We had the pleasure of designing Becky and Sal's wedding flowers this past weekend at the Thomas Birkby House.  Designer Debbie, Sam and a crew of worker bees hit the Thomas Birkby House,while Jessie and I handled our DC bride.  We are clearly going to need to buy another camera if we keep this up.  The photographs I have to share are a mix of several different cameras, and unfortunately we did not get photos of everything. Hopefully you will get an idea of how perfectly we decorated the Birkby. In fact, this may have been one of our most beautiful yet.

We created a large arrangement that was placed under the arbor. This piece doubled as the buffet piece. Tuskies handled all of the catering and did an amazing job.

We created 6 white carnation pomanders. These hung from shepherds hooks to decorate the aisle. We also sprinkled petals all the way down the aisle, next to the chairs and under the kissing balls.

We decorated this wagon with roses and ribbon. This was used to bring down the flower girl.

The tent looked absolutely decadent. We did a total of 12 elevated designs. 6 pieces were airy and wispy and 6 designs were a tight clean mound of hot pink hydrangea.  We elevated the pieces on my new Clarinet vases. These vessels are show stoppers.

We used hot pink roses, medium pink roses, pink coxcomb, green mums, green hydrangea, green hanging amaranthus, green carnations, pink larkspur, and pink orchids to create the taller designs. The tight ball designs were created with over 20 stems of pink hydrangea. In fact, we tinted the hydrangea to get it that dark bright pink. We also used pink roses, green spider mums, green hydrangea and coxcomb in these designs with the same hanging amaranthus.

After I finished in DC, I came by to see my bride and groom.  I was able to get these photographs of everyone enjoying the night. This was a fabulous wedding, and I look forward to getting more photographs from the day.

 

We truly had another remarkable weekend at Holly Chapple Flowers Ltd.  Wait until you see what we do this weekend. We are headed for another unbelievable weekend.

Holly

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of helping Kelly and Ethan with their wedding flowers.  Kelly had a girl friend that had read about us, Holly Chapple Flowers, in Daily Candy DC. We were so honored to make this trip into the city. Kelly's wedding took place at the fabulous Fairmont Hotel in DC.  Evan and I actually spent our 20th wedding anniversary in this amazing hotel.  Everything about the Fairmont is perfect for a DC destination wedding.

The Hotel surrounds an amazing courtyard. The Colonnade room is one of the main ballrooms for events. Its walls of glass overlook this beautiful garden. The hotel is within walking distance of Georgetown, offering out of town guests lots to see and do during the weekend's festivities. Everything about the Fairmont is a magical fit for a wedding. This is an extraordinary hotel, in an extraordinary city, with extraordinary service. We worked with the Director of Catering, Bob Mikolitch, on this event. Bob is one more extraordinary point for the Fairmont. I loved working with him and his whole staff. Honestly, I do think you can judge a venue or any business by their employees. Happy faces abound everywhere at the Fairmont.

 

Kelly carried a bouquet of Black Magic Roses, red Freedom Roses, Black Baccara Roses and deep red Dahlia's from my local grower, Don.  We created bouquets of all white mini calla lily for the maids. We added a collar of Dusty Miller to add a hint of the silver to the bouquets. Silver was our accent color for the day.

Here is Designer Jessie, laying the aisle runner. We honestly avoid this task whenever possible; I am terrified of someone falling on a runner. But placing them indoors and on carpet is far less dangerous and actually does add a lot to the finished look of the ceremony. Just so you know, I crawled along the floor with Jessie to lay the runner.

We tied clusters of red roses and carnations on to the rows reserved for family. We placed several of the centerpieces on a table at the ceremony to create an altar. This eliminated the need for large altar pieces. In truth, I think the effect was totally stunning.

We used silver wire mixed in with the Callas to continue our silver accents. We also used thin silver thread to tie each red bouquet together. Kelly's mom made this lovely silver runner.

The Colonnade room has a beautiful pergola in the center of the room.  Ceremonies often take place in this space. After the ceremony, this becomes the dance floor. On this particular event, we needed to stay until after the ceremony. The centerpieces needed to be placed, and the runner needed to be removed.  As we left the ballroom to wait, we found these sweet little doves. 

After the ceremony everyone met in the courtyard for the releasing of the doves.

I am literally hiding behind a bush to get these shots. Kelly had given me permission to take any photographs that I could while we waited throughout the day. I really got lucky with these pictures. I was so close to the activity that I could not get the groom in the photo as well.

After Kelly and Ethan released their doves, others flew from the box to circle the courtyard. The white blur in the next picture is another of the flock taking flight.

I loved seeing this part of the day. You can tell from the photographs that the guests enjoyed this treat as well.

Here is a really sweet photo of the flower girl just before we moved the flowers onto the tables.

The guest tables either had a high centerpiece of white callas or a low of three very rich centerpieces. We did clusters of red dahlia's, red roses and red carnations. The effect was very dramatic.

This piece was for the place card table. The red dahlias are just fabulous.

 

In fact, we need to give yet another extraordinary point to the Fairmont for the wedding cake. This incredible wedding cake was baked by their in house pastry chef, Karen. She was so proud of her work. I knew instantly upon seeing the cake that she had copied the detail from Kelly's wedding dress. 

I guess that is the end of this wedding post, or the icing on a very perfect cake.  Happy married life, Kelly and Ethan. I was honored to work on your wedding.

Holly

I really do not want to brag, but I just can't seem to help myself. We kicked you know what today. We straddled Virginia and DC today, with a total of 3 weddings and one very awesome party. I will have lots to post over the next few days. It is killing me not to create one very large post that goes on forever.  I will restrain myself and start very slowly with our birthday party flowers. We loved these designs. They were created with green Hydrangea, blue Delphinium, orange Spray Roses, green button Mums, Don's orange Dahlia's and Thistle.

To make our designs extra sexy we added a brown vine that we are in love with.  The vine is called Angel vine. We have been through one huge box already, with 2 more on the way. We inserted the vine into the pieces to add a little something unexpected.

The customer for this order is the Volunteer Coordinator for Loudoun Interfaith Relief  She found our flowers last spring at their annual charity function.  I have been donating flowers to Loudoun Interfaith every spring. I love being involved in something so meaningful. Loudoun Interfaith is an amazing organization, this family and business fully believes in community service.  I am so honored I got to create these very unique designs. The party took place in the wine cellar at Tuskies in Leesburg.  

 

These pieces certainly got us off to a great start. I loved them, In fact I loved the whole day. I am very happy, thrilled and elated. We did incredible work today.

Holly

My bride Christina, just sent over these wonderful pictures of her wedding day. The reception took place at the Thomas Birkby House in downtown Leesburg.

I love providing mini Dendrobium Orchids for the brides hair. The size of the individual Orchids, make it perfect for this use. We give the bride multiple little blossoms, and then let her decide how many to use. This is fun for the hair stylist as well. One very large blossom seems to not work as well. When brides like the look of just one large flower, they can cluster all of the little blossoms together. This is the perfect way to keep the proportions correct from bride to bride, hair style to hair style. Every brides hairdo is different.

For brides who would like to use the maids bouquets as centerpieces, these pictures show how perfectly the bouquets can double as centerpieces. Bouquets that will become centerpieces must be substantial in size. The bride used her bouquet as well for the sweetheart table.

I loved the look of this wedding, and I loved this bride.

Holly

I am so excited to have this wedding to share with you.  It was incredibly kind of  Steve Canning Photography  to get me these captured moments so quickly. I forgot the camera last weekend. The photography is simply beautiful.  I love the images and how perfectly he captured this very remarkable couple.  Our wedding took place at a church in Arlington, with a reception at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.  Please enjoy these lovely pictures. These photographs are a great example of some the fall designs at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers Ltd.

We will have lots to report this week. We have a bounty of beautiful blossoms to design.

Holly

Baby Grace has her first day on the job at Heiders Country Store.  My children having been helping grandpa for years at the store. I thought we would break Grace in early.

I neglected to take the camera to our wedding on Saturday. This of course, is a real bummer. Lucky for me it also happened to be a wedding that the Washington Post was covering. It looks like we will get to see the wedding pictures after all.
The rest of the weekend was about Lucketts. I went down to Heiders Country Farm Market early yesterday morning to help my dad and daughter Abby get ready for the fair traffic. In all of the years my dad has been there with his store I never have had any time to help. I am always busy running my own life, business and family.
It is amazing to me the work the farmer goes through to get his product ready for sale. I often think I have the most tedious job, but dad wins hands down.  Each morning every single basket of fruit and vegetables has to be sorted through, making certain all is perfect for sale. Once that task is complete you can start to make new baskets of produce. My father spends countless hours in the garden at the age of 72. I think that is remarkable.

Abby, my daughter, baked almost 100 pies this weekend.

After my tiny bit of volunteering, I went home and got the rest of the family. We headed to the Lucketts Fair for the petting zoo, rock wall, ice cream and crafts.

It was nice to have a little family time. This week is the beginning of the major wedding rush. Wait until you see what we have coming up over the next few weeks.
Holly

This is our brides bouquet.

Roses, cleaned and ready to be added to the bouquets.

The centerpieces.

Don's dahlias in the cooler.

These are the altar pieces for today's wedding. Below you can see the centerpieces just chilling in the cooler.

We have only one wedding today. With the extra time on our hands yesterday, we went shopping. We found beautiful pitchers, lanterns, glass and garden items. We were very successful. I have just a few photo's from our trip.

Please visit our little spot at On A Whim Antiques this weekend. Our space is full of beautiful things. It is also the weekend of the Lucketts fair.

 

Holly

I wanted to share with you the professional images from one of our June weddings. The photographs were taken by Jennifer Anderson Photography. I loved her work and how she captured the beauty of the day.  The wedding took place at Hillsborough Vinyard.  I have also posted two lovely letters from my bride. These letters mean the world to me and keep me pushing petals. Make sure you read the second letter she sent me at the bottom of the post.

Holly,

Thank you so much for going above and beyond to make my wedding a special occasion. The flowers looked SO beautiful. I'm going to try to take my bouquet on the honeymoon with me because I can't bear to part with it.

You managed to give me, and my mom, exactly what we both wanted- no small task. I can't thank you enough!

Sincerely,

Amy

 

For several little girls that were not officially a part of the wedding party, we created small bracelets and Barrett's of flowers. These were created to match their gowns. This is a fabulous way to keep all the little girls happy.

Thanks, Holly

Also, speaking of a great honeymoon, I thought you might get a kick out of this: I couldn't bear to throw out my bridal bouquet, so I took it on the honeymoon with us. When we checked in at the airport, the customer service rep asked us if the flowers were from a special occasion; after we told her it was from our wedding, she upgraded us to first class for the flight! I ended up tossing my bouquet into the Aegean Sea before we left Mykonos, Greece.

Again, it was fabulous to work with you!

Sincerely,

Amy 

We at Holly Heider Chapple flowers are loving these letters from Amy.

This is my Zinnia patch. Every year, Evan plants me lots of Zinnia's. They are one of my favorite flowers. The more you cut them the more they grow. In fact, one variety is even called Cut-And-Come-Again.  Anyone can arrange Zinnia's. Every color just magically works together.

We planted the seeds later than usual this year, so this was my first plentiful harvest of the year.

I love these flowers so much. I will actually take the time to arrange these flowers–just for me.  I think they look best in old mason jars and antique vases. These are fun Holly Chapple designs.

Here are some photo's of baby Grace. We have fun around here at everyone's expense. Grace is top prop for now.

 

Grace also made a trip down to On A Whim Antiques. She is already planning her big girl room. The store is loaded with unbelievable finds. Everyone in Lucketts is getting ready for the Lucketts Fair. You should come see all this little town has to offer this weekend.

Donna Troxler, owner of On A Whim Antiques, paid Grace with lots of hugs and kisses for her modeling.

 

Hope to see you at the Lucketts Fair!

Holly

Jane's wedding was this past Saturday. She had a beautiful church wedding with a reception at the Belmont Country Club. The Belmont Country Club features an extraordinary ballroom that is an addition to a true Louduon County Estate Home. Actually at one time the owners of the Belmont Estate owned the Hope Diamond.

 

The delivery process starts by getting all of the bouquets ready for travel. The bouquets are brought from the cooler. We dry off each bouquet and re cut the stems. We then box up each bouquet in tissue.

Jane was an incredibly kind, and very relaxed bride. So much so that she allowed me to photograph those last moments just before she went down the aisle. I had just finished laying out all of the bouquets, bouts and corsages. I wanted to say hello before I went on to the reception. I just could not leave. It was so much fun to watch her maids buzz around her. Everyone was helping her with makeup, and jewelry.  I actually am really proud of some of these images and hope she will treasure them like I do.

 

I loved this photograph. This was the first flower Jane saw of the day. I think I did an incredible job catching this moment between mother and daughter.

The flower girls were waiting patiently for the bride. I think they were ready to do their job. They loved their bouquets.

 

When I say Jane was relaxed, what I really mean is she gave me creative license to design. She chose me to do the flowers months ago, but then totally relaxed and almost disappeared.  Two weeks before the wedding we had a serious consultation and planned the whole look. She wanted pink and green. For a while we were calling her "Hypericum Bride". That was the one flower we were certain of from our first meeting.  Now I think of her as "Something Unexpected Bride".  What we discovered in that second consultation was that she wanted unusual blossoms textures and even a little twist on the typical pink and green color combo. She asked that I give her something unexpected. We added a touch of burgundy into the designs and I went crazy, with local grown product as well. Of course I went to Don for Dahlia's. I also used red and green hanging Amaranthus and Coxcomb from local growers. We used pink berry from my yard, green and pink Hypericum, Nerine Lily, and Roses.  I honestly loved the look of this wedding. We were all so proud of the work. 

 

We watched the girls head towards the altar, and we then headed to the Belmont.

 

One of the great things about the Belmont is they allow the guests to have cocktail hour in the Historic part of the Country Club. This is a space that is beautifully decorated with period antiques. This gives the Belmont so much more charm, than the standard country club. 

We had a total of 22 tables. The ballroom is quite large with plenty of room for dancing and fun. The house also has beautiful rooms for the bride and groom to get ready in, as well as a lovely site for outdoor weddings. Cocktails can also be served on the upper terrace.

The two centerpiece styles.

 

The cake was made by my good friend Rocio Diaz from a Piece of Cake. This lady is truly awesome. Her cakes are made completely by scratch. She has been baking since she was a child. Her mother and Grandmother and Great Grandmother all were cake bakers. She uses some of their recipes today.  You will love Rocio. We always have fun working together.

We also had the pleasure of working with Gina for the first time. Gina is a day of event planner. Gina is married to the owner of  Dream Day DJ's.

Jane thank you for allowing me to be a part of your wedding. This job was so much fun !!!

Happy Married Life Jane.

Holly