The Grand Summit Hotel, Summit NJ

This wedding took place on Nov. 13th. And as I explained in my last post business has been good, so I've fallen a little behind in posting my weddings. I am looking forward to a Holiday break though, with my next wedding not until Jan 8th. Coming very soon is my debut in The Knot! The issue comes out Wednesday and I am very, very excited and will be stalking the shelves at my Barnes and Noble!

This wedding was all about fall with its orange and cinnamon colors. I explained in a post for my first Hindu wedding that Orange Hydrangea only exist as I create them in my back yard, and although it was cold at least the wind wasn't blowing the paint all over the place this time!

The brides bouquet contained orange hydrangea, orange celosia, mango calla lily, orange rancunculus, coffee break roses, and orange roses. The bridesmaids bouquets complimented the bride with coffee break roses, and mango calla's.

I also made an arrangement for the alter.

The groom had a boutonniere of orange celosia and white calla lily, I added a little sparkle to the bottom and like the little pop it gave the bout. The groomsmen had mango calla's and the fathers and mothers had brown cymbidium orchids.

The Cake: I always bring extra flowers with me, in this case the bride had asked me to decorate the cake here is what I came up with. I had extra roses so I used the petals to decorate the tables in the cocktail hour, where there were small round vases with submerged cymbidium orchids, and the tables in the reception.

It was most important to the bride that the centerpieces be a manageable size so her guests would take them home and they wouldn't go to waist. They contained hypericum berries, coffee break and orange roses, and each had one brown spider mum.

I made the coolest arrangement for the card table and didn't take a picture of it! I'm hoping the photographer got a good shot of it and I've been waiting for him to post the pictures, but they aren't up yet. When they are I'll see if he'll let me use some and I'll post them later. I had two stalks of the brown cymbidium orchids, one submerged in a cylinder vase and the other coming up out of the vase...it looked like one stem of continuous flowers. Hopefully you'll see it soon!

The Stone House, Warren NJ

First I know I've been slow in posting. I can't even believe how swamped I've been over the past month and I even had a point where I was embarrassingly behind on emailing brides and even had to put out an automatic response apologizing! But hopefully the wait was worth it because it was so much fun creating everything for this wedding which was on November 6th.

Sometimes when I am in the thick of a wedding I don't realize how beautiful something is that I have created. My husband always gives me a raised eyebrow look when I emerge from the basement with a bouquet and ask him what he thinks. The flowers I was working with here were not the typical white, pink fluffy flowers. It was a ton of fun working with them and I was really pleased with how things turned out, especially now looking back on the pictures.

The reception was held at an amazing Frank Lloyd Wright inspired venue called The Stone House, owned by the same people who own the Liberty House in Jersey City. It's about 1/2 hour from my home but I feel like I'm transported to the mountains in California every time I go there. Seriously, you have to stop by here for dinner, the food is innovative, original, and amazing!

The Bridal Bouquet was white roses, patience garden roses, scabiosa pods (these are so cool), ligustrum berries, and seeded eucalyptus.

The Bridesmaids carried a bouquet of white roses and seeded eucalyptus.

The Boutonnieres are probably my favorite of all the boutonnieres I've made so far. Fiddlehead fern, with scabiosa pods, seeded eucalyptus, and these really funky ball things with furry 'leaves' if you can even call them that.

The centerpieces were completely different and were almost edible! With purple artichoke, succulents, pink sedum, green kale, green hydrangea, scabiosa pods, seeded eucalyptus, and dusty miller I was worried they looked like salads! In the end though I really loved how they turned out.

Hopefully I'll be able to post my wedding from November 13th tonight too! Happy Flower Hunting!

A Hindu Catholic Wedding, West Orange NJ

When I think back to the wedding, which was last weekend, the first thing that comes to my mind is how absolutely gorgeous the bride looked. She dressed in traditional clothing, it was breathtaking. ( The other thing that comes to my mind is how adorable it was that her groom, and their two sons were all wearing converse!) I am anxiously awaiting her return from the honeymoon so I can get some pictures of her with her bouquet. She was running just a tad behind and had to rush, rush off to the ceremony before I had a chance to steal a picture.

The brides bouquet was simple Orange Voodoo and Cherry Red Roses. And the bridesmaids bouquets were small and sweet bunches of the same color roses.

This wedding, which was my first Hindu ceremony, gave me the opportunity to make garlands. From what I've read it represents unity between the couple. The bride asked me to make them a little shorter than they traditionally are.

Some Boutonniere shots

I started labeling them after a wedding where I noticed that some of the groomsmen had on the pin on corsages I had made for the grandmothers...I guess I should have known better dropping them off to a group of guys who were clearly enjoying themselves before the ceremony!

Now for my favorite part of the wedding...the orange hydrangea centerpieces. "Orange Hydrangea" you say, "It doesn't exist!" Well you are 100% right. Orange hydrangea does not occur naturally..it occurs in my backyard in 40 degree temps, on a windy night, with several cans of flower spray paint. This was also a first for me, spraying flowers...and something I thought I would never do....flowers are beautiful on their own...why spray paint them? Well after I created these arrangements and they were on the set tables, the room looked amazing. And when I spray hydrangea orange again, for a wedding next weekend, I will do it with confidence and happily, knowing that it will look incredible.

Finished arrangements in the truck ready to be put on display, I also included hypericum berries, circus roses (which are yellow/orange in the center and red towards the ends), and marigolds.

I'll leave you with pictures of the ceremony site, and the thousands of rose petals strewn on the aisle. Loved, Loved doing the flowers for this wedding. I joked with the bride that she is going to be bored now having all of the wedding planning behind her!

A small disclaimer, I cannot take credit for the arrangements for the ceremony, I was only responsible for the rose petals. The beautiful Indian decor was provided by Abhisek Decorators, out of Iselin NJ.