Working on some estimates on this beautiful snowy day

I love snow and call me crazy, but I am disappointed we didn't get as much as they were calling for. My father on the other hand, who lives across the bay from Atlantic City, is digging himself out from almost 2 feet of snow! Lucky!

I'm taking the time since my hubby is outside clearing the driveway with my 2 year old 'helping' to get back to a few brides. And while writing to one realized I never posted the pictures from a wedding I did last February! So better late than never here they are.

This was my first time decorating a Chuppah. The bride wanted something simple to dress it up a little and since a main theme in her wedding was orchids I used white dendrobium orchids.

The Brides Bouquet was made of hydrangea, cymbidium orchids in white and green, and bear grass. She found and mailed me the studded buckles that were on all of the bouquets.

The Bridesmaids bouquets were a combination of orange and pink roses. And the MOH carried a bouquet of white hydrangea and white roses

The Boutonnieres and Corsages were also made of white and green cymbidium orchids

And wanting a centerpiece that the guest could continue to enjoy for months after the wedding

Phalaenopis orchid plants were flown in from Hawaii and placed in a vase with grey river rocks and moss.

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.

A Great Way to Save on Flowers...two weddings from May

I just never got around to posting the first of these two weddings on my website so finally after a few months here they are.

One of the most affordable arrangements you can chose for your wedding is submerged flowers.

You don't need many flowers and the water magnifies the flowers you do have.

When the light from the candles on the table hits the arrangement it's actually very elegant.

I've done this arrangement several times with dendrobium orchids, most recently for a wedding in May that I just never got around to adding to my website. 

This is the arrangement on my dining room table...

And at the reception before the tables were set.

The bride said she was getting compliments on them the entire night.  Pictures on my little canon elf though never seem to do them justice...maybe once my fancy camera  (I ordered it today!) gets here I can get some pictures that truly capture how nice this affordable arrangement looks.

Here are pictures of the arch decorations, bouquet and such from the same wedding.

The vine is called passion vine...it gets these really crazy purple flowers on it...I removed them for this wedding since the color was pink.  

The flowers were Peonies (in season mid-late April through mid June...otherwise they are crazy expensive), Ranunculus, and Roses.

The Boutonnieres and Corsages were made from white dendrobium orchids.

And the brides bouquet consisted of Peonies with XXL White Calla's

I've also submerged Gardenia's for a beach themed wedding. Those are starfish and shells in the bottom of the bowl.  

And here is how they would look at night

This wedding in on my website but I loved how the brides bouquet turned out so I'm posting it here too!

White Roses, Hydrangea, and Peonies

And a simple boutonniere of a white rose and seeded eucalyptus

Fun with Flowers

I love going into the flower district in NYC to buy supplies and pick up flowers.  

It's early in the morning, the city is just waking up, and the gorgeous flowers are such a contrast to the hard edge the city can sometimes have.

And I love to play around with designs.

So here is some of my fun.

I used hydrangea (which was a light green with some spots of hot pink) Hot Lady and Hot Princess Roses with loops of bear grass to create these designs.

First a bouquet

And a possible matching centerpiece

I also had some yellow roses, which I can't remember their actual name.  But I thought they looked great with the small green chrysanthemums and a mix of a few types of pink roses.

(Bugatti, Purple Cezanne, Hot Lady and Hot Princess)

Here was my vision for the bridal bouquet, with green cymbidium orchids

The Bridesmaids would carry similar bouquets

Add Yellow Roses

Minus Green Cymbidiums

And for the mothers...

And all three together

This is just a little something I made with some red roses I picked up.

Hope all of your wedding planning is going smoothly!  Remember to have fun with flowers too;)

Nanina's in the Park

Orchids and more Orchids.  

I love working with them for weddings.

They make fabulous boutonnieres and hold up great in the summer heat.

This wedding took place on June 10th at Nanina's in the Park, Bloomfield NJ.  

It was a beautiful location and the bride was looking to save money on the flowers but wanted something that would stand up to the grandure of the location

Here's what we came up with.

The colors for the wedding were Green, Yellow, and White.

The Brides Bouquet was very labor intensive, as each cymbidium orchid needed to have a stem created for it.  They grow on a stalk, with about 8-12 flowers per stalk.  It took close to 5 stalks to create this bouquet and it was by far the heaviest one I have ever created.

I think that all the time and effort was worth it though.

(In the picture you can also see scratch from the fight I lost with a rose as I was putting them in water for the backyard wedding I posted a few days ago!)

The Bridesmaids also had cymbidium orchids in their bouquets, theirs were yellow, with white hydrangea.  

Here are all the bridesmaids bouquets together.  There were 8!

Because of their size the Centerpieces had to be made on location.

The room had cathedral ceilings and the bride wanted to make sure they filled out the space.  After going through a few ideas and trying to work them into the budget here is what we came up with.

These arrangements are made of oncidium orchids with green hydrangea in the fishbowl.  I would have loved to use hydrangea the same color as the brides bouquet, a bright vivid green, but it just wasn't in the budget.  A lighter shade of green was chosen instead because it was grown domestically, the brighter green would had to have been flown in from Holland at twice the cost!

Here is the arrangement on the patio where we were making them.

Here they are placed on their pedestals inside the location.

Great tip...many reception sites have stands like these, but they usually charge a fee to use them...sometimes up to $300 extra! Ask them when you are booking if you can use them, if that's your vision, and many times..to secure your business, they'll throw the use of them in for free.

I always order a little more than I'll need.  You have to take into account that some of the flowers just won't make it to the big day.   The extra that do make it always come with me on site.  I look to see what needs a little something.

This was a sad card table with just the cards...I added some of the extra hydrangea to brighten it up.  

And I love this idea, at the guest book the bride included old photos from weddings in her family. 

So tomorrow I am off to invest in a nice camera.  Right now I've been using my little canon elf.  And while the pics aren't bad I know how much better they would be if I had a professional camera.  So we'll see if you can tell the difference in the photo's from the next wedding on August 29th.