In spite of the fact that we are one week away from my sons wedding, and that we are in the height of wedding season. We hosted a photo shoot here at our home/flower shop. This was incredibly fun and inspiring. I am sure there are those that might wonder what would make me get involved in something like this, at this time of year. However thankfully, I just do, and make things happen, and this is why I enjoy some peace in my life. Yesterday was super fun, designing for pleasure is something that I must continue to do or I will lose my creativity. Photo shoots allow me to develop new color combinations, and to hone my skills as a designer, a stylist, and as a trend setter. Highlights of the day included seeing Evan with a leaf blower and then as a model. Seeing Elijah, Sam, and Grace dance in the fog from the fog machine was pretty darn fun as well. We loved having our dear friend and photographer Anne Robert here, and we even got to babysit sweet little baby Lottie who is just 7 months old. I also got to spend time with Dawn from Something Vintage Rentals, Dawn showed up with a U-haul of amazing antiques, china, lace, and stunning furniture. Hair was done by the always awesome Jewels, and make up was done by the incredibly Amie Decker Beauty. The dresses, OH MY GOD the dresses, those were sent to us by Hannelore’s.

Imagine having hair and makeup artists, models, dresses and photographers in your living room. Add to that a few spiraling and swirling kids and a busy flower shop, and well, you have heaven!!

Yesterday was amazing!!

This past weekend our studio provided flowers for four beautiful and full service weddings. Our studio created all of the designs and carefully and lovingly delivered each wedding completely setting up each table or design. Each of these events was very detail oriented and each of them mattered to me very much. I have had a slew of really great brides, the kind of bride you bend over backwards for. This Saturday morning as I left the shop for my first delivery, I closed my eyes and prayed. Prayed that we would make our brides happy, prayed that we would get there safe, and prayed we had remembered and captured every last detail or wish.  Being as dedicated as I expect us to be is really hard and honestly its frightening. We seriously go over and over, and over everything.

At 8:30 in the morning our day began with one of our grooms picking up the bouquets, bouts, and corsages. The wedding party would be spending the day in DC doing photos at the monuments. Because of this, we made this couple two bridal bouquets and an additional grooms bout. All other flowers were delivered much later in the day.

I then headed to Murray Hill to start the preliminary set up on a candy bar/popcorn stand. These tables may seem easy to design but they require an unknown amount of vases, props, and gadgets and gizmos. I never know exactly how much space the candy will need until we get the candy out of the packaging, and I never know exactly what type of table set up I will have, or what props I will want to use until I start playing. Because of this I loaded up the car with some fun stuff and headed out to design without the stress of having the flowers with me or any other set up going on. I got to Murray Hill about 9:30 in the morning.

Here is a picture of our finished candy bar. Of course I added the candy and the popcorn and the flowers later in the day when returned to do the real set up. After finishing the layout of this table I raced home. Back in the studio the other designers had arrived and we began the process of wrapping the bouquets. This is a huge task, and it requires lots of time. The bouquets must be dried,  stems cleaned, and then the ribbon is added to the bouquets. Since many of our designs feature very expensive vintage or high-end ribbons we put these on last minute. Let me tell you last weekend we were sporting some ribbon. While we were doing roundup and bow up the men went to drop off crystal stands, and our chuppah structure at Lansdowne.

Once all the flowers were ready we started the loading process. We used 4 rental cargo vans, the 2 Holly Chapple Cargo vans, and my regular mini van. 7 vans in total. The vans have to be tagged and marked with the name of the client and we have to be very careful that we put the flowers into the correct van. Imagine 6 big white vans all looking exactly the same. On many occasions I have been known to ask “is this my van, do I own this van?” I can’t tell the rentals from my own new cargo van. This always gets a big laugh out of everyone.

Once the weddings were loaded up I headed to Lansdowne to see my bride Megan. Because I was not doing the setup of her wedding and reception, I got to deliver her bridal flowers. This gave me an opportunity to see her on her wedding day. Megan was the most lovely and remarkable bride. Her trust in me was so very powerful. She literally told me ” even if you change the colors of my flowers, I will still love what you do” After a comment like that you can bet I was super stressing on her, she had been so generous, kind, and she had given me so much freedom,  I was absolutely dying to please her. Because Megan was marrying under our new chuppah she needed men on her team, real men, so she got Evan and Peter. They built the chuppah, while designer Myriam set up and fluffed and touched all of the designs in the ballroom.

Knowing that all was under control at Lansdowne. I headed to Murray Hill, to set up for another VIM, a very important Megan. I took two vans and two people with me to set up this wedding.This Megan was super cute and sweet and she had a serious vision for a very custom wedding. Seriously, everything was custom made for her. The brides dress, the flower girl dresses, the children’s bow ties and suspenders, custom table runners, custom made burlap balls, and even custom banners. All of this was created by one of my past MOB’s Kim, and thankfully she has come back into my life.  So with the help of the amazing Kim of Kims Kreations, Megan had one of the most perfectly and totally unique events I have seen in a very long time. I am so thankfully I got the brides I was given last weekend. My brides are the best!!

She is super cute, right????

Because I wanted her bouquet to be unique and custom as well, we added a burlap ribbon into her bouquet. I bought this ribbon in Holland and because I am hording it, I can barely stand to use it, but this Megan was so worth it!!!

Simply gorgeous!!

I forgot Kim made custom napkins as well. Kim Trombly is amazing and she is helping us with Alex’s wedding. We love Kim and we super loved Megan. This wedding also featured hours worth of draping and lighting done by Evan. Thankfully we had two back to back weddings at Murray Hill so our brides were able to share the draping and lights.

While we handled this wedding two other teams were went out into the world to deliver two more extremely amazing weddings.

These are the wedding flowers for Mary and John. This couple was so super sweet and in this instance I got to know the groom as much as the bride. I love when the grooms participate in the flower orders. I always say if they show up to help with the flower selections, they will help with the dishes, and the babies. I love a man that cares about the flowers. Again I would call this couple gentle, loving, and kind. They worked together to create the most beautiful color palette. They made their own table numbers and several other details with a really pretty fabric. In fact I was so in love with the fabric they used, that we are using it to make Grace’s flower girl dress. I find my inspiration in the most remarkable places.

Our final team headed deep into hunt country, way past Middleburg, where they set up a 90 foot long king table. This table featured 7 elevated designs and 38 other fabulous centerpieces. I had just purchased some new to me vintage vases for this table, so I was super excited about this design.

This wedding also featured a seriously sexy bouquet of hot pink and deep blues. Many thanks to photographer Genevieve Leiper who tempted me with these very early images. This stunning event was designed and planned by Lisa Schulz The Posh Planner.

Once all of the weddings were in place, I headed to the grocery store for the kids. With groceries in the car I went back to Lansdowne to see my bride one more time and to help with the clean up of  the chuppah. Once that ceremony was cleaned up, we went to Murray Hill to clean up the other Megan’s ceremony. Removing shepherds hooks and big structures in the dark is simply no fun. At 11:00pm, three teams went back out into the night to clean up the days festivities. I of course was one of those teams. On Sunday morning the final wedding was cleaned up and we spent all day Sunday and Monday cleaning up the shop. All the props are now back in the studio and we are ready to do it all over again. I thought it would be fun to share this post because people often don’t realize how much goes into the setup of a wedding. People also forget that we have to clean up these events.

I am so thankful that we were successful, I am sure that my big prayer and plea had something to do with it. That and I have one heck of an amazing team. It took ten – seven people working for 5.5 days to make these events happen. That does not include the time spent on lighting and drapes!! Are you tired, I sure am?

 

Just two short years ago I provided flowers for a beautiful bride named Laura. Laura was my sunflower bride. Early this year Laura’s mom Mrs. Magill, called to say that her other daughter Alice was getting married and she wanted my help. Alice and Mike met and began dating while working for Teach For America in Mississippi.  Because of this, the couple hoped to have a wedding that reflected their time spent in Mississippi. Alice and Mike wanted a very rustic country wedding with a super southern feel, they also hoped to find a barn in Loudoun County where they could marry. Thankfully I was asked to provide the flowers, and I was asked to completely design, style, and plan Alice’s wedding, and that is how Alice became my cotton bride. Their wedding will always be one of my absolute favorites because its mine from beginning to end, this wedding has the Holly & Evan mark all over it.

The first awesome recommendation I gave, was for a wedding venue. I suggested the SOON TO BE wedding barn at Murray Hill. When the family arrived to see the venue there were actually horses still in the barn. Because the family booked the venue and did not run screaming from the barn, I knew we were going to be a great match. Talk about faith!!! Shortly after they found their fabulous barn we had a serious conversation about the look and style of the wedding. One thing was for certain, this wedding was going to feature cotton. My next super awesome referral was to send them to my past bride Rachel Merkle. Rachel is a graphic designer and Rachel is also the designer that created The Full Bouquet. Alice, and Mike, worked with Rachel to create the below invitations. I should also note that Rachel is doing the invitations fro my sons wedding. Go Rachel!!!

Next I had to find the cotton seeds that Evan and I had been given last October. The seeds were given to us by of our other past clients. Little did I know that I would be needing those seeds a year later. If cotton was going to be used in this wedding, I wanted to bring it to life and I meant literally. I wanted a new fresh interpretation of the use of cotton.  So in the early spring Evan started over 40 cotton plants. The plants were nourished, tended to, and guarded for the entire growing season. Much to our delight the plants actually bloomed and even created cotton bolls.

Yes we grew a total of 40 cotton plants in varying sizes for this wedding. I have seen cotton designs over the last few years and I really wanted what we created for this wedding to be unique and above and beyond, so yes, we grew our couple cotton. I know, it’s insanely cool right? The cotton plants were used to decorate the aisle, and the barn, and mini cotton plants were even placed on the tables.

After Evan finished growing our couple cotton, he began designing the barn. Here is a picture of the barn shortly after the horses left and just before the barn became a wedding venue.

Evan began designing the barn by pulling huge rolls of burlap through the rafters of the barn, and then he added Edison lights.

He also sewed curtains for the front door of the barn.  Yes, he sewed burlap curtains for our bride.

I thought Evans efforts on this wedding were magical and amazing. I will also say that I was constantly surprised by the many additional things Evan did for this wedding. When I arrived at the barn I found that Evan had created a bar from a beautiful board we had found at a saw mill. This was a decor item that I didn’t even know he was doing.  I loved this surprise.

In addition to the bar Evan also created a 20 foot long bench in front of the band this was designed with old logs and lumber. The bench also had a burlap fabric runner and it created a transition from the band to the dance floor. The bench also provided me a really fun area to style. Go Evan!!! The bench hid the wires and the equipment that the band had on the floor. He also provided the band with up-lights and their very own burlap curtain backdrop. I will say it again, go Evan!!!

20 feet of beauty right in front of the band!!!

Perhaps my favorite detail of this wedding was my floral hanging chandelier. This was also created by Evan. Me and the flower shop girls did the flowers of course.

Everywhere I turned I could see the hand of Evan. Having a handy man on the team is beyond important. When the weather turned to potentially dangerous, Evan chose to stay with us throughout the day. He provided tarps and shelter for the caterers. He even magically appeared with a burlap carpet just as the bus arrived with the bride and her wedding party. These were things I would have never thought of, but every time there was a need, Evan was there.

Here is my beautiful bride and her super lovely mom, this was just before Alice went down the aisle.

Alice and Mike were truly fabulous on their wedding day. The couple had hoped to marry outside on a cliff that overlooked the Potomac River, but an enormous storm blew through the area an hour before their wedding. In fact the storm blew through just as Alice and Mike were on the porch of the mansion having their first look. Seriously, their wedding day started with the two of them facing an incredible storm on the porch of the manor home. I literally watched the screens blow right off the porch as they had their first look. The storm was insane, but somehow all of this was oddly beautiful. I guess in truth, it was Alice and Mike that were beautiful. Never once did they complain about the weather, and never once did they falter. They believed they would have their outdoor wedding and being committed to that goal, we changed the location of the ceremony to just outside of the barn.  With the support of their family and a very determined and loving father of the bride, Alice and Mike met in a gently falling rain and married outside.

Alice’s bouquet was created with free spirit roses, santana roses, astrantia, queen annes lace, cotton bolls from the cotton we grew, cotton pods and full open cotton, dahlias, two types of clematis from my garden, hyacinth bean flowers from my garden, ornamental grasses, and asclepias.

An old dry sink with programs, and bubbles was stationed at the end of the aisle.

Inside the barn, the columns had been decorated with burlap, spanish moss, and ornamental grasses.  Tables were adorned with old liquor bottles, vintage scales, vases, boxes, and of course my flowers.

Table numbers were created by our studio out of spanish moss. We had a lot of fun creating those. Imagine cutting out card board numbers one -fifteen and covering them with moss. We then inserted the numbers into little birch stumps that Evan had made for us.

The head table was designed with multiple flower arrangements  and our hanging floral design. Each place setting featured a name card, and a napkin with a menu and a small little cotton boll.

In a 911 rescue effort Rachel the stationery queen arrived with a second additional seating chart. With the change in ceremony location guests no longer had a cocktail hour to find their seats so I felt we needed a second area to provide a seating chart. I didn’t want the guests waiting in a long line so I was being proactive.

In another section of the barn, I had 3 tables or stations styled with beautiful flowers and props. Each table held a leather bound mole skin book that held the guests seating assignments.  These stations were created with old vintage tables from my antique booth at On A Whim Antiques, or from antiques from my home.

In fact I even brought my vintage apple press or cotton gin. We are not quite sure what this piece of furniture was in its past life, but it is one of my favorite pieces and it was my birthday present from Evan 10 years ago.

All over the barn there were awesome details and unique elements. I had been shopping for this wedding for almost an entire year. Shopping, growing, and planning.

One of my favorite finds were these old orchard bags.

The bags were displayed with cotton, and burlap through the barn.

Burlap and vintage feed bags were used to decorate the walls of the barn. Alice gave us pictures of the couple and these were added to the walls of the barn. This was a super fun and personal accent.

Alice also drew the above tree. Guests were asked to sign the tree and leave a leaf thumb print. By the end of the night the tree was full leaves.

The couple started the night by dancing to Black Water, you know the line … “Mississpi moon wont ya keep on shinning  on me.”

Was the wedding perfect, well yes it was. Perhaps a different kind of perfect than we all expected, but it was still perfect. Did I want a bright sunny day for this couple, you bet I did, I wanted it with all of my heart and soul. But as I watched them dance to this song, after just seeing them marry in the rain, it was clear that this wedding was just exactly as it was supposed to be. This wedding was perfect for Alice and Mike. This wedding day, this experience, is the beginning of their story.

I must thank the fabulous Design Cuisine for the incredible service, and catering they provided for this family. I will always remember looking up and seeing 20 handsomely dressed servers all standing in a line ready to begin the dinner service. Those same people were with me just hours before as we began to transform the barn, the very barn that was bombarded by a storm. Could I have done this wedding without Design Cuisine? Perhaps so, but I would not have wanted to!!! Their team was amazing and their food was perfection. Alice and Mike and their guests dinned on shrimp and grits, corn slaw, tenderloin, crab cakes, corn bread, and an endless list of southern delights.  I needed Design Cuisine as much as I needed Evan. I also want to thank Julie Renee Massie for being our photographer, and my in house planner Kristin for the incredible work that she did to bring this event together. Also many thanks to Peggy and John Rust of Murray Hill,  Murray Hill has always been one of my favorite venues, with the addition of the barn to this property I am totally in love!!!

Happy married life Alice and Mike. We loved designing your wedding!!!

I guess with my lack of posts this week you can gather that we are super busy here. Loosing one day to a holiday really rocks my world. It’s hard to believe that all of last weekends events are behind us and I am now siting in a house full of flowers for this weekends events. We have spent the better part of this week preparing for several really awesome events. We are doing a lot of drape, lighting, event design and even wedding planning this weekend, so lets just say the volume got seriously turned up. I guess the quickest way to get back in touch with you is to share some of our work from last weekend. Last weekend was like flower girl designer heaven!! We were everywhere and we did everything. I truly had an amazing wedding weekend!!!

This wedding was at Rosemont Manor in Berryville. I just loved that black and white striped linen.

Next I headed to Bluemont Vineyard where Evan had been busy hanging fabric through the rafters of the barn. Check out those custom drapes that Evan sewed. Yes he sews, and he cooks. Lucky me!!!

This wedding featured all white florals and olive branches. Yes olive branches, I had real olive branches flown in from California. The bride had an olive branch motif on her stationery and she gave guests olive oil as a favor.

 

Next I headed to Whitehall Manor, here we designed in purples, plums and lavenders. As you can see Don’s dahlias were a big part of all of my weddings.

 

We also had a wedding at the Thomas Birkby House and one at Silverbrook Farm.

Here our flowers at the Thomas Birkby House.

Shauna Ploeger from Studio Du Juor delighted me with these images from our Silvberbrook Farm wedding.  I can’t wait to share more from this wedding and more of Shauna’s work. She is a new superstar in Loudoun!!!

This bout was created for a wedding at a private estate in Middleburg. The groom and most of his groomsmen are avid hunters. We designed 22 bouts in brass shot gun shells.

To prevent the rain I did a rain dance on a ladder in my rain boots!!! It worked, the wedding happened without a drop of rain!!

Amazing florals were created for this wedding and I was dying over how beautiful everything was  but I have to tell you all of those vintage props brought in by Rosanna Smith from Bella Villa Antiques had me swooning. She is my new best friend.

While I was climbing ladders and playing with antiques in Middleburg my A Team was at the St. Regis Hotel in DC delivering these amazing designs.

These pictures were taken by photographer Vicki Grafton.  Many thanks to Vicki for getting me these pictures of our fairy tale wedding at the St. Regis.

So, as you can see there is a lot going on around here and you are not gonna believe what we do this weekend!!!

 

Love it, love it, love it!!! This is how cool my life is. When my friend the amazing photographer Anne Robert needed a baby sitter one afternoon, I simply said YES. Anne has two precious girls and one of them is a sweet brand new baby!! Since I am always happy to have more kids around I was thrilled to have the girls over. Because Anne and I love to work together she offered to take some photos of my garden flowers. I quickly ran around the house grabbing china, props, and my garden flowers and voila`. I have an amazing shoot to show you with flowers completely from our garden!!!!!!!!! LOVE THIS!!!

I used zinnia, amaranthus, purple basil, salvia, celotia, sunflowers,  queen annes lace, echinacea, and gladiolas.

My truly beautiful daughter Abigail found an old white sundress, so Anne and I were in business.

Love this close up of our flowers. Every single one of these blooms came from our property. This shoot shows the bounty of our gardens.

Don’t you just love my hanging window panes, and that vintage bed spread is to die for!!! I found the bedspread over a year ago and I have been itching to use it for a shoot.

I have a collection of black iron kettles and pots, and they also have been in the shed waiting for this day!!!

I am thrilled with the way this turned out. Seriously, Anne spent about 15 minutes shooting this and then she dashed off to go meet her clients. I love how resourceful busy moms are. You gotta make the best and the most of your day!!!

One other fun note, I met Anne exactly 2 years ago and it started over a photo shoot. This career has brought me the most wonderful friends!!! Here is the link to the shoot we did two years ago. Since then we have done many weddings together. I LOVE Anne Robert!!

If you are longing for some of our flowers, we have delivered 10 and only 10 bouquets to On A Whim Antiques. The designs were created with flowers fresh from our garden and they are in vintage blue mason jars.  My booth is in the back right corner and while you are in my space buy a table or a dresser as well. The girls are going back to college so we could use a sale or two.

Happy Sunday!!!

Erin and Robby married last summer at Whitehall Manor. Erin was my library bride.  We provided the flowers and the styling for this gorgeous wedding. The following images are by photographer Erin Lassahn, and more images from this wedding can be seen here.

Mason jars of peach stock, lizzy, spray roses, and dusty miller lined the aisle.

Erin’s bridal bouquet was created with peach juliet roses, white majolica spray roses, sahara roses, clematis vine, seeded euc, cafe au lait dahlias, dusty miller, and paper flowers.

The paper leaves were used with berry and spray roses to create the grooms bout.

Library cards were used to assign table seating.

I love this image of the place card table.

Erin used pages from vintage books to create monograms and a wreath for the mantel at Whitehall.

Each table was styled differently with gatherings of vintage books, vintage library card boxes, milk glass, and flowers of the day. We even decoupaged glass votive holders with pages from the books.

Happy married life Erin and Robby and happy anniversary,  I adored working with Erin on this wedding!!

Recently our studio styled and planned a wonderful 16th birthday party for a very lovely young lady. The event was held at the Sunset Hills Vineyard. Many thanks to the amazing photographer Kate Headley who captured these bright happy detail shots.

Pink peonies in vintage tins.

Mason jars of lemonade.

Old fashioned candy bar.

Happy day to you all!!!

My viewers are going to have a lot of fun with today’s blog post. You all know I have a group of designer friends I call the Chapel Designers. This group came together through social media and through social media we are aiding and abetting each others flower addiction.  The group has studied together twice in NYC and we will meet again in 2013. Our group has become an incredible network where we can share resources and knowledge. In other words we are building a strong and solid clan of the best wedding designers. We are making this wedding season our best by helping each other. We are actually traveling to each others studios to be of support wherever and whenever we can. Due to social media we are also in constant communication with each other. Each day we share ideas, sources, and wisdom, this group has made the rigors of this career so much more manageable and in truth everything is simply more inspiring because of this clan of designers. Chapel Designer and friend Isha Foss of Isha Foss Events suggested several weeks ago that we all do a progressive blog post, where we link to each others blog. Each designer was to create a compote design. Our blog post date was set for May 29th and here we are. So because of Isha’s great idea you will see the links below to some of my favorite flower friends and their amazing compote designs. Seeing the different color combinations, textures, and design ideas, all placed in the hottest container in the industry was a lot of fun. The compote design is a complete and total rage right now and just to prove how on trend the Chapel Designers are just days ago Martha Stewart Weddings happened to do a blog post on the compote. Great minds think a like. Here is the link to Martha’s Post.

My designs was created in a vintage compote I found at On A Whim Antiques. I used smoke bush, lambs ear, purple basil, invincibelle hydrangea, white astilbe, nectarine branches from Evans tree, white peony, persimmon tree foliages and buds, astrantia, hypericum foliage, white yarrow, clematis pods and vine, nandina berry, tree peony pods,and annabelle hydrangea. Every flower in this design were from my garden except for the white peony.

I was having so much fun, I actually made a second design…

This piece was created in a fabulous white compote. This little compote became the love of all the Chapel Designers when we were in NYC, (thanks to our class with Ariella Chezar.) Thankfully one of the Chapel Designers (Isha again) found the source for this container.  We love this lovely little compote because she happens to be plastic and super affordable, which means the guests can take her home after an event. This design was created with blue hydrangea, seeded euc that we painted navy blue, lambs ear, clematis vine, white yarrow, and a ton of ranunculus!!!

Just in case you are wondering, by definition a compote is a long-stemmed dish used for holding fruit, nuts, or candy. In my world, it’s just a sexy vase with a great leg, that holds my flowers. BTW if you are looking for a fabulous floral design class to attend meet me in Sonoma California where I will be studying under designer Ariella Chezar.  One of the classes even features our favorite container the compote!!!

Now here are the designs of my friends.

Isha Foss Events http://www.ishafoss.com/2012/05/floral-compotes.html

Alluring Blooms http://alluringblooms.com/ode-compote/.html

Floral Verde LLC http://floralverde.com/blog/?p=800

Flirty Fleurs http://www.flirtyfleurs.com/?p=9609

Celebration Florals  http://bit.ly/K4Dkcz

Holly Heider Chapple Flowers LTD https://thefullbouquetblog.com/?p=20905

Fleur:ology http://fleurologydesign.com/?p=397

Exquisite Designs http://www.exqdesigns.com/blog/?p=1900

Petals & Hedges http://petalsandhedges.com/blog/?p=868

Bare Root Flora http://barerootflora.com/index.php/blog/45-the-art-of-the-compote-denver-wedding-flowers

Loda Floral Design http://lodadesigns.blogspot.com/2012/05/floral-compote-design.html

True Florette Floral Design   http://trueflorette.com/succulents/the-compote

Courtenay Lambert Florals http://tinyurl.com/d4vugg8

Grapevine Floral Company http://grapevineinbloom.com/?p=228

Modern Day Floral http://moderndayfloral.com/blog/?p=4036

Sebesta Design http://sebestadesign.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/the-classic-compote-arrangement/

Sweet Pea Floral http://sweetpeafloraldesign.blogspot.com/2012/05/amazing-compote-gandy-dancer-rehearsal.html

This lovely compote was created by Janice Wong of Precious Pear. I adore Janice and I am in love with this design!!!

Today’s “from the garden” post was inspired by my new found love of Jadeite or green milk glass. I can thank Chapel Designer, Alexandra Jusino for my new found love of this vintage container, and for my new obsession with Ebay. Thanks Alex, this new love of mine is going to cost the Chaplets big!!!

This week my garden was rocking out some beautiful coral roses, I found these down by the pool.

Annabelle hydrangea

Passion vine

Dusty miller in bloom

Pink peony

Pink hydrangea

Nandina foliage and berry. I am obsessed with my nandina berry in the spring. I cut the berries early in the season because I like the pink or white dainty berry. This bush is typically recognized for its strong red berries, but that just never happens here.  The berries are long gone before they can ever become red.

Red-tip Photinia is another foliage I love. The foliage is very red in the early spring or in the fall but for now it’s just a clean green waxy leaf.

Lavender

My killer green milk glass vases.

Greens first.

Since this particular design is being created in small cups, I needed to get the big blooms in first.

All of the dainty wispy flowers were placed around the focal bloom.

I certainly have a pretty view today!!!