Many of you have asked how our French designer Elodie is doing. If you followed the blog last year you know we had the pleasure of having Elodie Perrier here. She came to live with us for 6 weeks to see the wedding industry in the United States. Over Spring break I heard from Elodie, In fact I think I wrote her when all of the kids were home and said we were missing just one of the clan. I received this note and pictures of her and the floral design studio she is working in. Elodie is working for Martin Fleurs in Nice and the pictures she sent make me dream of a trip to France.

I absolutely love that green ornamental grass in that bouquet she is holding. I would love, love, love to have that weekly here.

Her note to us…

Hello Holly and all the familly!

 

I am happy you are all gathered for holidays.

I notice on your blog you didn’t really stop working during winter. That means your business is growing! It’s a great thing.

Here you can find some pictures about my work.

I live and work in the heart of ” NICE ” in south west of France. The flower shop is called “Martin Fleurs”. It has been created in 1883 !!! It’s a very old instititution.

http://www.martin-fleurs.fr

it was not easy at the begenning, to arrive in a new city, but now, I am happy in Nice. I met great people, some good friends.

I enjoy my life here. Hey you can tell to Gaby I practice zumba for one month and I love it. So much fun, a great atmosphere between people in the class. I also started beach volley 2 hours on monday, very intense.

Regarding work I’m a bit sad not to to weddings.. We have very small ones coming for summer but nothing compare to what I have done with you!!!

 

I am very glad you will write something about me on your blog that I follow as much as facebook!

Frenchy bisous to everyone.

speak you soon;-)

 

Just so you know biscous means kiss in French, and we would always say biscous when we parted. It was one of the fun things I learned from Elodie.

These designs are so amazing…

Here is a picture of Elodie designing in our studio and another of us in NYC.

Getting to know Elodie was on of my greatest pleasures. Hopefully someday I can go to France to design with Elodie.

Elodie is one of the original Chapel Designers.

HC

It's 8:00 a.m. and I have just woken up in my daughter Abby's dorm room at JMU. I spent the night with her and my 3rd child Hannah, who will also be attending here next year. I feared I would not be able sleep in the dorm. As it turns out I had a mini vacation and I got to sleep in until 8:00 a.m.. Roommate Shelly is sound asleep in her bed and my girls are crashed on the floor. I woke up thinking "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The question is constant here "what dept. are you in, what do you want to do after school? "

When I was young all I wanted to be was a mother. I did not understand why I was expected to go to college. I remember asking my friend that very question, "why are they making me leave home and go to school, when all I want to do is get married and have babies?" Being a good girl, I did do as my parents hoped, and I left for college. I managed to finish 2 years of school before I went to work for a small airline called Presidential Airways. At the time, being a floral designer was far from my mind and not even a notion or an idea.

I married at 21 and had my first child very shortly after we married. Our goal was to try and figure out a way for me to stay at home with the children. During this time I was creating floral arrangements from my property and people began to ask me if I would do their wedding flowers.  In truth I had no idea about designing for a wedding, but I did have an inherited love and passion for flowers that my parents had passed on to me. My parents owned Heiders Nursery which was an amazing garden center. I had grown up in a family owned, home based business and I had always been surrounded by flowers. In fact Daddy still has a little garden center in Lucketts today called Heider Farm Market. It turns out that my destiny or my career found me and it's clearly in my blood. Today my husband and I are raising 7 children and I get to work at home and be with our kids. When I look back to my youth, I did not know where I was going, or how I was going to get there, but I was always certain with hard work and integrity I would find my way. Considering I could not answer the question "what are you going to be when you grow up?"  each little success is an added huge pleasure. In The last four months alone, we have been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Washingtonian Bride & Groom, Brides Magazine, The Knot, Southern Living Weddings, Get Married Magazine, Loudoun Magazine, and most recently in I Am Modern.  As my girls lay sleeping on the floor, I can't help but wonder what they will be when they grow up, but I have faith they will get where they need to get, and that some little seed is waiting inside of them to bloom.


 Here is my feature in I Am Modern.

 

 

HC

Tomorrows forecast is calling for rain, a 100 percent chance of rain. Luckily my brides have no reason to fear because inside my cooler the sun is shinning. We are delivering some of the happiest Spring bouquets tomorrow. Both of my brides are in excellent hands and they have wonderful backup plans so I know they will have beautiful weddings. Unlike my brides there is no back up plan for me, I will be at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Show. The show is outside, rain or shine. I have jokingly said all day that I have a date tomorrow with Noah. Oh well, lets just focus on the pretty things "in the cooler."

This amazing bridal bouquet is a super happy thought. I am in love with these yellow cabbage roses, silver brunia, daffodils, ranunculus, yellow tulips, and billy balls.

This pink fluffy dream is my other happy thought for today. Life is good when you are standing over bouquets like these. Pink and white peonies, mixed with pink and white ranunculus. Tomorrow we will bind the bouquets up and deliver them.

I told you the sun was shinning in the cooler.

We have almost 1,500 roses waiting to go to the show. We are hoping we have lots of visitors on Sunday, for now they are going to sleep in the cooler.

We also cut flowering branches from my house and grandmas in preperation of the show. I am sorry to report that I will not have any lilac this year and that will totallly cause a riot once the crowds realize I am lilacless.

 I know my brides are worried about the weather tomorrow but I know the sun will be shinning on them as they take their vows.

I guess I better finish loading up. I need to be at my booth at 6:00am.

HC

On Wens. I had the pleasure of speaking for the Middleburg Garden Club. Getting to know the ladies of this prestigious club was quite the honor. I told a brief story about the history of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers and then I discussed technique and trends in the wedding market. I brought along some of my favorite spring time blooms and designed right in the living room.

Each meeting the members bring a design and it is judged, and ribbons are awarded. This is serious business and so much fun to watch.

One of the guests told me that the flowers had to be native to the region and I believe they were all cutting from their own personal gardens.

Individual specimens were also judged. There are very serious guidelines that must be followed or your piece can’t be critiqued.  These blossoms were all to be in bottles, the exact height of the blossom, the amount of greenery used, the quality of the bloom and it’s uniqueness all contributed to the color of the ribbon awarded.

I seriously considered poaching these daffodils, look at the amazing varieties. The peach one at the very top really should be in one of my bridal bouquets.

Perhaps the largest tulip I have ever seen.

I have to admit I was very nervous about speaking for the club. I am self taught and I do not know the rules of design. Instead of letting fear get the best of me, I decided to do, what I do best, I decided to “wing it” and that is what I have been doing for years. Apparently I earned an A+ from the garden club, because the ladies asked if I have ever considered a TV show.

HC

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

It's that time of year again!! This weekend is the 21st annual Leesburg Flower & Garden Show,  and we hit the streets with our amazing blooms. I started my flower design business 21 years ago at this show. I look forward to seeing my friends and my customers who have visited me over the last 21 year.

Mr. and Mrs. Neilsen come from the city every year to see me. It has become a huge tradition and I look forward to our annual visit.

I also love seeing the Burke family I met them when their kids were still babies.  This family has become one of my biggest fans. See that pretty little girl in the middle, I bet I get to do her wedding flowers someday.

If you are hoping to see me at the show, I will be there bright and early on Sat. morning. I load in at 6:00 in the morning because my space is front and center. We are also excited about our weddings this Saturday.  We are dividing up the work now and figuring out who is going where, so I may be at a wedding on Sat. but I promise to be at the show all day Sunday and as much as possible on Sat. and like I said, if you are dying to see me you can pop by on Sat. at 6:00 a.m., I can always use an extra pair of hands.

See you at the garden show….

HC

 

My worlds are truly colliding. Did you know I grew up on a horse farm/ nursery? As a child my mother ran a horse farm, and my father ran a nursery or garden center off of our farm. During my youth we all rode horses and helped in the garden center, and we always went to the steeplechases. Oddly enough out of the 5 sisters, 3 of us are" flower girls" and have flower shops or garden centers. The other 2 sisters followed my mothers heart, and they are serious horse women.  I love all things about horses and I love going to the steeplechase's but my world has become all about weddings and children so I have been missing the horsey events of my youth. As a child my parents often collaborated on huge landscaping designs for some of the areas biggest horsing events or shows. My parents designed the entire riding ring for the Washington International Horse Show  for many years, and that show was also my very first professional flower arranging job.  No starting small here… In addition to this my sister Kristin has been designing the Middleburg Classic Hunter/Jumper Show for many years. We are a seriously hard working family, and horses and flowers have always been a part of our life.

It was with great excitement and pleasure, that I agreed to provide the flowers for the 86th running of the VA. Gold Cup.

That's right we Holly Heider Chapple Flowers are the flower sponsor for the VA. Gold Cup and we couldn't be more thrilled.

This is a seriously exciting opportunity for us and a wonderful chance to work with some of the biggest corporations in DC, MD, and VA.  If you would like to secure a tent or tickets to the Va. Gold Cup. please contact them here.

If you need flowers for the VA. Gold Cup please fill out our on-line questionnaire on our website, or go straight to the flower order form here.   The last time I provided flowers to a tent at the VA. Gold Cup, it won the best dressed tent award. Now all of the tents can be equally, amazingly dressed. See you at the races!!!!!

HC

Last Spring I had the pleasure of providing these bright and happy yellow designs for Brittany and Greg. The wedding was another wonderful Loudoun County wedding that took place at the Briar Patch Inn.

Maids bouquets were created with mini white callas, and yellow billy balls. The bouquets also featured looped lily grass.

The bridal bouquet featured yellow tree peony, yellow roses, mini callas, mums, freesia, billy balls, and cream toned stock.

Event styling and design was done by Lisa Shulz of the Posh Planner.

The amazing photography was done by Genevieve Leiper.

Lisa designed a beautiful space, half of the tables featured white linens and white flowers. We brought large white carnation balls were showcased on the white tables.

The yellow tables had a popping yellow linen, and my rocking bright yellow centerpiece. We used yellow football mums, yellow roses, yellow orchids, yellow billy balls, yellow lily, and yellow carnations in these pieces.

I love the way the china changes it's look when placed on the yellow linen. This was so pretty…

Paper products were done by Christina Barbour owner of Paperzest.

The cake and cupcakes were made by the amazing Rocio Diaz.

I love, love, love, the look of this table.

This was a nice bright happy thought for today…. I love the things we do here at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers.

HC

 

We are certainly starting the season off right with some really fun and unique concepts. I always find us doing things that normal florists would never find time to do. Today we designed with Aunt Mary's hat pins, her vintage brooches, and her old lace tableclothes. We also designed in an old overnight bag, and in our amazing decoupaged vases. Yep, our cooler is rocking tonight.

Above is the maid of honors bouquet for one of our weddings. Only the bride and maid of honor get one of aunt Mary's hat pins, and let me tell you aunt Mary must have been one stylish lady, because I have never seen hat pins like this. The pin itself was almost a foot long she must have been wearing one serious hat.

Here is the bridal bouquet, and I know my bride is taking a peek right this minute. BTW it's so much better in person, you are going to love your bouquet. Can you see the little peice of rosemary poking out of the bouquet? Rosemary is used in remembrance, it is one of my favorite little things to do.

We also used a combination of mine and aunt mary's crystal bowls.

Pretty, pretty, corsages…

and our place card display was made with vintage brooches. Yes we are more than happy with the look of this wedding.

We even used cherry blossoms to create the altar arrangements.

Our orange weddings is a bright and happy wedding and we will be taking this to DC.

This bouquet was created with orange ranunculus, cream de la cream roses, combo roses, orange spray roses, green hypericum berry, green viburnum, white cabbage roses, white ranunculus, and mini green hydangea. Amazing!!!

We love our decoupaged vases.

Daffodils from my garden.

We had a great and successful day and we even slipped in two new clients. We did awesome this week!!

HC

 

This lovely bridal bouquet was created for my bride Meg. I used white peony, blue scilla from my garden, white ranunculus and believe it or not nandina berry in bud form. This berry turns a bright red as the season progresses.

Maids carried white peony, white phlox, and a few hits of the blue scilla.

The couple married under a chuppah that they made. We provided a garland of green italian ruscus, lemon leaf and plumosa grass.

We added guinea hen feathers to the bouts.

The very lovely and charming photography was done by Kate Headley.

Happy Friday, see you tonight for "in the cooler"

HC