As promised I am going to show you how I decorated my front door.  For now  I am only going to give you a little teaser but I hope to finish the post later today.  I am in the midst of designing for a photo shoot and I need a little more time in the studio this morning. So, when Evan and I were kids we bought a very modest home. Since then we have added onto the house many times, and it has become a wonderful full and beautiful home. However the front door is still, shall I say a little boring. During the years it’s had various types of decor but recently Evan painted the door and put up stucco where the sidelights once were. The front door has been sitting bare for a few months now and it was driving me crazy.

First I started with a garland of honeysuckle vine. My challenge was to only use the existing nails. Evan is never thrilled when he sees me with a hammer in my hands. I don’t really have rights to the hammer in this house, let’s just say I have done some damage with that thing. I was sure if I started hammering and adding additional nails to the door frame I would crack his new stucco wall. Around the rim of the door are about 5 nails that Evan had begrudgingly left in the trim when he stuccoed the wall. This allowed me to hang a garland at Christmas.

Back in the flower shop I had a box of succulents leftover from designing for the Virginia Gold Cup. The succulents did not have roots but thankfully they root very easily. Succulents can be rooted in water or by laying them in soil.

I happened to have super mini plastic pots in the studio so I filled them to the brim with potting soil.

I laid the succulent on the soil and then gathered some fresh sheet moss from our stash.

I used a floral product called bind wire to wrap the pot with moss and to hold the succulent in place. Bind wire is like a raffia wrapped wire and we use it for everything.

By wiring the succulent onto the pot this assured that the little succulent would stay attached to the soil long enough to grow a root.

The little moss covered succulent pots were then tied into the garland.

Next I took an old apple orchard ladder and leaned it against the house. To decorate this area I rested a giant air fern or bromeliad on one of the rungs of the ladder. Small glass bottles of ivy were hung randomly on the rungs, this brought a different shade of green into the design. The ivy was gathered from my backyard and I know it will take root hanging right there in the vase. Little glass miniature terrariums were designed with river rocks, moss, and air ferns. Some of the mini terrariums were even planted with hens and chicks. I also hung one of the moss potted succulents from the ladder. All were dangling with my magical bind wire.

Next I created a wreath for the front door.

First I wired a small iron urn onto my wreath. The urn was full of soil and I  placed another piece of the ivy directly into the soil. This time I chose pieces of ivy that had baby roots or runners on them. Miniature succulents were also placed in this pot.

The ivy was then wired onto the wreath in a curved shape with… guess what, bind wire. Burlap was added to the back of the wreath to protect Evans newly painted red door.

Hanging baskets, potted plants, vintage props from the shed, large air ferns, and more succulents were added to a bench that sits at the front door.

Loving it!!!

Baby Grace and I also planted two big iron baskets full of flowers and these hang flush against the stone wall on either side of the door. Currently these baskets are being hidden by my nandina bushes. I can’t prune these shrubs back yet because I am waiting for the berries the bushes are producing. While I wait for my berries, the hanging baskets will have a chance to grow and flourish. I love the way this project turned out, if I thought I could have gotten away with it I would have hung a few more succulents on the garland but because I am trying to make this work with the 5 nails that are holding up the garland, (and because I didn’t want it to fall down and hear my husband say I told you so) I thought I better not put anymore pressure or weight on my design. Instead I planted hyacinth bean seeds and when the vine grows I will train it up and around the front door. This is a living door and I am very excited to watch it grow. The idea to create this design came from seeing so many living walls or rooftops in Europe. This project is also a part of my new commitment to my home and to design. Having all of these lovely flowers, props, and containers on my property and never finding time to design with them is simply sinful, and I am going to change that.  I am going to work on this place and get it ready for something very special. I have a new plan!!!

Meredith and Lewis married this past fall at the beautiful Weatherlea Farm. This was a lovely Loudoun Wedding. Our floral designs featured blue and green wedding flowers. The wedding was designed and planned by the amazing Laura, from Events In The City, and the crisp, clean, and rich images were captured by Tracy Timmester.  Get ready this wedding is awesome!!

Meredith’s bouquet was created with green cabbage roses, green hydrangea, green berry, blue thistle, blue delphinium, scabiosa pods, white cabbage roses, and some very amazing white dahlias.

The reception was held in the big rustic barn on the Weatherlea property.

Green apples were used for the seating cards.

Centerpieces were created in my vintage milk glass compotes or vintage bud vases.

This lovely lounge area was created for the guests.

When evening fell, the barn was aglow with twinkly lights.

The dessert station featured fabulous pies from my dads store,  Heiders Country Farm Market. Little bottles of milk were also available for the guests!!

Happy married life Meredith and Lewis. It was a pleasure to design your wedding flowers. Your wedding was amazing!!

I am doing a lot of work to get prepared for this wedding season and it’s grueling. I work really hard, seriously, if I had known that it would be this hard to be a business owner of a floral design studio, I may have attempted another career. I truly fell into this career with the belief that it would be, oh so much fun to play with flowers. I could not conceive in my earlier days how big this business could or would become, and I most certainly did not ever believe I would be managing designers, blogging, emailing, and handling social media. Its been 20 years since I invented this career and things have most certainly changed. With all of this work and responsibility, I am so thankful for those moments when I am truly creating something out of my passion. I love how a design flows out of me, how my intuitive placement causes me to sigh or moan. I love when I find myself doing the happy dance because I have gotten my design just right. It sounds silly I’m sure, but that’s really what it’s like when I get a piece right, it’s a very enriching feeling. This feeling of joy is only matched when the images come in. YES!!!!!!! I love seeing my pretty things beautifully captured.

Recently I had the pleasure of working on a fabulous shoot. The images were photographed by Katie Stoops and the shoot was designed by the girls from Events In The City.  The pictures truly brought tears to my eyes.  When I see my work in photos, I realize I am good at this, I really am, and today I am super proud of that. There are days when all of the hard work is so worth it!!! So although I will I spend the rest of the day selling, contracting, emailing, blogging, and fighting for the blooms that I need for this weekends weddings, I am happy, content, and pleased with this beautiful work!!

I am currently obsessed with flower head pieces so creating this was very exciting, getting the photo was even better!!

Splendid

Clever

Stately

Yummy!!

Details

Love

My favorite light pink cabbage rose!!

Many thanks to the following artists that volunteered their time and artistic abilities to bring this beautiful story board to life. Being involved with something so beautiful always makes my heart sing!!

Photographer: Katie Stoops Photography
Event Designer: Events in the city
Venue: The Goodstone Inn
Makeup: Natalie Gordon of Avenue 42
Hair: Hair by Giselle
Cake: Macaroons by OCakes
Dress Designer: Monique Lhuillier from Carine’s Bridal in DC
Garter Girl: The Garter Girl
Flowers: Holly Heider Chapple
Shoe Designer: Steve Madden
Stationery: Paperzest
Veil or Hair Accessories: Carine’s Bridal in DC
Prop or Furniture Rentals: DC Rental
Rentals: white couch & vintage pink velvet chair Rust Vintage Rentals
Calligraphy: Meant To Be Calligraphy
Dress stylist: Gabriella Lehimdjian from Carine’s Bridal in DC

Having the Chapel Designers bombard the NYC flower market was insanely fun!! This of course was like taking a kid to a candy shop. All of the designers were in complete heaven. It also allowed many of us the opportunity to meet with sales reps that we only get to speak to on the phone. It was like a big flower family reunion.

Our tour through the market was led by Jeremy of David Beahm Design. Jeremy is awesome and super cute !!! I think he looks like an actor. Jeremy is a lead designer for David. His tour through the market was fabulous and very helpful for the Chapel Designers. Jeremy shared with us lots of new sources. You can also see the beautiful Heather Thomas of Heatherlily Inc. in the background of this picture.

Alicia Broehl, Stems by Serendipity

Jeremy Norman from David Beahm Design with Lesley Frascogna Tulip Design Studio

Cori Christensen, Moss Fine Floral LLC

Here are some of the designers at G. Page, which is one of the most amazing places for unique and specialty blooms. We had a blast meeting with our sales rep Lauren but I forgot to ask her to be in the picture. We were a little side tracked and crazy in this place.

Trish Van De Merkt of Grapevine Floral, Janice Wong of Precious Pear, and Alicia Schwede, Owner
Bella Fiori & Bella Rents

More product from G. Page.

Peggy Meyer and Carol Young of Celebrations Florals.

Harvest Roses

This is a picture of my sales rep Niv from Harvest Roses with my friend Alex Jusino of Exquisite Events.  This was the first time we got to meet our fabulous salesperson Niv.

Over the last year I have had a lot of fun working with Niv, perhaps he reminds me of someone. Many of the unique designs I created last year were with roses from Harvest. I love their product and it’s worth a trip to the airport to get their goodies.

These trips to NYC also allow me to find great new containers and vintage ribbon. All of these sources make my designs special, unique, and one of a kind. Traveling to NYC has opened so many windows for me and it has kept many brides coming through my door!!!

Its 7:13 a.m., and I am home after my trip to NYC with the Chapel Designers. I have packed school lunches, the wholesaler arrived just seconds ago with flowers, and so life begins again. In my heart, I am overwhelmed with a richness and fullness from this trip. I am so honored and encouraged that so many designers from across the country took this chance to “meet me in NYC.” I have the spirit, the energy, and the desire to continue on because of all of the designers I met. On several occasions I was called the “flower mama”; if this is the next phase of my life, I will take it. There were so many moments about this trip that were surreal, and in these particular moments, I would experience an overwhelming feeling of gratitude I have never experienced before in my career. Here are the things that I will cherish forever. Greeting the designers for the first time at the door of Matthew Robbins, realizing that so many had come because they trusted and believed in me and in themselves (faith works!!). Loving on each designer and meeting them for the first time or seeing my old friends filled me up from my nose to my toes. Looking around the beautiful design studio of Matthew Robbins and seeing what can be born from the designing of flowers was so inspiring. Matthew’s kindness is so memorable because there is a warmth in his studio that cannot be fabricated; it comes from the real people working in this space, as Matthew and his staff are indeed very gentle and kind.

Seeing Evan in the crowd everywhere I went was a new and exciting experience; his belief in me, in us, and the Chapel designers was awesome, and his presence made me realize that we really are a team now.

On Monday morning when I walked quietly into the conference room, I stood there all alone and I nearly wept. I remembered so clearly asking to see the conference room of the hotel last year just before we left the hotel to go home. I dared in that moment to believe that we would return and fill that conference room (faith works!!).

Spending the day with the savvy and very spunky Tara Guerard simply took me back to 3 years ago when I first heard her speak. I am so proud of how far I have come in 3 years. Thank you Wedding 360 for hosting me in San Francisco, you most certainly started a desire in me to learn and to teach.

The excitement and gratitude I feel when I see my friend David Beahm is always a surreal experience. I know I can trust him and I am always thankful for him. His candid and very honest lecture that he gave the designers was poetic and powerful. I believe in David and all that he stands for. Listen to your gut!!!

Spending time with my friends and the flowers was a true joy!! Finally meeting my cute sales representative Niv was really fun!!

Walking through the doors of Martha Stewart’s offices is a joy, a honor and a pleasure that will always make me feel giddy. Meeting Shira the Real Weddings editor for Martha Stewart was also a true pleasure, and I nearly died in the props closet. There were so many beautiful china patterns, vintage containers, cake stands, and yummy things I am longing for now. Our afternoon lecture when I stood in front of all my Chapel Designers will always be special to me, but in truth I was so tired at this point, I can barely remember a thing I said. I loved seeing Isha and Jenn share from their hearts, and hearing Daevid speak started new sparks for my business as well. Spending time on the rooftop of the hotel or in restaurants, loving each young and oh-so-sweet new little designer, or marveling at those designers that found the desire to begin careers with flowers later in life. I found many role models on this trip. Strolling the flower market and seeing what I so whole-heartedly love makes me so certain that I do what is inherently my passion. Being recognized in the flower market by a customer as Holly Chapple of The Full Bouquet Blog also absolutely thrilled the heck out of me; it shouldn’t, but it did!! Time with Ariella Chezar was intoxicating; being taught for the first time ever in my career and understanding that I have a true passion, and a thirst for more of this career was also enriching. I honestly stood there with beautiful flowers in my hand watching the most lovely lady design, and I felt high and completely relaxed. It was a fulfilling experience no drugs or alcohol could ever create. The beauty and simplicity of the Flower School of NY made me long for a little shop, but knowing that is not in my future I enjoyed my time there and I made a commitment and a promise to myself to return to the school to study again. Our lovely lunch at La Grenouille made me feel like a lady–not a mommy, or a worker bee, but a lady. In this amazing restaurant, where fresh flowers play an important and necessary role in the experience, I was blown away by perfect china, perfect service, perfect and totally fresh foods and flowers. My heart soared here!!! I have so many other moments and experiences that I will share as I continue to post about our trip but for now it’s back to work. We have two weddings this weekend, a bridal show, and a photo shoot.  This will be my year of education, my year to learn, my year to learn how to be a teacher!!! I have many more pictures and several more posts to write but this was one heck of a start!!

It’s now 4:06 in the afternoon and I can finally post this entry. My morning got terribly interrupted and before I knew it I was meeting with clients, suffered some heartache, and all of the pretty flowers I chose by hand yesterday at market were shipped to another designer in the Hamptons. We go from loving it, to OMGding it in minutes around here. I can only “walk in faith” or believe that “faith works” because I have the Chapel designers!!!

Our first night was fabulous and completely amazing. Reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones was a true joy. For our first night in the big apple we had the honor and pleasure of spending time with designer Matthew Robbins. Matthew hosted the Chapel Designers in his NYC studio.  Matthew was a lovely and gracious host. Each designer received a copy of Matthews new book Inspired Weddings and all designers had a chance to get their books autographed. The book is truly beautiful and I can’t wait to sit back and absorb each page. The book is most certainly perfect for those designers that focus on the wedding industry. Get it, Chapel Designers.

Extraordinary blooms were provided by Florabundance. Luckily for us, owner Joost Bongaerts of Florabundance was one of our special guests this evening. We were very fortunate to have Florabundance product at our big event tonight.

Matthews collection of vintage containers made me feel right at home!!

Photographer Liz Banfield was also a guest this evening at our Chapel Designers event. I have admired her work for several years so this was a super big pleasure and treat.

It’s 12:22 and all of the Chapel Designers have gone off to bed and I think I better call it a day as well. We have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow. I will share more images from this very special evening as soon as photographer Vicki Grafton shares her pretty pictures with our group!!!

Yesterday Evan and I headed to Philadelphia for the day with our daughters Abby and Hannah. Our first stop was Sullivan Owen’s flower shop. Sullivan is a designer I follow via twitter. With a few quick tweets I had an invite to Sullivan’s shop. Wow, wow, wow, her studio is awesome.

Seeing all of her milk glass, copper pots, mercury, glass and vintage bottles made me feel right at home.

I adored this vintage cabinet that held her specialty ribbon.

Sullivan’s studio space is clean, fresh, and inspiring. I would have happily spent the whole day talking with Sullivan. It’s very clear to me that this young lady is on fire and I simply LOVE her designs. It was interesting to find out that she trained and studied design at the Flower School of NY. Lucky for me, I will be taking my first classes at the Flower School next week. I am very excited about getting to know Sullivan and I think it’s going to be incredible to watch her grow. I have a feeling that the world will be seeing a lot of Sullivan Owen.

After having a really fun lunch experience at the Reading Terminal Market, we headed to the Philadelphia Flower and Garden Show. This particular garden show is the largest and oldest flower show in the world. There were demonstrations, gardens, and floral designs that were created and displayed as individual pieces of art.

I loved this display and I so wish I could have purchase this desk.

Beautiful table designed by Sullivan Owen.

This table also caught my eye, the detail was amazing!!

While at the designers studio I watched Eric Schellack of Robertsons Flowers create this unique anthurium bouquet.

I was obsessed with the copper pots, plants, and linens, that were offered at the show.

The wall of lettuce was one of my favorite exhibts at the show.

Seeing this poster made me giddy!!! Insert me into the tulip fields of Holland!!!! Just one more month and I will be there!!!

Loved this display.

There was even a wedding at the garden show last night!! You know how I love weddings.

Complete with a cake from the Cake Boss.

These were the centerpieces for the wedding.

It was a super fun and long day. Now it’s seriously back to work, I have designs to create, clients to meet, contracts to write, and 40 gift bags to stuff. I have quite a bit to do before I leave for NYC this Sunday.

 

Danielle and Timothy married last summer at Merriweather Manor in Leesburg Virginia. This Loudoun wedding featured pink and lavender wedding flowers and the final look was incredible. Many thanks to Kelley Cannon Events for excellent planning services, and to Anne Robert for her amazing photography. This was one of the most lovely affairs of the year!!

Danielle’s bouquet was a truly inspired creation. I love every aspect of this design and was thrilled as I watched her bouquet unfold in my hands. I used clematis vine from my garden, green seeded euc, quicksand roses, lady moon roses, dusty miller, silver brunia, astrantia, pink spray roses and white dahlias to bring the bouquet to completion.

Bouts were created with spray roses, astrantia, green seeded euc, and silver berry.

The couple shared a first touch, rather than a first look. I thought this was incredibly adorable. I happened to be in the room when these pictures were taken. It was the sweetest moment!!!

In addition to the centerpieces we also styled a popcorn stand and a candy bar. Both of these designs featured vintage props and flowers.

 

My father owns Heider’s Farm Market and I am able to get pie and popcorn for my weddings. Daddies little country store has been a great resource for us.

The soft pastel tones created a perfect romantic summer vibe.

Happy married life Danielle and Tim. It was a true honor to provide the flowers for your wedding. This Loudoun Wedding truly made me smile!!!!

When meeting with my fall brides, I often show the wedding pictures from Kerry’s vineyard wedding at Hillsborough Vineyard.  Yesterday I realized I have never posted the professional images from this wedding. Since Hillsborough is having a wedding show this weekend I thought today would be a great day to show off the beauty of this venue and this wedding.

The ceremony site at Hillsborough boasts one the most beautiful views in Loudoun County.

The owners gardens are absolutely amazing and perfect for portraits.

Kerry’s bridal bouquet was created with antique green hydrangea, wine colored dahlias from local grower Don, sea star fern, scabiosa pods and scabiosa flowers, and wine colored snapdragons.

The bouquet was bound with bark wire and family lace. The bride also wore fabulous jewelry that she purchased from a vendor in NYC that replicates vintage jewelry.

The vineyard is a fabulous place to host a wedding!! Brides looking for a wedding venue should definitely stop by for a visit this Sunday (Feb 19th) from 1pm-5pm. Several local wedding professional will be greeting guests and the vineyard is doing free tastings. I will be at a wedding in DC but tell my friends hello!!!

The lovely photography was taken by the always amazing, Genevieve Leiper Photograhy.

Hopefully you have purchased the latest issue of Weddings Unveiled Magazine, if not be sure to pick up your copy today. We would love for you to see our beautiful feature on our bride Casey and her Groom Tony. Casey worked here at our studio last year and doing the flowers for her wedding was of course really important to us. While working here, one of the many things Casey did was help us to design the Full Bouquet Blog. Casey hand sketched the scissors, and the picture frame that we use on the side bar of the blog and she chose the background for the blog. Because Casey studied art and because she is a fashionista the overall look of this wedding was sure to be incredible.

The wedding was beautifully photographed by Julie Renee Photography, and held at the very venue where my son will marry this fall Silverbrook Farm. This is yet another one of my fabulous Loudoun Weddings.

I was more than a little proud of the bouquet I designed for Casey. It was in fact one of my favorites from last year. My artist bride gave me the colors she wanted and a list of flowers or shapes she liked but she let me DESIGN!!! It was so much fun to make this bouquet. I used nandina berry, and lambs ear from my garden, viburnum berry, two types of coral charm peonies, peach juliet roses, white ohara roses, white patience cabbage roses, pink astilibe, scented geranium, and orange asclepsia for the bouquet. Casey and I also bought silk pink anemones for the bouquet when we traveled together last year to NYC.  I also loved the jewels that were added to her bouquet. Casey found old buttons and brooches and provided those for the bouquet. Casey also made each bridesmaid a gathered cluster of brooches to be worn on the sash of their dresses.

The couple married in front of the rustic arch that is at Silverbrook Farm.

The reception was held in the newly restored barn. Casey’s father helped to restore the barn in time for Casey and Tony’s wedding but also in time for  Alex’s wedding. This was a very exciting and big miracle for Casey and Tony, Alex and Mallary, and also for dear Dot the owner of Silverbrook.

This wedding was truly gorgeous and when I look back on these pictures I am so proud of our studio and all that we accomplish. On Casey’s wedding day I was at the Eastern Shore doing a huge wedding, that wedding was enormous and can be seen on Style Me Pretty under Bayside Wedding. This day was also Rachel’s wedding day at the Thomas Birkby House, Rachel was the other bride that helped to build The Full Bouquet. I made it to all of these weddings and personally touched and fluffed many of the designs. The day before Casey’s wedding we spent hours in the barn hanging mercury glass votives and crystals. We even lined the back wall of the barn with vintage silver teapots. I added crystals and formal elements to the barn to give Casey the elegance she longed for. Although Casey really loved the rustic and vintage look, she also really loved bling and she also loved things that were simply pretty!!!

To have this wedding featured on the pages of Weddings Unveiled was one of our biggest honors of 2011!!!! Please make sure you get a copy of this incredible magazine.

Happy married life Casey and Tony and congratulations on the upcoming birth of your son!!!!