Winter Break

So this is the slow time of the year in the land of weddings, but with the New Year comes new brides and I have several meetings in the first week of Jan to start things off.  I know I promised to make arrangements for the Holidays and post them, but time just got away from me and I haven't made it into NYC to the flower market (I know you understand!).  So as things start to pick up again in the New Year I'll be back in touch to let you know the trends my most recent brides are following.  Until then...Happy New Year!  

Flowers Uncut

A Reality show about florists?!

I'm sure that many to be brides and floral designers will be tuning in this week to TLC for the premiere episode of "Flowers Uncut", with Jeff Leatham.  I know I will be.  It seems that I am more wedding obsessed now than I was when I planned my own wedding! (I can't get enough of "Say Yes to the Dress"!)

Who is Jeff Leatham...you can click on the link above to see his flowery resume, but he has a pretty crazy clientele list, he did the flowers for Eva Longoria's wedding and designs for the Dali Lama  (hmmm those two people in the same sentence doesn't really jive does it?!).  In the teaser he says that you learn something new with each event....so true.  Every wedding I do I learn something that will help me to be more efficient or help me learn something new about floral design and how best to work with certain flowers.  I'm looking forward to being inspired.  Maybe you'll even get some ideas for your own wedding!   Happy viewing!  

My new favorite Color Palette

What a strange day for the end of October.  Saturday October 24th was a dreary, humid, rainy day...not the best weather for flowers...especially Ranunculus.  Their thin petals seemed to droop under the weight of the air.  Still I was pleased at how the flowers turned out, just wish they had been a little fuller.  And I can't forget the colors...It's my new favorite palette....Orange, blue, and white.  

A boutonniere of white ranunculus and blue hydrangea

A boutonniere of orange ranunculus

A corsage of white ranunculus

Bridesmaids Bouquets; orange ranunculus, freesia, and greens

Maid of Honor Bouquet;  orange and white ranunculus, blue hydrangea, and freesia

Brides Bouquet;  white ranunculus...simple and elegant

It was a bit of a harried morning.  In between making bouquets/boutonnieres and such I was feeding little 1 month old Kenzie.  So my husband was in charge of taking the pictures before we left.  He didn't get all the shots I usually do, but you can still get the idea.

For the reception the bride found these amazing vases, such an interesting shape, and perfect for a dramatic centerpiece of floating ranunculus and a table loaded with candles.  I wasn't there to see the final result but can just imagine how sparkling the room was with the candles reflecting off of the vase and the water.  I thought it would be a cute touch to place one single ranunc under the center portion.  Ranunculus under glass.  

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the centerpieces...in the rush of getting out of the house with baby...yes Kenzie was on the job...I forgot the camera.  It was her first gig...and last...it's only because I am nursing and she is so young.  Here is a link to the pic of the vase.  It measures 9 x 9 and was definitely big enough to make a statement without using a ton of flowers.

http://www.wholesaleglassvasesint.com/images/product/VCP0909-CL.gif

This winter will be a slow one, with my next event not until April.  Last winter I had at least 1 wedding per month, but this year...who knows, I think maybe the economy might be deterring some brides and grooms from making their wedding plans.  Anyway it might be for the best as Kenzie is so little and by April it will be much easier to leave her with a sitter while I work.  

Don't worry though ;)  I'll keep posting with floral designs I create in the mean time (the holidays are a really fun time for flowers) and any interesting ideas I come across.  

My Own Dahlia's

In Early Spring I had grand ideas of planting a cutting garden.  Off to Home Depot I went, planning and buying bulbs so I would have flowers all summer.

Early spring turned into late...then into summer...I guess I underestimated how much being pregnant would hinder my plans.  So in a last ditch effort my husband threw some bulbs into a dirt pile on the side of the house...and who knew they would actually bloom.  How gorgeous are they!

Maybe next spring I'll finish my cutting garden ;)

A Baby Shower

I created these designs for a mother to be.  The question was...boy or girl?  The colors were chosen to reflect this question.  

Unfotunetly this was my first unhappy client. My heart literally sank when I read her email outlining her discontent.   I liked the designs, and would never deliver something that I didn't think was up to par with what a client was looking for.  So here are the poor un-liked arrangements.  You can give me your feedback and let me know what you think!

(The roses were a bright pink, they show up red in the photos)

Check back next week for pictures of a ranunculus wedding I'm doing this weekend!

I'm Back!

So...what can I say.  I am surviving and getting by after the birth of my second child.  It's actually been much much easier than I thought...not that it's easy...just easier.  My first had colic and did nothing but cry for the first 3 1/2 months...thought I was going to jump off a bridge...really.  It is crazy how sleep depravation will make you...eh...crazy.  Well just when I thought I couldn't take anymore my stinker started sleeping through the night and we haven't looked back..he's almost two now...and as we speak trying to help me write this post.  

This past weekend I had my first wedding after baby.  

The Bride, doing things on a budget (who isn't!),  decided to go with a non-floral centerpiece.  So I created the flowers for only the ceremony.  It was the brides idea to have the bridesmaids carry a single XXL Calla.  Beautifully simplistic.   I used these last year for an October wedding, but ran into some trouble this time around.  The nice, big, domestic, Calla's I expected to use are a little late this year, so I had to rely on the Columbian grown ones...which are narrow.  I searched and picked through flowers to find the most open blooms and happily I was successful.

(above....my husband...who feels very manly when I ask him to model bouquets)

The boutonnieres mirrored this simplicity using mini calla's.  I left the stems long, I think it looks elegant but, I can't take credit for the idea....I saw it on the wedding episode of Nip Tuck and have been dying to mimic the design for a wedding.

The colors were white, red, and purple...and the bride, who runs her own dance studio and is a creative person, wanted something funky, but structured for her bouquet using roses and XXL Calla's.  And I actually found some that were dyed the perfect shade of purple.  

Baby Kenzie has arrived!

One day after her due date the little angel arrived.

Kenzie Lorraine Reynolds

9/21/09

10:11am

7lbs 4oz

20 in long

We came home Wednesday and are happily settling in.  

I'll be getting back in touch with brides by early next week!  Thanks so much for your support and patience!

Follow Up to Delightful Dahlias

Val, the photographer from the Delightful Dahlias wedding, was so generous in sharing these pictures with me and giving me permission to post them on my site.  It's always so nice to see the professionals pictures of the bride and bridesmaids with their bouquets.  They really know how to use their fancy camera's (Unlike me who is just learning!).  

If you'd like contact Val for your own wedding you can see more of his work and reach him through the link below.

Red Umbrella Studio

A Wedding in the Poconos

A Breathtaking View

This was part two of the sister act, part 1 being the peacock wedding, and it has the most beautiful view and location.  Everything here was self contained from lodging, to bridal salon, to spa, to restaurant, to cafe, to ceremony, to reception...you didn't have to leave for a thing.  What a nice way to spend your wedding weekend with family and friends...and actually have some time to enjoy their company!

Here's a link to their site....Stroudsmoor Country Inn.    

It totally reminded me of the place outside of Yosemite where one of my best friends was married...it was like we were all camping together for the weekend...just a little posher;)

Here's their link if you're ever headed out that way....The Evergreen Lodge

Joan and Sean, the bride and groom, were so generous in asking us to stay for the wedding.  Unfortunately it was down to the wire finishing the very involved, but in the end very cool, centerpieces and missed the ceremony.  I did sneak out later though to take some pictures before it got dark.

The Brides bouquet stayed towards the traditional in shape, nice and round, and was made up of Red Cherry Roses, and red and green Hypericum Berries.  In her toss bouquet the berries framed the roses.

If you've been keeping up with the blog you know that I am well into my 9th month of pregnancy and over did it about two weeks ago,  strained a ligament in my belly and was on bed rest for two days.  I had one day of feeling good, when I woke up on the Wednesday before this wedding with a pounding headache.  I never get headaches and I couldn't move without shooting pain in my head.  Turns out I had a fever...which kept creeping up to 101...which in pregnancy land means you need to go to the hospital.  Fortunately I was able to keep it down with Tylenol, but there was no way when Thursday morning came I could go into NYC to pick up my flower order.  

So my husband and my mother-in-law came to the rescue, he took off work and went to the flower district.  I needed to pick up a few things and he texted me and took pictures...I seriously am thankful everyday for him.  He even conditioned all the flowers for me and made sure everything that he could do was done.  

Friday I was feeling better and got more of the prep work done, but needless to say it was a rough weekend.  On Saturday (the day of the wedding) I woke up, no fever....but that night when we got home it shot up to 101.9...thankfully though again I took tylenol and it went back down.  

So back to the wedding.  The bridesmaids carried bouquets that had a little more of a wild look to them.

The boutonnieres, and corsages mirrored the bouquets.  

We had a boutonniere meltdown.  I've never had to fix so many broken boutonnieres as I did at this wedding.  I didn't see the groom/groomsmen before the ceremony so they were on their own putting the boutonnieres on.  And sometimes guys can be a little rough with the flowers, holding on to the head of the flower while trying to pin them on...which can break the stem.  I think in all I had to re-make 5 of the 11 boutonnieres.  Note to self...I should always pin on the bouts...or I need to find a way...maybe a toothpick up the back...to give them some more support.  And I also need to label them better since some of the grandfathers and groomsmen were wearing the pin on corsages for the grandmothers.  Don't know if this happened because the guys took them after theirs broke or my instructions for who was to get what was lost along the way.  So another note to self...better labeling of the bouts/corsages.  

Pin on Corsage

Boutonniere for the groom and fathers

Boutonniere for the groomsmen, no leaves and no fancy curly cue at the bottom.

The centerpieces were the most involved that I've done to date.  There were 8 steps to putting these together....8!  And with 22 centerpieces it was down to the wire for me and my husband since we weren't permitted into the reception site until 12:30...and I knew we had hours of work ahead of us...I would have liked to get there and start working earlier, but everything worked out.  Here's what needed to be done.  

Step 1:  wiring the hanging candles (done before hand)

Step 2:  putting the river rocks in the vases and filling them with water (placing the rocks in the vases done before hand)

Step 3:  hot gluing the ring of flowers to the top of the vase

Step 4:  cutting and placing the branches in the vase (cutting was done before hand)

Step 5:  wiring the hanging votives onto branches 

Step 6:  wiring flowers on to branches

Step 7: placing the ivy on the branches

Step 8:  Placing them on the tables and putting lose moss and rose petals on the table

And here's how they came out...Dahlias, Roses, Green Hanging Amaranthus, and ivy were used to create the design.

And that's it until my next wedding on October 10th.  I've been spending my time preparing for baby girls arrival and enjoying this time with my almost 2 year old son.  Dr. says that she should be here within the week, so we are all very excited!  

The Peacock Wedding

The Peacock Wedding

I worked on a wedding for Sept. 5th and started reminiscing on a wedding I did back in March.  This was a sister, sister act.  I worked with the one sister in March for what was dubbed the "Peacock Wedding" and more recently with the other sister.  Both sisters were great to work with and had fun and creative ideas for their floral designs.  And both weddings rank up at the top of my favorite designs.  

So before I post about Joan's wedding (Sept. 5, 2009) I'm going to post the peacock pictures from her sisters wedding back in March.   Jen wanted purple, especially darker purples, which can actually be a difficult flower to find in abundance.  Roses come in shades of lavender but don't ever really go into dark purple.  So instead I used black magic roses, which are a very, very, dark red...rather than go towards the more pastel color roses.  They actually show up a little brighter in the pictures than they are in person.

These are the centerpieces....and yes the peacock feathers were in everything...so much fun!

Roses, Lysianthus, Dendrobium Orchids, and a purple filler flower

The brides ceremony was at the same location as the wedding...a beautiful old home in New York State.  So of course peacock feathers had to make an appearance here.

Bridesmaids Bouquets

The boutonnieres

And last but not least the bridal bouquet, which also had purple Iris's and Tulips

I loved this bouquet...I just thought it turned out so cool.