I want to give a big, huge shout out to designer Jessica. She created these boutonnieres last week for a photo shoot.  I was totally impressed with her creativity. Look at the detail in these pieces. She actually took twigs and glued them together to create a little platform for her floral art. I am so proud of you Jessie; I loved your boutonnieres.

This next boutonniere is truly stunning as well. Jessie added twig, berry and a touch of moss to this piece.

Way to go Jessica; perhaps we should go into the boutonniere business. I think we could have a lot of fun making these with dried elements. I would love to start creating these with family heirlooms, perhaps buttons, pins, jewelry. My mind is reeling with the possibilities.

A+++++ Jessie.

Thank you,

Holly

Here are the wedding photos from Rebecca and Chris. I am excited to share these with you. The wedding took place this spring at the George Washington Hotel in Winchester. I worked with some of my favorite vendors: event planner Lisa Schulz from the Posh Planner and photography by the fabulous married duo the Regeti's.  Here are the results of all of our hard work.

 

The flowers of the day were the pink peony and pink roses. With the maids pale blue dresses, the effect was stunning. We loved this wedding. The children were completely adorable and a huge part of the day.

 

The flowers girls carried smaller versions of the maids bouquets. I love this option for the flower girl. If you are having a church wedding petals are out.

 

Speaking of churches, this was a great set up. The church was in downtown Winchester within walking distance of the hotel. Which gave the Regetis's lots of fun photo opportunities.

 

My bride chose to carry a cascading bouquet. Actually she was the first of several girls to carry cascade this year. Is this style of bouquet making a comeback?  We used white Cymbidium orchids, sophie pink roses, spray roses, variegated ornamental grasses and the developing buds of my Nandina bush.  Now I remember why I don't have any red berries on my bush right now.

 

We created very lush and full designs of peonies and roses with cream hydrangea for our low centerpieces. I found these glass compote bowls and have been in love with them ever since.

 

My bride wanted tall branches with crystals. We used manzanita with willow. We tinted the branches with a hint of silver to match the rest of the decor. She used silver accents throughout the wedding.

 

We actually wired or glued the mini orchids onto the branches. This wedding was a lot of fun. We will be returning to the George Washington in December for another wedding, and we look forward to working in this historic hotel again.

Happy married life Rebecca and Chris; we loved your wedding.

Holly

This summer I had the pleasure of doing bouquets for Ursula's wedding. Ursula married at the Patowmack Farm Restaurant  just down the road from my house. She had a small intimate wedding, and I loved the feel of her special day.  Gorgeous dress, fine dining and a small gathering of friends and family.  These images are from the professional photographer, Brandi from Modern Toile Photography. Although this was one of the smallest weddings I did this year, the results are one of my favorites. Ursula had 12 guests at her wedding and everything was simply magical.

 

We created a bouquet for Ursula of antique blue hydrangea, cream vendela roses and white mini calla lily. We made the bouquet slightly smaller than usual and we loved the effect.

 

I let Ursula borrow this really sweet blue pitcher that I got at Marshall's of all places. We used that on the dinner table to hold the bouquet, and then we created two smaller designs in white creamers that we also picked up at Marshall's.

 

In these designs we picked up more color with the antiquing hydrangea in several shades, the same vendela roses, and we also added orange tulips in deeper peach pink tones and some yellow. I really love the way this looks.

If I remember the story correctly Ursula was going to skip the whole wedding and just snag her man at a civil ceremony. Her friends convinced her to do this smaller scale wedding. I love this alternative for those who do not want the big wedding. You still get the awesome dress, flowers, a fabulous evening, wonderful memories and, of course, the hubby. I really think this is a fun option.

Thanks for letting us be a part of your wedding. Happy married life Ursula.

Holly

 

Our baby lion Grace. 

 

Hope you have a great Halloween. We actually do not have any spooky weddings, so we get the weekend off. Check out our last blog post for our very fun Halloween designs. Now for some mommy time. 

Here is a cute shot from two years ago. Abby will die when she sees this.

 

Love this picture also. The boys have really grown.

Holly

This week we worked on Halloween designs. To get these fabulous designs created we started with a lot of paint. Here is how we began.

 

We took all of the elements outside that we wanted to enhance. We painted berries and mosses black. We painted twigs and branches silver.

 

I went on a back road run and got these hedge apples. They look like brains, and I love them for this holiday.  They actually are used in many different types of designs, but painted in Halloween colors, they are super fun.

 

We also painted fresh mini pumpkins and gourds black. This particular large pumpkin is plastic so that it would hold water for several days without the funky smell of wet pumpkin. We used regular 99 cent paint from the Walmart for these elements.

We started by putting our florist foam in the pumpkin. The florist foam is called Oasi;, you get this nice and wet before you start. We added the silver twigs and branches next, then we used willow and Manzanita branches. We then did a layer of the black painted moss with silver highlights to hide some of the foam or Oasis, and then we began adding the flowers. We used dark black baccara roses, deep purple black callas, and chocolate brown sunflowers that we enhanced with black Just For Flowers paint.  Guess what: that paint is just for fresh flowers. It is a lot more expensive so we used it only on the flowers. 

 

The larger designs were for buffets. We made mini designs for the food tables and coffee tables. 

 

This was a great project and we LOVED the way these pieces turned out. Happy Halloween.

Holly

 

Amy and Chris's wedding had it all, and it was a pleasure to work on this very decadent event. The wedding was at Breaux Vineyard, and the event planners were the girls from Events In The City. I totally loved all of the vendors on this job.

Amy was all about rich vibrant tones. We used bronzes, coppers, deep purples and orange. Feathers, twigs, vines, and crystals were elements used throughout the event. The bridal bouquet actually had feathers flying out of the design. The maids each had rhinestone buckles attached to the stems. So glamorous!!!

Every table was elaborately decorated with elements that Amy and Chris found. They used lanterns and bird cages to enhance my elevated gold and iron stands. They bought jewels to hang from the centerpieces. Amy even found little lamps, and she literally cut the cords off, so that they could become a part of the decor.

Every place setting had a beautiful peacock feather and a small little travel log tucked into the napkins. Amy and Chris spend much of their time working and traveling abroad. Travel became a huge part of their theme.

 

Guests could fill up these lovely little gift bags with the sweets of their choice.

We hung lanterns down the aisle; after the ceremony they were added to the table decor.

The wedding happened to take place outside in spite of some very rainy weather.  Once the storms had passed, the sky became amazing.

 

Guests could leave cards for the bride and groom who are planning to fly away on a trip around the world. I can't wait to show you the real images from this wedding.

Happy married life Amy and Chris. We loved your wedding.

Holly

I have been working with Dharma and her mother for many months. Her wedding's passing is one of those bittersweet moments I mentioned last week. In this industry we work so hard for so long to bring an event to life. It is often painful when it all comes to a finish. Of course, it is all in how you look at it. Let's just say it is the start of a really wonderful life for Dharma and Andy. 

So many things about this wedding were appealing from a design stand point. I loved the color combination of brown, orange and green. I loved the natural elements used like moss, twigs and barks. The setting was a huge red barn at Sunset Hills Vineyard in Loudoun County. I also got to work with some amazing vendors. Maria Cooke from Ritzy Bee Events and Maria Vicencio photography. For now the images I am sharing are a gift to us from the bride's sister, Surya. Surya also happens to be a photographer in Colorado Springs, CO.  Surya lives and works there with her husband and two children. Mostly I loved my bride and her mom, and it is with some sadness I give you Dharma's pictures. 

 

Don pulled off one last miracle for me this year by providing just enough Dahlia's to do Dharma's wedding. Thank goodness for a light frost. Thank goodness for Don. This was the first time we got to use dahlias in the bride's hair. Don grows these amazing little beauties that are perfect for this type of delicate work.

 

I made this really sweet floral crown for our flower girl. Every blossom is individually taped onto the headband. I am not going to admit publicly how long this piece took to make. Let's just say the other designers were wondering if I was ever going to finish.

 

The bridal bouquet was created of primarily Don's Dahlias. I have never actually used this many dahlias in a bouquet. We used large and small dahlias, and getting them all in place proved to be a little difficult.

 

We tied these vine balls onto the chairs to mark family seating. We tucked orange roses and moss into the vine.

 

We designed these arrangements that I absolutely loved.  We lined the vase with green moss and did a mass of all orange flowers: orange dahlias, ranunculus, orchids, coxcomb, roses, and tulips that represented the family members from Holland. We mixed in brown angel vine and collared the bouquet with green hanging amaranthus.

 

The rest of the pictures in this post were taken by me. Sorry about that, but we still have Maria Vicencio's photographs to look forward to.

 

This was my favorite part of the bouquet. I was given the paternal grandmother's lace and buttons to bind the bouquet. I just loved the final look of this. It was so cool that some of the buttons were brown.

 

I loved these images of the centerpieces all lined up and ready to be placed.

 

The maids bouquets were clusters of all green with a collar of the brown vine. 

 

This photo shows the detail in the flower head band. Lots of little tiny blossoms.

 

Today I got to see Dharma's mom. I caught the tears in her eyes as we talked about the wedding. Tears of happiness, of relief, and, of course, some sadness. Bittersweet.  When I started in this business, I was the age of most of my brides. I rarely thought about the mothers and how they must feel to watch their baby walk down the aisle. Today I am as close to the mothers age as I am to the brides. I am so sympathetic to the mothers now; I can only imagine what it must feel like to help your daughter prepare for her wedding.

Happy married life Dharma; we loved your wedding.

Holly

I am off to DC because I have two photo shoots today, so I will be out and about.

I have fabulous weddings to share with you, but I am afraid I am going to have to keep you waiting. Here is a little sneak peek of Dharma's wedding. I have lovely photos from her big day, sent to me by her sister, Surya. I look forward to sharing these soon.  

Holly

We had lots of fun today, and I am going to have even more fun with this post. I am going to hide flowers from one of my blog followers. Dharma is getting married tomorrow, and I want to keep her wedding flowers a secret so here is Dharma's bouquet.

 

In fact, I am going to hide most of Dharma's flowers, so that she does not spoil her wedding day. I will give her one sneak preview, just because I cant be totally mean. Look at this beautiful floral headband we made for Dharma's flower girl.

 

That should keep you happy until we arrive with your flowers.

To add to our fun, I roped these poor groomsmen into modeling our bouquets. I am certain when they were asked to pick up the flowers today, they never expected this to happen. I am glad they were willing to play along. This may be our most memorable flower shoot. I am sure they will always remember the wild flower lady. I am so glad that I have the courage to be silly. These bouquets belonged to my bride Khan, and her wedding was today at Whitehall.  Here is a photo of the maids bouquets up close.

 

We love the touch of navy blue. 

This is Khan's bridal bouquet.

 

We used circus roses, orange unique roses, milva roses, crocosmia, orange orchids and a few of Don's dahlias. Khan was absolutely adorable, and I can't wait to see her photos.  We also created mason jars full of flowers for her big day.

 

Feathers and really rich tones are the leading elements for Amy's wedding.

 

We love this deep purple scabiosa. So sexy.

 

We also created this beautiful halo for this lovely young lady. 10 years ago I did the wedding flowers for her mommy, Arlee. Now I am doing the flowers for Arlee's sister, Erica.

 

We also have a very dramatic all deep red wedding with silver and platinum highlights. The bridal bouquet is all white.

 

Happy great day; we are finished.  In the last 24 hours, I made 32 bouquets, and I love them all. Thanks to my flower shop girls we get to call it an early day. One last great image of our future designer Grace.

 

Holly

 

To start the day off with a big huge laugh, designer Carrie showed us how she would combat the other designers' coughs and sneezes. This has been quite a week. We are pressing onward and of course kicking _ _ _.

Holly