This was most certainly a bittersweet day. Today was the last day that our friend Dahlia Don will be able to bring us his precious beauties. I want to be happy. We at least got this one last delivery; however, not seeing his smiling face and those glorious blossoms is going to be a real bummer. We have been praying that we would get his dahlias this weekend for one special bride, and we were so lucky. He actually suffered a 90 percent loss of his crop with the first real frost.  We will have to say goodbye to so many of our local treats. I should be happy as we move to a slightly slower season, and yet I am also very sad. We will be completing a lot of work this week that I have looked forward to for a long time. My back is sore, I am completely exhausted and I had a beautiful baby 8 months ago that I hardly can remember having. With all that said, I still will be sorry to see this week pass.  What we have pulled off this week is nothing short of a miracle. We managed to get the last of the dahlias for Dharma and Amy.

Carrie helped me reorganize my office so that I could begin to get through the sea of emails and paperwork that waits for me when this weekend is finished.

 

Here is my new desk that we got at On A Whim Antiques. This weekend the store has a huge sale that benefits breast cancer. You should definitely stop by if you have a little spot you need to freshen up.

 

We received this incredible thank you that gave us the courage to start this work week. We have several designers out with colds, so we have been facing mountains.

 

We prepared bouquets for a photo shoot with Genevieve Leiper Photography. 

 

We have battled the flu, sinus infections, and all other lovely forms of illness. Every one of my kids is sick, and that is a lot of sick children. And God love my flower shop girls; they have come to work and created amazing things in spite of my children and their runny noses. We celebrated designer Debbie's birthday today. No restful day off for her; we worked until late into the night. We have already delivered our first event, and we are ready for our first wedding. Here are some of the lovely things resting in the cooler.

 

I know you are peeking Dharma!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Holly

 

 

I am so excited to be able to share these professional images from Regeti's photography. This was Sarah's wedding this past September. If you would like more details about this wedding look under the weddings category on this blog. For now, just enjoy these really beautiful photographs. We loved the slight hint of teal blue in these flowers. We used a few tricks of the trade to pull everything together. The antique green hydrangea imparts a teal blue hue, and we tinted a few of the green flowers with blue paint making a cast of teal on the flowers.  We loved this wedding and we love the Regetis.

 

Don't you love it too!!!!!

Holly

This post is going to be a little sad for me, as I don't have a lot of images to share. We had two other weddings last Saturday that we just adored, but we were unable to get many images. Those weddings are every bit as important to us, but often when flowers are picked up or a church is involved, we miss the photo opportunities.

The above bridal bouquet belongs to our bride Alicia. We absolutely loved her bouquet and its very classic elegance. She carried a bouquet of all cream vendela roses, sahara roses, and champagne roses. We bound the bouquet in cream satin ribbon.

Alicia's maids carried bouquets of all vendela roses.

 

We loved these bouquets and the flowers we delivered to the church.

 

Everything was delivered to the church long before the wedding party arrived and then we headed to Rivercreek Country Club to set up our centerpieces. We created 13 very beautiful and rich centerpieces of black magic roses, red roses, and carnations. We were unable to get photographs of those designs.  It was an honor to work with Alicia on her wedding, and we hope to get pictures from her very soon. This is the second wedding I have done for this family. That is also another huge form of praise.

 

This bouquet belonged to Angela. We loved the cream and white combination of vendela roses, white callas which have a very cream cast, white phlox, white freesia and bright green hydrangea. Angela chose all red bouquets for her maids, and she requested that the ribbon be left long on her bouquet and the maid of honors. This was a fun way to make those two bouquets more special.

 

We also made mini bouquets for the mothers, plus all of the boutonnieres and corsages.

 

Angela's wedding coordinator Jamie Fisher picked up all of the flowers and delivered them to the reception. Jamie is owner of RSVP International Events; we always have a great time working together.

 

This piece was created for Designer Debbie's neighbor who needed a little pick me up. We loved making this piece for our friend Normie.

 

Last week was a great week, and we did four really beautiful weddings. We managed to balance kids and brides and turn out beautiful flowers. We are looking forward to this week and all of the designs we will create. Flowers will begin arriving shortly, and we are very excited. I have some very special brides this weekend. 

Here is one last photo I had to share. Sam was caught playing with our corsage tape. He would certainly make one really cute boutonniere.

Happy married life to my brides Angela and Alicia. We loved being a part of your wedding.

Holly

 

Jessica chose warm rich tones for her wedding, and they were a perfect match for the weather. Everything was so lush and hearty that it was hard to notice it was raining. We used deep black magic roses, hot pink roses, burnt orange tones, antique green hydrangea, hypericum berry and lots of magnolia leaves.

 

The maids bouquets matched the bridal bouquet, but we used only miniature roses in their bouquets. This was a great way to make the bridal more dramatic.

We boxed up all of the bouquets and wrapped them with tissue paper to protect them from the rain. The flowers of course could handle a little mist, but we did not want to get water marks on the ribbon.

 

The wedding took place at Hillsborough Vineyard, which truly boasts some of the best views in Loudoun. The historic stone house and barn are a great example of the rich Loudoun heritage. The barn was converted into the tasting room and wedding reception space. It all overlooks the amazing view I mentioned. We arrived to a rolling fire and a very festive feel. I love working at this vineyard, I am a sucker for a family owned and operated business. I love seeing the owner and his wife working with the guests. Catering was provided by Karen Harper Fuog and she does an amazing job. In fact, she catered for one of my sister's weddings years ago.

 

Place cards were set up on the gorgeous bar, and miniature arrangements of the day were set out as well.

 

What I loved most about this wedding was the use of silver trophy bowls. The silver was used in honor of the groom's mother. All centerpieces were created in her beautiful sterling silver trophies from her riding days. Some of the trophies were won at the top horse shows in the country.  This was a very sentimental way to pay tribute to the groom's mother. The silver, in addition to being symbolic, added just the right touch of elegance to the event. We used large trophy bowls, silver pitchers and even silver mint julep cups.

 

Judy Thompson Of Classic Strings was warming up as we placed the centerpieces. The music was truly amazing and added to the glowing warmth.

 

The cake was also made by Karen; I loved how it was presented on this wine barrel. I was able to use inches of the magnolia under the cake and really feature this favorite greenery for the bride.

 

The buffet piece was absolutely stunning and in the largest trophy bowl of all. They also added silver candlesticks and a fabulous red hunt country fabric runner.

 

I know everyone always wants a sunny wedding day, but there was a lot to be said for that crackling fire. The wedding had such an incredibly romantic feel, and I am certain the warmth was not just from the fire. I am so glad we got to be a part of the day, and I loved every detail. 

Happy married life Jessica. We loved your wedding.

Holly

 

We loved, loved, loved, this wedding!!!!

Friday was Lauren's wedding day. I knew this would be a beautiful wedding, but in truth I did feel a bit of sadness or worry for my bride and her family.  Northern Virginia was hit with days of unseasonable weather, with very cold temperatures and lots of rain.  I don't know why I allowed myself to worry; I guess it is just pre-wedding jitters, but there were several things that simply could not affect the overall feel of this event.

Number one, my bride and her family were amazing. They were the sunshine on Friday night. They were filled with a warmth that radiated throughout the beautiful historic Whitehall. 

Second saving grace was that the wedding was at Whitehall. In truth every wedding is incredible at Whitehall, but the rainy weddings may just be the best. Here is why: Whitehall has an incredible rain back up plan. The ceremony takes place in front of an antique glass arched window. The architects and owners of Whitehall planned for these types of days by adding a sky light above the ceremony site. This light adds a natural warmth and glow to the ceremony even on rainy days. I guess one other important thing to mention is the floral decor created for the wedding makes a much bigger impact when it is inside.  The overall look for this wedding was stunning, and I was certain that the sun was shinning down on all of us. I could feel the warmth.

 

My beautiful bride.  We created  her bouquet with pee gee hydrangea, white hydrangea, queen annes lace, sahara roses, vendela roses, spray roses, champagne roses, white freesia and ivory feathers. This was such a romantic bouquet. 

 

We added the family rosary around the handle of the bouquet. This is such a lovely option for adding a family heirloom to the bouquet.

 

We made mini bouquets for the moms.

 

The maids bouquets!!!

 

We created this very sweet purse or flower basket for the flower girl.

 

The grooms boutonniere had feathers to match his bride.

 

Corsages were created of roses and freesia.

 

Lauren's mom was a blog follower, so when she came to me there were some pieces she just knew she had to have. Our carnation ball was one of her favorites.  We used this for the guest book table.

 

We decorated the mantel with greens and the pee gee hydrangea.

 

We used garland that was created for the arbor on the railing around the cake and in the big wedding window. This was a great use of garland that was supposed to be displayed outdoors.

 

We used half of the elevated centerpieces to make the ceremony extraordinary; we lined the window with the garland from the arbor and placed loose blossoms through the window. That is what you call and incredible back up plan.

 

The low centerpieces were created in glass cylinders lined with green sheet moss. We used the pee gee hydrangea and all the roses of the day. The pee gee hydrangea was the perfect addition to these rose shades.  I am so glad I got to use pee gee hydrangea this weekend. In fact, having them this weekend makes me remember that they are one of my favorites and that we love pee gee hydrangea. Especially in this antique stage of development.

 

Now for the fun stuff; this family thought of everything. Whitehall then added all of the perfect finishing touches.

 

The family made signature drinks for all of the guests and tied each one with ribbon.

 

They set up this really cute candy bar with old family photographs. This is in the original dining room in the historic part of the house, so it is fun tosee this space so thoughtfully used.

 

They had the M&M's stamped with a picture of their dog, which is a great alternative to bringing your four-legged friend to the wedding.  The flip side of the candy was a picture of the bride and groom.

 

They seated guests by tables that featured particular years in the bride and groom's life. Each table had a picture showing  them during their earlier years. 

 

To top it all off the MOB actually baked the wedding cake. After years of doing events, I truly do believe it is all of these personal touches that make an event spectacular.

 

I always love to go back to the kitchen at Whitehall to leave some garnish blossoms behind. The staff has come to expect that I will bring them some floral treats. Ryan is the head chef at a Whitehall wedding. In all of the years that he was been working for Celebrations Caterers or Whitehall manor, I have only caught him on vacation once, and that was in January. Ryan is another fabulous plus to a Whitehall wedding, along with the super, sexy, gourmet kitchen. A real kitchen just makes me happy. The kitchen at Whitehall is a chef's dream come true, and I would love to be able to cook dinner up for my crew in that space: spotless, perfection.

 

As you can tell I had a lot of fun on this event. As always I was very proud of the work we did, and I loved our designs. My bride and her mom were so happy that they actually teared up when they saw the flowers. To top that off they gave me a huge round of applause when I came to say goodbye and wish them a happy wedding.

Happy Married life Lauren. We loved your wedding and your mom.

Holly

Wow!!!! I have so much on my mind, and so many great things I want to share. First off, if you think it is cold here in Virginia today, check out my new flower girl friend Alicia Schwede in Colorado. She is joining us tonight "In The Cooler." Alicia owns Bella Fiore Events. Amazingly enough we are doing some of the same colors tomorrow.  Alicia is one of the many talented designers I have found on Twitter. You can follow us both on twitter. Look for me under "chappleflowers."  Please dive into her blog and see some of her unbelievable creations. I have so enjoyed following her this summer.  Colorado weddings are slowly coming to a chilly halt, and this is a fairly small weekend for her. Please look beyond this post for inspiration. Thank you so much Alicia for joining me tonight "In The Cooler," and good luck tomorrow on your wedding. I will be thinking of you.

 

Here Debbie and I are studying the dimensions on bird cages. Our bride Amy purchased these for her wedding, and we needed to see them before we could order the flowers. We spent hours getting the flowers ordered for next week. We are watching the weather and trying to prepare for the beginning of the change in seasons. So much of what we do depends on mother nature. I have checked with Don from Don's Dahlias and for now all of our precious dahlia's are happy. Everyone do the no frost dance for my bride Dharma. We really want Dahlias.

We also had really exciting news today. Our flowers were on Snippet and Ink; check out this blog post that included our bridal shower centerpieces. We got to help our friend Maria Cooke from Ritzy Bee. The shower was for Maria's sister. 

Here is what is "In the cooler" and some of the happenings in the shop or house today. I am also sharing one really fun shot of my bride Lauren. We delivered her wedding flowers tonight, but I am saving the photographs for Monday. 

 

A basket completely made of flowers for Lauren's wedding today.

 

Maids bouquets.

 

Incredible centerpieces for Lauren.

 

My oldest baby Alex is home for the weekend from Virginia Tech. Here he is loving on our youngest baby, Miss Grace. They are 22 years apart. Even though they are mine I still find it hard to believe. I love having him home.

 

I also love this hydrangea. 

 

Oh, so cute Sam. You just gotta love him.

 

Love my Hannah also.

 

And Miss Lauren loved her bouquet so much she was doing a little happy dance. I will share those pictures on Monday. It is time for bed. We have lots to do tomorrow, and the girls have their homecoming dance also. It will be a busy flower day and a busy mommy day. 

Holly

This bouquet belonged to Adrienne. This bride was just awesome. In spite of the fact that she looks like a girly-girl, or in other words she is gorgeous, her career takes her into some very dangerous places. Adrienne is a game warden for the County of Loudoun.  I hope to have pictures of her very soon, but for now here are her flowers.  Her sweet dad picked up all of the flowers the morning of the wedding. This is a great way to save money on labor and delivery.

The bridal bouquet was created with Don's Dahlia's, red orchids, orange orchids, orange calla lily, bronze football mums, black magic roses and estelle roses; this is the first picture in this post.

 

The maids bouquet started with the same bronze football mums, roses, berry and orchids. This was one of my favorite fall bouquets of the year. The simplicity of the design has an awesome outcome.

 

We created the centerpieces in my favorite stone urn. I love this container for every season. Adrienne allowed us to create each centerpiece different, so we had lots of fun with that. There were 13 pieces in total.

 

My next bride was Amelia; as you can see we had a power packed day last Sunday. Amelia also sent her dad to do the flower pick up. The dads last weekend were so wonderful. To keep Amelia on budget we did several wonderful things. First the family picked up and saved on labor, second we used all carnations. I am so thrilled with the way everything looked. Even though Amelia was on a budget, she had 9 bridesmaids. That can get very costly, so we created tight clean balls of white carnations for each maid. We provided glass vases for each maids bouquet and they doubled as centerpieces. We made the exact same design in pink for the other 11 tables. There is nothing budget looking about this wedding; in fact, it is just to die for.

 

The bridal bouquet was a sweet and elegant design of candy bianca roses and 20 stems of light pink spray roses. Her wedding was simply charming.

As promised my last wedding took me back to Whitehall. We ended the weekend the same way we started, with a blue and orange wedding at Whitehall.

 

This was Faye's wedding. We created her bouquet of green hydrangea that had a slight tint of blue. We used orange dahlias, orange roses, orange orchids, orange freesia, and orange spray roses. I loved Faye's vision and was so happy to bring this fabulous wedding together for her. 

We used lots of blue delphinium in the maids bouquets, and we made mini bouquets for the mothers.

 

The cake was created by Amphora Bakery. Look how cute this is…

 

The centerpieces also showed off all the bright, beautiful colors of the day.

 

The ceremony was on the front lawn of the beautiful Whitehall Manor. The house was the backdrop for the service.

 

This incredible arrangement was made by designer Sam. The piece served as altar piece and then became the buffet piece for dinner.  Once again, I am in awe with Don's incredible Dahlias. We are still doing the no frost dance in hopes that we will have them next weekend.

As you can see last weekend was a very large weekend for us. I am always amazed and impressed with the way that we handle things around here. I often take for granted what we accomplish both as a business and a family.  There are those days though when I realize what we are doing is pretty remarkable. So just as I give the last information about last weekend's wedding, we are preparing for this weekend's brides. We start out with a lovely wedding on Friday for Lauren at none other than Whitehall Mansion.

Happy married life, Adrienne, Amelia and Faye.

Holly

 

It is common place in the flower shop to have the little Chapples visit. This can be a really fun thing and sometimes a very stressful thing. The babies, as we call the three youngest, are allowed to come over to the flower shop and hang out. My flower shop girls are amazingly patient and kind about this and help endlessly with keeping them safe, occupied or out of the flowers. These are duties beyond what would be expected in a normal flower shop. Perhaps you have guessed there is nothing normal or simple about anything that we do here. I am sure being kind and patient with the babies should not be part of the job requirement, but it has become a big part of what we all do to make this work: "It takes a Village" is very true in this family and home-based business. 

Today was one of those unbelievable parent days; we of course have a huge work load ahead of us. Elijah, the four year old, had a mega melt down: a completely out of control, inconsolable, freak out. Dear Mrs. Dill who is one of my upcoming MOB's happened to come by at just the right time to witness the scene. In truth, knowing that she is a great mom and a kid expert, I allowed her to see the situation. I thought seeing someone new would help Elijah come out of his temper tantrum coma. Much to my surprise, Mrs. Dill suggested she could read to Elijah. Now, really, can you believe this? Just so it is very clear, I am no where near Wonder-Mom, and we have some really tough days. Taking help when it is offered is a must. Much to my surprise Elijah wanted very much to go read with Mrs. Dill. I offered to read to Elijah myself, for a good 20 minutes, but he was not interested.

Honestly maybe some super professional would have ran and hid so their customer did not see the melt down. Perhaps I am crazy, but I believe in fate, and if Mrs. Dill was willing to help, it was for a reason. Dear Mrs. Dill sat down in the big red chair and actually read to my child. Is this amazing or what? She is my client's mom, and she is helping me tend to my kids. It worked too; in probably 10 minutes she had him to sleep, and she was on her way. I am always learning every day to take help when it is offered, and I'm not afraid to show the world that every day is not a bed of roses.  You can also bet when her daughter walks down the aisle I won't be holding back on any of my precious petals.  Thank you Mrs. Dill. You loved my baby today, and I am going to love yours right back with my beautiful flowers. Bad day turned great. Love it. Here is a long overdue thank you to all of the people that help me raise this amazing group of kids. 

Holly

Lauren was my bride this past Saturday at Whitehall Manor in Bluemont, VA.  Her wedding delivery took place just one hour after Coryn's wedding at Rivercreek. We had an amazing weekend, and we were allowed to play with many different types, styles and colors this past weekend. Changing from full fall flowers with Coryn to these soft subtle shades within the same day was a lot of fun.

 

The bridal bouquet was created with two full stems of white cymbidium orchids, and 25 mini white callas.  The cymbidium orchid usually has 8 to 12 blossoms per stem, and we normally use 3 to 5 in a bouquet, so this was a very unique bouquet.

 

The maids carried bouquets of all peach calla lilies. This particular calla is just amazing; I love the color and the size. It is a very unique blossom.

 

We created gardenia corsages for the moms to pin on to there purses. This is a really great option instead of wearing the corsage.

 

We decorated the mantels and banisters with greens and blossoms. This is a very simple way to bring color and flowers into a home.

 

The centerpieces were a mix of tall pilsner vases filled with calla lilies and low vases with 5 stems of submerged orchids and floating candles. The look was clean and beautiful.

 

We designed arrangements of white lily, mums, larkspur and snapdragons for the arbor.

 

We decorated the aisle with petals and left with big smiles on our faces. This was another wonderful event in the history of Holly Chapple Flowers. The flower girls and I really had an amazing weekend. We have three more weddings to show you, so we will work to get those up for viewing.  Lauren, thanks for letting us be a part of your wedding. Please have a happy married life.

Holly

We created full, fall designs for Coryn this past Saturday at the Rivercreek Country Club. I love working at this venue; it has amazing views of the Potomac River.

 

The bridal bouquet was created with burgundy red dahlias, burgundy coxcomb, black beauty roses, local antique green hydrangea, green cymbidium orchids, and white phlox.

 

Maids carried the same green hydrangea and black beauty roses.  We added circus roses, hypericum berry in green, and red, with yellow billy balls.

 

We made mini bouquets, for the mothers.

 

The mini bouquet is a personal favorite of mine. I think the mothers look so elegant.

 

We created an extraordinary wreath for the ceremony, which took place inside in front of the fireplace. We added potted mums and ivy to the hearth. I love using potted plants at a ceremony.  I always imagine the flowers blooming years later and a bride remembering them from her wedding day.

 

The centerpieces were a mix of square glass vases and designs that offered candlelight.

 

We used circus roses, red orchids, black magic roses, hydrangea, hypericum berry, and solidago in these designs.

 

The cake was created by Lynn Wheatley of Too Nice To Slice.

This was a beautiful wedding, and we are so glad we got to help. I love the elements we used to create Coryn's flowers.  Have a happy married life Coryn; we loved working with you.

Holly