a conversation after their event that by the end of the afternoon the vase arrangements "looked wilty". The event was outdoors, in August, in the afternoon under a tent with no ventilation.   It was 95 degrees plus humidity making the heat index around 99-100 F.  I  was wilty after about 20 minutes of setting up the outdoor event.

4. The back of the UPS/FedEX truck is NOT temperature controlled.  Our delivery vans are.  Keep that in mind when shopping those "online deals" with "same day delivery" through 800-companies.  Our UPS driver told me on a hot summer day the back of his truck hits above 110F easy.  Those companies suck you in on the deal and don't really care what the end product looks like after traveling in the back of truck all day.  We do.

5. Fresh cut flowers like fresh water.  Clean fresh tap water is just fine.   Changing the water every day to every other day is a great way to keep your flowers looking great.   My pet peeve as a floral designer is whenever I am out somewhere and see a vase of flowers where the water is cloudy.  I know it's been several days at that point and the flowers benefit so much from fresh water.  You wouldn't want to drink out of your juice glass that's been sitting there for 3 days right?  Same for fresh flowers.

6.  There is no such thing as "funeral looking flowers".  We have no idea what you mean when you say that over the phone.  Yes, there are flowers that are used in greater frequency in sympathy design but are also used in other areas of floral design as well.  And everyone has a different interpretation of what "funeral looking" means.  For most people, it just depends on what the predominant flower at a funeral that they attended was, thus cementing  the connection between that particular flower and funerals.    

7. "In season" rarely means "cheap".  It may mean "cheaper than the off season" but what it really means is "available during it's natural growing season".   Before mass flower production, tulips and iris were only available in spring, sunflowers in summer, and chrysanthemums in fall.

Smartphone vs. Professional Photography

What is the difference between each set of  pictures of the same arrangement?  A professional camera vs a smartphone. It makes an incredible difference.   Not only for special events, but for online ordering as well.  In real life/3D your own eyes capture everything, but the quality of a photo is a huge factor when judging flower arrangements for quality of design. (Julie Napear Photography, Swadley Studios, & Moxie Photos respectively)