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.

Westminster Hotel, Livingston NJ

This was the wedding I was crossing my fingers that baby girl would stay in my belly for (although I had arranged for back up I'm a little OCD when it comes to the designs)....and she did.

I started working with this bride more than a year ago and from the start she had the vision of fruit in the centerpieces with a bright pink and bright green color scheme.   Limes and apples....so after some experimentation on how to get the lime slices to stay in place on the sides of the centerpieces I figured it all out.

This will be the last peony post for the year...peony season usually ends toward the end of June.


Boutonnieres of mini green mums, green hypericum berries, and mint.

Corsages of white roses, green cymbidium orchids, and mini green mums

Bridal Bouquet of green cymbidium orchids, pink calla lilies, green hydrangea, green spider mums, and the most delicious pink peonies.

Bridesmaids bouquets of green hydrangea and pink peonies.

Escort Card Table:  A vase filled with granny smith apples and limes.  Topped with a large arrangement of bugati roses, white hydrangea, and mint.

Tall centerpieces of mint, bugati roses, pink peonies, and white hydrangea

And short centerpieces with lime slice covered vases and an arrangement of pink peonies and mint.

Next time I post I'll be the mother of three!  

Glen Foerd Mansion, Philadelphia April 28th

I'm finally getting to posting the most recent weddings, starting with this one from April 28th at the Glen Foerd Mansion in Philadelphia.   This is such a beautiful spot on the Delaware River and usually I don't travel this far south for events, but of course I always make exceptions, and honestly would probably go anywhere!  

In this case the bride and I met at a bridal show in Central Jersey, where she is from, but she hadn't yet found quite the right reception space for her very creatively themed wedding.  It was a mix of Midsummer Nights Dream and Mardi Gras.  There were even masks for the guests to wear, which she originally wanted included in the centerpieces.  She ended up with the masks on the escort card table, it really looked festive.  Right off the bat her guests knew this was not going to be your ordinary run of the mill wedding.

If ever there was a DIY bride Irina was it.  She glued ribbon, that matched the table clothes she found, to each and every votive candle, wine bottles with table numbers and peacock feather, she had an abundance of little this and thats to be placed around the mansion...she was a very busy girl in the days leading up to the wedding and she was so committed to getting the right look for the day.  (I told her with her attention to detail she should become a wedding planner!) That's how she ended up at the Glen Foerd Mansion, as it was the only place that had the grounds to reflect the sprites and fairies of Midsummer Nights Dream, and the big ole historical mansion that could have been transplanted right out of the South, to lend to the Mardi Gras theme.  

The floral designs were no exception, and were created to look a bit ethereal a bit mardi gras.... 

The Bridesmaids carried a bouquet of blue hydrangea, purple allium, fiddle head ferns, and blue delphinium.  A nest of Spanish moss was wrapped around and meant to hang down from the bottom of the bouquet...think of the big southern trees dripping in Spanish moss.  

The Brides Bouquet was fun to make...Purple hydrangea, fiddle head ferns, bells of Ireland, Picasa calla lilies, kangaroo paw, green hypericum berries, and wildflowers....and you can't miss the peacock feathers!

The Boutonnieres....wildflowers, fiddle head fern, Picasa callas, peacock feather, and hypericum berries.  

The Mansion doesn't have space inside for a reception, although the cocktail hr is held there, so there is a very sturdy atrium type tent connected to the building.  The centerpieces were meant to be wild and connect to the gardens and views...although the day of the wedding was overcast, there is a very other worldly look to the pictures where you can see the foggy view.  

The shorter centerpieces had a lantern in the center of a floral wreath of flowers, babies breath, delphinium, red charm peonies, wildflowers, sweet peas, allium, and hypericum berries.  Our first versions of the centerpieces had roses and a much different array of flowers...to stay within budget, but the bride just couldn't part from her original vision...which didn't include a single rose, and so that's the course we took.  

The taller centerpieces were white cherry blossom with dark purple hydrangea at the bottom.  The bride found candle holders that swirled up around the centerpieces.  

 

 

More weddings to come!  

Sheraton, Parsippany NJ

A perfectly winter white wedding...and the bride stuck to her guns in every aspect of the design for reception....she had a vision.  

And when it all came together it really was a vision.  While I've done other 30+ table events, this was the most demanding in what needed to be done on site.  I knew this going in, so I hired the staff I needed, rented the vans..yes that's plural..vans, and went over the day time after time in my head and on paper to make sure nothing was overlooked.    26 boxes of flowers to unpack...17 of just hydrangea, which are individually wrapped (over 300 stems)...it took me 4 hrs!  Thank goodness I recently bought this insane stem chopping device, it would literally take your hand off..it's like an old school paper cutter on steroids.

You'll see all the flowers were white..white orchids, white roses, white stephanotis, white hydrangea, and white anemone....with the dark purple center ;)

On site 18, 6 ft trees had branches to be arranged, flowers to attach to them, and votives to hang from them.  One member of my staff had experience making these from a wedding in August so I left him to direct.   I left my staff to this while I worked on the Chuppah.....

 An elaborately decorated Chuppah, which after much discussion with the bride I was able to convince her that the branch idea with the hydrangea would fit in perfectly with the rest of the designs...(the original plan was to cover the Chuppah with white fabric, but then there was the issue of having the fabric match what the drapers...(not Don and family...ha!  Sorry about that) were using to drape the whole back wall of the reception room.    I've used my Chuppah 4 times so far and this was the most weight...and the flowers across the front were seriously heavy...it's held...and I think the best it's looked.  I am waiting on the professionals pics, I just couldn't get the lighting right.  The bride expressed how important this was to her because it represents family and the life her and her husband will begin together, so that was my baby...it took over 2hrs to get it to look like this.  

The floral swag was then removed and used on the head table.

The only disappointment of the day was the anemone boutonnieres.  I've done them before with no problem...and they looked beautiful for a few hours, but then wilted...boo.  As always though,  I had the just in case flowers...and between working on the Chuppah and having one of my staff help we remade 12 boutonnieres!  

With 12 bridesmaids the bride had plenty of eyes checking up on us to make sure everything was staying on track and looking perfect.   I was so happy when, even without them being on their stands the bride was almost in tears when she saw her white hydrangea centerpieces, and she was happy with how they had turned out.   She was a tough cookie and if she was unhappy she would have let me know, no doubt!  

 I purchased the stands just for this event...and it was a major investment.  When I ordered them I thought they were nice...when they arrived...(1 month late due to Sandy) I was over the moon happy with the quality and durability of them.  So if you are looking for silver stands for your centerpieces look no further!  

Thanks to all my staff who worked before hand and on site to bring all of this together!  

Terrace in the Park, Flushing NY

The wedding was on Saturday, but it was a big production and I don't mean this in a bad way at all, I loved how everything turned out and more importantly so did the bride,...there was just alot that couldn't be done until we were on site.

For the ceremony there were going to be chicken wire cones to hold the flowers for the 20 pew bows.  And trees and columns....I had this beautiful vision and the bride was on board.  Because I used my manzanita branch trees I had to rent a van, I made the reservation probably about 1 month before the wedding.   I made the cones, one night the week before, after going to home depot to buy the chicken wire (I have a guy in there who honestly laughs at me when I tell him what I am trying to build and asking him where to find things...the last one was the components to build project chuppah...that will be in the next post!)  After cutting all the wire I used a traffic cone to shape them, then I twisted the ends together so they would keep their shape.  The next day my 4 year old son helped me filled them with moss as I attached the pew bow holders.  From start to finish it probably took me 3 hrs to build these.

Some of the pictures came out a little blurry and I hate that they just don't do the setting justice....this was so beautiful!

The bride also supplied me with the table numbers she wanted to use, sans the numbers though, since she is a friend ;) I printed, cut out, and put all the table numbers in, this probably took about 1 hr.

Here is her bouquet of spray roses, garden roses, and phalaenopsis orchids and the bridesmaids made of the same just in a different color scheme.

In the winter I'll usually pick up my flowers 2 days before the event so they have time to open, in the summer I usually go one day before, but it also depends on the type of flowers.

This event had lots of phalaenopsis orchids and garden roses, so I picked up the order Friday.  I drove into NYC at 6am and after shopping for the odds and ends for this wedding and the other two events I was working on I was home at 11am.  Then the next two hours were spent putting all the flowers in water.  So I was 'finished' with this part of the day at 1pm.  8 hrs later I was back to work building the 20 pew bows, and 10 of the centerpieces.  The other 10 used birdcages...so cool...and we were recycling the flowers from the pew bows to save money.

5am Saturday, the day of the wedding I was up making boutonnieres, bouquets, and corsages.  By 10:30 the van was packed and we were off to the church in NYC.  11:30am we arrived at the church, I walked a few blocks away to bring the bride her bouquet for pictures, then I was back to the church to set up.  Here is what we did.
2 sets of pillars to be set up.  2 pillars would hold centerpieces that would later be used at the reception and the two other pillars had the manzanita branch trees on them.  The trees needed to be dresses with orchids and hanging vases with garden roses.  At the base of these are two birdcages with small arrangements of roses and garden roses, with a white lantern.
At the church the pew bows needed to be hung and the orchids and ivy added since this wouldn't travel well attached.  At 1:30 we were finished.  The ceremony was at 2, so just in time.

The cocktail hr at The Terrace in the Park began at 6pm.  It was about a 20 min drive. This is the trio of vases for the tables at the cocktail hr.  The green 'vase' is actually an olive oil bottle...I love this olive oil and it doesn't hurt that I get to use the bottle again!   The funky looking flower is a blushing bride brunia.

 The ceremony ended at 3, but then there were the family photos....we didn't leave the church until about 3:45, and by the time we got to the reception site...ugh...their freight elevator was the slowest elevator on the face of the planet....soooooo sloooowww...and unless you wanted to walk up the 5 flights of stairs it was the only way up with all our stuff.  By the time we had everything up it was 4:45.  And then the big shock...the reception and the cocktail hr were in the same room!  I knew the reception started at 7pm and that setting up the cocktail hr for 6pm wouldn't take too long...I'm thinking on the way there we will still have plenty of time to assemble the birdcages, which were being made from the pew bow flowers.   Not only did we only have until 6 to set up, the maitre d informed us that no, we only had until 5:30 because that's when they let the guests up.   So 45 min to make 10 centerpieces (the birdcages), set up the cocktail hr, and put all the finishing touches that I had planned in my head, like petals on the table and such.  She asked me if I would be done by then and in my frantic state with the info I had just learned, I plainly said 'No' and went back to work.

Of course we did finish, I always do...and this whole time when I say we, I mean me and my assistant (cough, husband).  I didn't hire an assistant for the day because since this was a friends wedding and we were also invited I figured he'd be there to help....and the icing on the cake...it was also his birthday.  I have a very, very, very supportive husband...I am a lucky gal....what guy would do all the grunt work, be ordered around by his wife, about how to deal with flowers non the less...again, I am a lucky gal.  Normally for an event like this I would have hired at least 1 assistant, maybe two.

I can't wait for the professionals pictures.  These are all pictures I took, some the day of and some the day after the wedding, since the birdcages are now in my arsenal of cool things to rent to brides.  I'm already planning on using them for an October wedding.

 These fans are from the bridal shower.  We played a cute game where the maid of honor made a statement and we had to decide if Helen or Larry would have said it.  We voted by holding up the fan.

After the wedding was over my husband and I broke everything down and packed up.  He enjoyed his birthday after all....and was so funny on the way home.  He had brought a seltzer with him, but we didn't stop all day so it sat in the van.  He tried drinking it on the way home...warm seltzer.  He took a sip and started ranting about...aggghhhh warm seltzer...it's burning my throat....ugggh it's so warm...(he takes another sip)...uggghhh warm seltzer is terrible..it's burning...aggghhh...and so on for about 10 minutes.  Then I had quiet the rest of the ride home.  We got home at 1:30am.....The next day was clean up.  Clean out the van, return the van, put my supplies away, clean up my mess in my studio (aka the basement), this all took about 4 hrs, then I could finally rest....ahhhhh.  And get ready for the next weekends wedding!