Our second day in NYC began at 8:30 a.m. at the flower market. My friend Morgan from Garden Of Delights joined us for the tour. Morgan owns a nursery very near to my home/flower studio and I will be referring work to her when we are booked. Morgan is about to launch a new website and she has created a new design studio and cooler at her nursery. I will have more to share about Morgan in the coming months. 

Our tour guide for the morning was Jeremy. Jeremy is production manager for David Beahm Design.

I was incredibly lucky to have time with Jeremy, and I have already reached out to several of the sources he shared with me.

The flower market is in Chelsea, and for one whole block, as far as you can see, the flowers are lined up on the streets.

Production of holiday decor had even begun. Men were creating huge planters or topiaries out of boxwood by stapling the greens on to the wooden structures. This was a sight to see.

The flowers were amazing and seeing the quality of the product made me drool!

Yes this is a carnation, if you can believe that!

In addition to showing us the flower market Jeremy was shopping for a sample he was about to create. Once he had found every blossom he needed, we loaded up the car and headed over to the production offices. The production offices are huge warehouses that hold the major amount of Davids inventory. This is also where the designers begin their creations, however many of the designs are so large that they must be  created at the wedding or event.

The warehouse had everything from rubber ducks to huge trees.

At the production offices we picked up all of the vases and props we would need for the sample tablescape. Once we had everything loaded up we headed back to the corp. offices back in Chelsea.

Working in the city is infinately more difficult and I had lots of moments when I was grateful for my simple studio in VA.  Designers in NYC, must fight with traffic and getting items up into the offices. We dropped all of our materials off on the street and then started loading everything into elevators to get to Davids showroom. I now have a serious understanding of why things cost more in the city.

Davids offices are absolutely beautiful.  He has lots of work space, a huge board room, several computer stations for the managagers, a great section for setting up displays or samples and lots of storage.  I met several of his staff, and I loved them all. I actually signed up to create a wedding bouquet for the fabulous Christina. She is a girl after my own heart, I was told that when she marrys she wants a new bouquet for each hour of her event. I signed up to make just one of those bouquets. Great idea Christine, lets sell this concept to the whole world of brides.

This is Viviane and she is clearly the biggest boss at the offices, next to David of course.

While Jeremy started on the sample we got to play in the board room. We were given piles of images to look through, we also had access to several huge big screen portfolios on the computer. Every single event we saw was over the top and it was a huge privilege to sit and study the world of the amazing David Beahm.

Elodie loved this sitting space in the offices. The wall behind the bench was a complete piece of art, created with little individual tiles. This was a dramatic and comfortable space to hang.

Eventually we did pull ourselves away from the collection of photographs and designs, to help just a little. 

Once the designs were finished and put in place. They chose lighting for the tables.

David was amazing to watch in action.

Two fabulous concepts were designed and the finished pieces were amazing.

I can't thank David enough for this incredible opportunity. Not only is David an amazing designer, and an incredible businessman, he is also a remarkably kind, giving, and generous soul. Not everyone would take time out of their busy day to host young designers from another area. David has a heart of gold, and the integrity I adore in others. This man is totally wonderful, and I LOVE him!!!! It is in my nature to help others who are in my business. I believe it is my responsibility to share my knowledge, and experience, with others as they try and create their own future in this industry. Thank you, David, for reminding me that there are big time designers who agree with this type of philosophy. This was a dream come true.

 

 

 

I have been hesitant to discuss the potential flower crisis that seems to be looming. All of my weddings this year have gone off perfectly but in truth I have been begging for product. Something is definitely happening in the flower industry. Just as I was beginning to receive new and unique offerings from markets abroad, it was as if a door was slammed in my face.

The Spring proved to be challenging and I was forced to beg for the glorious Peony and many of the other “in season superstars.” It was hard at the time to determine what was going on, it was easy to blame the shortages on volcano’s, extreme heat, and the economy. As we trudged on through the drought of the Summer I looked towards cooler weather and a new season. The switch in seasons from Summer to Fall usually brings fresh and rejuvenated product. Product that has not had to struggle through the heat. This weekend is my first really big weekend of the fall.  This new season will clearly not be any easier than the Spring. All day yesterday I pleaded for the blossoms that make my heart sing. I paid premium prices for flowers that are usually affordable and saw via Twitter that my fellow flower designers were struggling across the country. Basics like roses and carnations have been rocketing in price.

The economy has played a big part in what is happening and I understand that. My wholesalers have all reported that many of the largest flower farms have gone bankrupt this year.  The loss of these farms has certainly helped to cause the flower shortage. The next big issue broke my heart, it seems the United States as a whole does not value the beauty of fresh flowers as much as other nations. I was told twice this week that most of the product is purchased by other countries like Russia because they are willing to pay higher prices for the crop. I was really shocked by this, as flowers certainly seem to be important to my customers, but the reality is this we as a country do not value the beauty, fragility, or the actual miracle of a flower. My hope and my prayer is that we as a country change the way we think about flowers and yes our floral designers. You know the old saying “you are gonna miss me when I am gone.” lets pray we don’t get there. To my flower friends in Colorado, Michigan, and California, hang in there, we are headed for some trying times.

Photograph taken by Abby Jiu

 

After 6 full days of cleaning, we have moved back into our flower shop.

 

Do you think the floors were a little dirty? This photograph shows Evan and our son Riley hard at work, this was at about 9:30 in the evening on Monday night. 

 

Our always entertaining boys, took this opportunity to turn one of the potting benches into bunk beds. You can always count on Elijah and Sam for a little extra help.

 

We had piles of flower shop stuff all over the house. After days of sorting everything is back in its new space. The shop clean up was way harder than I had bargained for, and I spent two of the days with a fantastic migraine. Give me a wedding any day, this cleaning stuff is horrid. However, we now have a beautiful clean space. All props are in the new shed.  Not one cardboard box is visible in our shop ( until the flower delivery today) and we now have a pretty and functional space to work in. The pretty part was really important to me and the flower shop girls.  Evan most certainly thought making the shop pretty was insane.

 

I love this antique frame and print, I have been holding onto this for almost a year. I am so glad I got to finally hang this lovely print.

 

We have four work stations but some are big enough for several girls. Notice we still have a few problems like, this station has a drawer that always wants to be open. Annoying.

 

This is the mega work station, four women can stand at this table and we commonly do. No one wants to be away from the main table.

 

Work stations 3.

 

Station number 4.

 

Now for the pretty. I bought these white corner cupboards to soften the space around the cooler and to hold my favorite vintage vessels. I of course bought everything at On A Whim right here in Lucketts. I can always count on Mary Alice and Donna at On A Whim to help me find just the right pieces.

 

I adore this jelly cabinet I found in Mary Alice's booth. It has a ton of storage and it is perfect for my wedding magazines. It also holds a ton of milk glass.

 

I also grabbed this little blue stool. I just had to have it, it sits at the end of the big work station and will hold designs we finish or buckets of extra flowers. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this

 

I am off to DC for a consult, flowers are coming first thing this morning for our bride Libby. I can't wait to show you what we have in store for her.

Our family is constantly growing and changing. Each year brings new opportunities for us and we are so totally blessed. My business is very similar to my family, in that change is a common thread. One constant is my husband Evan. He has been standing behind me, this family or Holly Heider Chapple Flowers, helping to make everything work. He has let many of his own dreams of having a business go, in support of me and the family.  Strangely enough everything seems to be coming full circle. My husband is incredibly smart, I mean really, really smart, like blow your mind smart. He is great at business and he can build anything and build it beautifully. Over the years he has tripled the size of  our home, built decks, walk in coolers, patios, created many gardens, and he even built a chicken coop that we call a condo. He also loves to cook and he is extremely proud of the fact that he is the father of 7 children. Last year he came home with a business license in the name of Chapple Enterprises.  He said he chose that name so that he could make, bake, grow, or do anything his heart desired. He has been waiting for a sign that it was his turn.

Meanwhile Holly Chapple Flowers is on a little roll, and I am longing for props and rental items for my business. I have lots of things I want and need, and I need someone to provide them. I am not quite sure why it has taken us this long to get to this place but about two weeks ago I asked "Chapple Enterprises"to build me a few things and this is what happened.

 

I have wanted birch bark vases for years. I see them on the internet but none of my wholesalers sell them. One wholesaler told me that the only way to get the vases is to buy the birch and have them made. I discussed the project with Evan and before I knew it, he was fast at work.

 

I love this picture and seeing that 23 year old wedding band!

 

Look what I have now!!!

 

This weekend he built a Chuppah with the birch. We are having a seamstress design the top of the Chuppah. I will wrap flowers and vine around the birch legs for my weddings.

 

 Two weeks ago my bride Melissa told me she needed a way to display her place cards. We dreamed of a huge easel that would be able to hold a fabric covered board. We wanted to be able to pin up the place cards and flowers on to the board.

 

Look what I have now. I have a huge place card board that I can wrap in burlap or any fun fabric I want. The whole easel collapses so that it is easy to deliver. The kids and their toys do not come with the rental of the easel.

Since I was on a roll as far as asking, I also requessted large wooden stands that I could elevate flowers on. I wanted the boxes to be painted with chalk board paint. He started that project also this weekend. The boxes are not finished yet, but the first coat of paint is on. Here is a picture of these.

 

Much to my great surprise, he has also made the boxes magnetic. I never even thought of that. So I will be able to put magnets on these vases and write on them with chalk. Is this killer or what?

Over coffee Sunday morning, Evan mentioned to me that I might be able to create something fun out of copper wire.  Next thing I knew he was pulling copper cabeling out of the basement and making little trees. First he stripped the plastic coating off of the wire to expose the copper.

 

All of a sudden he is handing me  little copper trees and piercing them with flowers.

 

I think the little trees he whipped out in 2 seconds really have a lot of potential. I could totally take this concept and turn it into an amazing design. We even talked about hanging the copper trees from the ceiling of an event.

Evan was a husband, a father, a master electrician, a builder, a chef, and a telecommunictions engineer, now he is a business owner. I don't quite know how we got here and why it took us so long but perhaps he figured "if you can't beat em join em" or "two heads are better than one".  When we were dating I used to call him "Mr. Wonderful"  he was named this because he could do anything.  This is certainly one more wonderful possibility. I have often thought we were a match made in heaven. We have an unlikely and remarkable story but it just keeps getting better and better. Please let us know if you need anything built for your wedding or if you would like to rent any of the amazing designs we are creating.

 

In this storm I better remember to thank my son and husband. They have been shoveling snow endlessly so that we could function as a family and as a business. They have had to literally carve out spots for employees to park or dig out my vehicles so that I can deliver.

 

Yesterday I had one of my biggest deliveries of the year. I provide arrangements for CADCA which is our nation's anti-drug campaign. This event is usually several thousand people strong so the flower order is huge. I love working with CADCA and their annual forum, the work they do is so important. At the annual forum, coalitions  all across our nation gather to discuss  and share tactics on what is working in their communities to fight drugs.  Evan made a two story shelf system in the mini van because the Holly Chapple flowers cargo van simply would not have been able to get to the event, the cargo vans are horrid in the snow.

 

 

Part of the flower delivery was to go yesterday and the other part was to arrive tomorrow. With the next storm threatening we delivered the flowers early. Staying ahead of these storms has been crucial. We stored the flowers in a huge walk in cooler at the Gaylord Hotel.

 

There were a total of 70 red carnation balls and 70 yellow carnations with green button mums. The red, yellow, and green were the colors of the event this year.

 

Thank goodness we did take the flowers early because we woke up to yet more snow.

 

This is the view from our porch. The little red and white house out in the blizzard is Evan's poor hen house. Yesterday it almost fell over because of the weight of the snow, the kids spent hours yesterday digging the house out of the snow. It looks like they will be repeating that chore again this week.

In spite of all of this snow things still bloom. I took the time last weekend after my wedding to play with some of the leftovers. I used a new flower at the wedding called arbornotium I had never used this unique blossoms before, it is more of a pod or similar to a pine cone.

 

During the week the pod actually bloomed and that was so much fun to see.

 

This was one of the coolest blooming's I have ever seen.  The fluffy burst that actually sprung from the pod were seeds. Somehow in the midst of this storm it is wonderful to see seeds and know that things are still blooming and that they will continue to do so.  This storm has cost me many of my favorite bushes, trees, and shrubs. My favorite Camellia is broken and buried under the snow. I have used that bush more times than I can count. I loved to finish or complete my bridal bouquets with a collar of her dark green leaves. There will be losses, but there will be restoration. That is how it works.

 

Jane's wedding was this past Saturday. She had a beautiful church wedding with a reception at the Belmont Country Club. The Belmont Country Club features an extraordinary ballroom that is an addition to a true Louduon County Estate Home. Actually at one time the owners of the Belmont Estate owned the Hope Diamond.

 

The delivery process starts by getting all of the bouquets ready for travel. The bouquets are brought from the cooler. We dry off each bouquet and re cut the stems. We then box up each bouquet in tissue.

Jane was an incredibly kind, and very relaxed bride. So much so that she allowed me to photograph those last moments just before she went down the aisle. I had just finished laying out all of the bouquets, bouts and corsages. I wanted to say hello before I went on to the reception. I just could not leave. It was so much fun to watch her maids buzz around her. Everyone was helping her with makeup, and jewelry.  I actually am really proud of some of these images and hope she will treasure them like I do.

 

I loved this photograph. This was the first flower Jane saw of the day. I think I did an incredible job catching this moment between mother and daughter.

The flower girls were waiting patiently for the bride. I think they were ready to do their job. They loved their bouquets.

 

When I say Jane was relaxed, what I really mean is she gave me creative license to design. She chose me to do the flowers months ago, but then totally relaxed and almost disappeared.  Two weeks before the wedding we had a serious consultation and planned the whole look. She wanted pink and green. For a while we were calling her "Hypericum Bride". That was the one flower we were certain of from our first meeting.  Now I think of her as "Something Unexpected Bride".  What we discovered in that second consultation was that she wanted unusual blossoms textures and even a little twist on the typical pink and green color combo. She asked that I give her something unexpected. We added a touch of burgundy into the designs and I went crazy, with local grown product as well. Of course I went to Don for Dahlia's. I also used red and green hanging Amaranthus and Coxcomb from local growers. We used pink berry from my yard, green and pink Hypericum, Nerine Lily, and Roses.  I honestly loved the look of this wedding. We were all so proud of the work. 

 

We watched the girls head towards the altar, and we then headed to the Belmont.

 

One of the great things about the Belmont is they allow the guests to have cocktail hour in the Historic part of the Country Club. This is a space that is beautifully decorated with period antiques. This gives the Belmont so much more charm, than the standard country club. 

We had a total of 22 tables. The ballroom is quite large with plenty of room for dancing and fun. The house also has beautiful rooms for the bride and groom to get ready in, as well as a lovely site for outdoor weddings. Cocktails can also be served on the upper terrace.

The two centerpiece styles.

 

The cake was made by my good friend Rocio Diaz from a Piece of Cake. This lady is truly awesome. Her cakes are made completely by scratch. She has been baking since she was a child. Her mother and Grandmother and Great Grandmother all were cake bakers. She uses some of their recipes today.  You will love Rocio. We always have fun working together.

We also had the pleasure of working with Gina for the first time. Gina is a day of event planner. Gina is married to the owner of  Dream Day DJ's.

Jane thank you for allowing me to be a part of your wedding. This job was so much fun !!!

Happy Married Life Jane.

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

 

As usual it was another very busy day here. We have been preparing for four weddings.  One on Sat. and 3 on Sunday.  I will be in a coma by Memorial Day.  We got to take a little time out and visit with my Aunt Carla and Uncle Ed.  This was the first time they had met Miss Grace. Grace is crying in the picture with Uncle Ed so we will skip that.

Here, big brother Alex caught Grace posing for the camera.

Now for the designs.  We have been very busy today, we have several different color combinations going on. Here is the weird thing, in spite of the fact that each bride has a different color theme almost all of the bridals are alike. Each bride has something that makes the bouquet their own, be it feathers, orchids, diamonds, blush tones or callas but every bouquet this weekend starts with white peonies.  Most of my brides walk away from the traditional white bridal bouquet, but not this weekend. There are four white bridal bouquets, each with something unique. I will try to get photos of each of those this week.  For now, here are some shots of the cooler.

Today we created a very special bouquet. Years ago Jackie’s mom carried Gardenia, Stephanotis, and baby’s breath. At one of our consultations Jackie explained to me although her mothers bouquet looked dated she still wanted the same flowers for sentimental reasons. I love challenges so this is how we came up with Jackie’s bridal bouquet. Jackie picked one flower that was unique to her wedding day, which happened to be the rose Vendella. We added those to the Gardenia and Stepanotis and instead of mixing the baby’s breath all through the bouquet we did a collar of white baby’s breath. The bouquet was simply amazing as well as very symbolic.

  The maids bouquets were almost as lovely as the bridal bouquet, instead of the Gardenia and Stephanotis we used the same Vendella rose and white Freesia with a silver foliage called Lambs Ear.

To bring some drama and height  into the reception we used mini white callas, and full sized callas with lily grass and willow.

To stay on budget we also used low centerpieces, these were made of  cream hydrangea and the Vendella rose.  The table runners were made by a family member at my suggestion. I love this idea simply because it gives the seamstress in the family a chance to participate. It also really saves on upgraded linens. Grandmas love this job.

Tomorrow our brides are Erin who is using rich deep reds and deep crimson pink. Christina who is pale pink, cream and green and Jennifer who will be popping with bright green, orange and hot pink.  Here are the night before, walk through the cooler photos.

Sleep tight brides tomorrow is your big day!!!

Yesterday I went on a little field trip to see one of my wholesalers.  It is important that I always continue my education. This was a great opportunity for me. We watched a designer in action and got to see some new product on the market.  In addition to that I took a little trip through the flower cooler and this is what I saw.

Each one of these pack’s holds 25 roses, this is actually what they look like when they get to me.

This is a view of the whole cooler. Different flower farms also showed up to show off their precious product.  This is such a amazing industry, think about all of those flowers coming from all over the world just for your wedding day.

  These designs were created by the guest speaker.   I loved seeing her designs and learning new things. This was a great experience.