I am cheating by sharing these pictures. I actually promised to show the final two weddings from last weekend. I just can't resist sharing these. I am always so partial to real images, verses my own photographs. After yesterdays awesome post with the beautiful professional photographs, I just wanted to stay pro today. Besides, these photographs just arrived in the mail, and who can wait to open a present.
 I love this photograph because both of these girls are a Holly Heider Chapple Bride.  Lindsey is the bride in this picture and the Maid of Honor is her sister Courtney. Courtney was my bride last spring.  MOB contacted me as soon as Lindsey was engaged and asked if I would join the team again. This wedding was going to be quite a hike, it was being held at the Poplar Springs Resort .  I just could not resist that kind of loyalty.  The wedding was on Mothers Day weekend this year and the photographs are just a delight.

What fun girls I am so glad they are mine !!!!

Now that is a serious line up.

Oh so Cute !

Just for fun, here is sister Courtney's bouquet from last year.  I loved this bouquet.

It was really fun to get these photographs today.  Honestly, it's like a Christmas present  to receive real pictures.  I love having a record of the big day !!
Thank you Mrs. L for sharing your girls with me.

As for today we have a photo shoot, client consults, lots of flowers to design, plus the other two weddings to post. I also have a little something to share called "Triple S".  And before you know it, it will  be time for " in the cooler". This week is flying by.

Holly

I am loving this, a photographer that sends images this quickly. Yummy !!!! Thanks to Roger Canada of Broadleaf Photography, we have some of the real photographs from this weekends Oakland Green wedding.

That was really fun. Thank you Roger.

Holly

 

While I was over in Frederick doing Kristine's wedding, Designer Jessie delivered my bride, Tiffany, her flowers.  I hated to miss this delivery as I loved this family, but we handle the deliveries on a first come first serve basis, so I was off to Maryland.  I still make the bridal and oversee the event but one of the other designers gets to make the delivery.  I always want to see the day unfold, so I am incredibly grateful to the wedding cordordinator Stephanie Hughes from Diamond Events.  She very quickly got me these images, so that I could share in the joy of the day.  I heard from My bride's mom today how happy she was with Stephanie and  her services. Stephanie was the calm before the storm, literally. During the ceremony a huge storm hit and the ceremony moved from outdoors, to indoors under the tent. Stephanie was there to make the transition smooth.

Have you heard the saying "It's good luck if it rains on your wedding day?"  I have always known that quote and repeated it to countless brides through the years, never really understanding why it could possibly be good luck.  Tiffany's Mom explained the wives tale to me today. When we marry we are "tying the knot".  Of course we all know that, so here is the cool part and it all makes total sense to me now.  When it rains the knot becomes wet. A wet knot is harder to untie than a dry one. In other words the knot is tighter. I think that is a pretty cool story. I am so glad I have an explanation for a quote I always use. I am also glad that this family who had to deal with rain during their ceremony was privy to that knowledge. I am glad Tiffany got to tie a really tight knot this weekend.

When I see this picture I find it very hard to believe that it rained in the middle of the ceremony. They must have been destined to tie a really tight knot. This just looks to perfect. She got her outdoor wedding and a tight knot, very cool.  I like this excuse for rain, I could get carried away with this.

This is a close up of her bouquet. The feathers became part of our theme. Her invitations had a beautiful little bird on them. The bird was repeated on the incredible cake which we will see in some of the images.

The maids had bouquets of all deep pink with just a touch of bright green. We used hot pink roses, hot pink stock, spray roses, green hypericum berry and hot pink Gerber's. 

I love this image because if you look very closely you can see a part of the house at Oakland Green. This venue is also a delightful bed and breakfast. The house is amazing, with fireplaces so large you can actually walk inside of them. The grounds are extremely private and so very lovely. This is a jewel in Loudoun County, one among our many historic properties.

The buffet piece.

 The centerpieces, we used two different styles.

The incredible cake was created by Jason at Market Salamander. This young man is taking the industry by storm. He is also a winner of the front line employee of the year from the Loudoun County Dept. of Tourism. You can see here that Jason picked up the exact same bird that was on the invitation.

I still have 2 more weddings from the weekend and more images have been arriving all day. I will try to get the blog moving a little faster. However, we are busy receiving flowers for this weekends weddings. As usual this place is hopping.

Holly

  Giving the bride her bouquet is an awesome experience. To see my bride when she gets her first peek at the flowers is just plain wonderful. A happy smile like this is always the goal. Kristine's bridal bouquet was created of hot pink Dahlia's, mini green Hydrangea, hot pink Roses, hot pink Mokara Orchids, and green Cymbidium Orchids. We bound the bouquet with green satin ribbon and decorative pins. Kristine married in a historic church in downtown Frederick. 

  The maids wore black gowns. We really wanted the flowers to pop against the gowns. We introduced white blossoms into the bouquets for contrast. We used white Stock, white Phlox, Electra Spray Roses, mini green Hydrangea, hot pink Roses, and green button mums.

The reception was at the extraordinary country club Musket Ridge. The views were truly amazing. The ballroom has floor to ceiling windows so you can see every mountain top.

We designed huge compote bowls full of cream hydrangea, hot pink roses, Electra Spray Roses, green Hydrangea, green Button Mums, hot pink Dahlia's, white stock, white Phlox and pink Mokara Orchids.

To create drama in the room, we did two different table designs. The second centerpiece design, featured clusters of bouquets. We had a vase of hot pink Roses, one of hot pink Carnations and one of Dahlia's.  All 3 vases had hits of the bright green Mums.

Our "Almost Famous Carnation" ball greeted guests at the place card table.

We created little mini arrangements for the cocktail tables. These pieces were going to be placed on the terrace over looking the view. The linens were not yet placed, but you can get the idea.

This was a perfect flower delivery. Much to my surprise it even got better. On my way home I ran across a unbelievable Estate Auction.  I had a big empty cargo van , that I completely filled to the top. Now my space at On A Whim Antiques in Lucketts is full to the brim.  That is what you call killing two birds with one stone. Kristine was not the only person wearing a big smile on Saturday.

Holly

  Guess what happened. I was contacted by In Touch Weekly Magazine for a celebrity wedding story.  As luck would have it, this was the one night that I chose to be a real mother and make dinner.  I did not answer the phone or go to the computer.  It has become my norm to stay connected, just in case. I have been acting as if my computer and links to the outside world are a umbilical cord and I will miss something vital if we disconnect. This is embarrassing to admit, since I am also trying to be a good mother to my seven children.
 
  At 10:30 I checked into my emails only to find that I had missed this request from In Touch Weekly Magazine.  I know I was doing the right thing by spending time with the family. However, I will admit I am so crushed that I most likely missed this chance.  I have decided for now, I am just going to be happy that all of the right people are watching this florist, house wife, and The Full Bouquet Blog. I guess that alone is very cool.   I knew when I made Amanda this bouquet, just a few short weeks ago, that is was magic. It looks like some other people thought so as well.  Honestly, we are so far out in the country we don't even have cable TV. I have never even seen the show Whose Wedding Is This.   I guess it is pretty amazing that they know who Holly Heider Chapple Flowers is. Not bad, for a home based business, and mother of many. 

It was incredible just to be contacted, so I will just be grateful.

I still have lots to share from the weekend, we have four more weddings to post. All of them incredible and note worthy in their own way. You will love the pictures coming up throughout the day.  It is going to be a very busy day, we have back to back consultations all day long, so we will do our very best.

Holly

 

  Quite frankly I am truly exhausted. Happy but truly exhausted. It is 11:13 pm on Sunday night and I am just trying to wind down from another really big weekend.  This was our second weekend this year, when we designed for 5 full sized weddings. We also were asked to design flowers for two wedding showers as well.  I think the highest compliment is when a customer you have served in the past remembers you and comes back. When this happens I feel obliged to fill their orders, and this is how the work load keeps creeping up.

  It takes constant checking, and checking, to make sure everything is perfect.  My flower shop girls are awesome, about keeping us all on track. So much of the design and feeling of a event is in my head, for my employees sometimes that is the hardest part of their job. They are often expected to climb inside of my head. Some instructions simply can not be written on paper, they are more a feeling than a written order. Climbing inside of my head  is a very dangerous part of their jobs.  With multiple events happening and multiple people designing it is crucial that each brides flowers, stay in each brides, designated space. If you look closely on the work table you can see a piece of scrap paper with the brides name.  We sort the flowers, put the brides name on them, and then hide them.  It gets really wild when, we are doing the same colored flowers. It is even worse when the brides have the same name.  This weekend we had two Kristin's, two Tiffany's and one Sharon. Except Sharon had a wedding cord. named Sharon, and she was my total contact for the wedding.  My staff of designers did a amazing job keeping everything perfect and they should be hugely thanked.  In addition to that we usually have the the children racing through the flower shop, the ringing of the phone, crying babies, constant piano playing and countless other interruptions.  In spite of all of this, it is magic every weekend, every wedding.
This place is truly remarkable.

  First out of the gate was Sharon, her wedding was at the Thomas Birkby House. We love working at the Birkby House. Everything is always so perfect.

  
For Sharon I splurged and purchased Dahlia's from Dons Dahlia's. You can find Don every Saturday at the Leesburg Farmers Market.  The Dahlia's absolutely made this bouquet stunning.

It is hard to believe anything can be that perfect. I just can't get over how beautiful Dahlia's are.

  Each young lady was given a different colored bouquet. One had a bouquet that was created with Hot Lady Roses, that is the hot pink bouquet. We used Miracle orange Roses for the lighter orange bouquet, and dark Milva for the stronger orange bouquet.  All of these flowers came together with the Dahlia's to create the brides bouquet.

This altar piece was truly lovely. We placed this on a column under the arbor at the Birkby House.  I did not send a camera out on this job, so that is all I have for photos on this wedding.
Next we head to Maryland. I went to a new venue and I will show you those images tomorrow.
Holly

Here we go !!!!!

This is the line up of ladies creating this weekends weddings. Jessie is hiding behind the camera and Sam is hiding behind Jessie.

Caught you Sam, sorry about that I know you did not want us to take your picture.

  Here comes "in the cooler". I have found out that some of my brides like to take a sneak peek before the wedding. I just want to make it very clear, we have a few weddings that look a bit alike so you may not be looking at your bouquet. So if you are sneaking don't freak, if you are more pink than you thought you would be, or more green than you thought your bouquet would be, or even orange. Your bouquet is perfect, you may just not be able to see it in the cooler yet.

  Check out those Dahlia's. I have a secret Dahlia weapon Don's Dahlia's. He sells on Saturday mornings, at the Leesburg Farmers Market.  If you would like some of Don's precious Dahlia's you need to get to market early, Don always sells out. I snagged up 3 different shades of his Dahlia's for this week's designs.

I only have one feather bride, so if you are looking this is your bouquet. Don't you love your bouquet?

Tiffany if you are looking at this piece it is not finished. The bow on top is only to help me remember to bring your ribbon with me to the wedding. I will not tie a bow on top of your lantern, we will have long streamers with no bows. I got it !!!!!

If my other Tiffany for this weekend is peeking these are not your flowers.  I think you should recognize the feather bouquet.

That is it for tonight, I am tired and I am going to bed.  We did kick you know what again.

HOlly 

  This is my bride Colleen. She just sent me her images from Samantha Williams at Enfocus Photography.  She used hot pink flowers with accents of white, orange, and bright green. Hot pink flowers are a really popular choice for weddings. I believe, one reason for this is that they are a perfect accent with so many color pallets.  In addition they are bold, bright, and beautiful.

  I also wanted to mention that I am the guest visitor on my friend Evan's blog today. Evan owns My Dee Jay, we are also regular blogger's at Wedding Aces. I actually don't think I have ever mentioned that I blog for Wedding Wire as well.  Wedding Aces, is the Wedding Wire blog. I am their florist Ace, Evan is their DJ Ace.

  This wedding was just a few weeks ago at Whitehall Manor in Bluemont Virginia. One of Loudoun County's finest wedding venues.

  This is the ballroom at Whitehall. The family noticed in my portfolio's how beautiful hand made runners look. They had a seamstress make runners for each table, and the look was truly amazing.

  The use of bright chartreuse green, and white, made this color combination unique. Using these colors put a real twist on the pink, and orange combination, that has been very popular the last few years. 

For her wedding we used, hot pink and medium pink Roses, orange Roses, green button Mums, white Lily, Spray Roses, green Hypericum Berry, mini green Hydrangea, and countless others.

Here are Colleen's comments about her wedding flowers.

Hi Holly!

Jeremy and I just returned from our honeymoon, and I wanted to send you a HUGE thank you for your wonderful work. I absolutely loved the bouquets and centerpieces, as did everyone else at the wedding. We received endless complements on the flower arrangements and I know that the reception would not have been complete without them!

Thanks again, it was so great working with you!
Colleen

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  I am so happy to have these images, I have them thanks to Facebook. I just happened to get reconnected with my past bride Susan there. Her wedding was at The Thomas Birkby House.   I loved her flowers, I was always so sad that I forgot to ask for pictures. It was a treat to see them several years later.  We used many different shades of hot pink and introduced the deep purple as the next major accent color.  We loved this look, and again the bright chartreuse green was used. The green seems to act as a equalizer between colors.  Flowers we used on this wedding included, pink Nerine Lily, Carnations in green and purple, Lily, Roses in green, and hot pink, Dogs Eye Euphorbia, Lizzy or Eustoma, Phlox, Stock and many others.

The large altar arrangements doubled as buffet pieces. Look how we made the switch.

Here is our very gorgeous buffet set up, we provided the glass vases. This way we were able to give the altar pieces a new look.  How lucky to catch my beautiful bride at the table.  We can thank the photographer SOTA Dzine for capturing the day.

The very lovely cake was created by Carolyn Taylor of Taylor Made Cakes.

Here is what Susan had to say about her flowers two years later.

Holly,

 

Here are some photos for you from our wedding (only a little over 2 years ago!).  I am still amazed by the flowers and wish I could have a bouquet like that every day:)  I continue to recommend your work to Loudoun area brides.  From the looks of your blog, you've got lots of summer weddings going on. 

 

Susan

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We have lots more to share, this weekends weddings are amazing.  If time permits I will do my " walk through the cooler" post tonight.  No promises, it is going to be a very busy day.

Holly

 

  I promised I had one more wonderful wedding to post from last week.  I have been waiting to get this final photograph, so that you could see the true beauty of this event.  I was asked by my friend Aradhana, to help with the floral decor on one of her events. Aradhana owns AS U Wish, Inc. Aradhana specializes in East Asian weddings, and decorations.  Aradhana and I met at a networking group that I joined about a year ago. The group speicalizes in South Asian Weddings. That Group is DC WEPSA
Lucky for me, the group took me in blond hair and all. They have been willing to teach me the whole look, style and symbolism of their events. In truth I was just absolutely enamored with the decor, and feel of these weddings. The colors, textures, textiles, and the full out design is amazing. I was brought in as a sub contractor for this wedding. Most of the time the event decorator or event planner designs and handles everything themselves. From the flowers, to the building of the Mandap, to the linens. It is mind boggling how all of this can get done by one design company.   The Mandap is the huge structure that the bride and groom will marry under.  There is so much work involved with these weddings, that it takes hours just to get the Mandap set up.  The weddings typically have a very high guest count as well, so there are lots of centerpieces and tables to set up.  This particular wedding was for 50 tables. 

When I arrived with the flowers Aradhana still had to finish the ceremonial area. This is what it looked like when we arrived.

That is my beautiful and talented friend as she is starting to create the structure.

Here are the centerpieces.

I am so glad I got to be a part of this wedding. Learning and understanding new cultures and their design ideas is a gift I never thought I would learn from being a florist.

Holly

  In a effort to show Loudoun to my girlfriends, I tried to hit a little bit of everything. A day trip anywhere must include shopping. Loudoun has some of the best antique shops, and little old Lucketts has a few of my favorites.  This is On A Whim Antiques, owned by Donna Troxler.  I love her so much, that I even took on a little retail space in her store.  This little extension of Holly Chapple Flowers has been a pure delight.

This is my space, please note as of yesterday two of these pieces of furniture have sold. Lucky me.

On A Whim is a complete treasure. I am so lucky to know Donna, and to be a part of her store.  Donna is a true gem, she even has a room called "Pay It Forward". A percentage of sales from this space go to the Breast Cancer foundation.  She is always helping and contributing in the community, and she has a heart as pure as gold.

Lucketts also is the home of the Old Lucketts Antique Store. This shop is sure to be a fun stop along your Loudoun County trails.

Maria from Ritzy Bee was one of the friends that I brought on the tour.  She is a event planner, and designer. She also is the editor of the The Ritzy Bee Blog.  This girl is big news in the wedding industry, with several very exciting opportunities coming her way.  If you are a bride and are not reading her blog your are missing some truly delightful inspirations.

I of course was attracted to these beautiful vessels for flower arranging. This shop is loaded with ideas no matter what your trade or style.

One of my favorite stops on the Loudoun tour was visiting my friend Beth at South Street Under. Under, Tuskies restaurant.

 
Beth won Front Line employee last year from the Dept of Tourism.  Customers and co-workers enjoy her incredible attitude. She is a pleasure to be around and when you add that to the delicious food at South Street, well, your just plain in heaven.

Actually, everyone at this cafe wears a smile. It is quite frankly contagious.  I so very much love the outdoor dinning.

  These last pictures are ones I forgot to share of my father's farm.  Daddy owns Heider's Country Farm Market in Lucketts.  My father is a real farmer and has been all of his life, as his parents and grandparents before him.  I owe so much of who I am to my parents, for all they have taught me.  Not to mention the love of growing a product, a business and a family. 

  Fresh out of the garden !!!  Here dad is taking product out othe garden and getting it ready to go to his market.  Dad's farm is just 3 miles from his store in Lucketts.

Did I mention the black berries are ripe and for sale.  My father has rows and rows being picked for sale at the market. Unless my children get there first.

Now, I know how to make Sam stand still. 

I promise brides, I still have more wedding pictures and lots of flowers to show you. We will get there. We will also have all of this weeks creations to share as well.

Holly