I think I start almost every post by saying I LOVED this wedding. I guess that may seem a little silly, but in truth I do LOVE all of the work this studio is producing. I am honestly really proud of what we do. The wedding of Megan and Aaron is truly one of my favorite Loudoun Weddings from last year. I often open up their wedding file just because I know it will make me smile. The way that Kate Triano captured the wedding and my bouquets is truly spectacular. This wedding features flowers and designs that are truly and totally unique to our studio. The flowers used in this wedding can’t be duplicated every weekend and possibly never again. Rare strands of zinnia, and other garden flowers all bloomed in unison to create these designs. This wedding is very “Hollyish” not because it’s organic, or loose and airy, but because of the love that went into it and because of the pleasure it brought us to design it. Thanks to my fabulous garden and the gardens of Dons’ Dahlias, and Lynnvale Farm Studio, Wedding planning and design was done by my friend and colleague Megan Pollard of Events In The City, bringing Megan pretty flowers was another huge plus of the day. Lets just say I made both of my Megan’s happy and that is a great memory!!

The flowers of the day included garden roses (which were the only non local bloom) sedum, astrantia, smart weed, zinnia, dahlias, phlox, amaranthus, and greens.

I LOVE it, I LOVE it, I LOVE it, and I don’t need to say another word!!

 

Our studio is hosting a floral design workshop with Francoise Weeks this week. We have 12 wonderful and delightful students with us, all of which are amazingly talented. The designs that were created yesterday were drop dead gorgeous!!! Here are a few quick pictures of our studio in action yesterday.

After a discussion on business practices and mechanics we divided up into 3 tables of 4 designers.

We had lots of beautiful material for the designers to work with.

Including lots of unique wood pieces for the designers to play with.

My sweet daughter Abby got our lunch ready and she even did a bit of flower arranging for us.

After lunch we worked on bouquets.

We also took a quick run through the garden. I will have lots of pretty pictures to share very soon. My good friend Geneveive Leiper came to take pictures of our day!!!

It’s early Monday morning and I find myself wondering where the time is going? Our studio/family has been very busy for many years. Over the past years I was able to manage the business, spend time with the kids, blog, market the business and even garden a bit. I don’t know how this year is any different but it just seems like there is not enough time.

We have more people working here then ever before and I have less time then ever before. How did that happen? Because of this lack of time, I have missed a lot of blog posts, and I am sorry about that. I have been struggling to find words that matter, images that inspire me, and the ability to share all of the insanity that happens around here daily. I wish I could just tie a little mini camcorder on and show you the life we are living. The beauty that is made here is hard to believe. Each weekend this studio cranks out several amazing weddings. The weddings always come first and how we successfully and beautifully design each of those events is truly awe inspiring. What we accomplish is honestly remarkable. Once the weddings of the week are done, we bounce between, gardening, marketing. designing, kids, housework, and networking. We bounce from chore to chore like a ping pong ball. Evan spends nearly every day outside growing us more flowers, if he is not in the garden, he is hanging fabric or lights for one of our events. I guess the new responsibilities, of traveling, teaching, and my organization for floral designers (Chapel Designers) is partly to blame for the lack of time around here. I spend lots of time now, helping others. This is something I truly love to do but it is requiring a good bit of my time. I guess this was the time I used for blogging. I will try my best to start filling this place back up with inspiration. If any of my readers have images from their weddings they should  email those over to me!!

BTW, we still have 3 spaces in our Grow Your Business Workshop. You can find out about that event at the upcoming events link on my website. We are also gathering subscribers for newsletters and events, if you have not signed up, you can go to the home page of our website and subscribe in the bottom right corner. If you are interested in becoming a Chapel Designer you should sign up here.  If you have not checked out our new website make sure you do, as you can see, lots of fabulous information is available there.

Photograph by Anne Robert

 

Another opportunity to share!!! The next phase of my website is finally done and I am a super proud flower mama!! My web designer/past bride/ dear friend/ Rachel Merkle of Miss Merkle Design has created another way for me to connect with other designers. Please join me in gathering a Full Bouquet. Essentially what we have done, is create a hash tag wall for beautiful flowers and talented designers. Images that are tweeted or published on instagram and tagged #fullbouquet will appear on one gallery wall. This wall will be a collective mural of anyone that participates. Not only will the wall be a beautiful place of inspiration, the #wall will also show the twitter handle of the designer. This will allow brides, and hopefully even editors to see the creator of the design. Spreading the beauty of flowers and the talents of other designers has become a true passion of mine. I am so excited about this project and I can’t wait to see how this tapestry of floral designs grows. You know I am all about growing!!!!

I am off to my final day of the Engage Conference, but throughout the day I will be checking in to see how our pretty place of inspiration has grown. Become a part of something beautiful and help us gather a beautiful Full Bouquet!!! Remember share your floral design images via twitter or instagram and tag them #fullbouquet.

As you may have noticed I was missing in action last week. I was on a whirl wind tour that simply had me gone from my studio for several days. First I went to Chestertown Md. to meet with an upcoming client and then I headed to VA. Beach for some much needed time with my good friends the Chapel Designers. My trip to VA. Beach has been on the bucket list ever since I became friends with Chapel Designers Isha Foss, of Isha Foss Events, and Daevid Reed of Daevids of Norfolk. Much to my delight I found Chapel Designer, Trish Van De Merkt along the way. Our little road trip turned into quite the adventure. It was awesome to see the studios of both Isha and Daevid and my time with my friends was incredible.

One of the funnest moments was when Isha got behind the wheel of a huge box truck. Yes that girl can seriously drive!! Plus check out her pretty load. It took a box truck, a sprinter van, and several sports utility vehicles and cars to get all of Isha’s decor to her event. Isha put up over 2,000 yards of fabric for this event and seeing that install was simply mind boggling and beyond inspiring.

Trish and I spent a bit of time in the cooler last week and we loved every minute of it !!

Our time in Daevid’s studio was a bit overwhelming. I have never seen so many props and decor items. Seriously Daevid has better props then all of the decor companies in DC. His flower shop and design space takes up several floors and ranges from carousel horses to chandeliers. Oh and puppies, he has 3 sweet dogs. His cooler was also full of lots of pretty!!

Thankfully Trish and Daevid happened to be heading to Leesburg, which meant that I roped them into helping me with a secret mission photo shoot that I am doing today. Because of the big shoot, we spent all day today gathering beautiful blooms. Along the way we even found Chapel Designer Morgan of Petals and Hedges and Donna of First Dance Floral.

This is a photo of designer Morgan Walker and her delightful garden center. Many of the plants I have been planting on my property come from Morgans garden center Petals and Hedges.

After spending time with Morgan and enjoying her delicious garden center,  we headed to Green Stone Farm where we met with growers Barbara and Dennis. While there we bought buckets of beautiful blooms, we got poppies, snapdragons, ranunculus, sweet pea, eremurus, blue berries, and alium. We had a hay day at her farm!!!

This picture is of Lindsay and Barbara. Lindsay helps on the farm and does the designing for markets and CSA.

We had such a lovely time at Green Stone Farm and we were beyond excited to get home and design. But…

first we had to harvest all of the flowers at my house.

Here is the start to some of the pieces we are creating for our big photo shoot. So much has happened in the last five days I can’t even digest it all yet. One thing is for certain I sure love hanging with my Chapel Designer friends.

In addition to all of this, our studio designed an amazing wedding that was loaded in peony and viburnum from my garden. I would say the last five days have been very full. This week will also be super busy so I will be back with you as quickly as I can.

I am very excited to announce the Grow Your Wedding Business Workshop.  The session will take place at my house/flower studio for 3 days from July 22nd- 24th. I will be joined by industry leader Alicia Schwede. In addition to being a well recognized designer, Alicia is the co editor of the Flirty Fleurs Blog, and the editor of the book Bella Bouquets. During our three days together we will discuss how to grow your floral design wedding business, with tips on social media, good business practices, marketing plans and we will discuss buying and sourcing.

We will design each day using flowers from my gardens, local sources, and blooms from abroad. The final day will end with a photo shoot that will be styled by Holly, Alicia, and the students. Designers will also be given images of their work to add to their portfolio. If the shoot is picked up for publication the designers will also be given credit for their work.  All students attending the workshop will also become members of the design group called the Chapel Designers.  Once a Chapel Designer you will be offered exclusive Chapel Designer discounts, continual guidance and support from Holly on how to refinance student loans, and the option to join our design forum. Space is limited, so sign up right away. Our first workshop in June was a complete sell out!!  Whoops, I almost forgot, students will also be given a featured post about their business on the Flirty Fleurs blog. In order to qualify for this feature, designers must submit professional images of their work, and have an operating business with a website.

See you at my house!!

Sammy and Nathan married last summer at Murray Hill. This fabulous Loudoun wedding makes my heart sing. The yummy colors, the amazing local product, and the delightful couple made this wedding a gem to be a part of. The wedding images made their big debut yesterday on Wedding Chicks so today is the day I get to share them with you!! Many thanks to Julie Massie the photographer responsible for this eye candy.

Sammy’s bouquet was truly one of my favorites from last season, so much of the gorgeous product came from local grower/designer  Andrea Gagnon of Lynnvale Farm. Working with her flowers was insanely inspiring. I used yellow peony, coral peony, spray roses,viburnum berry, poppy pods, poppy flowers, ninebark foliage, and clematis vine

This wedding was simply beautiful!!!

Photographer: Julie Massie
Event Designer & Flowers: Holly Chapple Flowers
Venue: Murray Hill
Hair & Makeup: Gloria Harding of Tranquility Spa
Cake & Caterer: It’s a Peace of Cake
DJ: Dominion DJs
Groom’s Attire: Tommy Hilfiger
Shoe Designer: Lucchese Boot Co.
Stationery: Allegra Print & Imaging
Prop or Furniture Rentals: Select Event Rentals
Cinematography: Dylan Haddock | Dress Designer: Priscilla of Boston

This is gonna be fun!!! As many of you know I am the founder of a floral design network that consists of incredibly talented and stylish floral and event designers, we are the Chapel Designers. Today we are playing one of our favorite games where we host a progressive blog post!! This means at the end of this post I will provide a list of links to other inspiring designs created by some of my favorite Chapel Designers.  Today’s progressive blog post is all about bouquets. The designs in this post were created by me for a local bridal show. Thankfully I had the pieces professionally photographed. The dear Anne Robert captured all of these outrageously beautiful images.

My first bouquet was created with succulents and air ferns. Many of the succulents were gathered in California when I was teaching there.  The design was created in an armature that I learned to make in Europe. The wire structure certainly helped to support the weight of the succulents, making my design super sexy and fun.

This design featured white mini calla lily. black privet berry, white agapanthus, white anemone, and an insanely gorgeous ribbon that Martha Stewart Weddings featured several years ago.

This exotic design features king protea, black beauty roses, wanted roses, silver brunia, and dusty miller. Once again amazing ribbon from our favorite source in NYC.

White and emerald, this bouquet was inspired by the pantone color of the year emerald green. Once again when I pulled this ribbon from the shelf in NYC the store said “the offices of Martha Stewart bought that very ribbon last week. My picker is good!!!

This bouquet features my favorite yellow cabbage rose “yellow campanella” yellow tara roses, yellow ranunculus, and yellow mimosa flowers. Ribbon was from Hyman Handler the ribbon store I keep chanting about.

Now check out the work of my amazing friends, the very best friends a flower girl can have!!

Alluring Blooms: http://alluringblooms.com/chapelbouquet/.html

Celebration Florals:  http://bit.ly/11Bc48t

Gertie Maes: http://www.gertiemaes.com/blog/

Soiree Floral: http://blog.soireefloral.com/

Colonial House: http://colonialhouseofflowers.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/bouquets/

Stacy K Floral: http://www.stacykfloral.com/blog2/?p=4489

Wild Bunch Studio: http://wildbunchstudio.blogspot.com

Passionflower: http://www.passionflowerevents.com/main/blog.jsp

Alicia Jayne Florals:  http://aliciajayneflorals.com/blog/?p=162

Goodness-Gracious! Florals: http://tulipiere.com/2013/04/29/46/

Urban Petals: http://myurbanpetals.wordpress.com/?p=3233

FloressenceFlowers: http://floressenceflowers.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-favorite-bridal-bouquets.html

On Butterfly Wings:  http://onbutterflywingsblog.com/?p=356

Fleur:ology : http://fleurologydesign.com/?p=721

Posh Floral Designs: http://poshfloral.com/memory-monday-favorite-bouquets

Francoise Weeks: http://francoiseweeks.com/2013/04/bouquets-2/

Exquisite Designs http://www.exqdesigns.com/blog/?p=2225

Sherwood Design and Events: http://www.sherwooddesignandevents.com/a-few-of-our-favorite-bouquets-and-meet-our-friends/

Courtenay Lambert Florals, Weddings, and Events: http://courtenaylambert.blogspot.com/2013/04/bouquets-with-chapel-designers.html

Affair With George: http://www.affairwithgeorge.com.au/blog/?p=80

 

Over the last few months I have had the pleasure of designing or teaching with roses from Alexandra Farms. I wanted to highlight this company because they are providing incredible product to many of our local wholesalers. Make sure you ask for roses grown at Alexandra Farms and certainly read about the company here. The bouquet above was created by me at the Florabundance Design Days workshop, it features Caramel Antike roses and Mariatheresia garden roses. The bouquet was photographed by photographer Geneveive Leiper.

Here I am teaching in California and you can bet I was mighty happy to be standing in a sea of roses from Alexandra Farms.

I taught the students how I wire roses for headpieces and for my bouquets. I have a secret little trick!!!

Designer Kate Minelian of Kaleco Design

Designer Davida Buggs of Ladybuggs

Designer Tricia Jones

Our gorgeous table scape was designed with vintage props from Tricia Fountaine.

Another bouquet I created featured red piano cabbage roses.

Please join me in welcoming designer Francoise Weeks to Virginia. Francoise and I will be hosting a wedding workshop here in Leesburg Virginia. The date has been set for June 17th and 18th, and will be held most likely at our studio. We will study design from 9am to 4pm. Lunch will be provided. Francoise will show us her woodland bouquet and I will create a Hollyish bouquet. Later in the day we will work on the hairpieces that Francoise and I are known for. Throughout the day students are welcome to ask Francoise and I questions about running our wedding studios. On our second day we will discuss centerpiece ideas and we will work on creating a woodlands centerpiece.

All students that attend will be considered Chapel Designers. Yep, that is right, this very intensive wedding workshop will allow you to become a Chapel Designer. Tickets to the workshop can be obtained on the sidebar of this blog or on the upcoming events page of my website which can be found here.

I hope to see you in Virginia!!!