The Wainwright House, Rye NY

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!

A Winter Wedding, Englewood NJ

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!

A Wedding at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Volcano, Volcano...have you heard about the volcano that erupted in Iceland?....and what it has done to flower shipments coming from Europe. When it first happened I thought, I still have a week until the wedding....things should clear up by then. Well, they didn't and it was questionable whether I would be able to get the peonies (for the Brides bouquet!) and the tulips (for the bridesmaids) that I ordered. And I was freaking out...just a bit.

Fortunately tulips are in season here....perfect timing...so my supplier was able get them for the bridesmaids. Whew...one problem solved.

But the brides bouquet...my supplier wasn't sure they'd be able to get the light pink peonies I ordered...and thought she could maybe...maybe.... get the white with the fuchsia swirls. So with sweaty palms I called my bride to inform her of the situation. My bride was sympathetic, but I knew she would be crushed if she didn't have her peony bouquet. All I could do was hope my supplier could get some color of pink peony...or that I would be able to find something at one of the other suppliers in the flower district.

I was in the city early at 7am, and the peonies weren't there....but might be in the shipment coming in at 10am. After I checked the rest of my order I decided to look across the street....and low and behold they had one box of pink peonies...brighter than what the bride had originally wanted, but better than nothing. Sigh...relief. And she absolutely loved, loved, loved her bouquet.

This is my friend Amy...She is starting her own flower business in Philadelphia called Leaves of Grass Floral Design...she was a huge help!

Thank goodness it all worked out....I had been looking forward to this wedding because it was an April Wedding at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, when all the cherry blossoms would be blooming. And that was my brides inspiration for the centerpieces, fluffy and pink.

Half of the centerpieces were tall and as you can see made with carnations...they get a bad rap, but can still be beautiful and elegant.

And the other half low...

The card table had an arrangement of cherry blossom branches with hanging votives...which had battery operated candles so as not to have a burning tree.

And the boutonnieres

Can you see how amazing the atrium is where the reception was held? Here is a picture from across the gardens.

The ceremony location was absolutely incredible and she had the most amazing weather. When the wind blew it rained petals, I am sure the pictures are going to be amazing.