Being the preferred flower sponsor for the entire Virginia Gold Cup is quite a big task. It’s amazing to me what our studio is capable of. Honestly, I can’t think of a more complicated floral job then this event. For this event, we typically have 30 plus tents that we are responsible for. The tents are spread out across a beautiful meadow and that lovely meadow is an hour from our home. We have to be at the races by 6:00 am. This year we started on Friday night loading as much as we could into a 16 foot long refrigerated truck. Everything that could not fit into that truck had to be loaded at 3:30 in the morning.  Having accomplished this successfully for two years straight now proves to me that our studio is a power house.

Evan built a wooden grid in the truck so that all of the tall arrangements could be tied down. Most of the big designs were in 24 inch tall vases. Evan carefully checked designs as they were loaded into the van. We had to create a list of how the designs were on the truck. Evan also gathered food and treats for the flower arranging troops.

When the big truck was completely full we packed up the rest of the designs and said goodnight to the designers. Thankfully we finished our day at around 7:30 so our crew could get a little sleep. Evan and I worked until 11 getting spread sheets finished and loading up non perishable items. At 3:30 in the morning we started the final loading of the vans. Thankfully our sons Alex and Riley got up to help. At 5:00am in the morning we headed to the races with one huge box truck and 5 other cargo vans. We arrived on time bright and early at 6:00am with a team of 13 people.

A beautiful view of the steeplechase field.

My boys, Alex and Riley. Can you tell which one is the oh so happy teenager?

While they unloaded the trucks, I headed straight to Audi. I had decided to create a structure around the center pole and cover it with callas. Which meant that the whole design had to be created the morning of the event. This caused a little extra pressure!!!

Designs featured callas, orchids, roses, stock, freesia, double tulips, dusty miller and silver brunia. We also used the wire in the base of the vase for a contemporary feel.

The tables were chrome in the tent and my structure for the buffet was made out of wire, so I really wanted to keep that metal feeling going along the Audi fence. Because of this, Evan and I did a walk through of Home Depot looking for a metal mesh we could use for the fence. We brought home gutter guard and regular screen for screening doors.  I was obsessed with the way this turned out.

The designs for Audi were super sexy and very “Hollyish.”

Large arrangements in yellow and blue were created for the observation area. You can see them on the front porch of the building.

United Airlines had a Hawaiian themed tent, luckily for us we also found a very cool grass fence at Home Depot. Big tropical flowers were added to the fence.

Birds of paradise, orange pin cushions, aggies, blue delphiniium, and orchids were used for these designs.

We created a garland of tropical leaves for the center pole.

United”s tent was beautiful.

Our next tent was for Infinitive Corp. This tent featured bold orange fabric, their signature color, and south western looking flowers. This tent had a Cinco De Mayo feel.

The centerpieces, poles of the tent, and fence draping all featured succulents and air plants. This tent had my creative juices flowing so much that I repeated some of this decor at my own home. You will see that in tomorrows blog post.

As you can see, we pretty much designed every color combination imaginable since we were servicing so many clients.

Large arrangements and garland were created for this fence.

For the clients that requested garland on their fence we created a beautiful mixed greens garland that we created in our studio. Wholesalers sell a green garland but it’s no where near as nice as our home made garlands. We made more feet of this than I care to think about.

We left the races just as the day began and an hour before guests arrived.

Our crews got home just in time to take a little breather and then we loaded up again for our big DC wedding. This was a really big and beautiful wedding. My bridal bouquet was created with white peony and white phal orchids.

Eenterpieces were created with hot pink peony, hot pink carnations, hot pink hydrangea, and green amaranthus. Low centerpieces were created with white peony, white hydrangea, and roses. You could say that we had a very full and successful weekend.

I spent the rest of the weekend working in my garden and designing a really big arrangement for my front door. Wait until you see what I created here. It happened to be my favorite design of the weekend.