Karli and Rich's wedding is complete and total eye candy. Several things help to make this event so amazing, number 1- the couple is gorgeous, 2- you can never go wrong at Whitehall Manor, 3- Vicki Grafton from My Simple Details seriously knows how to design and plan an event, 4- photographer Tracy Timmester did some of the most amazing pictures I have seen this year, 5- there also happens to be pretty flowers, provided by me. Sit back and enjoy, our pretty wedding that was so pretty, it was featured on Style Me Pretty.

The bridal bouquet was made with Don's famous Dahlias, black baccara roses, red coxcomb, red orchids, red roses, and red mini callas. I love the drama of this bouquet.

All of the vendors on this event can bend and take a bow, because this wedding was a total success. Triple "S" stylish, sophisticated, and sexy.

 

For 4 years straight, I had a remarkable holiday open house. We held it right here in my family room. Past brides, clients, and the community, were invited to come to our home to purchase their holiday decor. The open house was a ton of work but we loved having the freedom to create for creations sake.  Our pieces and our open house were truly amazing.

Can you imagine hosting something like this in your family room with small children? I was pregnant with Grace when we did the last open house, and last year and this year I just simply did not have the courage to destroy my family room with 3 small children, not to mention the four other kids who live here as well. You may have noticed it's hard for me to say no, or to use brakes, but I just had to find some NO for this event.  Its sad not to have open house for so many reasons, first off, it was awesome to be visited by our brides, I miss them so much after they marry. Secondly our designs are stunning and it was nice to be able to share them.

For those still hoping to have some Holly in the house we are happy to create designs specifically for you. We offer wreaths, roping, garland, kissing balls, centerpieces, as well as private design consultations for your home, so please feel free to give us a call and place an order. We will also be offering some of our designs at On A Whim Antiques as well. Fresh evergreen designs will last well into the New Year if watered.

Happy Holidays!!!

I am not going to say we had a great Thanksgiving week, that would be a bit of a lie. It was however still a week full of blessings and reasons to be thankful, we just weren't as blessed as we usually are. The week started off really well with the arrival of my 2 kids who are currently attending college. With everyone back in the house there was a certain kind of peace, well maybe that is the wrong word, how about comfort.  We did happen to lose a child or two periodically to a flu bug that seemed to be in the house but we managed to fit time in together between the flower orders that were being created for Thanksgiving tables. I love the above piece that was designed for a new customer who also confirmed that she wants me to do her daughters wedding. She also confessed the girls are only in middle school. I am glad to know I have a fresh group of brides growing up every day.

We also received a request to create several bouquets for a magazine. The designs were created and given to photographer  Genevieve Leiper who got them photographed and sent in for possible print.  I was grateful to have peonies in my house the week of Thanksgiving.

We made our debut appearance on the Martha Stewart blog the Brides Guide. Our wedding can be seen here.

On Wednesday we spent time in the shop receiving the flowers for our bride Lara. We never do weddings on Thanksgiving weekend. I try to keep this weekend reserved just for family but I got really tempted with the whole look of the wedding and the vendors involved so I committed to design during the holiday weekend. Baby Grace was a huge help processing the flowers. We also did a whole lot of cooking on Wednesday to help prepare for dinner at Grandmas house.

On Thursday the new Holly Heider Chapple website launched and this was a whopper for us. It took several months of preparation to get the site ready to go live, primarily because I decided to create a new site in the height of wedding season. We will be adding additional information and weddings to the site so it will be a great way to see our most current work.

First thing Thanksgiving morning, I created this design for my moms table that was made with leftover flowers and hydrangea leaves from my garden. Favorite part of the design was absolutely the hydrangea leaves from my garden. The deep burgundy leaves were amazing and a total miracle because they had not been burnt yet by frost.

We finally made it to Grandmas house and everyone was so happy to spend time with their new baby cousin, Clayton.

Baby Grace spent a good bit of the day sleeping, playing with her cousins was exhausting. It seems I don't have any other pictures of the day because everyone was so busy eating.  In addition to the Thanksgiving festivities we had a little trip to the ER with a family member who had previously cracked a rib and the break began to throb and required a trip to the hospital. While I was as the hospital I started to feel very sick and left to go to bed. I woke in the morning feeling not quite right but I had my wedding to design so I hit the flower shop.

Upon creating this beautiful bouquet I headed to the ER. I thought I was having a major medical emergency only to find out that I was having an attack from the same virus my kids had. I thought my gall bladder, kidneys, stomach, and eyes were falling out. Please note I had 5 of my 7 kids naturally so I am not a whimp. This was a whopper.  I got treated for nausea and pain and headed home to bed because I had a wedding to deliver. I could have left this to the flower shop girls because everything was finished and beautiful but I wanted to see the job through. So I loaded up with the girls and headed to the wedding. Here are a few pictures from Sat. event.

We will hopefully see more from this wedding very soon, but I heard it was stunning.

We also got the Christmas lights up and the boys got in a little football.

If you minus out the 3 trips to the ER, the entire family having the flu, and our first Thanksgiving ever without our son Alex, Aunt Carla and Uncle Ed, you could still call this a pretty amazing Thanksgiving week. My absolute favorite part of the week was staying up late and playing games with my four big kids.

This is my whole clan and I took this picture last night just before we headed to bed and just before we said goodbye until Christmas.

What a week!!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010 has been loaded with memorable brides, and weddings. I am so pleased to finally share the images from Alison and Chris's wedding this past Spring. Alison and Chris married at the Dumbarton House in Georgetown. Many of our current weddings are being held for submission with either magazines or blogs. Saving them and not sharing them on the blog, has become a true act of patience or a certain kind of torture. Yesterday Alison and Chris were featured on the Brides Guide blog with Martha Stewart Weddings. We were so honored to make our debut appearance with Martha Stewart weddings. This wedding was a true team effort, and I was thrilled to be working with Ritzy Bee Events, Kate Headley Photography, Design Cuisine, Chris Laich and The Dumbarton House.  Thank you to all the vendors involved, it was clear when Kates first images came in, that we had created something totally awesome.

I remember every little detail about this wedding. Allison came to me with an inspiration book she had created. The designs that appealed to her were natural but elegant. Due to the fact that she was having a "dessert and dancing wedding" we wanted to keep the flowers comfortable and inviting. Allison had requested a bouquet that was made of all blue flowers. At one point I think we even talked about light blue hydrangea, but that just seemed to pale and uninspired for this very vibrant and beautiful bride, so we decided on dark blue. Allison needed something unique and very special but blue can be difficult because there are not a lot of flowers that are truly purely blue, deviating to dark purple was not an option, so she said. I intended to use dark blue hydrangea, blue hyacinthus, blue muscari, blue thistle, blue privet berry, and blue delphinium. The day before her wedding she stopped by my house to drop off a few last minute items, we kissed goodbye, and seconds later she called saying " hey, you know those purple flowers at the end of your driveway, you can use those also." Ha, that was the money shot, she was giving me permission to use my dark purple lilac, so I whacked it right from my garden seconds after she left.  When allison allowed me to use the purple lilac, I added the purple anemones, and purple monkshood. It was the purple flowers that made her blue bouquet so beautifully blue. We also used dusty miller, rosemary, and seeded euc to add a sage blue or steel blue grey to the designs.  Her bouquet was bound with a vintage handkerchief, in fact I believe I used several different pieces of vintage lace.

 In an effort to keep this unique and totally Allison's, I suggested the use of the sahara rose for the maids bouquets. I needed a lighter toned flower to give her contrast against the blue maids dresses, but I did not want to go to white flowers because that would be to expected. So I used the taupe roses called sahara with a mix of the all the blue flowers of the day, we did use a lot of thistle and dusty miller in these designs. Ribbon for the maids bouquets was purchased on a buying trip in SFO and I was thrilled with the result.

Bouts and corsages are always enhanced here, they are little mini pieces of art. The grooms bout was made with blue thistle, rosemary, viburnum berry and delphinium.

Maria of Ritzy Bee had explained that there would be a collegiate theme and that she and the bride wanted a mix of vases. The bride had gathered a full set of white trophies and a full set of blue vintage vases, and I added old pewter cups, or silver trophies to the mix. I kept the blue and white separated throughout most of the wedding. All white flowers went in white vases with pops of thistle or blue berry and all blue flowers went into the blue vintage glass. In the centerpieces we used all the flowers of the day but we also added, white ranunculus, white tulips, white stock, and white spray roses. There were also awesome buffet pieces in large silver trophy bowls.

One of my favorite pieces of the day was the design I created for the wall at the ceremony site. In true Holly Chapple fashion, I saw the empty spot and designed a piece from my "doctor bucket," In other words I used leftovers.  The piece had thistle, delphinium, monkshood, anemone, my lilac, and aggies. I remember putting in whatever was in the bucket. I loved putting that piece together, I really thought it needed to be there so I just couldn't resist.

I have been waiting months to say this, "happy married life Alison and Chris. We loved doing your wedding flowers."

This post is hard to write. Years ago, I did the flowers for a wonderful bride named Stacey; the following year I got to do the flowers for her sister, Shelley. That was in 2003 and 2004. On the porch of the mansion stood a very young and beautiful girl named Sara. She may have been 12 (okay, so she was older), but she certainly was not the marrying age. I jokingly said to her that I would be doing her wedding flowers, she smiled and said, "I am not getting married for years." I in turn said, "Yes, but I will be waiting for you." On Oct. 30th, I got to do the flowers for the third and final daughter of the Black family. When I arrived at Sara's wedding I was moved to tears. Seeing Mrs. Black and my past brides was awesome. I was incredibly honored to design the flowers for all of these girls. Nothing validates the work that you do more than a customer, or in this case a family, that returns to you. BLESSED!!!!

The picture of the bride on the left is Stacey, and the picture on the right shows Shelley on her wedding day. This was all before I even had a digital camera.

The lovely dark haired bridesmaid on the right, is now my bride Sara.

These girls are all seriously amazing, talented, and smart, and they all know what they want. Well maybe not Shelley; she left the designing up to me and her mom. But Sara had a serious vision. I have to say that in addition to the pleasure of creating for a family continuously, there also comes stress. My heart and my thoughts say: "Will it be good enough? Will it be different? Will it be as good as they remember?" You know, all of those sick thoughts an artist has. Sara was pretty adamant about her designs, and she really wanted something different–so different that she had the rest of the family slightly concerned. At one point we literally talked about an all pod and berry bouquet with no flowers.  I was more than willing to go for this, but the rest of the family really wanted to see some flowers. Luckily, Sara did fall in love with the cabbage rose Juliet and our vision became more clear.

One thing did stay consistent she wanted succulents in her bouquet. Guess what, no succulents were to be found with any of my local wholesalers; but being incredibly lucky, I happened to be in NYC the week of her wedding. I found little succulents and purchased them for Sara, and I actually brought the stems home in my suitecase, so her wedding was off to a really good start. I swear sometimes, I really feel like the flower Gods smile down on this place and bless my brides. Honestly it really feels like that!! Could there be someone watching over this place, I am starting to be sure of it!!

Giving her the bouquet was such a pleasure, and when I say the third time is the charm, I mean that literally. I was not happy with the first, or second bouquet I made for Sara; so I went to bed and slept on it. Literally in my sleep I knew what I needed to do in the morning to fix the design. The bouquet flew through my finger tips like magic, and Voilà, as Frenchy would say, we nailed it…

I used grey ostrich feathers, succulents, illsa spray roses, white majolica spray roses, quicksand roses, Juliet cabbage roses that I gathered from two sources, dusty miller, scabiosa pods, crocosmia pods, peach ranunculus, and the finishing touch was the silver brunia and tuberoses that I thought of in the middle of the night. Nice to know my mind is working even when I am sleeping like a baby…I litteraly squealed with delight when I thought to take some of the little silver brunia balls and pierce them with a corsage pin to decorate the stems of the bouquet. SO FREAKING SEXY!!!!!!!

Maids carried loose and airy wispy bouquets that designer Debbie put together. They had quicksand roses, white majolica spray roses, scabiosa pods, crocosmia pods, illsa spray roses and orange unique roses. We had true orange linens at the reception, so we needed to start getting some orange into the wedding, so we hit the maids bouquets with the orange roses.

Many thanks to Kristen Gardner for capturing this wedding so perfectly. I was so glad to have Kristen on the job.

Arrangements were designed in my wooden boxes that I bought at On A Whim Antiques,  I have used them five times already this season, and I just love them. The family made the table numbers…

Sister Stacey designed the seating chart…

and I got to design the tart station.

Huge mason jars full of pumpkins, apples, lemons, and pecans, helped to mark the flavors, as weill as little mini chalkboards. The closed sign was for those guests who were thinking of sneaking a treat to soon.

Happy married life Stacey, Shelley, and Sara, I loved doing your wedding flowers.

With true remorse I left Sara's wedding knowing my job was done with this family. For years, I really honestly knew that the Black family would be back, and I truly was waiting for Sara's wedding. Knowing that all the girls are married is bittersweet. My grandmother told me when, God shuts a door, he opens a window, and I have always believed that.  Just yesterday, a mom with six daughters showed up at my door. The meeting was absolutely crazy because we were all so excited. The conversation was flying from weddings, to big families, to art, to horses, to babies, and then yes, employment. I actually hired one of my brides right in the middle of my consult, in fact I may have actually asked all of them to help me. So tomorrow you will meet the newest member of the Holly Heider Chapple team.  I told you the flower Gods smile down on this place, and yes great things are always flying through my window.

 

 

Today we must say au revoir to our lovely Elodie.  Our little teaching session was only to last one week, but Elodie easily fit into the Chapple/ Heider family, not to mention the Holly Heider Chapple family. Since we were having so much fun, we convinced her to stay for an extra month. This extra time has given her the chance to see more of the U.S., time to study more about floral design in America, time to learn about football,  and a chance to meet all of the Chapple kids, since 2 of them are away at college. Everyone has enjoyed having this addition to the family and it has been a huge learning experience for us all. On Saturday afternoon the Holly Chapple floral team kissed and hugged miss Elodie goodbye. Saying goodbye to Frenchy is not easy for any of us.

While she was here she learned to ride horses with Aunt Heather. Many thanks to grandma and grandpa Heider for having Elodie as a house guest.

She fell in love with stink bugs ( not) and we are hoping seriously, that she does not take any back to France.

She visited the Nations Capital on several occasions.

We both loved the National Arboretum in DC.

We even went to the DC Eastern Market, which is something I have always wanted to do.

She showed us her amazing cascade bouquet technique.

She also got to do a photo shoot session with the amazing Genevieve Leiper. Check out the bouquets she made in my flower shop with leftover blossoms and garden flowers.

She learned how to make bouts and corsages here in our flower shop…

and how to adorn a bouquet the Holly way.

Those images taken by Gen. will certainly be awesome photos to add to her portfolio. We also started her a twitter account(elodies flowers) and a blog.

She went to several football games and even got to check out the gear.

She learned about halloween and pumpkin carving. In fact, she filled quite a few pumpkins with flowers.

Elodie also helped with many flower deliveries.

We also will not forget our amazing time to NYC. It's very hard to believe that our time together is over, but in France there is a little boy named Evan ( another coincidence since that is my husbands name) who is waiting for his auntie Elodie to finish his Avatar room. Elodie left in the middle of painting her nephews room, the extended stay has left Evan waiting for his new special big boy room.

Many thanks to Elodies family for sharing with us their lovely daughter, awesome sister and aunt. We will miss our Frenchy so much!! Our whole family loved her.

Safe travels my dear, I feel truly blessed to have met you!!!

 

 

 

 

 

I am headed to NYC today. I will be spending time with some of my favorite designers. I hope to find new resources and ideas for Holly Heider Chapple Flowers. Just before I packed up my computer, I recieved this note from one of my favorite ladies, Betty Franzen of Waterford Past Thymes, Betty is a floral preservationist and she has been preserving my bouquets for years. Betty is a constant friend and supporter of my business, and when I got this note from her today, I just had to share it with you all.  My note from Betty said:


Well, now you've done it!!! You are officially better than the US postal service…remember the old saying? "Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds". My revision reads "neither rain, snow, sleet, hail, 9/11, pregnancies, new babies, graduations, college trips, flower shortages and…and….FROZEN SOLID bouquets can stop Holly Chapple. Yes, we successively, were able to preserve and SAVE every single flower of the most beautiful bouquet and boutonniere, mother's corsage, and father's boutonniere…..When asked if we could do it if the flowers were in the freezer overnight, my response was "no way…flowers are ruined" then, I asked the all important question…"wait…who did your flowers?"…when she said Holly Chapple I said "bring 'em on….all things are possible with Holly flowers" Yep…saved every one!!!! CONGRATS again on a job miraculously done well!!!

I have to say I am pretty proud of the way Betty summed up my business, but the best part is, its all true!! I hope to report from NYC but if not I will share everything when I get back.

Some of you may recognize our bride Julie. Julie is a teacher in Loudoun County but she also helps us periodically with Saturday wedding deliveries. This last Sunday it was Julies turn to marry. We loved getting these very sweet and moving pictures of our bride Julie.

Julie married at the Bluemont Vineyard Stables, I love the view at this venue, it always takes my breath away.

Doesn't our flower shop/teacher bride Julie look stunning?

In addition to providing flowers for Julie and Erin on Sunday, we delivered bouquets, and loose flowers to a nearby village for a huge photo shoot. The shoot started at 6:00 a.m., which meant I was up and in the flower shop at 4:30 a.m.  We were so excited to be working on this project, and we hope to see some of our designs published in the future. The bouquets were being used as props and the feature was more about the models, and the attire, but we shall see how this all works out.  For now, we are simply thrilled that we could be of service to one of our favorite publications.

As you can see it was quite the busy weekend once again at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers. We are so pleased with all that we have been producing. We are back at the design tables, getting ready for another really fun weekend.

We are in love with this picture of our Sunday bride Erin. She gave us the big thumbs up just before she went down the aisle. I think that pretty much sums up the whole wedding. A gorgeous bride, an incredible dress, and an awesome family (her MOB is super wonderful) partnered with the historic Belmont Country Club and Holly Heider Chapple Flowers,  we had a remarkable wedding.

We decided to use copper and gold toned flowers with a subtle mix of green and blue. We were inspired by the tones of the peacock feather and because the maids were wearing stunning royal blue gowns we knew we had developed a fabulous theme and color pallet.  Our big challenge occurred when the very unique and gold toned rose called combo seemed to disappear from the flower market. I begged, borrowed, and stole, to get this rose for Erin. I have been told I can never, ever, ask for this rose again.  I of course, will beg for it again, but for now, I am really glad we were able to get this rose for Erin. Our color combination would have been very different without the combo rose.

Mother of the bride found a remarkable sheer gold – blue fabric, that was iridescent and we used that throughout the wedding. We wrapped the girls bouquets with the fabric and we also tucked in little loops of fabric into the bouquets.

I just love the bouts and corsages that were designed for this wedding.

The elevated designs featured combo roses, camel roses, blue – green hydrangea, copper colored football mums. We elevated the designs on my gold stands and we placed the peacock feathers into the designs.

Our low designs featured arrangements in vases wrapped with the amazing fabric and of course feathers.

I loved how unique and special these creations were, these pieces truly were designed just for this family.  The look felt very original, rich, and glamorous. Next best love of this wedding, was  working with Erin, and her mom. Erin's mom actually has decided to move to Virginia.  She said she was inspired by my life here in Virginia, and my hydrangea. She is leaving Florida behind, and moving here just in time for winter. I hope she still loves me when the first snow drops fall.

Happy married life Erin, we loved doing your wedding flowers.

 

We went everywhere, and we did everything! This past weekend was the biggest weekend in the history of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers.  I don't believe I will be booking a weekend like this again for a very long time! Many thanks to all of the fabulous people that made this week a success, I am guessing it took nearly 500 man hours to create this weekends events. Here is just a small glimpse of the many designs we created for our Friday, Saturday, and Sunday weddings.

Elodie just arrived from France on Tuesday, she has been helping us with flowers ever since she got off of the plane.  Today,  I am going to show her Loudoun County, and Washington DC. I am sure she is excited to get out of the flower shop.

I will end this post with an awesome image sent over by Photographer Stephanie Ascari of Cleverly Candid.

This picture says it all, we rocked big time this weekend! Time for a day off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!