Windows on the Water, Millstone Township NJ

An English garden themed wedding....I can't wait to see the professionals pictures, especially since I wasn't able to get a picture of the bridal bouquet...I usually make a point to do it before I leave the house, but I figured since the ceremony and the reception were at the same location I'd have time on site to do it.  The cafe latte dahlias in the bouquet were amazing, but of course I was caught up in all the things that needed to be done on site...so no bouquet picture...or picture of the pretty dahlia that the flower girl held.  When I get the professional pictures I will most definitely post them.  There was a bunch to do on site, but thanks to the help from my wonderful and willing assistant Leslie everything was done in plenty of time.

The bride covered every little detail.  She wanted her wedding to be fit for style me pretty and from the wine bottle table markers, to the individualized mason glass jars and swirly pink straws (with a message to take them to the bar for a special drink....which was an warm apple pie drink...with whiskey I think...oh it sounded perfect for the chilly cool that set into the air once the sun set.)


I have a new favorite tool....zip ties.  I helped a friend do a wedding down in Philadelpia.  It was at the Penn Museum in the Chinese Antiquities section.  There were 600 paper cranes that needed lights inserted into them...I can say I luckily only did about 15 of these (I was on flower arranging duty)..but while we were all working one of my friends other assistants was using zip ties to attach bamboo to a plant stand (there were wooden lanterns on top...it was beautiful).  And he said they were his favorite thing so I bought some figuring I could use them instead of wire to attach branches to the Chuppah...It was sooooo much easier than using wire and I feel kind of silly for not thinking about using them before.  I had to move the arrangements from the Chuppah to the entrance way to the reception room...it only took me about 10 minutes all thanks to the zip ties.  I heart zip ties.



 Branches, passion vine, patience and Juliette garden roses, chamomile, white winter berries, ivory spray roses, peach and pink dahlias.






As the guests took their seats they could enjoy a cup of warm apple cider, to be had in apples that had the centers scooped out and cinnamon stick stirrers...as I was dismantling the Chuppah one of the staff told me to help myself...I was freezing and I must have had 8 apple fulls in a row.  It was that good.  During the day it was nice a warm in the sun, but I felt bad for the bride.  The ceremony began as the sun was setting and her dress had a cut out back and beautiful lace...I spoke to her later and she confessed that she was so cold she couldn't even cry!

The reception card table had two cake stands with flowers to compliment the centerpieces.  Here they are after I assembled them.   There was also a large rectangular planter for the gift card table, but boo..I didn't get a picture of that either.

The front and back of the sweetheart table...the bride contributed the LOVE cups.  From left to right...chamomile, Juliette garden roses, ivory spray roses, light pink dahlias...all with a few leaves of lambs ear.

Centerpieces were arranged so they were long rather than round.  Patience and Juliette garden roses, spray roses, succulents, winter berries, lambs ear, chamomile, cafe latte dahlias, pink and peach dahlias.

Peach and light pink Dahlia boutonnieres...

 The bridesmaids carried bouquets of the same mix of flowers as the centerpieces, arranged so they looked freshly picked out of the field.

The bridal bouquet pictures are coming!

Macaluso's Hawthorne, NJ

I am obsessed with succulents after doing this wedding.  I use 45 of them to complete all these looks and one of the best things about them is that all you need to do is give them a bed of soil afterwards and they will grow...sometimes they'll even be around for years.  So you'll see in the base of the vase I provided a rock covering, with soil and bark so the guests could simply take out the little vase of flowers and let their succulents continue to grow.  

The bride also had one large succulent and 6 small succulents in her bouquet, along with garden roses, spray roses, brunia, cafe latte dahlia's, seeded eucalyptus and dusty miller.  

The bridesmaids had a smaller succulent with sedum, dahlias, and spray roses.  

This wedding had the whole family involved....I made 21 boutonnieres and 14 corsages!  That's a record for me!

Pew bows for the church...

When first discussing ideas with the bride I came across an image online, that I maybe looked at for 2 seconds....then I couldn't find it again, but that was enough...I was inspired.  I love how the driftwood looks across the top with the succulent and cymbidium orchid.  For half I put the driftwood across the top, for the other half I had a dish with a floating candle and the driftwood was placed on the table next to the vase.  

I created my test run for this idea for a wedding show a few weeks earlier and I was able to get little trios of potted succulents to use inside the vase.  I ordered 22 more for this wedding only to have the supplier call me the day before the wedding to tell me he couldn't get them...really!  Ugh, this is why I pick up all my flowers myself.  In the flower district there are always alternatives.  I was able to get more large succulents when I picked up the rest of my order.  

These cylinder vases drove me crazy.....when I first unpacked them at home they were filthly...so I had to wash them with soap and water....and they smelled like fish inside!?   So weird....then when I took them out for the wedding they still didn't look clean so I cleaned them again with windex...so much work.  I won't be buying vases from there anymore!  

My next event is October 13th....and it's going to be a beauty!  I'm going to get the flower order together today and place it at the end of next week.  It's going to be so beautiful and I am using the chuppah again...but this time it's not a chuppah....just an arbor for the ceremony.  

Wilshire Grand Hotel, West Orange Part II

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!  

Englewood Women's Club, Englewood NJ

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.