Hehehe, lucky, lucky, me. I had the best day today. I feel so fortunate and blessed. My day started with a phone call from one of my favorite customers. When I saw on caller ID that it was Ann, I immediately began making excuses for not hosting my yearly open house. Ann and her family have been coming out to my place for holiday decor for the last couple of years. Ann actually spent one of her birthdays with me (I will not tell you which one) because her husband sent her for a flower arranging class as a birthday present. Ann quickly told me she reads the blog regularly and knew that Open House would be held at On A Whim. She was really calling to let me know that someone in the neighborhood was cutting down a huge magnolia tree, and that they were throwing away the branches. She wanted to let me know that she had salvaged branches for me. It blows my mind that my customers actually are looking out for me. It makes me believe and think that I am doing something incredibly right as I operate this business. So this is how it works: I got a ton of magnolia and Ann got a big fat Christmas arrangement for her dining room table. One other cool part of the story was this: as Ann and I discussed the tree and how sad we were that it was cut down, we realized that the person who originally planted the tree is a teacher at Elijah's preschool. So, I will take her a big fat arrangement as well, just because she grew that tree all those years ago.

The rest of the day was a whirl wind; flower shop girls Jessie and Debbie worked on holiday decor. We had to start filling orders for holiday arrangements. Since we are not doing Open House this year, we need to keep our space at On A Whim antiques full of centerpieces. We have been selling designs like crazy at my little space. I guess word is spreading that I will not be holding my typical holiday open house and that my designs will be at On A Whim. We also had a huge order to decorate a client's home today. In the midst of the designing I was busy trying  to get paperwork, scheduling, and photo shoots under control.  We will be doing wedding flowers this week, holiday decor, and corporate holiday events.  Things could get a little confusing as we change from fresh flowers to evergreens, so it will require keeping ornaments and flowers in separate spaces–not to mention the glitter.  

Over the phone today I also met a fabulous photographer from Pennsylvania named Joelle Watt. I simply fell in love with this young woman and mother. I was inspired by her creativity, faith, and passion. You must take a look at her website and blog. She is so talented; I have to sing huge praise to Twitter because someone linked to her blog, and that is how I found my new friend. 

Next  I had an amazing conversation with floral designer Nicole Iverson from Swankstems. She is based in California, and she is also a new friend I found on twitter. With her encouragement I booked myself a little trip to California. In all of my years of design, I have never had any formal training. I am going to learn new ideas and concepts and hear from some of the top designers and event planners in the country.  I am excited about this opportunity for growth. 

We also want to wish Debbie's mother in North Carolina a speedy recovery. The flower shop girls are praying for you. We love you Miss North Carolina.

So now here are todays killer designs:

 

Now that was a full day at the Full Bouquet.

Holly

 

 

I  wanted to share some more images from the Anthenaeum photo shoot. Kate took so many awesome pictures it was impossible to put them all in one post. These are some of my favorite close-ups of the flowers. The bouquet above was created of white stock, pale yellow spray roses, scabiosa pods, white freesia, white dahlias, mint, and white roses.

 

To create this wreath I took a grape vine form and wrapped it in moss. I added plumosa grass, magnolia, and seeded eucalyptus. I inserted blossoms of dahlia, ranunculus and brazilia berry to complete the design.

 

Seating cards were hung on the brick wall.

 

This design was created with orchid dahlias from my friend Don. Don grows Dahlias just a few miles from my house.  This piece also had magnolia, gooseneck loosestrife, scabiosa pods, privet berry, roses, brazilia, queen annes lace, and hypericum berry. I love the rich texture and color in this design.

 

I designed this piece on a white cake stand. I loved the contrast of the stand and the flowers. We used a rose called combo in this design, mint, yellow spray roses, green sweet william, dahlias, queen annes lace, privet and magnolia.

Incredible  boutonnieres.

 

Kate also snapped this great shot of a bouquet that was on its way to another location. This bouquet was created with dusty miller, crimson dahlias, privet berry, dark purple scabiosa, double white freesia, and fiddle head fern. This bouquet was simply delicious.

Thanks to all who worked on this event. 

 

Location: The Athenaeum

Flowers:  Holly Chapple 

Hair: Abbey Castellano, Parlour Salon

Paper (+ model):  Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper 

Photography: Kate Headley

Styling: Maria at Ritzy Bee Events 

Styling: Kelly Seizert, Design Cuisine 

 

 

 

This article was featured in Loudoun Magazine in the 2008 Holiday issue. I thought it would be helpful for you to have these step by step directions as we approach this holiday season. I loved working on this story last year. These pictures also remind me of how very pregnant I was last winter. Miss baby Grace is 10 months old today.

Holly

It is Thanksgiving Eve, and I have just about finished my part of the big T-day dinner. I was thinking back over the last year, and I realized that I started my blog this weekend a year ago. For the last year I have been sharing the joys, pleasures, victories and successes of this family and business. On a few occasions I may have even shared fears, concerns, mistakes or stresses.  Through all of this, I have found that the blog allows me a chance to record all of the happenings in Chapple Land. The blog pushes me to be creative, to actually practice my trade. Before blogging I would have never thought of doing flower photo shoots or making designs just for the sake of being creative.  Now when I think I would really like to have a centerpiece for myself or for my Thanksgiving table I also think, "Hey this could be a great photo opportunity," which in turn causes me to give myself the gift of flowers.  The blog has inspired so many fabulous designs, relationships and opportunities; not to mention a house Full of Bouquets.  This has been a true labor of love. Many thanks to those  who have encouraged me to continue.

I am in love with my Thanksgiving centerpiece because it was not only for me but for you; I really thought about how I could make it cool.  I used absolutely no flowers and that was really fun. Debbie brought in these little dainty Spirea branches from her garden, and I was dying to use some of them for this piece. I used persimmons, kumquats, boxwood, seeded eucalyptus, pineapple sage, bear grass, pheasant feathers and bear grass. It may be one of my all time favorites.

 

When I am in the flower shop designing, I am typically drinking coffee and talking on the phone. Hannah caught me in action today while I was filling the Thanksgiving orders.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Make yourself a big fat centerpiece and enjoy the beauty around you.

Holly

 

Just for fun!!! Genevieve Leiper Photography and Holly Heider Chapple Flowers worked together to create these dazzling images. Perhaps you saw them featured on the Brides Cafe. Creating just for the sake of creation is flipping amazing. Now we both have these awesome images to add to our portfolios.

 

This bouquet was designed with black magic roses, green hydrangea, green orchids, yellow billy balls, jester amaranthus, crocosmia, deep purple scabiosa, orange mokara orchids, coxcomb, hypericum berry and pheasant feathers. I know that sounds like a foreign language to you, but to me it sounds like music. I love each one of these blossoms for their individuality. Each element brings a different color and texture. I loved this bouquets: loved, loved, loved it.

 

This shoot was done on the historic grounds of Morven Park. This venue is truly amazing and is a photographer's dream.  For the second part of the shoot we headed over to Fabbioli Cellars. We took these shots right in the vines. It was just a few weeks before harvest so the grapes are ripe and match the flowers. Lucky us we nailed this shoot as well.

 

This bouquet was created with vanda orchids, green hydrangea, bells of ireland, green cymbidium orchids, purple scabiosa and ornamental grasses. In both of these shoots we wired mini orchids for the brides hair. Killer!!!!

 

This shot should be on the cover of a magazine.

 

I am so glad we worked on this, it was truly awesome. If you have a killer dress and want to play, let me know–I am really getting into this.  A huge thanks to the bride and model Stephanie Fuller and make up artists Victoria Stiles.

Holly

If you follow this blog, you know we are totally in love with weddings. We also happen to do corporate events as well. In fact we love these almost as much. On a corp. event we are given more creative freedom; it is a lot of fun to work on these events. Many of my past brides also remember me when it is time to handle functions or holiday decor at their places of employment. It is the highest honor when one of our past clients returns for more Holly Heider Chapple creations.

 

On this particular event we did flowers on the mantel and at the podium. I was given the linen color, and then the rest was up to me. We were totally allowed to create, create, create. 

 

I used my new favorite rose called combo, cream hydrangea, antique green hydrangea, seeded eucalyptus, scabiosa pods, fiddle head ferns, twigs and ornamental grasses from my garden. The room was stunning.  We love working with this client, and we are so glad we are asked back each fall.

Think about Holly Heider Chapple Flowers when you are planning a corp. event.

Holly

We have been very busy creating centerpieces for the holidays. Our evergreen arrangements are now being offered at On A Whim antiques in Lucketts, VA.  We have designed pieces that are perfect for Thanksgiving, as well as the Christmas season. Many of the designs are very natural and primitive in nature and speak more of winter than the typical holiday type of decor.

I love evergreen designs because they will last through the holiday season into the New Year. We use pine cones, pods, berries, ornaments, twigs, feathers and ribbon to make the pieces unique. We omit the use of fresh flowers so that you can enjoy the designs for many weeks.

 

I also have awesome antique furnishing in my little space at On A Whim. We are also offering other decorating elements for the holidays.

 

On A Whim has multiple dealers, so each space is completely a reflection of that designer. You will be thrilled with all of the choices in this store.

 

Come visit On A Whim Antiques, and you will love every square inch of this wonderful store.

Holly

Guess what's "in the cooler?" Evergreens! This week we began the process of preparing for the holiday season. We do not have any weddings this weekend, so it was the perfect time to dig out all of our holiday decor elements. We have boxes of gold pine cones, natural cones, berries, pods, fruit, twigs and ornaments, all of which needed to come out of storage. Next we began harvesting the evergreens from my property. I have blue spruce, white pine, boxwood, yew bush and cedar. I also cut fraiser fir from our first Christmas tree  that we planted 22 years ago. 

Once we got everything organized, we started making designs to take down to On A Whim antiques store. We thought it would be a good idea to get a jump on the holiday season.  We still have some really special weddings this season, so we wanted to get ahead. Here are shots from our space at  On A Whim antiques store in Lucketts, VA. I will be providing designs at my booth throughout the holiday season.  These first pieces are very natural in design and would be perfect for the Thanksgiving table as well. Evergreen designs last well into the New Year, so they are really a great long-lasting purchase. We also filled the space with beautiful antiques.

 

The tree is loaded with ornaments for sale.

 

Come pick up some Holly Heider Chapple Flowers designs at On A Whim.

Holly

 

The Athenaeum is the home of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association–it's a gallery and a fantastic social space for events and weddings located in Alexandria, Virginia.  We created this "wedding" photoshoot for them so that they would have some images to show their space off.  Here is a list of the team that  pulled this all together; imagine what we could do with your real wedding:

Location: The Athenaeum

Flowers:  Holly Chapple 

Hair: Abbey Castellano, Parlour Salon

Paper (+ model):  Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper 

Photography: Kate Headley

Styling: Maria at Ritzy Bee Events 

Styling: Kelly Seizert, Design Cuisine

 
I loved being a part of this photoshoot. I used so many interesting textures and blossoms to create these designs. Fabulous people, fabulous flowers: that equals a really great day.

 

The bridal bouquet was created with privet berry, hypericum berry, combo roses, white freesia, white gooseneck, Queen Anne's lace, green sweet william, mini dahlias from Don, seeded eucalyptus, spray roses, brazilia berry and a collar of magnolia leaves.

 

The centerpiece was designed on a white cake plate. I love the bright white of the stand against the flowers.

This was a really fun event.  The girls that worked on this shoot are just awesome and everything we do seems to be perfect. I could spend every day creating events just like this. I loved this.

Holly

 Tiffany and Danny had an amazing reception. The lavish centerpieces and the decor throughout the property of the The Thomas Birkby House was truly perfect. Every little detail was seen to on this event, and so the finished look is truly incredible. Danny and Tiffany personally made all of the tissue flowers hanging from the tent ceiling. Actually, I think some family members and friends may have come over for a paper party.

Guests were given a time-line of the day during the ceremony.

 

To ensure that the food and service throughout the night was flawless; they hired Windows Catering.

 

Signature drinks were served.

 

We used hundreds of cabbage roses on this wedding and countless stems of hydrangea and spray roses. The color and fullness of the centerpieces was one of favorite parts of the wedding.

 

I love this picture of Danny and his groomsmen. 

 

The candy bar offered many different sweet options.

 

Guests danced late into the evening.

 

Again many thanks to Chris and Adrienne Scott photography for sharing these images. This wedding is just so lovely to have a glimpse of .

Danny and Tiffany, it was such a pleasure to be a part of your wedding. Happy married life, and we loved your wedding.

Holly