Our second day in NYC began at 8:30 a.m. at the flower market. My friend Morgan from Garden Of Delights joined us for the tour. Morgan owns a nursery very near to my home/flower studio and I will be referring work to her when we are booked. Morgan is about to launch a new website and she has created a new design studio and cooler at her nursery. I will have more to share about Morgan in the coming months. 

Our tour guide for the morning was Jeremy. Jeremy is production manager for David Beahm Design.

I was incredibly lucky to have time with Jeremy, and I have already reached out to several of the sources he shared with me.

The flower market is in Chelsea, and for one whole block, as far as you can see, the flowers are lined up on the streets.

Production of holiday decor had even begun. Men were creating huge planters or topiaries out of boxwood by stapling the greens on to the wooden structures. This was a sight to see.

The flowers were amazing and seeing the quality of the product made me drool!

Yes this is a carnation, if you can believe that!

In addition to showing us the flower market Jeremy was shopping for a sample he was about to create. Once he had found every blossom he needed, we loaded up the car and headed over to the production offices. The production offices are huge warehouses that hold the major amount of Davids inventory. This is also where the designers begin their creations, however many of the designs are so large that they must be  created at the wedding or event.

The warehouse had everything from rubber ducks to huge trees.

At the production offices we picked up all of the vases and props we would need for the sample tablescape. Once we had everything loaded up we headed back to the corp. offices back in Chelsea.

Working in the city is infinately more difficult and I had lots of moments when I was grateful for my simple studio in VA.  Designers in NYC, must fight with traffic and getting items up into the offices. We dropped all of our materials off on the street and then started loading everything into elevators to get to Davids showroom. I now have a serious understanding of why things cost more in the city.

Davids offices are absolutely beautiful.  He has lots of work space, a huge board room, several computer stations for the managagers, a great section for setting up displays or samples and lots of storage.  I met several of his staff, and I loved them all. I actually signed up to create a wedding bouquet for the fabulous Christina. She is a girl after my own heart, I was told that when she marrys she wants a new bouquet for each hour of her event. I signed up to make just one of those bouquets. Great idea Christine, lets sell this concept to the whole world of brides.

This is Viviane and she is clearly the biggest boss at the offices, next to David of course.

While Jeremy started on the sample we got to play in the board room. We were given piles of images to look through, we also had access to several huge big screen portfolios on the computer. Every single event we saw was over the top and it was a huge privilege to sit and study the world of the amazing David Beahm.

Elodie loved this sitting space in the offices. The wall behind the bench was a complete piece of art, created with little individual tiles. This was a dramatic and comfortable space to hang.

Eventually we did pull ourselves away from the collection of photographs and designs, to help just a little. 

Once the designs were finished and put in place. They chose lighting for the tables.

David was amazing to watch in action.

Two fabulous concepts were designed and the finished pieces were amazing.

I can't thank David enough for this incredible opportunity. Not only is David an amazing designer, and an incredible businessman, he is also a remarkably kind, giving, and generous soul. Not everyone would take time out of their busy day to host young designers from another area. David has a heart of gold, and the integrity I adore in others. This man is totally wonderful, and I LOVE him!!!! It is in my nature to help others who are in my business. I believe it is my responsibility to share my knowledge, and experience, with others as they try and create their own future in this industry. Thank you, David, for reminding me that there are big time designers who agree with this type of philosophy. This was a dream come true.