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!  

The Westin Governor Morris Hotel, Morristown NJ

I just wanted to get these last two weddings up before the baby arrives...which I think is going to be very soon and a few days ahead of her due date...good thing I have a few weeks before my next wedding...then little baby girl is going to work!...meaning she'll be hanging out in the baby bjorn ;)

So there'll be no stories here...just the basics!

The colors were yellow, green, and light pink..which I wished was more on the peachy side, but flowers are nature and their exact color can't always be controlled...I could have used regular peach roses, but the bride was clear that she didn't want too many regular roses, so I had to make the decision between peach regular roses, or the light pink spray roses which have a softer feel to them...the boutonnieres were yellow spray roses..

Boutonniere of yellow calla and pink spray roses for the groom and corsages of calla, yellow cymbidium orchids, and pink spray roses for the mothers and grandmothers.

For the ceremony two very large arrangements of white hydrangea, yellow peonies (which my camera does no justice to the color of at all....these were amazing), super green roses, white roses, yellow and pink spray roses and green ruscus.

The bride carried a bouquet of white peonies, white roses, pink and yellow spray roses...and just a note to brides...if you want you bouquet to be perfectly round you should mention that to your florist, have it in the contract, as some flowers lend better to that shape than others.  My bride was unhappy that her bouquet wasn't perfectly round...spray roses grow on one stem at different lengths so they give more texture to a bouquet...there is no way to have them all the same length.  I remade her bouquet, and all the bridesmaids bouquets, on site and did my best to get them to be perfectly round, but I still don't think she was happy with it.  These pictures here are all the before pictures..I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the remade bouquets.

 If this was something I had known before hand I would have suggested different flowers and would have made the bouquet exactly as she wanted...my priority is always creating the designs as the bride sees them..so speak up and let your florist know exactly what you like, it will be appreciated!

The Bridesmaids carried bouquets of yellow cymbidium orchids, super green roses, and yellow spray roses.

Pew Bows:  Yellow peonies, pink spray roses, yellow calla, and green ruscus...so strange that the yellow peonies came out washed out in these photos....they were so vibrant in person.

Reception Centerpieces:  I've done different variations of these....and they are so popular because you get a lot of bang for the buck....a large centerpiece without the huge price tag a large centerpiece usually has...not to say they are "cheap", but they are when you compare them to other types of large centerpieces.

White dendrobium orchids, white hydrangea, curly willow branches

I just bought these lighted bases (below), and they can be rented as can all the vases, and usually this is what I do with large centerpieces....imagine your guests trying to lug this or the centerpiece above out of the room at the end of the night!  So if that is a priority for you, that your guests can take home the centerpieces this might not be the option for you.  But price wise submerged flowers are more affordable.

So these white dendrobium orchids are so bright because there is an LED light under the vase lighting it up from below.

One more wedding to post before my baby break....then I'll be back to work July 12th with a wedding at the Eventi Hotel in NYC.

Professionals Photos of Windows on the Water at Frogbridge

Click here for the link to the professionals pics....they are submitting them to several blogs and magazines....let's keep our fingers crossed!  

You'll see here that the bride and groom actually had two ceremonies...one was a Zorastrian ceremony...one of the oldest monothiestic religions in the world originating in was is modern day Iran.  And a Christian ceremony.  I didn't include the flowers for the Zorastrian ceremony on my blog...I just ran out of time and didn't get pictures of them.  I must admit though I outsourced on the garlands.  I can make simple ones, but the grooms mother wanted something a little fancier that I was capable of making.  She sent me a few pictures...and funny enough the place that the pictures were from is 10 minutes from my house...so I hired them...Vivek Flowers.  And now I will order all my garlands from them!

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.

The Rosewood, Edison NJ, May 3rd

This event was a very special one....My mother-in-law celebrated her second wedding to a wonderful man.  It was a Match.com union and both families couldn't be happier for them.  They chose the Rosewood in Edison, NJ for the ceremony and reception.

My Mother-In-Law, not wanting to stress her pregnant daughter-in-law...yes, that would be me...right now I am counting the days with my due date fast approaching (July 3rd).  I have had several discussions with baby that she must, under all circumstances stay put until June 16th...since I have an event on the 15th!  Any way....my Mother-in-Law was just going to use the fake arrangements the site would provide, but I just couldn't allow it...especially when it was the start of peony season....her color was red....and we could use the most perfect red charm peonies.  Nothing too fancy, but something just enough.

The bride carried a bouquet of white spray roses, red and white tulips, red charm peonies, and black magic roses.

The bridesmaids carried a simple bouquet of red charm peonies...simple...but peonies are so amazing when in full bloom they can handle it on their own.

And the centerpieces mirrored the brides bouquet....

The Professional Photographers View, Glen Foerd Mansion.

I just posted my pictures of this wedding from April 28th, at the Glen Foerd Mansion in Philadelphia Pa.....here is a link to Simple Life Portraits and their pictures of the day.   ENJOY!

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!