We have had another fun packed week at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers LTD. We have been busy completing orders for the holidays, as well as designing for this week's weddings. In addition to the wedding work, we planned a full scale photo shoot.  A normal person would have been relieved to have only one wedding to design. I took it as the perfect opportunity to try my hand at styling a few photo shoots. Since the goal of the shoot was to create things worthy of being published, I can't display any of my creations. Keeping our beautiful designs secret until they are released is killing me. I worked with Genevieve Leiper Photography, model Leigh Ann from Hitched Bridal Salon, Victoria Stiles for makeup and hair, Christina Barbour from Paperzest, Design Cuisine and Kendall from Kendall's Cakes. The shoot took place at the absolutely stunning wedding and event site The Stone Manor and Country Club, which also happens to be a lovely bed and breakfast. Working on this project was one of the best days I have ever had, but it was also one of the hardest.  So much thought and detail went into every tiny aspect.

I actually was so motivated and inspired that after creating three completely different wedding shoots yesterday, I created one more in my front yard. My goal will be to get them published with some of the top wedding blogs in the country. So wish me luck! Hopefully I will be able to direct you to some incredible wedding blogs and you will find the product of our really amazing day.

Tomorrow is Stephanie's wedding, and we have lovely designs of white, chartreuse green, burgundy berry and a few hints of gold. We will be  heading to Winchester tomorrow to the beautiful George Washington Hotel with our killer arrangements. Here is what is sleeping "in the cooler."

 

Off to sleep!

Holly

 

 
Last weekend we had the pleasure of  providing flowers for the holiday party of the immixGroup. You may have noticed I did not blog yesterday. Quite frankly, we are still recovering. We had to get all of these enormous pieces delivered in the first snow storm of the season.  We did  an incredible job in spite of the weather, and the designs were awesome. This fabulous piece greeted guests as they arrived.

 

We created this design for one of the food stations. I loved the all white design.

 

We had another equally large design on the bar. We reversed from red to white throughout the event. The corp. offices have dark red walls and black furnishings, so the contrast of the red and white blossoms in black vases was dramatic.

 

Conference tables were decked out with these stunning all white designs.

 

One room was actually large enough for dancing and 12 different cafe tables. Half of the pieces were red and half were white. All were placed on platinum colored linens.

 

Our favorite design of the night and the absolute hottest piece was created by the very hot Debbie. Designer Debbie is amazing.

 

This floral display required  multiple cylinders to be filled with beads and submersible lights.

 

We loved working on this event. Many thanks to RSVP catering who recommended us to immixGroup. RSVP was wonderful to work with, and they pulled this event together perfectly. We are so glad we got to work on this project. We are even happier that we were able to deliver everything safe and sound.

Holly

 
 

 

This past weekend we had the pleasure of providing flowers for my bride, Anne.  Her wedding was held at Holy Trinity in Georgetown with a reception at The Fairfax On Embassy Row. When the professional images are sent to me by Freed Photography, I will share more about this wonderful wedding.

What I want to share with you now is how wonderful this whole experience was.

 

This is my bride, Anne. I love this picture of her taken by Freed Photography because it captures her care free spirit and her beauty. Anne was called "triple S" throughout the whole planning process   She wanted a look that was simple, sophisticated, and stunning. Those words pretty much embody Anne's attitude. She was such a beautiful girl to work with–always so elegant, lady like, but fun beyond belief. I have been blessed with hundreds of truly lovely brides.  When a client is kind to you, it is amazing how much more heart and soul goes into an event. I always give my clients extraordinary designs, but something a little extra flows out of me when I truly feel connected and, yes, in love with the bride. Anne was so easy to work with; she simply trusted me to make everything wonderful.  Anne deserved every single blossom, and it was a complete and total pleasure to be assisting her bring her wedding vision to life. I simply loved Anne, and we were calling her the super sweet bride by the time we were finished.

To add to the pleasure of working on this event, I got to work with Scott who is the Director of Catering and the hotel The Fairfax At Embassy Row. Anne kept saying to me wait until you meet Scott and wait until you see my venue. I have to admit I was completely smitten with the venue and Scott. This hotel is elegant but charming–very warm and inviting and clearly a magnificent historic property.  The Fairfax Lounge even displays Jackie O's piano. The hotel offers a sweeping staircase, crystal chandeliers, and a balcony over the ballroom . It is just incredible. Scott was so easy to work with, and his staff was truly top notch. 

Prior to the start of a reception, the vendors are working together to bring a room to life. I often evaluate a venue or a catering firm by their staff. If the staff is calm, smiling and happy to be on the job, I know I am working with truly remarkable professionals. At the Fairfax, the room magically came to life as the staff methodically and perfectly set up each table. There was even one very lovely gentlemen quietly singing as he polished each piece of silver.  You know the saying "whistle while you work"? Well, only happy people do that. Happy employees work hard to make each event special. It is a little secret I have noticed in the wedding industry: a place may look perfect, but if the people behind the scenes are not happy to be there, they do not cherish the venue, and then they do not cherish your special day. When the employees love their employer and their venue, they put extra effort and care into each job that they fulfill. It is hard to express in words how stressful a set up can be, and when everyone is stressed the stress rises. That stress can reach out to the florist, the cake baker, and even the musicians. When everyone is calm, kind and working together, there is magic. This hotel has the magic, and their staff, lead by Scott, is truly part of the charm. 

Here are a few pictures from the wedding until we get more images from Freed Photography.

 

As you can see the colors of the day were navy and hot pink. We used hot pink flowers galore and just a touch of evergreen on navy linens.  We used the evergreen as a little nod  to the holiday season.  The maids dresses also happened to be navy, and we bound the bouquets in navy ribbon.

 

The cake was created by Rocio Diaz from A Piece of Cake.

I look forward to sharing more with you at a later date about this wonderful wedding.

Loved this wedding, loved this bride, and I totally loved Scott and The Fairfax At Embassy Row.

Holly

As usual, there was a lot going on around here today. In addition to the preparations for my weddings and corp. parties this weekend, Loudoun Magazine came by for a photo shoot.  It seems my flowers were the perfect background for Lola's extraordinary cupcakes.  I really enjoyed my time with photographer Molly Steele and Writer Therese Howe. I love doing photo shoots, and these two ladies are so very talented. 

 

Our photo shoot worked out perfectly for Sam. 

 

I also would like to thank two lovely ladies for coming to help today in the flower shop. Jackie, owner of Petal's and Bows Flowers and Gifts in Hancock, MD, came to visit me with her friend and designer Tina. These two girls drove almost 2 hours to see our operation. They ended up spending the whole day helping us get ready for this weekend's events. If you are getting married near Hancock, I hope you will consider Petals and Bows Flower Shop. These girls were awesome, and I would love to spend every Friday with them.

 

Now here is my "In The Cooler" part of the post. It is 12:22 a.m., and I  am hoping my bride Anne is fast asleep. We call Anne "Triple S." She requested flowers that were stunning, sophisticated and sexy.  I know we will make Anne very happy today. Here are some of the designs in the cooler, and then I am going to bed. 

 

This is Lacey; she is one of my past brides. She loves my flowers so much, she uses them for corp. events. Thank you for remembering me long after your wedding. We delivered this party tonight.

 

This is one very sexy bridal bouquet; however, it is not yours Anne.

Holly

 

This photo shoot was totally over the top. Genevieve Leiper Photography actually rented a sail boat and runner boat to get these photos. I think we are all getting addicted to photo shoots.  Thanks to Victoria Stiles  for doing her makeup artistry and our couple who were actually celebrating one year of marriage. This is one hot anniversary; now enjoy the heat.

 

For this shoot I had  the pleasure of sending four different bouquets with Genevieve to Annapolis, Maryland. Working with G is simply amazing, and I absolutely love this session.

We created this bouquet with a mass of white roses, white hydrangea and white carnations. We left the stems long and used navy ribbon over white satin ribbon. A little anchor was hanging from the ribbon–so clever.

 

This is truly art. I am so proud of Gen for coming up with this incredible idea, location, and look. She is so caliente.

 

This bouquet was created with pee gee hydrangea, magnolia leaves, hot pink roses, coxcomb and burgundy seeded eucalyptus.  This bouquet was stunning.

 

We created this bouquet with ornamental grasses, white mini callas, teal shells, peacock feathers and fish net. This piece was very appropriate for the water.

 

Our fourth bouquet featured red roses, cream roses, green hydrangea, and seeded eucalyptus . We also added brown pods and berries to add interest to the bouquet.

 

 Here are some other images from the day.

 

I absolutely love this photograph. It looks like this couple had a very romantic and awesome anniversary.

Way to go Gen.

I loved this,

Holly

 

Hehehe, lucky, lucky, me. I had the best day today. I feel so fortunate and blessed. My day started with a phone call from one of my favorite customers. When I saw on caller ID that it was Ann, I immediately began making excuses for not hosting my yearly open house. Ann and her family have been coming out to my place for holiday decor for the last couple of years. Ann actually spent one of her birthdays with me (I will not tell you which one) because her husband sent her for a flower arranging class as a birthday present. Ann quickly told me she reads the blog regularly and knew that Open House would be held at On A Whim. She was really calling to let me know that someone in the neighborhood was cutting down a huge magnolia tree, and that they were throwing away the branches. She wanted to let me know that she had salvaged branches for me. It blows my mind that my customers actually are looking out for me. It makes me believe and think that I am doing something incredibly right as I operate this business. So this is how it works: I got a ton of magnolia and Ann got a big fat Christmas arrangement for her dining room table. One other cool part of the story was this: as Ann and I discussed the tree and how sad we were that it was cut down, we realized that the person who originally planted the tree is a teacher at Elijah's preschool. So, I will take her a big fat arrangement as well, just because she grew that tree all those years ago.

The rest of the day was a whirl wind; flower shop girls Jessie and Debbie worked on holiday decor. We had to start filling orders for holiday arrangements. Since we are not doing Open House this year, we need to keep our space at On A Whim antiques full of centerpieces. We have been selling designs like crazy at my little space. I guess word is spreading that I will not be holding my typical holiday open house and that my designs will be at On A Whim. We also had a huge order to decorate a client's home today. In the midst of the designing I was busy trying  to get paperwork, scheduling, and photo shoots under control.  We will be doing wedding flowers this week, holiday decor, and corporate holiday events.  Things could get a little confusing as we change from fresh flowers to evergreens, so it will require keeping ornaments and flowers in separate spaces–not to mention the glitter.  

Over the phone today I also met a fabulous photographer from Pennsylvania named Joelle Watt. I simply fell in love with this young woman and mother. I was inspired by her creativity, faith, and passion. You must take a look at her website and blog. She is so talented; I have to sing huge praise to Twitter because someone linked to her blog, and that is how I found my new friend. 

Next  I had an amazing conversation with floral designer Nicole Iverson from Swankstems. She is based in California, and she is also a new friend I found on twitter. With her encouragement I booked myself a little trip to California. In all of my years of design, I have never had any formal training. I am going to learn new ideas and concepts and hear from some of the top designers and event planners in the country.  I am excited about this opportunity for growth. 

We also want to wish Debbie's mother in North Carolina a speedy recovery. The flower shop girls are praying for you. We love you Miss North Carolina.

So now here are todays killer designs:

 

Now that was a full day at the Full Bouquet.

Holly

 

 

I  wanted to share some more images from the Anthenaeum photo shoot. Kate took so many awesome pictures it was impossible to put them all in one post. These are some of my favorite close-ups of the flowers. The bouquet above was created of white stock, pale yellow spray roses, scabiosa pods, white freesia, white dahlias, mint, and white roses.

 

To create this wreath I took a grape vine form and wrapped it in moss. I added plumosa grass, magnolia, and seeded eucalyptus. I inserted blossoms of dahlia, ranunculus and brazilia berry to complete the design.

 

Seating cards were hung on the brick wall.

 

This design was created with orchid dahlias from my friend Don. Don grows Dahlias just a few miles from my house.  This piece also had magnolia, gooseneck loosestrife, scabiosa pods, privet berry, roses, brazilia, queen annes lace, and hypericum berry. I love the rich texture and color in this design.

 

I designed this piece on a white cake stand. I loved the contrast of the stand and the flowers. We used a rose called combo in this design, mint, yellow spray roses, green sweet william, dahlias, queen annes lace, privet and magnolia.

Incredible  boutonnieres.

 

Kate also snapped this great shot of a bouquet that was on its way to another location. This bouquet was created with dusty miller, crimson dahlias, privet berry, dark purple scabiosa, double white freesia, and fiddle head fern. This bouquet was simply delicious.

Thanks to all who worked on this event. 

 

Location: The Athenaeum

Flowers:  Holly Chapple 

Hair: Abbey Castellano, Parlour Salon

Paper (+ model):  Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper 

Photography: Kate Headley

Styling: Maria at Ritzy Bee Events 

Styling: Kelly Seizert, Design Cuisine 

 

 

 

This article was featured in Loudoun Magazine in the 2008 Holiday issue. I thought it would be helpful for you to have these step by step directions as we approach this holiday season. I loved working on this story last year. These pictures also remind me of how very pregnant I was last winter. Miss baby Grace is 10 months old today.

Holly

It is Thanksgiving Eve, and I have just about finished my part of the big T-day dinner. I was thinking back over the last year, and I realized that I started my blog this weekend a year ago. For the last year I have been sharing the joys, pleasures, victories and successes of this family and business. On a few occasions I may have even shared fears, concerns, mistakes or stresses.  Through all of this, I have found that the blog allows me a chance to record all of the happenings in Chapple Land. The blog pushes me to be creative, to actually practice my trade. Before blogging I would have never thought of doing flower photo shoots or making designs just for the sake of being creative.  Now when I think I would really like to have a centerpiece for myself or for my Thanksgiving table I also think, "Hey this could be a great photo opportunity," which in turn causes me to give myself the gift of flowers.  The blog has inspired so many fabulous designs, relationships and opportunities; not to mention a house Full of Bouquets.  This has been a true labor of love. Many thanks to those  who have encouraged me to continue.

I am in love with my Thanksgiving centerpiece because it was not only for me but for you; I really thought about how I could make it cool.  I used absolutely no flowers and that was really fun. Debbie brought in these little dainty Spirea branches from her garden, and I was dying to use some of them for this piece. I used persimmons, kumquats, boxwood, seeded eucalyptus, pineapple sage, bear grass, pheasant feathers and bear grass. It may be one of my all time favorites.

 

When I am in the flower shop designing, I am typically drinking coffee and talking on the phone. Hannah caught me in action today while I was filling the Thanksgiving orders.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Make yourself a big fat centerpiece and enjoy the beauty around you.

Holly

 

Just for fun!!! Genevieve Leiper Photography and Holly Heider Chapple Flowers worked together to create these dazzling images. Perhaps you saw them featured on the Brides Cafe. Creating just for the sake of creation is flipping amazing. Now we both have these awesome images to add to our portfolios.

 

This bouquet was designed with black magic roses, green hydrangea, green orchids, yellow billy balls, jester amaranthus, crocosmia, deep purple scabiosa, orange mokara orchids, coxcomb, hypericum berry and pheasant feathers. I know that sounds like a foreign language to you, but to me it sounds like music. I love each one of these blossoms for their individuality. Each element brings a different color and texture. I loved this bouquets: loved, loved, loved it.

 

This shoot was done on the historic grounds of Morven Park. This venue is truly amazing and is a photographer's dream.  For the second part of the shoot we headed over to Fabbioli Cellars. We took these shots right in the vines. It was just a few weeks before harvest so the grapes are ripe and match the flowers. Lucky us we nailed this shoot as well.

 

This bouquet was created with vanda orchids, green hydrangea, bells of ireland, green cymbidium orchids, purple scabiosa and ornamental grasses. In both of these shoots we wired mini orchids for the brides hair. Killer!!!!

 

This shot should be on the cover of a magazine.

 

I am so glad we worked on this, it was truly awesome. If you have a killer dress and want to play, let me know–I am really getting into this.  A huge thanks to the bride and model Stephanie Fuller and make up artists Victoria Stiles.

Holly