Turtle Back Zoo, West Orange NJ

Yes, they do have weddings at the Zoo....And since the major renovations at Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange they now rent out the zoo after hours for events. The couple was actually already married, before her then fiance was shipped out to Iraq. So this was the wedding they wanted but never had. Since they are both big fans of Zoos, they thought this would be the perfect place.

My job here was simple, since the centerpieces were going to consist of live butterflies, to be released at the end of the night. I wish I could have gotten some pictures, but the event staff was waiting until the last minute to put them on the tables...seems they were having a problem with them getting out of their little cages and flying away! I did create a few small rose centerpieces to be place around the reception site, which was outside under a covered patio.

The bride asked to create a letter D out of carnations...but I thought the D might look sad on it's own so I created their entire monogram.

And the brides bouquet....I ordered all the flowers from California since it was a smaller wedding...I thought no problem....well problem. The roses that I ordered for the brides bouquet were so small. Small roses and bridal bouquets do not work. Now, the roses usually need two days to open so when they arrived I immediately knew they were not acceptable. After sending out an email with pictures to the supplier I ran to a small supplier in NJ, close to my house. (I usually don't use them because the owners are always yelling at each other, cursing, yelling at their employees....Seriously, I feel so awkward being there)

I must have good karma or something because they had one bunch of roses in the same exact color as the ones I had ordered from Cali.

As a little side note... I had already placed an order for roses for a Wedding Shower this weekend. I'll keep you posted on how the quality of the roses are. This is a new supplier I am trying out...the Ikebana Bat Mitzvah flowers were from them, and all the other flowers they sent me were fine...so we'll see.

So Back to the Bouquet....

I love when brides want to do something fun and the fun here was hot pink Ostrich feathers. To get some pics of it I actually went to the Ostrich enclosure and tried to get some pics with the Ostrich's in the background. Can you see them? Thanks for the feathers guys!

And as I walked to the Ostrich's I passed this bird...who said "Hello" to me as I walked by...at first I thought I might be hearing things until the bird said "Hello" again as I walked back.

And then as I was leaving I passed this peacock. I have only seen one open up its feathers on TV...as I got closer to take a picture he started shaking them all around..hmm was he flirting with me or about to attack!

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.

Peonies, Peonies

Peonies are probably one of the most requested wedding flowers, but if you are trying to get them out of season you'll end up paying a ton...and getting flowers that just aren't as big as they are when in season...All in all you'll probably be let down.

When is in season?  Mid-April is the start and I've seen them in the flower district 

up until mid-June.

I love working with them and this past May I created floral designs for a wedding in which the bride only needed flowers for the ceremony.

The Brides Bouquet consisted of white peonies...with fuchsia specs towards the center, snap dragons, and light pink Peonies.

This bouquet smelled amazing!

The Bridesmaids carried bouquets of fuchsia peonies

A cute pomander for the flower girl..a great alternative when the ceremony site will not allow petals to be thrown on the aisle.

Carnations and Antique Pink Roses

And Cream Spray Roses for the boutonnieres and corsages

The Bride was going for an English Garden feel for the ceremony and her pictures were taken in Rutgers Gardens...I'm sure they were amazing...I'll have to contact her and see if she can send me some!

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;)

A Backyard Wedding

So I am finally getting my blog together and getting some recent events up.  Over the next few weeks I'll also be posting events from the past, which you can view on my website now.

This was a relaxed event held in the back yard of the brides mother. What a beautiful and meaningful setting.  And while it was threatening to rain the weather held out and the temperature was perfect for wedding day hair do's.

Here is a picture of the tent as guests arrived.

And I love how the the place cards were strung between two trees,  the bride even put out bottles of skin so soft with pink ribbon in case the bugs started biting.

These are photos of the arch, which almost fell on top of me while I was decorating it due to some crazy wind gusts.  Luckily I brought some wire with me and we secured it to the wooden fence behind it.  We had to warn the officiant and the photographers

 lest someone get clotheslined!

The arch was decorated with passion vine and fuchsia spray roses.

Now for the good stuff.  The bride wanted everything to tie back into her bouquet.

This is the brides bouquet.  It consisted of Hot Lady, Hot Princess, and Bugatti (yep, like the car) roses, with little green flowers and bear grass loops.  Just for sizes sake, in case you are trying to figure out how large you'd like your bouquet, the bouquet is in an 8 inch fishbowl and had about 30 stems.

The Bridesmaids bouquets...a smaller version of the brides.  15 stems.  

A wrist and pin on corsage for the grandmothers and mothers

The boutonnieres wrapped with thin fuchsia ribbon

The centerpieces still incorporated the bear grass, but it was wrapped around 

the inside of the vase. 

Here are the centerpieces packed and ready to do their job.

The only issue with this wedding was traffic, a Saturday wedding going down towards the New Jersey Shore...not fun driving, but being a Jersey Girl I know what Saturday summer traffic is like so we planned for the delay...we were even there before the caterer who was stuck in traffic and over 1 1/2 hrs late!