Here's what happened...

Yeah.....so I will be in The Knot! The bride spoke with her photographer who said that The Knot contacted her and told her that we'd been moved from the winter issue to the spring issue. So all is not lost. It's supposed to be out in the beginning of February so I'll put up links (we are supposed to be online too) when it does. Happy Holidays!

What Happened?

How excited I've been to think I would be seeing my designs in The Knot. But alas, as I hurriedly flipped through the pages of the winter issue of The Knot, NJ I did not see them, or the bride whose wedding was supposed to be featured. I'm disappointed of course, but know that my work speaks for itself and hope that you all still think my flowers are beautiful even though they aren't in the wedding magazine of all wedding magazines ;)! See you again in January and Happy Holidays!

The Grand Summit Hotel, Summit NJ

This wedding took place on Nov. 13th. And as I explained in my last post business has been good, so I've fallen a little behind in posting my weddings. I am looking forward to a Holiday break though, with my next wedding not until Jan 8th. Coming very soon is my debut in The Knot! The issue comes out Wednesday and I am very, very excited and will be stalking the shelves at my Barnes and Noble!

This wedding was all about fall with its orange and cinnamon colors. I explained in a post for my first Hindu wedding that Orange Hydrangea only exist as I create them in my back yard, and although it was cold at least the wind wasn't blowing the paint all over the place this time!

The brides bouquet contained orange hydrangea, orange celosia, mango calla lily, orange rancunculus, coffee break roses, and orange roses. The bridesmaids bouquets complimented the bride with coffee break roses, and mango calla's.

I also made an arrangement for the alter.

The groom had a boutonniere of orange celosia and white calla lily, I added a little sparkle to the bottom and like the little pop it gave the bout. The groomsmen had mango calla's and the fathers and mothers had brown cymbidium orchids.

The Cake: I always bring extra flowers with me, in this case the bride had asked me to decorate the cake here is what I came up with. I had extra roses so I used the petals to decorate the tables in the cocktail hour, where there were small round vases with submerged cymbidium orchids, and the tables in the reception.

It was most important to the bride that the centerpieces be a manageable size so her guests would take them home and they wouldn't go to waist. They contained hypericum berries, coffee break and orange roses, and each had one brown spider mum.

I made the coolest arrangement for the card table and didn't take a picture of it! I'm hoping the photographer got a good shot of it and I've been waiting for him to post the pictures, but they aren't up yet. When they are I'll see if he'll let me use some and I'll post them later. I had two stalks of the brown cymbidium orchids, one submerged in a cylinder vase and the other coming up out of the vase...it looked like one stem of continuous flowers. Hopefully you'll see it soon!

The Stone House, Warren NJ

First I know I've been slow in posting. I can't even believe how swamped I've been over the past month and I even had a point where I was embarrassingly behind on emailing brides and even had to put out an automatic response apologizing! But hopefully the wait was worth it because it was so much fun creating everything for this wedding which was on November 6th.

Sometimes when I am in the thick of a wedding I don't realize how beautiful something is that I have created. My husband always gives me a raised eyebrow look when I emerge from the basement with a bouquet and ask him what he thinks. The flowers I was working with here were not the typical white, pink fluffy flowers. It was a ton of fun working with them and I was really pleased with how things turned out, especially now looking back on the pictures.

The reception was held at an amazing Frank Lloyd Wright inspired venue called The Stone House, owned by the same people who own the Liberty House in Jersey City. It's about 1/2 hour from my home but I feel like I'm transported to the mountains in California every time I go there. Seriously, you have to stop by here for dinner, the food is innovative, original, and amazing!

The Bridal Bouquet was white roses, patience garden roses, scabiosa pods (these are so cool), ligustrum berries, and seeded eucalyptus.

The Bridesmaids carried a bouquet of white roses and seeded eucalyptus.

The Boutonnieres are probably my favorite of all the boutonnieres I've made so far. Fiddlehead fern, with scabiosa pods, seeded eucalyptus, and these really funky ball things with furry 'leaves' if you can even call them that.

The centerpieces were completely different and were almost edible! With purple artichoke, succulents, pink sedum, green kale, green hydrangea, scabiosa pods, seeded eucalyptus, and dusty miller I was worried they looked like salads! In the end though I really loved how they turned out.

Hopefully I'll be able to post my wedding from November 13th tonight too! Happy Flower Hunting!

A Hindu Catholic Wedding, West Orange NJ

When I think back to the wedding, which was last weekend, the first thing that comes to my mind is how absolutely gorgeous the bride looked. She dressed in traditional clothing, it was breathtaking. ( The other thing that comes to my mind is how adorable it was that her groom, and their two sons were all wearing converse!) I am anxiously awaiting her return from the honeymoon so I can get some pictures of her with her bouquet. She was running just a tad behind and had to rush, rush off to the ceremony before I had a chance to steal a picture.

The brides bouquet was simple Orange Voodoo and Cherry Red Roses. And the bridesmaids bouquets were small and sweet bunches of the same color roses.

This wedding, which was my first Hindu ceremony, gave me the opportunity to make garlands. From what I've read it represents unity between the couple. The bride asked me to make them a little shorter than they traditionally are.

Some Boutonniere shots

I started labeling them after a wedding where I noticed that some of the groomsmen had on the pin on corsages I had made for the grandmothers...I guess I should have known better dropping them off to a group of guys who were clearly enjoying themselves before the ceremony!

Now for my favorite part of the wedding...the orange hydrangea centerpieces. "Orange Hydrangea" you say, "It doesn't exist!" Well you are 100% right. Orange hydrangea does not occur naturally..it occurs in my backyard in 40 degree temps, on a windy night, with several cans of flower spray paint. This was also a first for me, spraying flowers...and something I thought I would never do....flowers are beautiful on their own...why spray paint them? Well after I created these arrangements and they were on the set tables, the room looked amazing. And when I spray hydrangea orange again, for a wedding next weekend, I will do it with confidence and happily, knowing that it will look incredible.

Finished arrangements in the truck ready to be put on display, I also included hypericum berries, circus roses (which are yellow/orange in the center and red towards the ends), and marigolds.

I'll leave you with pictures of the ceremony site, and the thousands of rose petals strewn on the aisle. Loved, Loved doing the flowers for this wedding. I joked with the bride that she is going to be bored now having all of the wedding planning behind her!

A small disclaimer, I cannot take credit for the arrangements for the ceremony, I was only responsible for the rose petals. The beautiful Indian decor was provided by Abhisek Decorators, out of Iselin NJ.

The Fiddler's Elbow Country Club

I have been super busy with weddings, meeting with brides, and answering emails...and my baby girls first birthday party, which was yesterday in the park. (We were so lucky to have such amazing weather....and just enough wind for my almost 3 year old to fly his first kite...he made it look so easy! My husband was a little jealous remembering his battles with kites in his youth!).

So as I write I am finding myself a little exhausted and gearing up for three straight weekends of weddings starting on the 30th. Then my 'winter break' begins...things always slow down between December and March.

This place was beautiful, I felt like I was in the English country side pulling up to the clubhouse. Here's a link to Fiddler's Elbow site.

The bride had a very cool idea of creating asymmetrical tall arrangements, so working with gladiolus (these are in season locally), roses, green dendrobium orchids, and hydrangea, this is what I created. It was based on a picture of an arrangement the bride sent me that would sit along a wall, so I adjusted it so it looked good from all angles, and created it so the stems weren't blocking the view across the table.

So here are the rest of the pictures!

Brigantine NJ

Where to begin.....

This is the last wedding I will ever be a bridesmaid for (me and my friend Carissa, who was also in the wedding, did a toast to this fact at the reception).....not because it wasn't a blast, but the last of my best friends is off and married.

I told Heather, long ago, I would love to do the flowers for her wedding. I should have known it would be a biggie (30 tables)....Heather's dad's friends nicknamed him "The Mayor", because he knows everyone...and Heather is much the same. It's rare that we go someplace and she doesn't run into someone she knows.

The weather was the most perfect wedding day weather, and while thunderstorms and high winds threatened the outdoor tented affair the night before (luckily the storms passed just to the north of Atlantic City and Brigantine...the nervous fiance, Joe, was camped out in front of the weather channel for part of the night watching the storms on the radar, hoping the tent wouldn't get blown away)

The main flower of this wedding was some serious, serious hydrangea...in colors that were so vivid it was crazy. The supporting flowers were purple and yellow roses, purple cymbidium orchids, and purple dendrobium orchids.

As I was unpacking the hydrangea, the blue was firm and fresh, the pink the same, ....then the purple....which I unpacked last. As I was unpacking the blue and pink I was happily thinking to myself that I was in hydrangea heaven, as I unpacked the purple I realized I might be entering into hydrangea hell! There was a fuzzy mold growing on the stems and they were wilting. So I put them in water and crossed my fingers. And as I guessed, by the next morning most of the purple had begun to wilt. I cut again and put them in warm water up to their heads and crossed my fingers. In the end I saved enough of them to complete all the bouquets and centerpieces...whew! (Imagine me here wiping the sweat off my brow)

The centerpieces matched Heather's personality perfectly, they were outgoing, bright, and their colors were true.....ok that might be total cheese, but it's the truth. Heather is the most genuine, loyal friend and I am so happy to have been part of the beginning of a new chapter in her life.

The excited bride.....

Because I was in the wedding I needed help...and my assistant/husband was on duty and my friend Amy from Philadelphia. She recently started her own floral design business, Leaves of Grass Floral Design.

Here she is among the flowers...

We worked the night before putting centerpieces together and finished around 2:30am. I was up at 7am to make out 8:15am hair appointments. While I was getting be-a-u-tiful Amy took charge and worked on the flowers while I was gone. When I got back it was corsages and bridal bouquet time. Then I was off to the church, while Amy and Cleat took care of setting everything up on site.

Said Corsage

And Bridal Bouquet....without and with the bride....

I took so many pictures that it's hard to edit!

Here are the bridesmaids bouquets and some of the pictures of the day that I really liked...And of course since I was taking all the pictures there are none of me!

Above...Carissa who will probably be calling me yelling at me for putting this picture on my blog!

Now for the centerpieces, well half of them...I forgot to take pictures of the fishbowls, which my hubby says he took pictures of so I'll post them at a later date....and maybe there will actually be a picture of me in there too! The tall vases on the tables were filled with marbles and a purple floralyte to light up the vase and a submerged dendrobium orchid...because of liability they couldn't dim the lights in the tent (we were on grass)...so they never got to show what they were capable of...but as it got dark people were asking me how I got them to come on...were they on a timer....it was just that you could only see them as it got dark. I didn't get a picture of them as it got darker...I was having too much fun by that point!

It was an insanely exhausting two days and I think it took me a week to completely recover!

Next wedding...October 3rd! Three days away!