Bridal Bouquet Design

Bobby Van's Vault NYC Part II

2012-01-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

Did I mention it was a very windy day...well here's the proof! What a beautiful bride, what beautiful photography...and don't forget my flowers ;)

Wilshire Grand Hotel, West Orange Part II

2012-01-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

As promised here are some professional pictures of the floral arrangements I created for a beautiful Indian Wedding back in October....the colors are soo vibrant and came through much better than they did in my pictures! The photographer was Leva Sireikyte, of Leva Sireikyte Photography. She was super nice and I am very thankful to her for sharing these photographs with me. She works out of NYC but is able and willing to travel to New Jersey for events.

These to links will take you to the post from Leva's blog about the wedding Part I and Part II

Happy New Year and Happy Planning!

Wilshire Grand, West Orange NJ...The last post for 2011!

2011-12-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'll be leaving you with a bright, beautiful Indian Wedding. I'm in the process of asking the real photographer for her photo's. The colors of the the centerpieces look off to me...they were much brighter...like the pictures of the bouquets.

Since this is a slow time of year I'll be spending most of my time meeting with new brides preparing for upcoming weddings. So until the spring I'll be wishing you a healthy and happy New Year!

Bobby Van's Vault NYC

2011-12-27T10:41:00.000-08:00

Bobby Van's vault, which is downtown....way downtown, reminds me of a place that gangsters in the 1920's were hanging out plotting how to distribute their hootch...1920's speak for liquor. The wedding literally took place inside the vault.

The Bridal bouquet was made of lysianthus, hypericum berries, eucalyptus leaves, peach and pink roses, and Cafe au Lait Dahlias.

Pew bows were made of the same, with hydrangea added in.

There were two large centerpieces on either side of the alter...unfortunately the only picture I have is blurry!

The centerpiece above was simple with roses and hydrangea. See the safe deposit boxes this is inside the vault where the reception took place...

Cocktail hr centerpieces of roses and eucalyptus.

The next wedding, an Indian Wedding at the Wilshire Grand in West Orange..get ready for some color!

Waterside Restaurant, North Bergen NJ

2011-12-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

The Waterside Restaurant has an amazing view of the NYC skyline from NJ.

The wedding took place mid-September, in my opinion the best month to get married. The weather was beautiful. And since I wasn't permitted in the site until about 1hr before the reception I had some time to kill. I strolled along the waterfront, relaxed on a bench, took in the beautiful breeze and sunshine.

This wedding was dramatic and the bride had every last detail worked out. The reception was still being put together when I left, but seriously every last person working had some detail they were responsible for and everyone was scurrying around to make sure it looked perfect. And the cake...wait until you see my pictures of the cake!

This little bee landed on the bouquet as I was taking pictures.

Drama was on the menu for the day....and feathers were definitely called for! The Bridesmaids bouquets to the right were white spray roses and roses, either Akito..which are the pink, and Tibet, which are the white.

The Brides Bouquet was made of white roses, Juliette Garden Roses and White Dahlias.

Each bouquet had ribbed black ribbon with a cameo shaped rhinestone accent.

I can't wait until the end of the post to show you the cake so here it is!

I can't believe how real these spray roses looked...true artistry..if I knew who the baker was I would give them props!

The Bride really thought of every little detail. Including remembering that her vendors would probably be working straight through the day without much time to stop to eat. When I dropped off the bouquets I received this.....and a few hours later it really hit the spot! Inside was some candy, water, and a granola bar.

The more pictures I post the more I remember about the day. When I went to pick up the flowers things were a complete mess. My white hydrangea, that had been ordered before hand, ended up in someone else's hands somehow....this was a day where there was no white hydrangea to be found in the entire flower market...the only way you could have gotten it was either to order it before hand...or steal someone else's order! Then the roses I ordered were totally the wrong shade...they were more orange. So think...black ribbon, orangish roses = Halloween!..So the rush was off to try to find the right color, which luckily I did. Whew...crisis averted. The bride was very disappointed about the hydrangea. The best option I could go with was antique. I think in the end it all looked beautiful, but to a bride who had a very specific vision I know it was disappointing.

Since the site had a bridal shower booked for the afternoon that ran long I had to go to extreme measures to finish. There was no way I could make and travel with the candelabras all put together...so I found an out of the way spot in the parking lot to work...you can see the Waterside in the background.

There were three types of centerpieces for 12 tables...

Roses in a low black vase

Roses and Hydrangea on Candelabras

Roses and Hydrangea encircling lamps which really lit up for the reception

It really, really bugs me that the lamp shades were crooked in these pictures!

And for the sweetheart table pomanders of spray roses with a strand of crystals hanging from the bottom.

Coming soon....Two more weddings to post for 2011!

The Palace at Somerset Part II

2011-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Click here to see a slide show of my last wedding post from the professional photographer, Jayd Gardina (her link can be found in my favorite photographers to work with if you want her contact information). I've worked with her a few times and she is not only a great photographer, but a great person as well. You'll really get a sense of how rich and gorgeous these roses were..as she obviously knows how to use her fancy camera better than I know how to use my semi-fancy camera!

The Palace at Somerset Park

2011-12-18T13:56:00.001-08:00

Finally! My Mac is up and working again, my photos are all intact, and I can get back to posting the last of my weddings from 2011.

I literally lost blood for this wedding.

Right now I do all my work in a half finished basement. I've rigged some lighting to help me along, but it is still on the dark side over the sink. As I was cutting the flowers so they could condition..which is just a fancy way of saying putting them in water for at least 24 hrs before I start working with them..(and I will say I was rushing) I quickly snipped with the clippers.....and sliced off 1/2 of the pad of my pointer finger on my right hand (I know....cringe). Even now I'm not sure why that finger wasn't on the clippers. Before I brought my hand up out of the water I knew it was bad...It would have be funny I think if anyone was watching me..I was holding my finger wandering kind of spinning around trying to figure out what to do. The closest thing to me was a box of kleenex so I grabbed a bunch. Luckily as I was coming up the stairs my husband came home...we called his mom...who is a nurse, and she came over and fixed me up so I could keep working. That was 4 months ago...I have a shiny circle on the pad of my finger...no finger print there anymore...and it still hurts!

And I still made all the bouquets and such...just needed my husband to help me with the short centerpieces which were submerged roses strung on wire.

So the main focus of this wedding were black magic roses...they seriously are so rich they look like velvet. The brides bouquet had black magic roses and black calla lilies and the groom had a boutonniere of a single calla, black magic rose and steel grass. Pictured below with the bouquet is the mother's corsage.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of black magic roses and the groomsmen had a single stem of black magic rose.

Jayd Gardina was the photographer for this wedding and I am dying to see the photo's she took! As soon as I have them I will post!

There were two types of centerpieces for the reception. And at our initial meeting as the bride was describing what she wanted I said "Like Beauty and the Beast?" and the answer was yes. So here is my take on the magic rose from beauty and the beast. I used a little trick to keep it submerged...otherwise it would just float to the top...the secret..it's called a pin frog.

I love this picture of them all lined up and ready to go...the staff was still fixing the table arrangements.

The short centerpieces were roses strung on wire, which was then wrapped around the inside of a 10in fishbowl vase.

More Weddings to come!

Mac Attack!

2011-09-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

I've been very upset with my Mac....like when a trusted friend you can always rely on just turns their back on you. I went to open my iphoto and it said "No Photo's"....... HUH?! I have 13,000 photo's from my children and weddings. Where did they all go?

A while back I had some issues where my pics were taking up too much room on my hard drive so I bought an external hard drive. I moved all my originals of my photo's there...and they are still there......whew. They aren't all neatly organized and re sized like mac takes care of for me and because I use my good camera the images are huge, but they are there. I'm lucky, reading on line I found a bunch of people who really lost all their photo's from their Mac's hard drive. Ask my husband...I totally freaked out...the entire lives of my children (4 and 2) are on there!

So Mac, I've been shunning you...upset at how you freaked me out...and knowing that it will take a call to tech support to try to fix the problem. Avoidance has been my tactic. I need to move on though, and straighten this all out because until I do, I can't post any of my recent weddings. I have a wedding this weekend so it might be a week before I have time. Don't give up on me...new wedding photo's are coming!

Bound Brook NJ

2011-08-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

For this wedding I only created designs for the bridal party and the church. I say only because this was a Filipino wedding. Since my husband is Filipino I was already familiar with the roles of the coin bearers, the sponsers...so I wasn't totally clueless! I think when it was all said and done there were 29 people involved in the ceremony and each of them had either a bouquet, boutonniere, corsage, or pomander (that's the little ball you'll see flower girls carrying).

I can't believe I didn't take pictures of any of the bouts or corsages! I wanted to get out of the house by the 2:30 deadline I had set for myself and I just didn't have time. It was a good thing too that I left when I did. The bride was about 1/2 hr from me at a hotel right by 287, in the territory of my Alma mater Rutgers, and something major was going on because the traffic was crazy. I could see the hotel and it still took me 20min to get to it! On my way home from setting up at the church I took 287 south for about 7 miles. For the entire time 287 north was just crawling along....That is my worst nightmare....that I don't make it to a wedding because of some freak accident....thank goodness the bridesmaids and bride helped me get to the church and avoid going on 287!

The bride wanted a fresh, lush look. The colors were ivory and green and I was able to use a funky fun 'flower' called a dianthus ball. It actually looks like you dug up a little piece of lawn! The bridesmaids were in a nice pale yellow dress and their bouquets were green with a bit of ivory. I used dianthus balls, ivory roses, supergreen roses, green hypericum berries, mini green chrysanthemums.

The Jr. Bridesmaids had bouquets of ivory roses and dianthus balls to mirror the bride.

The bride wore ivory and her bouquet was ivory with a touch of green. You'll see ivory roses, dendrobium orchids, ivory calla lilies, and green dianthus balls...a very fresh look.

The four little flower girls held pomanders of green carnations and dianthus balls. So vibrant!

I created two arrangements for the alter of white hydrangea, green hypericum berries, stems of dendrobium orchids, hanging green amaranthus, dianthus balls and branches. In the first picture the arrangement is missing the branches and dendrobium orchids, those were put in at the church to make it easier to transport. The pew bows were white hydrangea, supergreen roses and dianthus balls.

My next wedding is Sept. 10th which seems to be a popular wedding date this year. I had no less than 5 brides contact me for this date....crazy! It's going to be all drama....in a good way!

The Wainwright House, Rye NY

2011-08-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

This wedding was huge! And I was sooo exhausted when it was all said and done. I was lucky to have help....and my husband was thrilled that it wasn't him this time! A while back I was contacted by someone who wanted to work with flowers, but the design classes she was taking were breaking the bank. She asked if I ever needed help to think of her. And so for poor Leslie it was trial by fire....what an event to have as your first experience with a wedding! (I hope it didn't scare you away Leslie!)

I normally don't get much sleep before a wedding, but this was insane. Leslie arrived at 7pm (I had been up since 5am...I decided to pick up the flowers day of since I was working with garden roses and it was warm out). Leslie helped me finish all the centerpieces and then she was on her way, we planned on meeting at the church the next day at 11:30. I continued to work until 3:30am. Then I slept.....for two hours, and was up again at 5am to make bouquets and boutonnieres. We finished setting up at the reception at 3:30....then I literally slept in the van until it was time to collect vases and lanterns at the end of the night. There was rain in the forecast, but it waited until the end of the reception to start, so everyone had a chance to enjoy the amazing views and the property.

As I drove home it was pouring and my GPS wasn't picking up a signal because of the storm....I missed my exit and ended up on this crazy creepy road with no exits..... it took me into Connecticut! I finally made it home at 1:30am.....exhausted...so much so that I decided to spend the last week at my dad's house by the beach. I totally unplugged and couldn't even think wedding!

Now though, I am now completely recovered and am looking forward to the wedding this weekend and all of my fall weddings.

Now for all the pictures.....

The church was built by some of the same masons that built St. Peters in NYC, cool right. On the doors leading in there were two wreaths of babies breath......yes, I know Babies breath is ugly, is boring, is sooo totally 80's right?! Wrong...I have been converted. We were able to use it in a way that totally kept with the romantic theme of the wedding and saved the bride a ton of money...especially on the tall centrepieces. You'll see, by the end of the blog I bet you'll see it in a whole new light too!

Inside there were tall candelabras with three arms. 16 of them....each arm with a small bouquet of flowers...that's 48 little bunches of flowers. Surprisingly out of everything I made I whipped through these in about 40 minutes.

Now to the reception location, The Wainwright House. Seriously this place was like you had a very rich family member that allowed you to use their home and grounds for your wedding. It was beautiful.

Although you can't see it in the picture right smack in the middle, very far off in the distance, was the Empire State Building. You could see it clearly when night fell. So imagine from this spot you turn to the left to see the tent and the house with cocktail tables set up on the lawn.

To add a bit of drama, especially when it got dark, lanterns were set framing each of the three steps...these are mine so if you are interested in renting them let me know! I have 6 of them and can easily get more...I think they'd be great for a flower arrangement inside the lantern set in the center of a table with two smaller arrangements around it.

The 10 cocktail tables were dressed up with small arrangements of roses and babies breath.

The Brides Bouquet was very romantic. It contained David Austin garden roses in peach and ivory, ivory spray roses, blushing bride serruria, a really pretty frilly white flower (I can't remember the name!), framed with dusty miller. I think this is now winning the prize for my most favorite bouquet.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of light pink spray roses, scabiosa pods, sahara roses, sweet akito roses (light pink), and astrantia.

The boutonnieres...a request to keep it masculine. I did my best!

Now these tall centerpieces were all babies breath, making them a very affordable way to have a substantial size centerpiece without spending a substantial amount of money!

They were framed at the bottom with two smaller arrangements of hydrangea and spray rose, scabiosa pod, and babies breath.

The short, but not at all small, arrangements were hydrangea, scabiosa pods, sahara and sweet akito roses and carnations...yes here's another one that I usually steer away from, but the color was the most perfect antiqued paper...exactly what was needed.

So 35 arrangements...10 of which had 2 smaller arrangements to go along with it...so thats 20 small ones, plus the 35, 48 little ones for the church, 2 babies breath wreaths, 13 boutonnieres, 1 bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 card table arrangement, 2 arrangements for the church, 1 corsage....maybe you understand why I was so tired....and Leslie, I want to thank you again for all your help! You were fantastic!

Next wedding this Friday. The bride decided to take the reception in a direction different than using floral centerpieces, but the church will be totally decked out in flowers!

Brooklake Country Club, Florham Park NJ Part II

2011-08-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the professional.

One thing I noticed during set up and during the wedding, which I was also a guest at, was that I constantly saw the photographers....flitting about here and there, I am sure they captured a ton of special and fun moments (of course my focus was pics of the flowers ;), as they didn't miss a beat. Click here to see more weddings and contact info for Joseph Lin Wedding Photography.

So here's the professionals take on a wedding I did back in June.

Englewood Women's Club, Englewood NJ Part II

2011-08-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

More pictures....but this time they are from the professional, and not just me playing with my fancy camera. Keep an eye out for the picture of the bride with her father...beautiful.

http://www.chrislearyweddings.com/?p=3464

And of course I spent sometime browsing through the photographers work, which is extensive and not just limited to weddings...his family and child portrait photography puts a fresh spin on the stuffiness of the word portrait.

http://www.chrisleary.com/

DIY Mercury Glass...Part II...Uh oh

2011-07-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

My hands are sparkly from playing with the looking glass spray to make these DIY Mercury Glass Vases for a wedding on August. 13th.

Once I started on them I realized there is a problem....the spray can't reach the bottom of the vase.....hmmm. So I decided to press on and finished one before I started to worry. I didn't "mercurize" it. Here's how it came out...you can clearly see through the bottom of the vase and you can clearly see me taking pictures...

Then I "mercurized" it to see how it would look.

So what to do?

DIY Mercury Glass!

2011-07-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

For my next wedding mercury glass vases/stands would be perfect. So I literally spent months looking for something affordable...(it got to be so bad that I was afraid they would start recognizing me in Homegoods!) About a month ago I emailed the bride to let her know that I was having trouble finding what she had envisioned.....but she is a clever one and knowing I will undertake a DIY project she directed me to this site.

So I had the instructions...but finding this 'Looking Glass' spray was insane. I went to several stores and no luck...and when I tried to order it online from Sears the shipping charges were something like 50 bucks...for 3 little cans of spray paint!? So I figured I'd try it with 'Chrome'....yuck....a greyish mess, but I did see how it would work and that it would work. So encouraged, I finally ordered it from AC Moore and it came at the end of last week. Today I had a chance to try it out and I made my first Mercury glass. This didn't come out perfect...I took off too much paint in spots, but now I know how to do it....and knowing is half the battle....(really bad G.I. Joe reference...I have an older brother...I watched a lot of G.I Joe).

Here's how it came out.

Englewood Women's Club, Englewood NJ

2011-07-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

This was my second wedding at this site and the weather could not have been any more different. The last time I was here there was freshly fallen snow on the ground...just enough to stick to the trees and make gorgeous wedding photos for the bride. Now....here it was an almost 100 degree day....like I said...can't get much different than that. This is the perfect place for a smaller wedding (80 ish people). The building has beautiful bones and doesn't have any of that wedding factory ugly carpet and wall paper. Plain walls, plain hardwood floors, beautiful architecture...you can really make it what you want. Here's a link to their site: Englewood Women's Club.

I really enjoyed working with the bride. The cute pitchers for the centerpieces were something her and her mother came across and it really just set the whole relaxed country type theme for the wedding. The entire family was involved in this one with many little DIY projects going on here and there. The mother of the bride even made her necklace! Beautiful!

It was really nice to meet them and spend a little time with them on such a special occasion.

I used one of my favorite 'flowers'....'flowers' because they are a ball so most people might not consider them an actual flower. They are called craspedia, and they are the little yellow balls you'll see in the photographs below.

Bridal Bouquet; Delphinium, Yellow Roses, Craspedia, White Dahlia, Lace (yes this is the stuff that grows on the side of the road...although don't get any ideas...I did not pick these off the side of the road (could you imagine!) they were grown in a green house somewhere...no little buggies crawling on these...like the ones on the side of the road...ok so I'll admit it..when I was little I used to pick them...from the side of the road).

Boutonnieres; I always have fun with these....

Centerpieces;

Wedding Ceremony Arch;

Next Wedding August 13, Rye NY.....I'm making my own 'mercury' glass vases for this one. I was attempting it today and will put up a post soon with pictures.

Trump National Golf Course, Colts Neck NJ

2011-07-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a sweet little something for a party for two sweet little somethings expected in October. The colors were orange and pink, and that theme was present in every last little detail. This mom to be should think about becoming a wedding planner...her eye for detail is impeccable!

How cute is this candy/cupcake table!

My 'helper' returns...

Next wedding....July 23rd

Black Calla's and Red Roses = DRAMA!

2011-06-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with some red roses I had and the black calla's left over from my last wedding....and some of the other flowers. I really like the idea of keeping the flowers in groupings likes this...and I love how this bouquet looks....will some one please ask me to do this for their wedding!

Brooklake Country Club, Florham Park NJ

2011-06-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am still exhausted from this one and it's been two days.....probably because I was also a guest at the wedding, so two nights with less than 5 hrs of sleep and one night staying up late = a very tired me.

The bride is a friend, and I was honored that she let me do the flowers for this very special day. We were going all out and going big, so the church was decorated with two large manzanita branch arrangements, each with a large ball of white roses and then roses circling the bottom of the branch and crystals...real crystals that I bought from someone on ebay who pilfered a old chandelier. And seriously, I made these the day before the wedding (Friday...wedding was Saturday..) and today is Monday and they still look amazing...it's kind of a shame that they are sitting all alone down in my basement. (Maybe if I have time tomorrow I will do a little photo shoot with them so you can see how well they held up).

At the end of every other pew (and there were 25 rows, so down the aisle that means 50 ends to decorate!) there were either a single stem of monstrously large hydrangea with tulle, or just tulle.

Here's me getting all artsy on ya!

The colors were white, purple and green, nice and fresh for a summer wedding. The bride carried an all white bouquet of roses and the flower I get asked the most for....peonies. If you want peonies you better plan your wedding for late April through June...otherwise no peonies for you!

The Maid of Honor carried a bouquet of super green roses..they are frilly on the ends..love it! And the darkest purple calla's (they are called Schwartz). And these could be used for a black flower if you wanted to go that route...it all depends on the other flowers you pair it with. With lighter flowers it definitely looks purple, but with a red rose it looks more black.

Bridesmaids had white roses, white calla's with purple toward the center (called Picasso), and this funky little flower called cinch....they have flowers all the way up that are white, but I wanted the green so I kept them wrapped up tight so they wouldn't bloom.

Boutonnieres and Corsages

There were two centerpieces....one huge...with the monstrously large white hydrangea, purple lysianthus, lemon leaves, purple dendrobium orchids, steel grass, and willow branches. In the stem of the vase was a white floralyte covered by marbles....these had to be made in two stages. Stage one was the night before the wedding when I put in the hydrangea, lysianthus, and 1/2 the orchids....stage two was at the reception site where I put in the other 1/2 of the dendrobiums, the lemon leaves, the branches, and bear grass. They would have been just way to difficult to transport and carry...and I wouldn't have been able to put them on a flat surface to transport them.

The centerpieces were also giving me a heart attack because some of the hydrangea were wilting...I am sooo happy there was a little extra room in the van and I made a last minute decision to bring the extra along, just in case!...totally saved me...by the time we arrived on site some of the centerpieces looked absolutely a mess...I was able to save them though with the extra flowers I brought along...whew!

The other was smaller and more artistic, 5 stems of calla's wrapped around the inside of a fish bowl vase with bear grass.

So today I finally got around to cleaning up my mess in the basement...my "work space" which hopefully by the end of the summer will not just be a basement workspace but an official studio. (My dad is helping us finish the basement....so lucky to have a handy dad...he built the kiddies a sandbox too....when my son saw that Pop-Pop's truck was in the driveway he said, "Oh...My....Hell" (he's 3 1/2). I wanted to crack up laughing...but that is not the appropriate parent adult thing to do. So I had to explain to him that it is not nice to say "Oh my hell"....so now he keeps coming up to me saying "Mommy...I will not say "Oh my hell" it is not nice...I will say "Oh my gosh"...I think he is totally playing me here and getting in his "Oh my hell's" in a way it's hard to get in trouble for....smart boy...I am going to be in trouble when he gets older.

My lesson learned from this wedding....no matter how tight the van is packed, find room for the extra flowers!

Next up...a baby shower...July 9th.

East Hanover Part II

2011-06-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

My Mac is free! And all my pics are not lost...only moved to my external hard drive, which gave me the room to finally get these pics off my camera and on my blog.

I was in the city especially early to pick up these flowers. The idea behind the flowers was that each of the 5 bridesmaids would carry a bouquet of a single type of flower and that would match the boutonniere of their groomsmen. All would have white stephanotis in them to tie everything together. The bride would have all five flowers plus a blue flower (that was supposed to be anemone..but no blue...I'll explain later) and that blue flower would be the grooms boutonniere as well to tie the two of them together. The colors were to be bright and tropical.

So when I arrive to pick up the flowers I find it a little strange that they don't have anything at all together for me yet. Usually they have everything ready for me to view before they pack it all up. So yes, there was a problem. Some of the shipment coming from California was missing...not in the store, hadn't been at the airport....it was just missing. And a few crucial things from my order were also not there....

No white stephanotis to tie everything together

No Yellow gerber daisies, supposed to be one of the bridesmaids flowers, and grooms, and in the centerpieces...most importantly the brides bouquet.

No Red Snap Dragons, also supposed to be for one of the bridesmaids, a groomsmen, and the centerpieces.....and the brides bouquet.

No Blue Anemone

Panic! I ran across to one of the other wholesalers while they put the rest of my order together.....I spot stephanotis....plenty...so I take the two boxes I need. I'm scanning.....I see a woman walking holding yellow gerber daisies....I need three bunches....are there anymore?! I find them...only two bunches....that lady got my third bunch!....two more things on my list...the snapdragons...found....the blue anemone....nope... Sigh.....

Ok so all in all, it could have been much worse....some of the centerpieces had yellow sunflowers in them instead of the gerbers....as you'll see in the pics below. I ended up subbing this really cool looking blue flower for the anemone...But everything else was perfect....and the bouquets were so bright, and the stephanotis remind me of the little flowers a baker will create for a cake, I wanted to eat them up!

I didn't have time to take a matchy matchy pic for each of the bouquets....but here are the ones I did get.

Yellow Gerbers

Coral Peonies

Purple Tulips

I didn't get individual pics of the red snap dragons or green roses, but you can see them in the 'group' photo towards the end.

All the bouts and the corsages

The Brides Bouquet...Green Roses, Coral Peonies, Purple Tulips, Red Snap Dragons, White Stephanotis, and Yellow Gerbera Daisies...

The Centerpieces looked different from every angle and had a tropical feel to them with the big green leaves...

And some had Sunflowers instead of Daisies, because of the lost shipment....

Next wedding is in two weeks...25 tables....lots of hydrangea, calla lilies, and roses!

East Hanover NJ

2011-06-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have many more pics and some stories to post about doing this wedding, but have been having a bit of a battle with my Mac. I love my mac, but because I take so many high resolution photos (of flowers and my babies) I have jammed up my hard drive.

I bought a free standing hard drive (excuse my lack of technical names) and have transferred most of the pics over, but for some reason am very afraid to delete them off my Mac...so the pictures from this wedding are still on my camera, because my hardrive is bloated with photos...now mostly of my children..since I did take the plung and delete the weddings off my Mac... And knowing how untechnical I am my very technical husband is reluctant to trust my copy and transfer technique...so he is also requesting that I do not yet delete any of the pictures of when the kiddies were born, took their first steps and such...totally understandable.
But I recieved a very nice email with pics from the bride from her photographer. So here is the shout out to the photographer, Jeff Tisman Photography and his work. I will promise to get my photos up soon!

The Palace at Somerset Park

2011-05-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

So here are the photo's from a wedding at the end of February that I just never got around to posting. And because of the amount of time that has passed I have no fun stories for you...all I remember it was rainy, windy, and cold.... I was working alone that day (which is rough for a 20 table wedding) and was saved by the groomsmen who probably saved me about an hour of work because they helped me bring everything in out of the van.

These were very romantic arrangements, and the lighting isn't the best...I really need to invest in a fancy flash for my camera...

Live from my basement..the bouquet..Yes those are peonies in February.....flown all the way in from Israel!

Corsages and Boutonnieres

Two types of centerpieces, same theme but high and low

I feel better now....can't believe how long it took me to get these up! And just in time to start focusing on next weekends wedding!

A Rough Few Months

2011-04-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

I know.....I haven't posted a single thing in a long while. A few things have been going on that have sadly taken my focus away from posting and my flowers.

I even have pictures from a wedding at the end of Feb that I haven't posted! My memory on my Mac was completely full...from wedding flowers pics...and I finally bought an external hard drive to transfer them too. So be on the look out for those flowers and a post from an upcoming wedding in May!

Something I've wanted to make.....

2011-02-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to create an arrangement for Debbie Page, owner of Simply Creative Weddings, for her table at the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce Bridal Show.

I knew exactly what I wanted to try.... a manzanita branch centerpiece. The branches are expensive so most brides opt to use curly willow branches instead. So while I had the idea in my head it wasn't until yesterday that I actually tried it out.

I had the branch shipped to me about a month ago....and realized that whether I buy it from suppliers in NYC or order it online the price is the same. This one was $65. Last week I finally found a suitable vase...at Marshalls for $7.99..holla! And yesterday I bought the plaster of paris and the roses on a trip into NYC to buy some supplies for my wedding next week. I was really pleased with how easy this was to make and how amazing the results were. I hope Debbie's table attracts a lot of attention!

My little boy is increasingly becoming my 'helper' when I do weddings. He now follows me down into the basement promising to be a good boy "I will listen, Mommy" he says from the top of the stairs to get my permission to come down. He then sweeps up stems, plays with the marbles I have for the bottom of vases, plays in the double sink, and my favorite...uses my battery operated tea lights as 'rocket ships'. Today he was 'helping' me take pictures, by laughing hysterically while running in front of the camera every time I tried to take a picture of the centerpiece...

And a cute little story about my 'helper'. To set the scene about a week before this story happened he came with me to get my flu shot...I wanted him to see so he wouldn't be so scared when he got his.

So....a few weddings ago he was watching me put the pins down the ribbon on the handle of a bouquet. As I put the pins in he gets really close to the flowers and starts whispering...."is ok flu-er, is ok" seriously....he is so cute it makes me cry.

THE KNOT!

2011-01-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

I can't stop smiling....how excited am I to have my first official press in a magazine...and not just any magazine, but the mother of all bridal magazines, THE KNOT!!!

There's also a feature on their website and my flowers are a "Knot Pick"! I am really just so excited.

Click here to see the flowers on theknot.com.

The magazine hits the news stands on January 24th! I'm going to buy up a bunch of copies!

A Winter Wedding, Englewood NJ

2011-01-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

You couldn't get a better day for a winter themed wedding. Seriously, it had snowed just enough the day before to stick to the tree branches, but not the roads. This = amazing wedding pictures.

I'm always a little jealous when I see beautiful backdrops, like this, for wedding photos...on my wedding day the remains of a tropical storm blew through.

The reception was held at the Women's Club of Englewood. A sweet place with enough room for a weddings of about 100 guests.

I took this picture from the stage where they can fit 3 more tables.

The brides colors were purple, white, and gold. So I used gold ribbon to wrap the boutonnieres and bouquets. There were three styles of boutonnieres. The groom: An anemone (white with dark purple center), a white rose, and a fiddlehead fern...this mirrored the brides bouquet.

The groomsmen: a white rose and fiddlehead fern....to mirror the bridesmaids. Two young ring bearers: a single purple anemone.

The brides bouquet: White Roses, tulips, ranunculus, anemone, and fiddlehead fern.

The bridesmaids: White roses and fiddlehead fern.

The centerpieces were 'snowballs', white pomanders of carnations a top 3 different mercury glass stands/vases. Some I had picked up for the bride on my shopping travels months before the wedding, the vases with the crystal on the outside and the snow flake design I picked up the day after Christmas at Peir 1. They have the best blow out sale, and while the big snow storm began to roll in, I was hoarding all the holiday vases I could get my hands on

I had ordered the floral foam spheres I needed to make these with what I thought was plenty of time before the wedding. I ordered some other stuff at the same time...the other stuff got to me 4 days before the wedding, but I was waiting for the spheres. I kept thinking "They will be here tomorrow...the other things I ordered came..so it must be on it's way". I tried calling customer service, but they have the wackiest hours...so I waited some more. The day before the wedding I realized they weren't going to come. I was planning on making all the centerpieces the night before...so that plan was scrapped. Day of I was up at 4:30 am to travel to a floral supply warehouse to buy some more, then home to make the boutonnieres and bouquets...which my assistant (aka husband) delivered for me so I could finish the centerpieces...then off to deliver and set up those. All in all I was finally finished and home at 5pm. What a day!

And BTW....still waiting for those spheres to show up!

Here's what happened...

2010-12-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-12-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-27T15:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

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!

DUMBO

2010-09-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Down Under the Manhattan Bridge

Another hot, hot summer day.

And while the ceremony site was amazing, the Manhattan Bridge to the left, the Brooklyn Bridge to the right, I worried for the bride in the crazy heat. These are some pictures I took of the ceremony site after it was dressed up with red Gerbera Daisies and bright green ribbon.

Her fiance brought her red Gerbera daisies with the black center when he flew to see her (I can't remember if it was a first date or not), and had a very difficult time getting through security with the liquid in the water piks on the end of the stems. They were going to make him leave the flowers all together but he convinced them to just let him dump the water out. All the trouble he went through was very sweet. So it was very important for them to have these flowers as part of their wedding day.

The heat made me very nervous for the brides all white bouquet. On a cool or even warm day a white bouquet is ok as long as you treat it well. White flowers show their bumps and bruises very easily. But on a hot day white flowers, 95 degree temps, and the sun do not make for a happy bouquet. I left my bride with specific instructions to keep it cool and in water for as long as possible. I haven't heard from her and am hoping everything turned out fine.

Here is her lovely bouquet before I left to drop it off. It was made of hydrangea, freesia, gardenia, and large and small calla lilies...My husband was laughing at me as I took these pictures...the green in the background is actually the weed patch currently growing next to our front door...in the future I see a patio of slate with moss growing in between...but for now...weeds.

I was really happy with how the boutonnieres and the little pomander for the flower girl turned out.

Small bunches of daisies for the bridesmaids and a wristlet of freesia for the mothers...

The reception was held in the Dumbo Lofts. Place card table was very cute....they were paper airplanes...I wonder if they 'used' them during the reception?

There were two centerpieces, small green ones with green hydrangea, spider mums, and small pom mums.

And tall tree's with hanging candles and white dendrobium orchids. These vases were perfect to give the arching effect the bride was looking for. And being about 6ft tall they definitely filled in the open loft space.

My Next wedding, Heather's Wedding! Sept. 18th Brigantine, NJ.

A Tropicalish Beach Wedding

2010-08-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

This was a small wedding for me, with the bride only needing bouquets and boutonnieres. But as you may know no wedding is to small. I love creating floral designs and I will try work with any budget.

The bride wanted a tropical'ish' look to the flowers. Nothing over the top. So using Roses as the main flower in the bouquets I suggested she use cymbidium orchids to bring in that feel. I also used tropical leaves to give the bouquets a 'collar'. I though that this fit into the idea of the tropical wedding, and the bride had mentioned that she liked how greens look in a bouquet. I was very happy with how everything turned out...and the bride was too.

For the Bride a bouquet of white roses, tuberose, white cymbidium orchids, bear grass, and some tropical foliage.

The Bridesmaids carried bouquets of Voodoo Orange roses, Orange Cymbidium Orchids, Yellow Mokara Orchids and Thai Leaves

And the Boutonnieres with tropical foliage, bear grass, and cymbidium orchids.

Next Wedding...DUMBO...which I had to learn means Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass...August 29th.

THE KNOT!

2010-08-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

I just found out that a wedding I did the flowers for (The Heldrich in New Brunswick) is going to be a featured wedding in the January issue of The Knot and will be on theknot.com....how excited am I!

Rutgers Gardens

2010-07-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

H-O-T....yes very H-O-T. It was so hot that I waited in the truck with my air conditioner running full blast because I was afraid the hydrangeas in the bouquets and centerpieces would freak out and immediately wilt once they hit the hot and humid air. And the ceremony, reception...everything was outdoors...hence my concern about the flowers. I emailed the bride today just to see how everything held up. Because, of course, I was worrying about them all day yesterday. Here is what she said,

"The flowers were all gorgeous and we got so many compliments on them. They held up great in the heat. My bouquet is in a vase here at home still looking great, and my mom said she took a few centerpieces and they all look great today. Thank you so much for all you did. I will definitely recommend you to anyone else I know who is getting married!"

~The Beautiful Bride

I am so happy to help a bride fufill her vision of what she wants for her wedding day. And I am honored when a bride choses me to be part of it. I know it sounds corny, but it's true.

So back to Rutgers I went. While I went to school there I had no idea these gardens even existed. But now, thanks to a neighbor who told me about their Mother's Day plant sale, its become a family tradition that we visit the gardens on Mother's Day. The ceremony took place in the gazebo next to the little store there. The store is tended to by a sweet woman named Pat, who will be happy to answer any questions you have about the gardens and about planning a wedding there.

And there was some green hydrangea in bloom right by the ceremony site.

And to help the guest keep cool in the summer sun the programs for the wedding had little handles on the bottom so they doubled as fans.

The star of yesterdays show was hydrangeas, and the bride picked out such beautiful summer colors peach, blue, yellow, and green. I was excited about using these colors together, but I guess it must be hard to picture it...I had a few friends that looked at me with question marks over their heads when I told them the colors. As you can see from the fan/program pic above they are beautiful and so refreshing.

It's nice to be able to get pics of the flowers before I leave the house and then to get pics of the flowers hard at work. I normally don't get to see the bridal party go down the aisle, but in this case the centerpieces were sitting in the cool AC of my car, so I waited until the bride walked down the aisle before I went to the reception site down the road to set up.

The woman standing in the background of the pic above is Debbie Page owner of Simply Creative Weddings she was very nice and takes care of everything from day of coordination, to the entire wedding planning process.

The reception took place in a covered area a short walk down the road. It was dressed up all nice and fancy for the wedding. And a cute idea for a summer outdoor wedding....water bottle seating 'cards'.

The centerpieces were simply hydrangea...

All of these hydrangea reminded me of something....

For the DIY brides I have a little story about hydrangea...you can play Dr. Frankenstien and bring them back from what you may think is 'the dead'. Last year I did a wedding that was all hydrangea, I had 70 stems of hydrangea in my basement. I had cut them, put them in water, given them their flower food...everything your supposed to do....to my horror, when I went to check on them the next morning almost all of them had wilted...wilted hydrangea are not a pretty sight...they look kind of like a wet hairy dog. I frantically called my supplier (in my head freaking out..."what I am supposed to do the wedding is tomorrow maybe I can run back into the city super early to buy more and still make it to the wedding in PA"...and on, I left out any commas because this is what it sounds like in my head when I start to freak out.). His advice...put those babies in warm water all the way up to the head of the flower...he promised they would be resurrected. I was very doubtful, but when I check on them the next morning out of the 60ish that were wilted only 5 where still goners...the other 55 had risen from 'the dead'.

This time around out of the 80 stems I purchased for this wedding only a few wilted, but I brought them all back to life too...bhua ha ha!

Next wedding...a small wedding at the shore August 14th.

The Heldrich, New Brunswick Part III

2010-07-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are my favorite professional pic's from my last wedding. To see a sampling of the photographers photos from the wedding click on the link in the post below. Thanks Kay for letting me use your pics!

The Heldrich, New Brunswick Part II

2010-07-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

http://kayenglish.blogspot.com/2010/07/elizabeth-deidrich-married.html#comments

Please, you must check out these pictures. Kay English was the photographer at the wedding I worked on last weekend at The Heldrich and she just posted the photos on her blog. I love the photos of the bride and groom. I really enjoyed designing the flowers for this wedding and it's so nice to see how everything came together...and to see it through the eyes of a professional photographer!

The Heldrich, New Brunswick

2010-07-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a very slow start to the summer and as I was in my studio making the brides bouquet (listening to my 2 1/2 year old stomping around like an elephant upstairs) I was happy to be preparing for a wedding, spending some quiet time with my flowers.

As a graduate of Rutgers University it was back to my old stomping grounds. Although, from all the work that's been done there, especially in that zone between Rutgers College and Cook that none of us would dare venture, I actually got a little turned around trying to find the hotel.

The Boutonnieres were made of green mini chrysanthemums, green hypericum berries, and mint leaves (which were fresh out of my own herb garden). The groom's stood out with the addition of a green rose.

Grandma had a corsage of mint leaves, hypericum berries, a green rose and a calla lily (The name of this beautiful dark purple calla is Naomi... and no I don't name my flowers...it's the color name ;)

The Mothers each carried an bouquet of a single XXL White Calla Lily.

The Maid of Honor carried a bouquet of green roses (Green Tea and Super Green, these are the ones with the frilly looking petals), purple roses (Cool Water), and white roses (Tibet).

The Bridal Bouquet was so much fun to make. The Bride had sent me a picture to base it off of and I think I nailed it...toot toot! (...that's me being a cornball and tooting my own horn!) Included in the bouquet was green, purple, and white roses, fiddle head fern (the funky curly thing sticking up out of it), green cymbidium orchids, dark purple callas, and white and purple bi-color calla's (named Picasso). I had to include a close up picture.

The centerpieces competed for the largest ones I have ever made...I loved how they turned out. And some of them played double duty at the alter. I'm hoping the photographer, Kay English, (click on her name to check out her work...it's seriously some beautiful photography, she is very talented, and very friendly) got some better shots, it was really dark in the ballroom.

There were 20 tables...1/2 had the tall centerpieces and 1/2 had submerged dendrobium orchids with a light in the bottom and floating candle on top.

(And of course I had some fun with the little amount of flowers I had leftover....

And as a reward for our hard work my assistant (aka my husband..who I met at RU...and who lets me call him my assistant on jobs so I look more professional...very cute) and I went right over to the Greece Trucks and got ourselves a Chicken Gyro with hot sauce "extra juicy". My husbands exact words were "hello my old friend". Now that I think of it I should have gotten a Fat Koko!...they used to call me "station wagon" at the trucks because I drove an old '78 dodge aspen station wagon....ahh I could go on and on....well at least I can get that Fat Koko in two weeks. My next wedding is at the end of July at Rutgers Gardens.