I received the sweetest request from mother of the bride Mrs. H. several weeks ago. Her daughter bride Laura, chose to have a simple wedding inLeesburg at our historic courthouse. In spite of the fact that the wedding was to be simple and small Luara’s mom wanted her daughter to have flowers on her wedding day. Sensing that this was very important to this mom and loving all of her correspondences with me, I agreed to design the flowers for this event in spite of the fact that we were booked solid for her date. Even though the planning for this wedding was completely done via email,  I still feel so honored I got to play a part in making this day special. As with all things in my world I am constantly rewarded for finding the time to help. I got to become a part of a wedding that was simply beautiful and I was sent these incredible images from a wedding that flat out looks like a photo shoot. I also was introduced to the amazing photographer LaurynGalloway, and now I have a new photographer friend. You all know how much I love getting images of my work and of my brides!!! I am in love with these pictures and all I can say is wow!!! So happy wedding and happy married life Laura and Jason, and thank you for letting me be a part of your wedding.  Laura you certainly are a pretty bride and the courthouse of downtown Leesburg has never looked better.

I used mini green hydrangea, green dianthus, green button mums, zinnia’s from my garden, don’sdahlias, blue thistle, blue delphinium, blue salvia, and purple stock in the bouquet. These pictures show my devotion to a bouquet no matter how big an event, we rock out every single piece we create.

Blue thistle, green hypericum berry, blue delphinium and seeded euc were used for the grooms bout.

I adore this bouquet that Laura’s twin sister carried, it’s ridiculously perfect with this incredible dress.

After the ceremony on the court house steps, the couple headed across the street to dine with their family and close friends at Leesburg’s famous restaurant Lightfoot.

Even though this wedding was small, it certainly had the best of everything!!!

We also provided centerpieces for the dinning tables with a mix of the days blooms.  HollyHeiderChappleFlowers added to Lighfoot’s incredible food,  could only mean an amazing event. This wedding looks incredibly perfect and I am so glad I was able to fit this special family into our schedule.

Many thanks to photographer LaurynGalloway for sending me so many lovely images of this special day. Make sure you check out Lauryn’s new website and blog, it’s a fun place of inspiration and beauty.

Wow, Wow, Wow, is what I thought when I saw the first images from Katie and Aaron’s wedding. Actually I was thinking Wow, from the moment I met this bride.  Katie came to her first consult with her sister and during that time the girls gently unwrapped two of the most lovely hat pins I have ever seen. The pins were enormous as far as hat pins go, the length of the pin was as long as most of my bouquets and the pin itself was like a huge vintage brooch.  Both girls looked at me and said ” do you think you can do something with these?”  At that moment Katie became my hat pin bride, and we had a theme. The pins belonged to Aunt Mary, who was clearly one seriously stylish lady and all of her lovely antiques became a part of the wedding. As our conversation developed we dreamed of centerpieces in vintage containers and even a place card display of vintage brooches. The girls headed back to look through the boxes of aunt Mary’s treasures and I dreamed of doing the flowers for my hat pin bride.

I used silver brunia, dusty miller, anemones in purple and hot pink, cabbage roses, seeded euc, blue thistle, blue privet berry, and ranunculus in the bouquet and of course one silver hat pin.

The brides sister carried the second hat pin.

The wedding took place at a church and then the reception followed at the Hillsborough vineyard. I am going to show you every picture I have, because they are all so amazing. Kristen Gardner did an incredible job capturing this wonderful Loudoun wedding. I am so excited about having these images, seriously these photos are outrageous.

My bride is perfect, awesome, stunning…

and she is super cute also.

We gave the couple our “Hollyish” boutonnieres, this is what we call our bouts when we take it up a notch and create mini pieces of floral art.

My next favorite detail of the night was our brooch place card display. We gathered up Aunt Mary’s brooches and vintage lace to decorate the seating card display. I could kiss Kristen Gardner for getting me these images. I am so excited about sharing this with you.

In addition to Mary’s brooches we bought smaller pins in NYC to help decorate our “hat pin brides” place card board.

The reception room featured lace table runners and crystal bowls from Aunt Mary. I filled in just a few gaps from my own personal antique collection.

Perfectly fabulous right? Recipe: a wonderful and loving couple, a bit of family history to make everything sentimental, an awesome venue, beautiful flowers, and an incredible photographer to record the day. This Loudoun Wedding is a true beauty.

HC

  This Sunday was the 14th day straight of designing. We have been working diligently for the last two weeks, with Sunday weddings added in to the schedule.  It is hard to believe that you can work, every single day, as a wedding florist. I promise, it is true.
I am going to give you highlights of the weekend, and then hit the hay. I need to get to sleep at a reasonable hour, we are celebrating Riley's 12 birthday tomorrow. It is time for a family day.

  We had another amazing weekend here at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers, we had a huge rush on purple, purple, and more purple. We also played with a whole lot of lavender. The first picture shows our lavender rose bridal bouquet for Nicole. That was the first bouquet to leave on Saturday. We also had small crystals in the bouquet and diamonds down the stems.

Her maids actually carried clean bouquets of pink Roses and white Freesia.

 This bouquet belonged to my bride Julia. We used white Cymbidium Orchids, purple Mokara Orchids, lav Freesia, white Hydrangea, white mini calla's with a purple center and lav Phlox. The bouquet was simply stunning.

  The wedding took place at Lansdowne. I am a preferred vendor at the resort and it is always a pleasure to work at this amazing location. Lansdowne is the perfect venue to hold a Loudoun County destination wedding.

  Her maids carried lovely bouquets of lavender Phlox, Stock, Roses and dark purple Carnations.

I have another purple wedding to show off, plus a very incredible peach, cream and yellow wedding to share.  We will save that for another day and I will go to sleep now.

Holly

I am finding it incredibly hard to believe that it is already mid June. I can't believe we are half way through the year; it seems like wedding season just started. So many of the brides I looked forward to this year are already married. This weekend I have been creating bridal bouquets for brides and families I adore. How, how, can it be passing so quickly? They say time flies when you are having fun. I think it flies warp- speed when you are in the flower shop…

 

Miss Grace had a blast sneaking over from the other side of the house today. She is getting old enough to march over and check out the flower side of our home. She always looked so tickled and pleased with herself when she rounded the corner and found her way back into the shop. Grace has a smile as big as a peony and every bit as sweet. She is such a delight.

 

We are absolutely loving our designs this week, we have pink weddings, purple weddings, orange weddings and yellow. We are rich in blooms and unique textures and the quality this week is awesome.

 

Sam is a constant visitor in the shop, adding Grace to the room is one more challenge, don't forget about Eli, and our puppy Sadie. 

 

This weekend is also the weekend we created our place card easel and board for. We are so excited to be able to bring this to Melissa's wedding.  This was the catylst for getting my husband Evan into the prop building business.

If you do not see your flowers in the cooler, don't worry: the cooler is so full I can't even walk in to take pictures. Everything is wonderful, everything is perfect. Tomorrow will be a wonderful day and unfortunately I will be kissing some of my brides good-bye. Bummer…

This weekend we will design for several weddings.  We have pink, yellow, green and purple weddings and the designs are to die for. The flowers are waiting patiently for their debut in the cooler. Here are some previews of what is to come.

Introducing the exclusive Holly Heider Chapple Collection 2014.  These luscious designs are an enchanting mixture of garden fresh picks and ethereal stems, lovingly gathered and arranged to create an exclusive Holly Heider Chapple Collection for 2014.  With an enchanting array of bridal bouquets, boutonnieres and compote designs, the Collection offers brides a peek into Holly’s studio, where blooms take on a new sense of whimsy and airiness as they find their place within a beautifully orchestrated ensemble of blossoms.

Characterized by loosely cascading vines and blossoms, the HHC Collection 2014 whispers of an enchanted garden tucked away from the world, where a ranunculus is permitted to raise its ruffled head and seeded eucalyptus trails freely.  HHC Collection 2014 emphasizes the interplay of lush color and earthy greens, which burst into a gathering of uninhibited vibrancy.

Peonies, tillandsia, poppies and berries grace the designs in the HHC Collection 2014, alongside trailing vines and verdant leaves.  Holly tucks each element expertly into place allowing natural textures and colors to collide within the vibrant ensemble.

Full of simplistic aesthetic elements and a combination of soft and saturated color, HHC Collection 2014 exudes a sense of bold romance.  Instead of relying heavily on the obvious garden rose, Holly’s latest Collection puts the peony and other gentle blooms center stage and accents with demure stems like spray roses and snapdragon, wistful grasses and silvery dusty miller.

An elegant and sophisticated take on garden blossoms, Holly’s debut HHC Collection 2014 is full of stunning designs that really incorporate a vast array of unexpected elements, bringing bridal into new realms of endless possibility.

Stay tuned for a magnificent encore- HHC Collection 2015 is coming soon!

Photography by Jodi Miller Photography

Because I have an awesome clan of designer friends called the Chapel Designers I thought it would be really fabulous if I did a “best of 2013 bridal bouquet blog post.” I wanted to showcase the incredible designs my friends are producing all over this country and abroad. Much to my surprise over sixty designers contributed to this post. As I entered each post I became more and more impressed with my friends and more and more impressed with what we are building together. Chapel Designers is now well over 120 designers strong and we are gaining new friends everyday. We are making a difference in the wedding industry. We are helping to set trend, we are providing an amazing product, but mostly we are designing with passion and an honest love of flowers. Get ready this is the longest post I have ever seen and because it took me over 12 hours to create I hope you will share this link and I hope you will please leave some comments!!

Designer Holly Chapple of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers – Leesburg Virignia

Image taken by Anne Robert

Designer Francoise Weeks – Portland, Oregon

Image by photographer Jamie Bosworrth

Designer Kristi Landphere of The Posh Posey – Folsom, CA

Image by Allison Lal Photography.

Designer Laura Cogan of Passion Flowers Design.

Image by Marianne Wilson Photography.

Designer Lisa Sommer of Petals and Promises – Silver Spring, Maryland

Image by Photography Du Jour

Designer Amy Santee from Amy’s Wedding and Event Flowers   – Aurora, Colorado

Designer Blair Roberts of Sweet Blossoms – Germantown, Maryland

Image by Liz Hough.

Designer Madeleine Elmer of Fleur de Vie – Houston, Texas

Image by Alyse French

Designer Susan McLeary owner of Passionflower – Ann Arbor, Michigan

Image by First Comes Love Photography

Designer Sylvia Clavier, Dream Weavers Flowers – Covington, Louisiana

Designer Julia Miller of Julia’s Floral – Edgewood, Washington

Image by Family Affair Photography

Designer Donna Sue Roberts, First Dance Floral – Southern Md.

Image by photographer Anne Robert

Designer Lauren Walloch of Garden Gate Florals – Central Florida

Image by KT Crabb

Designer Shelley Bagdasian of B Floral Event Design – Chevy Chase, Maryland

Image by Audra Wrisely

Designer Maria Limon of Maria Limon Atelier – Mexico City, Mexico

Designer Alicia Jayne Florals – Southern Maryland

Image by Birds of a Feather Photography

Designer Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Designs – California

Image by Muir Adams

Designer Carmel Vandale of Mt. Lebanon Floral – Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Image by Veronica Varos

Designer Mary Coombs and Dawn Clark from A Garden Party – Elmer, New Jersey

Image by Amy Rae Photography

Designer Jennifer Ederer of Modern Day Floral – Grand Rapids, MI

Designer Christy Hulsey of Colonial House of Flowers – Statesboro, Georgia

Image by Haley Sheffield Photography

Designer Ellen Snyder of Ellen Snyder Design – Vermont

Image by Paige Hiller Photography

Designer Angie Strange of Posh Floral – Dallas, TX

Image by Nine Photography

Designers Peggy and Hunter Sherwood of Sherwood Events – Lexington, Kentucky

Image by Willie Wilson Photography

Designer Dawn Kelly of Soiree Floral – Nantucket, Massachusettes

Image by Zofia & Co

Designer Janet Martineau of Floral Verde – Cincinnati, Ohio

Designer Jeanette Kleitz of True Florette – Orangeburg, New York

Image by Todd France Photography

Designer Amy Dunlap of Amy Lynn Originals – Winston-Salem NC

Image by Anna Routh Photography

Designer Corinne Sebesta Sisti of Sebesta Design LLC – Narbeth, Pennsylvania

Image by Tyler Boye Photography

Designer Isha Foss of Isha Foss Events – Virginia Beach, Virginia

Image by Sarah Street Photography

Designer Holly Rutt of Sweet Pea Floral – Michigan

Designer Stacy Ercan from Stacy K Florals – Rochester, NY

Image taken by Tom Mike Photography

Designer Heather Potter of Cottage Flowers – Malvern, Pennsylvania

Image by Sweet Water Portraits

Designer Janna Avery of Callista Designs – Linville, NC

Image by Kickstand Studio

Designer Anna Stouffer of Urban Petals – Greenville, South Carolina

Image taken by Catskill Mountain Photography

Designer Katie Pollard of Color My World Flowers – Nashville, Tennessee

Image taken by Alex Bee Photo

Designer Amanda Frankewicz of Alluring Blooms – Wisconsin

Designer Sherry Donnelly from Gertie Mae’s Floral Studio – Atlanta, Georgia

Image by Haley Sheffield

Designer Susan Kelly of Three Sisters Custom Flowers and Events – California

Image by Ginny Silver of Retrospect Images

Designer Karen Lipkin from Blossoms and Branches – Chicago, Illinois

Designer Sue Prutting of White Magnolia Designs – Maryland

Image by the Jo(e)s Photos

Designer Nicole Boshard of The Petal Pusher – California

Image by Sara at OneLove Photography

Stylist Mary Bartolucci of Island Style Weddings– St. John United States Virgin Islands

Image by Sage Hammond Photography

Designer Laura Williams of Loda Floral Design – Virginia

Designer Daevid Reed of Daevids Flowers and Decor – Norfolk, Virginia

Image taken by Hayne Photographers

Designer Lesley Frascogna of Tulip Curated Florals – Jackson, Mississippi

Image by Rylee Hitchner

Designer Jessica Jones of Blooms’n Blossoms – Georgetown, KY

Image by Natasha Moses Photography

Designer Lisa Ruf of Goodness Gracious Florals – Maryland

Image taken by Amy Flashenberg

Designer Eatherley Schultz 0f Floressence Flowers – Brevard, North Carolina

Image taken by Nick Breedlove Photography

Designer Trish Van De Merkt – Chicago, Illinois

Designer Cynthia Manchester of Oleander Florals and Events – New Jersey

Image by Shari DeAngelo Photography

Designer Courtenay Lambert of Courtenay Lambert Florals – Cincinnati, Ohio

Image by Braun Photography

Designer Laurie Garza of Fleurie – Reedley, California

Image taken by Robert Kurtz

 

Designers Carol and Peggy of Celebration Florals – Corvallis, Oregon

Image taken by Chris Becerra Photography

Eric Fredricks of Bee’s Wedding and Event Floral Design – New Orleans, Louisiana

Image taken by Greer G. Photography

Designer Lisa Almeida of Blossoms of Hawaii – Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii

Image taken by Aubrey Hord Photography

Designer Ellen Seagraves – Bethesda, Maryland

Image taken by Lucy Merkley

Designer Katie McConnell of Wild Bunch Studio – Chatham, Massachusetts

Image taken by Click Imagery

Designer Melissa Stewart of Primrose Floral and Event Design – Lexington, Massachusetts

Image by Molly Anne Photography

Designer Kim Kalmbach of Bloomers Floral Design – Sacramento, California

Image taken by Lyndsay Undseth Photography

Designer Meredith Young of Au Courant – Jackson, Mississippi

Designer Alexandra Jusino of Exquisite Designs – Chicago, Illinois

Image by Greenhouse Loft.

Designer Olga Beletskaya of the Flower Bazar – Moscow, Russia

Image taken by Yaroslav & Jenny Fine Art Photography

Designer Sharon Duke of Isn’t She Lovely Florals – Florida

Image taken by Hunter Ryan Photography

Designer Andrea Fitzpatrick of Corona Del Mar Florist – Dana Point, California

Designer Susanne Hatwood of The Blue Carrot – Portscatho, Cornwall, United Kingdom

Image taken by Hayley Savage Photography

Designer Victoria Clausen of Victoria Clausen Floral Events – Reisterstown, Maryland

Image taken by Renee Michele Photography

Designer Robyn Rissman of  Bare Root Flora – Colorado

Image taken by Sarah Box Photography

 

I hope you enjoyed this post, it was most certainly a very impressive line up of bridal bouquets. I am certain 2014 holds many exciting adventures for the Chapel Designers. I look forward to the many things we will accomplish together, our inspiration and growth will have no limits!!!

We are starting a new series here at the Full Bouquet, with Abby’s help we will be doing a feature on each of the Chapel Designers. Our first feature will begin with my amazing and dear friend Francoise Weeks. I hope you enjoy Abby’s interview with Francoise.

Francoise Weeks was born and raised in Belgium, but came to America as a young woman. Since then she has opened a self-named flower shop in Portland, OR. She has been praised in both nations as an insightful and inspiring florist. She is a peer and a teacher to the entire floral world, and she has since become a friend of my mother’s.

Francoise is a somewhat new addition to my mother’s floral lifestyle. She explains, “Holly called me last fall and we connected right away. In February she came to a workshop in my studio and we chatted for hours after class every day. In March I attended her conference in New York. Since then we have stayed closely in touch and we taught a workshop together in her studio last spring.” To me, however, it seems as though my mother has known Francoise forever. They are, for lack of better expression, floral soul mates. They share an impressive history with flowers and an abundant love and passion for the art.

Personally, Francoise inspired me in more ways than she can know. In fact, I’m certain she’s the reason I’m writing this today. This summer I found myself more interested in flowers than I ever had been before. And, at the same time, Francoise came to stay with us. She opened up my eyes to the expression and the artistry involved, something I forgot about when I was so frustrated with all the business-y parts of HHCF. So at a pretty critical time in my life, Francoise gave me the courage and the desire to explore in flowers. Thank you, Francoise, for your open, loving, desire to teach and share your beautiful craft. And thank you for the following interview!

What was it like growing up in Belgium?

F: I grew up in Antwerp, a city that is about the same size as Portland, OR. My mom was an avid gardener and loved flowers – we always had flowers in the house. Mom used to carefully grow seedlings in wooden boxes in the light of the window of my father’s study. In the winter she would force bulbs and she also had quite the array of houseplants. We didn’t have a car till I was 11. Three times a week my mom would bike to the farmers market and return with her bike bags filled to the brim with fresh produce – once a week she also would buy flowers there. I often helped her arrange those treasures and I could do whatever I liked with them. When visiting friends, everyone would always bring flowers – never wine or dessert or bread – always flowers. Flowers simply are part of everyday texture of life in Belgium.

Why did you move to America?

F: I spent many summers with my sister in Portland, OR who had moved here to go to college. 36 years ago I took the leap over the big pond because I loved it so much here.

How did you get into flowers? How does your personal history affect your flower arranging?

F: When I was in my mid-twenties, I interned in a successful family-run florist shop for several months in Antwerp. The owners were extremely generous and shared so many mechanics and techniques. I learned a lot about weaving textures amidst a spectacular selection of seasonal flowers. When I moved here, it was a shock to realize how very different the flower industry was in this area, compared to the wealth of flowers that I was used to. I put my dream of working with flowers on a shelf and worked in a medical laboratory for 20 years. However I did get very obsessed with gardening and always kept playing with flowers. In 1996 I took a leap of faith and started my business in the basement. Five years and hundreds of weddings later, we had a garden studio built. I have a lot of curiosity around mechanics and design; 6 years ago I got very interested in ‘woodland’ arrangements and ran with the concept and a few years later I started to explore botanical couture. It has been a very fun ride and I cannot wait to see what will be next!

Why is Portland a good place for your business?

F: We enjoy a fabulous selection of locally grown flowers and the Pacific Northwest offers an endless selection of woodland treasures.”

My mom has a “Hollyish,” how would you describe “Francois…ish?”

F: Detail and texture I would say. Texture can mean a variety of flowers, but for me it goes beyond that. While working on a project together, my friend Qiana described perfectly what it means to me:

“Texture is the velvety fur of a leaf, the prickly aspect of a branch or thistle, the sword-like cut of grasses. It’s the paper-thin interior of a dahlia that has shed its petals and clusters of violets amidst mosses, lichens and small bracts of euphorbia. It is weaving together a wide variety of flowers, greens berries and vegetables in all of their phases from bud through seedpod. Texture moves, breathes and inspires. It is never static. Your eye continually finds new compositions and beautiful contrasts as you move around the arrangement.”

What made you teach?

F: I’ve always enjoyed teaching – as a kid I used to play school with my little brother (guess who was the teacher?). I got a teaching degree in college. Teaching flower arranging to avid adults is much more fun than teaching math and science to middle school kids though….  Ten years ago I started some seasonal classes in the studio. Upon the encouragement of many, that evolved into teaching 3-day workshops (focus on wedding or woodlands or botanical couture) and this year I started to teach out-of-state and have been enjoying it tremendously.

I know you have inspired my mother in countless ways; do you ever feel that other florists inspire you?

F: We all are inspired by the work of others. I love the very textural and structural work of many European designers, such as Gregor Lersch, Daniel Ost, Joseph Massie, Tomas DeBruyne, Moniek Vanden Berghe and many others. Facebook has been such a wonderful tool to access the work of so many around the world. The sources of inspiration are limitless, thanks to social media.

Has the Chapel Designers given you any opportunities?

F: Being a Chapel Designer has offered so many opportunities to connect with a lot of great designers and to learn how others deal with business issues. And it certainly has expanded the teaching opportunities also. Being a Chapel Designer is a win-win in every aspect.

Francoise offers classes in Woodland Design and Wedding Design. Her next class will be this October in San Francisco. Francoise frequently travels and may in fact be coming to teach near you, so keep up with her blog for details. Holly and Francoise are also planning a workshop in Australia next year.

Written By Abigail Chapple

Meghan and Mike married last fall at Glenview Mansion. Oddly enough I often forget to blog some of my most favorite weddings because we stash the weddings away waiting for submission. I realized this morning that I had never shared these beautiful images with you. I often wish The Full Bouquet readers could just jump into my Iphoto. I have over 40,000 images stored in there. My iphoto folder is a serious place loaded with floral goodness.

This wedding featured beautiful fall tones, and many autumnal elements, we used twigs, berries, nuts, and apples in many of the designs.  Meghan carried a bouquet of purple stock, antiqued green hydrangea, billy balls, el fuego roses, burgundy dahlias, red hypericum berry, and orange ranunculus. The bridal bouquet was a gathering of the individual flowers that were used to create the maids bouquets.

The cocktail hour featured details like hanging flowers and lanterns.

The place card table boasted beautiful designs made of willow, fall leaves, and bittersweet. I loved the simplicity of these designs.

This was a glorious fall wedding!! The amazing images were take by photographer Kate Headley.

Last Saturday my day started bright and early with an 8a.m. wedding delivery to the Belmont Country Club. This wedding was all about fall flowers and everything was super beautiful. I then headed to DC to deliver flowers at the Mayflower Hotel. We designed 24 glorious and amazing centerpieces for this wedding and lots of personal flowers. After a lovely visit with my bride, I headed to 101 Constitution to check on a wedding we were doing there. We hung blue bottles full of white flowers from the top of a tent ceiling, we also displayed bright white and clean designs in blue vases and vintage blue bottles and I also designed a bridal bouquet on a vintage fan from the 1800’s. Seriously amazing and special. Once that wedding was under control I headed back to Leesburg to work on an additional HCF wedding. Here we did elevated designs, lovely low centerpieces in vintage containers several pieces for the arbor and a seriously cool place card display that involved hundreds of apples. We also had a team designing at the Morais Vineyard, those pieces were rich, lush, and elegant.  Each one of those designs was touched and loved by me as well. On Sunday I got up finalized the order for our Sunday wedding at Rosemont Manor and then I dashed to NYC.

My life is so funny and amazingly full and often really hard to believe. On Sunday morning I was standing in my house discussing the massacre that happened in our hen house. Unfortunately a weasel got all of our girls, seriously ever single hen was killed, reminding me that nature can be so cruel. Four and half hours later I was coming up an escalator in Penn Station into the middle of NYC. Because I spent so many years staying home with my children and growing my business, I will never get used to the amazing opportunities that are coming my way. I truly hope that I never lose the sense of wonder I feel when I travel, and when I experience new things.  I also hope I never take visits to NYC for granted.

My purpose in coming to NYC was to watch and to help designer David Beahm create the florals and decor for The Knot gala. Spending the day with David Beahm, Chrstoper Confero, Joseph Massie, George, and Robert was incredible. Each of these designers was so super talented and everyone was so sweet to me. I loved being the only flower mama in the group. These guys were awesome and very inspiring!!

We began our day at 8a.m. at The New York City library  we needed to get our designs started before the library opened to the public. At 10 a.m. when tourists began to arrive at the venue our design space got mighty small. The area we were working in got roped off to protect our flowers and the tourists. Seeing an installation in this venue was one of the many reasons why I wanted to help. This venue has been featured in many movies and working here was seriously cool.  David created a huge tree and from that tree you could see hundreds of butterflies flying into the air. The tree was a beautiful teal and purple tone. Davids team painted all of the branches to get the otherwise green leaves to become the chosen color palette.

We added hundreds of blue and purple hydrangea blooms to the branches of the tree, this gave the tree an amazing look.

Then strings of butterflies were tied to the tree and huge balloons were used to fly the butterflies into the air. I literally was in awe when I saw the butterflies take flight. This was the first time I had seen a flying flower arrangement. Can I say … KICK ASS!!!

The tree, when complete was so large that the band actually preformed underneath the tree. Talk about a big flower arrangement.

After spending some delightful time at The Knot Gala, we headed to the Martha Stewart Weddings market party. You can bet I almost died when I realized I would get to attend both of these events.

Preston Bailey, and Darcy Miller.

The DJ preformed behind the biggest ice sculpture I have ever seen.

Beautiful wedding cakes were on display throughout the event and guests could even get their nails done.

After meeting many of the NYC wedding celebs we headed back to The Knot to close out the night.

Carley Rooney founder of The Knot and NYC designer David Beahm.

The New York City Library the night of the event.

A million thanks to David Beahm for taking the time to teach me a bit about designing in NYC. In addition to the design time David introduced me to all of the major designers in New York. I met Preston Bailey, Darcy Miller, Marcy Blum, Randy Fenoli, Anne Barge, Carley Rooney, Bryan Rafanelli, and countless other wedding industry celebrities. The night ended with a fun little dinner that included David, Christina Matteuchi of David Beahm Design, Ed Libby, and Christoper Confero. I am always thoroughly impressed and pleasantly surprised by David’s remarkable and genuine kindness!!!

In less than two full days I was back home in Virginia attending Eli’s last flag football game of the season. Today started like this….

Here we go again!!!