Shannon's wedding was at Morven Park this past Saturday. The wedding was designed and planned by Pam Barefoot of A Trendy Wedding.   This celebration was absolutely a pleasure to bring to life; all of the little details throughout the wedding were amazing. After months of planning and preparing, we can proudly say we provided flowers for this remarkable event.

 

Designer Debbie created the above sketch of the table layout; this gave us a map to use during set up of the centerpieces when we arrived on the job. Shannon had two 40 foot long tables, a 24 foot long head table, and 9 rounds that were in the center of the tent.  To ensure that we had the look correct, we lined the flowers up on my living room floor. Thank goodness my living room is 40 feet long.

 

Our meticulous planning paid off because the tables were absolutely, perfectly designed.

 

Each table had 3 of these elevated designs that were created by wrapping a pilsner vase with moss and vine. The pieces were stunning, but  moving the arrangements to the event proved to be absolutely terrifying. My husband Evan built me a wooden grid for arrangements of this stature, but it seems we did not tie the designs onto the wooden structure tight enough. Normally Evan loads big stuff for us, and I am always saying, "Be more careful. You will break the blooms. Can't you be more gentle ." Well, on this day "we girls" packed the truck, and we very gently and lovingly tied the designs to the wooden harness, being oh-so careful not to damage a blossom. Due to the fact that we are sensitive to the flowers and how fragile they are, we simply did not tie them up the way Evan does. When the load left the flower shop it swayed and threatened to topple over just feet out of our driveway. My poor son Alex was driving the vehicle when the chick loading job failed.  Evan got the freak out 911 phone call to come to the rescue at the bottom of our road.  He proved to me that my designs are much more sturdy than I believe, and that if  we had just slammed them into the truck and tied them down properly, it would have been a whole lot better than barely tying them down, which gave them the freedom to literally fall over in the van. In other words our efforts to protect the designs caused major trouble. Lucky for us we were hours ahead on set up, and we had time to reload the truck. I have to say it was quite a "Chapple moment" to have my whole family on the side of the road trying to repack the totally full Holly Chapple flower van. 

Several weeks ago we got cable TV, and ever since we became reality TV show watchers of the TLC wedding drama shows; drama has been following us. Our chaotic situation was due to karma because Abby and I both sat giggling over our first reality shows; at that time Abby commented "these shows are absurd. How can you have all this crazy stuff go on? Glad that doesn't happen to you." Ha, we should have knocked on wood right then and there. Since we became TLC watchers just 2 weeks ago, our deliveries have been way more exciting. To prove my point even further, as I stood inside the beautiful clear tent, I saw two of my tall pieces get tangled together on our working station, and one fell over. In my head I was screaming "NOOOOO!" Luckily there were 3 people standing at the table, and they started catching the designs as they began to fall over. Honestly, it was like a bad dream. The morning had been so ridiculously calm I should have known a storm was coming. In addition to that stress, since the tent was a clear tent it acted like a greenhouse. In all of my years of designing I have never, ever, seen my flowers wilt on the spot. Each piece was truly beginning to bake under the magnifying glass of the clear tent. We removed all of the flowers from the tent which was considerably hotter than the great outdoors and started refreshing the flowers. I always bring extra flowers, and on a job this size we had buckets of loose flowers and we simply replaced any blossoms that were in trouble. The tent was air conditioned, so as the sun changed position over the tent, the air conditioning was finally able to cool the tent. I questioned sharing this story with you all, but the truth is we handled everything perfectly. We have been incredibly fortunate with our many successes, and I attribute that to being fully staffed and always buying enough blooms to ensure a quality event. Skimping is not something I know how to do…

 

Our amazing bridal bouquet!

 

Low centerpieces were huge mounds of hydrangea, roses, coxcomb, orchids, stock, dahlias, carnations, and moss.

 

We placed a green orchid at every place setting on the head table.

 

The ceremony took place under this amazing tree. We created this full wreath that was made with over 450 blossoms. We used purple carnations, hot pink carnations, roses, and coxcomb to create this wreath.

 

This planter was used to create a table for the programs. We cut foam boards and covered them with moss to make a flat surface.

 

We placed petals down the aisle, and we inserted roses into the ground to give them a little height above the petals.

 

Cocktail tables were unique designs created with cloche vases, bird cages, or lanterns.

I adored this window box that was used as a wish box.

 

We filled smaller iron planters with the same moss boards and place cards were inserted into the moss.

 

We turned this plant stand into a cupcake table by using a circular saw to cut boards that were cut to fit into the stand. The boards were then covered with dry preserved moss. This piece took hours to create, but it is now a part of our inventory. I have to admit when my bride Shannon and planner Pam brought this to me my first thought was "Oh freak, how in the world am I am going to turn that into a flat moss table for cupcakes?"

 

The cupcake stand and these beautiful silver pieces were all on display in the dessert tent.

 

As you can see this was one amazing and beautiful event and it was a total pleasure to work on.  Designing with Shannon and Pam was truly wonderful and I am so glad that I was chosen to be the floral designer.  I can't wait to see the photographs the Regeti's captured from this big night!!