Eventi Hotel, NYC July 12th

Yes, that is the answer to your question.  If you saw my post below, and that my daughter was born on June 28th, and this wedding was July 12th...and your question being "Is she crazy?!", the answer is yes.  I booked this wedding (before I was pregnant) through a wonderful wedding planner, whom I've worked with before,  Christina Whitehurst and here is a link to her site.

The couple was from Norway and getting married at the Norwegian Seaman's Church in NYC.   Since it was a smaller event I figured, of course I can handle it.  And with the help of my husband, and my moby wrap (this crazy long piece of fabric that you origami around yourself and stuff the baby in...sounds terrible, but babies love it!) it went off without a hitch.

The bride and groom brought their photographer with them from Norway...I love this cute and quirky shot she took of them.

And for the flowers

Bridal Bouquet:  White hydrangea, patience garden rose, white lysianthus.

Boutonnieres:  We were going to do the garden roses, but with the heat I made a back up of white calla, which are sturdier, and what they decided to go with.



Centerpieces:  In the brides words "overflowing" with white hydrangea, on the table were 20 votive candles that were to be laid out on the table in an unorganized manner.  I'm hoping the Norwegian photographer got a shot of these all set up.

I do have an event in early August, but it's only bouquets....so I am getting a little break..and July is always a slow month for me.  Probably because no one wants to be wearing a wedding dress in this heat, and everyone is enjoying the start of the summer.  Starting August 25th though it will be go, go, go, with a wedding almost every weekend until November 17th.

Windows on the Water at Frogbridge, Millstone NJ, May 25th

I did a wedding at this location back in October of 2012, and while I was working a bride and her family were checking out the venue...I gave her my card and that's how I ended up back at Windows on the Water.  This venue is beautiful and the staff there is professional and fantastic to work with.  

In fact when the venue revamped their website they included the wedding I designed the flowers for as one of the featured weddings of 2012...take a look!

Over the winter by husband and father renovated our basement...I finally have a proper work room!  And here it is in the midst of making the centerpieces.  

I want to eat these peonies....they look so delicious!

Boutonierres of Orange Spray Roses...

Bouquets ready for transport....

The bridesmaids carried bright bouquets of mint, orange spray roses, pink spray roses, juliet garden roses, yellow craspedia, orange freesia, and succulents.  

The Bride carried a bouquet of pink scabiosa flowers, garden roses, orange protea, succulents, orange freesia, coral pink peonies, pink hypericum berries.

There was debate about if we should make the centerpieces in square boxes or rectangular...I'm glad the final decision was the rectangular boxes...and they were perfect on the table runners that the bride provided...the table numbers were also a DIY endevor taken on by the bride.  She had the most amazing run of the day spreadsheet that she provided.  She plans events for a living, and it clearly showed in how relaxed she was on the day of the wedding and how smoothly everything went.  
Crazily enough there was an unfinished bridal gown she was to wear...it never got finished...the day of the wedding...day of...her bridesmaids ran to David's Bridal picked out 3 dresses...she tried them on about 3 hrs before the ceremony and made her choice.   And through all this...completely relaxed!  I loved it!

There were 4 different color peonies, each centerpiece focused on one color (yellow, coral, light pink, dark pink).....my favorite, the yellow. The blooms were huge!  The unifying elements in each were the mint, garden roses, succulents, and babies breath.

 Dark Pink Peonies...

Coral Pink Peonies...

 The Bridal party sat at a long rectangular table...with each of the different colored centerpieces.  The mason jars were for the bridal party to place their bouquets in when they sat down.

Great Gatsby Photo Shoot for Vainglorious Brides, I do...I do.... Morristown NJ

A few years ago a bride came to me to discuss wedding flowers, and while she ended up doing the arrangements on her own the experience...all of it, the planning, the arranging, the juggling, helped lead her to discover her passion.   Selina Howard was the bride and she in the midst of launching her wedding planning services catered directly to helping brides with any and all aspects of wedding planning, Vainglorious Brides.

To orchestrate her launch she organized a photo shoot at I do...I do... Bridal Salon in Morristown NJ.  This is not your run of the mill, store stuffed to the brim with dresses in plastic.  It's a elegant space with  room to breath and take in the beauty of the dresses without all the clutter.  I was so impressed with how organized and professional everything was, and that is most definitely due to Selina's talent and skill.

Selina asked me to create a bouquet and floral centerpiece for the shoot, all based on a Great Gatsby Wedding theme...watch out English Garden..here come the 1920's.  The glamour of the 20's (before it all crashed and burned!) makes it my favorite era for fashion and with the new movie I think there will be a resurgence in wedding glam....but with the elegant twist only the 20's could give.

These are just my little photos...

Bouquet: garden snow roses, patience garden roses, Sahara roses, white sweet pea, spray roses and very unique tulip with frayed edges.    I also included some estate jewelry that I've picked up on my Saturday morning trips to estate sales...I love estate sales!

The centerpieces also include anemone, and white nerine.

Wedding Show, Edison NJ

Earlier this month I participated in a wedding show.  I wanted to use my manzanita branch trees, but do something a little more organic looking, and it was nice to just go into the flower market and pick what caught my eye...and what matched the mismatched table setting I had purchased to complete the look.   I also created the bridal bouquet that I envision going with this garden wedding affair.  Enjoy!

 

This was the smaller table centerpiece...The Bridal Show had up lighting and it was difficult trying to take pictures..the lights were changing from pink, to blue, to purple, to yellow....you can see in the pictures below how it effected how the arrangement looks.

In this one it was blue...

In this one it was yellow...

I love looking for unique things and think at some point I'd love to do expand and have a prop shop to rent items out to brides from.  It would be a justifiable excuse for my yard sale/estate sale addiction.  I was at an estate sale the weekend before the show and picked up these intricate table clothes...I underlayed it with a yellow flower print that I picked up at a fabric store.

The bouquet was patience garden roses, craspedia, brunia, star of Bethlehem, fuchsia spray roses and lambs ear.  My next wedding is August 18th and there are birdcages, lamps, trees...it's going to be beautiful!

Waterside Restaurant, North Bergen NJ

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!