Amy and Chris's wedding had it all, and it was a pleasure to work on this very decadent event. The wedding was at Breaux Vineyard, and the event planners were the girls from Events In The City. I totally loved all of the vendors on this job.

Amy was all about rich vibrant tones. We used bronzes, coppers, deep purples and orange. Feathers, twigs, vines, and crystals were elements used throughout the event. The bridal bouquet actually had feathers flying out of the design. The maids each had rhinestone buckles attached to the stems. So glamorous!!!

Every table was elaborately decorated with elements that Amy and Chris found. They used lanterns and bird cages to enhance my elevated gold and iron stands. They bought jewels to hang from the centerpieces. Amy even found little lamps, and she literally cut the cords off, so that they could become a part of the decor.

Every place setting had a beautiful peacock feather and a small little travel log tucked into the napkins. Amy and Chris spend much of their time working and traveling abroad. Travel became a huge part of their theme.

 

Guests could fill up these lovely little gift bags with the sweets of their choice.

We hung lanterns down the aisle; after the ceremony they were added to the table decor.

The wedding happened to take place outside in spite of some very rainy weather.  Once the storms had passed, the sky became amazing.

 

Guests could leave cards for the bride and groom who are planning to fly away on a trip around the world. I can't wait to show you the real images from this wedding.

Happy married life Amy and Chris. We loved your wedding.

Holly

I have been working with Dharma and her mother for many months. Her wedding's passing is one of those bittersweet moments I mentioned last week. In this industry we work so hard for so long to bring an event to life. It is often painful when it all comes to a finish. Of course, it is all in how you look at it. Let's just say it is the start of a really wonderful life for Dharma and Andy. 

So many things about this wedding were appealing from a design stand point. I loved the color combination of brown, orange and green. I loved the natural elements used like moss, twigs and barks. The setting was a huge red barn at Sunset Hills Vineyard in Loudoun County. I also got to work with some amazing vendors. Maria Cooke from Ritzy Bee Events and Maria Vicencio photography. For now the images I am sharing are a gift to us from the bride's sister, Surya. Surya also happens to be a photographer in Colorado Springs, CO.  Surya lives and works there with her husband and two children. Mostly I loved my bride and her mom, and it is with some sadness I give you Dharma's pictures. 

 

Don pulled off one last miracle for me this year by providing just enough Dahlia's to do Dharma's wedding. Thank goodness for a light frost. Thank goodness for Don. This was the first time we got to use dahlias in the bride's hair. Don grows these amazing little beauties that are perfect for this type of delicate work.

 

I made this really sweet floral crown for our flower girl. Every blossom is individually taped onto the headband. I am not going to admit publicly how long this piece took to make. Let's just say the other designers were wondering if I was ever going to finish.

 

The bridal bouquet was created of primarily Don's Dahlias. I have never actually used this many dahlias in a bouquet. We used large and small dahlias, and getting them all in place proved to be a little difficult.

 

We tied these vine balls onto the chairs to mark family seating. We tucked orange roses and moss into the vine.

 

We designed these arrangements that I absolutely loved.  We lined the vase with green moss and did a mass of all orange flowers: orange dahlias, ranunculus, orchids, coxcomb, roses, and tulips that represented the family members from Holland. We mixed in brown angel vine and collared the bouquet with green hanging amaranthus.

 

The rest of the pictures in this post were taken by me. Sorry about that, but we still have Maria Vicencio's photographs to look forward to.

 

This was my favorite part of the bouquet. I was given the paternal grandmother's lace and buttons to bind the bouquet. I just loved the final look of this. It was so cool that some of the buttons were brown.

 

I loved these images of the centerpieces all lined up and ready to be placed.

 

The maids bouquets were clusters of all green with a collar of the brown vine. 

 

This photo shows the detail in the flower head band. Lots of little tiny blossoms.

 

Today I got to see Dharma's mom. I caught the tears in her eyes as we talked about the wedding. Tears of happiness, of relief, and, of course, some sadness. Bittersweet.  When I started in this business, I was the age of most of my brides. I rarely thought about the mothers and how they must feel to watch their baby walk down the aisle. Today I am as close to the mothers age as I am to the brides. I am so sympathetic to the mothers now; I can only imagine what it must feel like to help your daughter prepare for her wedding.

Happy married life Dharma; we loved your wedding.

Holly

I am off to DC because I have two photo shoots today, so I will be out and about.

I have fabulous weddings to share with you, but I am afraid I am going to have to keep you waiting. Here is a little sneak peek of Dharma's wedding. I have lovely photos from her big day, sent to me by her sister, Surya. I look forward to sharing these soon.  

Holly

We had lots of fun today, and I am going to have even more fun with this post. I am going to hide flowers from one of my blog followers. Dharma is getting married tomorrow, and I want to keep her wedding flowers a secret so here is Dharma's bouquet.

 

In fact, I am going to hide most of Dharma's flowers, so that she does not spoil her wedding day. I will give her one sneak preview, just because I cant be totally mean. Look at this beautiful floral headband we made for Dharma's flower girl.

 

That should keep you happy until we arrive with your flowers.

To add to our fun, I roped these poor groomsmen into modeling our bouquets. I am certain when they were asked to pick up the flowers today, they never expected this to happen. I am glad they were willing to play along. This may be our most memorable flower shoot. I am sure they will always remember the wild flower lady. I am so glad that I have the courage to be silly. These bouquets belonged to my bride Khan, and her wedding was today at Whitehall.  Here is a photo of the maids bouquets up close.

 

We love the touch of navy blue. 

This is Khan's bridal bouquet.

 

We used circus roses, orange unique roses, milva roses, crocosmia, orange orchids and a few of Don's dahlias. Khan was absolutely adorable, and I can't wait to see her photos.  We also created mason jars full of flowers for her big day.

 

Feathers and really rich tones are the leading elements for Amy's wedding.

 

We love this deep purple scabiosa. So sexy.

 

We also created this beautiful halo for this lovely young lady. 10 years ago I did the wedding flowers for her mommy, Arlee. Now I am doing the flowers for Arlee's sister, Erica.

 

We also have a very dramatic all deep red wedding with silver and platinum highlights. The bridal bouquet is all white.

 

Happy great day; we are finished.  In the last 24 hours, I made 32 bouquets, and I love them all. Thanks to my flower shop girls we get to call it an early day. One last great image of our future designer Grace.

 

Holly

 

To start the day off with a big huge laugh, designer Carrie showed us how she would combat the other designers' coughs and sneezes. This has been quite a week. We are pressing onward and of course kicking _ _ _.

Holly

 

This was most certainly a bittersweet day. Today was the last day that our friend Dahlia Don will be able to bring us his precious beauties. I want to be happy. We at least got this one last delivery; however, not seeing his smiling face and those glorious blossoms is going to be a real bummer. We have been praying that we would get his dahlias this weekend for one special bride, and we were so lucky. He actually suffered a 90 percent loss of his crop with the first real frost.  We will have to say goodbye to so many of our local treats. I should be happy as we move to a slightly slower season, and yet I am also very sad. We will be completing a lot of work this week that I have looked forward to for a long time. My back is sore, I am completely exhausted and I had a beautiful baby 8 months ago that I hardly can remember having. With all that said, I still will be sorry to see this week pass.  What we have pulled off this week is nothing short of a miracle. We managed to get the last of the dahlias for Dharma and Amy.

Carrie helped me reorganize my office so that I could begin to get through the sea of emails and paperwork that waits for me when this weekend is finished.

 

Here is my new desk that we got at On A Whim Antiques. This weekend the store has a huge sale that benefits breast cancer. You should definitely stop by if you have a little spot you need to freshen up.

 

We received this incredible thank you that gave us the courage to start this work week. We have several designers out with colds, so we have been facing mountains.

 

We prepared bouquets for a photo shoot with Genevieve Leiper Photography. 

 

We have battled the flu, sinus infections, and all other lovely forms of illness. Every one of my kids is sick, and that is a lot of sick children. And God love my flower shop girls; they have come to work and created amazing things in spite of my children and their runny noses. We celebrated designer Debbie's birthday today. No restful day off for her; we worked until late into the night. We have already delivered our first event, and we are ready for our first wedding. Here are some of the lovely things resting in the cooler.

 

I know you are peeking Dharma!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Holly

 

 

I am so excited to be able to share these professional images from Regeti's photography. This was Sarah's wedding this past September. If you would like more details about this wedding look under the weddings category on this blog. For now, just enjoy these really beautiful photographs. We loved the slight hint of teal blue in these flowers. We used a few tricks of the trade to pull everything together. The antique green hydrangea imparts a teal blue hue, and we tinted a few of the green flowers with blue paint making a cast of teal on the flowers.  We loved this wedding and we love the Regetis.

 

Don't you love it too!!!!!

Holly

This post is going to be a little sad for me, as I don't have a lot of images to share. We had two other weddings last Saturday that we just adored, but we were unable to get many images. Those weddings are every bit as important to us, but often when flowers are picked up or a church is involved, we miss the photo opportunities.

The above bridal bouquet belongs to our bride Alicia. We absolutely loved her bouquet and its very classic elegance. She carried a bouquet of all cream vendela roses, sahara roses, and champagne roses. We bound the bouquet in cream satin ribbon.

Alicia's maids carried bouquets of all vendela roses.

 

We loved these bouquets and the flowers we delivered to the church.

 

Everything was delivered to the church long before the wedding party arrived and then we headed to Rivercreek Country Club to set up our centerpieces. We created 13 very beautiful and rich centerpieces of black magic roses, red roses, and carnations. We were unable to get photographs of those designs.  It was an honor to work with Alicia on her wedding, and we hope to get pictures from her very soon. This is the second wedding I have done for this family. That is also another huge form of praise.

 

This bouquet belonged to Angela. We loved the cream and white combination of vendela roses, white callas which have a very cream cast, white phlox, white freesia and bright green hydrangea. Angela chose all red bouquets for her maids, and she requested that the ribbon be left long on her bouquet and the maid of honors. This was a fun way to make those two bouquets more special.

 

We also made mini bouquets for the mothers, plus all of the boutonnieres and corsages.

 

Angela's wedding coordinator Jamie Fisher picked up all of the flowers and delivered them to the reception. Jamie is owner of RSVP International Events; we always have a great time working together.

 

This piece was created for Designer Debbie's neighbor who needed a little pick me up. We loved making this piece for our friend Normie.

 

Last week was a great week, and we did four really beautiful weddings. We managed to balance kids and brides and turn out beautiful flowers. We are looking forward to this week and all of the designs we will create. Flowers will begin arriving shortly, and we are very excited. I have some very special brides this weekend. 

Here is one last photo I had to share. Sam was caught playing with our corsage tape. He would certainly make one really cute boutonniere.

Happy married life to my brides Angela and Alicia. We loved being a part of your wedding.

Holly

 

Jessica chose warm rich tones for her wedding, and they were a perfect match for the weather. Everything was so lush and hearty that it was hard to notice it was raining. We used deep black magic roses, hot pink roses, burnt orange tones, antique green hydrangea, hypericum berry and lots of magnolia leaves.

 

The maids bouquets matched the bridal bouquet, but we used only miniature roses in their bouquets. This was a great way to make the bridal more dramatic.

We boxed up all of the bouquets and wrapped them with tissue paper to protect them from the rain. The flowers of course could handle a little mist, but we did not want to get water marks on the ribbon.

 

The wedding took place at Hillsborough Vineyard, which truly boasts some of the best views in Loudoun. The historic stone house and barn are a great example of the rich Loudoun heritage. The barn was converted into the tasting room and wedding reception space. It all overlooks the amazing view I mentioned. We arrived to a rolling fire and a very festive feel. I love working at this vineyard, I am a sucker for a family owned and operated business. I love seeing the owner and his wife working with the guests. Catering was provided by Karen Harper Fuog and she does an amazing job. In fact, she catered for one of my sister's weddings years ago.

 

Place cards were set up on the gorgeous bar, and miniature arrangements of the day were set out as well.

 

What I loved most about this wedding was the use of silver trophy bowls. The silver was used in honor of the groom's mother. All centerpieces were created in her beautiful sterling silver trophies from her riding days. Some of the trophies were won at the top horse shows in the country.  This was a very sentimental way to pay tribute to the groom's mother. The silver, in addition to being symbolic, added just the right touch of elegance to the event. We used large trophy bowls, silver pitchers and even silver mint julep cups.

 

Judy Thompson Of Classic Strings was warming up as we placed the centerpieces. The music was truly amazing and added to the glowing warmth.

 

The cake was also made by Karen; I loved how it was presented on this wine barrel. I was able to use inches of the magnolia under the cake and really feature this favorite greenery for the bride.

 

The buffet piece was absolutely stunning and in the largest trophy bowl of all. They also added silver candlesticks and a fabulous red hunt country fabric runner.

 

I know everyone always wants a sunny wedding day, but there was a lot to be said for that crackling fire. The wedding had such an incredibly romantic feel, and I am certain the warmth was not just from the fire. I am so glad we got to be a part of the day, and I loved every detail. 

Happy married life Jessica. We loved your wedding.

Holly

 

We loved, loved, loved, this wedding!!!!

Friday was Lauren's wedding day. I knew this would be a beautiful wedding, but in truth I did feel a bit of sadness or worry for my bride and her family.  Northern Virginia was hit with days of unseasonable weather, with very cold temperatures and lots of rain.  I don't know why I allowed myself to worry; I guess it is just pre-wedding jitters, but there were several things that simply could not affect the overall feel of this event.

Number one, my bride and her family were amazing. They were the sunshine on Friday night. They were filled with a warmth that radiated throughout the beautiful historic Whitehall. 

Second saving grace was that the wedding was at Whitehall. In truth every wedding is incredible at Whitehall, but the rainy weddings may just be the best. Here is why: Whitehall has an incredible rain back up plan. The ceremony takes place in front of an antique glass arched window. The architects and owners of Whitehall planned for these types of days by adding a sky light above the ceremony site. This light adds a natural warmth and glow to the ceremony even on rainy days. I guess one other important thing to mention is the floral decor created for the wedding makes a much bigger impact when it is inside.  The overall look for this wedding was stunning, and I was certain that the sun was shinning down on all of us. I could feel the warmth.

 

My beautiful bride.  We created  her bouquet with pee gee hydrangea, white hydrangea, queen annes lace, sahara roses, vendela roses, spray roses, champagne roses, white freesia and ivory feathers. This was such a romantic bouquet. 

 

We added the family rosary around the handle of the bouquet. This is such a lovely option for adding a family heirloom to the bouquet.

 

We made mini bouquets for the moms.

 

The maids bouquets!!!

 

We created this very sweet purse or flower basket for the flower girl.

 

The grooms boutonniere had feathers to match his bride.

 

Corsages were created of roses and freesia.

 

Lauren's mom was a blog follower, so when she came to me there were some pieces she just knew she had to have. Our carnation ball was one of her favorites.  We used this for the guest book table.

 

We decorated the mantel with greens and the pee gee hydrangea.

 

We used garland that was created for the arbor on the railing around the cake and in the big wedding window. This was a great use of garland that was supposed to be displayed outdoors.

 

We used half of the elevated centerpieces to make the ceremony extraordinary; we lined the window with the garland from the arbor and placed loose blossoms through the window. That is what you call and incredible back up plan.

 

The low centerpieces were created in glass cylinders lined with green sheet moss. We used the pee gee hydrangea and all the roses of the day. The pee gee hydrangea was the perfect addition to these rose shades.  I am so glad I got to use pee gee hydrangea this weekend. In fact, having them this weekend makes me remember that they are one of my favorites and that we love pee gee hydrangea. Especially in this antique stage of development.

 

Now for the fun stuff; this family thought of everything. Whitehall then added all of the perfect finishing touches.

 

The family made signature drinks for all of the guests and tied each one with ribbon.

 

They set up this really cute candy bar with old family photographs. This is in the original dining room in the historic part of the house, so it is fun tosee this space so thoughtfully used.

 

They had the M&M's stamped with a picture of their dog, which is a great alternative to bringing your four-legged friend to the wedding.  The flip side of the candy was a picture of the bride and groom.

 

They seated guests by tables that featured particular years in the bride and groom's life. Each table had a picture showing  them during their earlier years. 

 

To top it all off the MOB actually baked the wedding cake. After years of doing events, I truly do believe it is all of these personal touches that make an event spectacular.

 

I always love to go back to the kitchen at Whitehall to leave some garnish blossoms behind. The staff has come to expect that I will bring them some floral treats. Ryan is the head chef at a Whitehall wedding. In all of the years that he was been working for Celebrations Caterers or Whitehall manor, I have only caught him on vacation once, and that was in January. Ryan is another fabulous plus to a Whitehall wedding, along with the super, sexy, gourmet kitchen. A real kitchen just makes me happy. The kitchen at Whitehall is a chef's dream come true, and I would love to be able to cook dinner up for my crew in that space: spotless, perfection.

 

As you can tell I had a lot of fun on this event. As always I was very proud of the work we did, and I loved our designs. My bride and her mom were so happy that they actually teared up when they saw the flowers. To top that off they gave me a huge round of applause when I came to say goodbye and wish them a happy wedding.

Happy Married life Lauren. We loved your wedding and your mom.

Holly