Sending Smiles ~

Whether you love them or hate them there is no denying they make a strong statement. Take these Blue Dyed Vendela roses. They come directly through the Dutch Flower Market and are quite shockingly blue . Imagine them combined with other flowers.... And then there you have it. Our bride Cathryn wanted these Blue Roses combined with medium sized dark centered sunflowers and this was the outcome. You have to admit this bouquet is memorable!  Would you consider this combination for your own wedding bouquet? We'd love for you to tell us! 

Nothing makes us happier than when brides share their wedding flowers with us. Not only do we get to view our flowers in action but it's a special treat to see the bride and groom on their special day.  As you can see from the stunning photo below our bride Katie and her handsome husband had the perfect Spring Day for their wedding at the Lambertville Inn this past May. Katie and Michael both dazzled and their flowers complimented them beautifully, wouldn't you agree.   My favorite part of this wedding were their sweet centerpieces. Created using lavender roses, waxflowers, freesia and lilacs, they literally smelled like heaven. The new ballroom at the Lambertville Inn was the perfect setting for this simple but elegant floral design.  The view from the new ballroom was amazing ~ with the river and trees, the guests must have really been in awe of the setting.   To see these and other floral designs created by Monday Morning Flowers be sure to v...

Ranunculus, one of the most asked for flowers by our brides , these soft ruffled blooms made great a great addition to hand tied bouquets. This week has us using these amazing pink ones in our design work and they are so beautiful, wouldn't you agree?  The Meaning and Symbolism of Ranunculus Native to Asia and celebrated for their medicinal properties as well as their amazing bright beauty, the small camellia like ranunculus ranges from white to pink, red to yellow to orange. Also known as Buttercut and Coyotes eyes, legend has it that the mythological Coyote was tossing eyes up in the air and then catching them when an Eagle flew by and snatched them up. Unable to see, Coyote created eyes from a Buttercup.  Flowers make amazing gifts for Summer Birthday, Get Well or just to say "Thinking of You". To see more of our floral designs be sure to visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com  or call us today! 

First off, a super big thank you to all my staff who did an amazing job this Weekend arranging and setting up 4 weddings and multiple other events. Fall is certainly on it's way and this weekends events were a combination of late summer tones and early fall ones with shades of pinks and peaches once again.  Anna's a bouquet was a natural blend of country style blooms such as a Queen Anne's lace, berries, gumphria, millet and eucalyptus along with elegant blooms such as ranunculus, tea roses, bouvardia, dahlias and freesia. I especially love the burlap ribbon treatment on the stems. Her bouquet smelled and looked amazing in person!   Moving on to Heidi's bridal bouquet - hot raspberry pinks, greens and white in the form of roses, orchids, mini callas and ranuculus along with accents of rhinestone spray for a touch of bling.   Moving on to Taotao's bridal bouquet in all shades of peach from light into dark using roses and mini callas.   Moving on...

Finally, wedding season is around the corner and kicking off the season is Rhiannon's pretty, vintage and wine inspired wedding bouquet. Hydrangea with pops of baby's breath, statice and Picasso mini calla lilies will be the perfect accompaniment to her bridal gown.  Do you like this bouquet? We'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Are you surprised that we have so many December weddings? We're not, we love December, January and February weddings, especially when they have a winter theme. White and silver is so popular right now and I'm seeing lots of couples using silver and gray as an accent into 2013. High on the lists seems to be gray and silver brides maids dresses, accents of silvery beads in the bridal gown, gray tuxes and even silver shoes and jewelry.  Yesterdays bridal bouquet for Lesley was styled using ivory roses, white mini calla lilies, ranunculus, stephanotis and touches of lacy dusty miller foliage. Isn't it lovely?  The brides maids carried simple bouquets of ivory roses with touches of dusty miller. Lesley wanted her Maid of Honor's bouquet to be a bit different than the rest of the brides maids so we added touches of deep blue delphinium and silver craspedia along with roses, mini calla lilies and the dusty miller. I personally love silver with blue and I can only ima...

This weekend's weddings seem to sum of the weather. On one hand, it's October 6th and the nights have started to get cool and the leaves are starting to drop here near our shop in Princeton Forrestal Village. Summer is definitely over and so our wedding designs for bride Dawn reflect the traditional fall feel of the season. Her bouquet was made using rich red roses along with a variety called Circus, which is a yellow and red bi-color. Along with the roses we have mango mini calla lilies, seeded eucalyptus, burgundy berries, Tango pincushion protea and very cool uhule fiddle ferns. She loved it!!  Now talking about weather, although the calendar says fall, the temperatures say summer, hitting highs in the low 80's so our next bride Kristie's bouquet reflect the feel of the day. Her bouquet was made using yellow fever few buttons, yellow and pink ranunculus, white mini daisies, garden roses, buplurium and gardenias. Gardenia's are special to Kristie and keep ...

My last blog showed the bouquets we made for bride Kate's brides maids to carry, so I thought I'd follow up with a quick blog and photo of Kate's Wedding Bouquet. A combination of red tea and garden roses, carnations and also red ranunculus, the bouquet is multi textured and shaded. I can only imagine how pretty this is going to look held up against her wedding gown.  Have you seen our new wedding website ? If not, you should hop on over and take note that we now have photos broken down into color themes and season ! The new layout makes it much easier to search for flowers that you need! Let us know what you think about our new website ! 

Decisions, decisions... planning a wedding is not an easy task not to mention expensive. With many weddings ceremonies today happening at the same place as the reception, many couples forget to include (or leave) money in their budget for flowers and ceremony decor.  Although it's nice to decorate a church or synagogue, I find they need a bit less done to them to transform them into a wedding location. In the case of Jackie and Donovan's wedding this past Septmeber, we concentrated the decorations to the pews and did not try to add anything to an already beautiful altar. I think the hydrangea and ribbon accents on the pews showed that something special was about to happen. The brides color palate of simple creams and ivory helped tone down the colors already present in the church and not compete with them. We also chose not to put the flowers on every pew. Every third one was decorated and helped draw your eye down to the altar without costing a fortune. ...

It's not a secret around here that we do weddings, we love to do weddings and we do lots of them. So as you can imagine we were super happy to win both the Wedding Wire Brides Choice Award and to be a Knot Best of Wedding Pick for 2012 again this year. Both awards are chosen because couples liked our flowers and our service. We could not be more proud! People often ask if we make a lot of money doing weddings and the answer I always give is: not really, but it is our claim to fame. It's our time to really shine, to show what we can do. We love flowers and we love arranging them but weddings are special. You only get that one chance, that one day, to make the flowers perfect. Tons and tons of effort and time go into pulling off a wedding for a bride and groom and so although not one of the more profitable parts of our business, it certainly is the most gratifying. We think our flowers add something special to the day and we hope they are remem...

Don't you just love Hydrangeas? I know I do. As soon as I meet with a bride and she mentions blues or purples, these gorgeous flowers pop right to mind. Full and lush, they make gorgeous bouquets, centerpieces and look lovely tied to the end of a pew with a simple fabric ribbon. This photo taken at Longwood Gardens just this past week (by yours truly, of course) really shows not only the depth of color but also the variety of color from bloom to bloom. As shown here, these are all mostly on the same plant of the same variety. If you are looking for a perfect match and to have the blossoms all the exact same shade, hydrangeas might not be for you. I personally think that the randomness of the color is exactly what makes these flowers so gorgeous. Haven't considered hydrangea for your wedding? Perhaps I have changed your mind? :o)

We had the honor last week of providing flowers for the Nassau Inn photo shoot. The Nassau Inn is located in the heart of the downtown Princeton shopping district. If you've never been there, it truly is a treat! It's always challenging to design arrangements that not only show off the location (which is the whole idea of the photo shoot to begin with) but also not be overly seasonal. Right now we are in the throws of fall flowers but folks viewing these pictures could be doing so in Spring, Summer or even in the dead of Winter. Our color theme for the shoot were rich reds, pinks and purples. Purple has been a hot wedding color for the later part of 2010 and appears to be going strong right into 2011. Red and pink are always classic so put the three together and WOW!! Drama!! Look at this lovely shot of the Palmer Room. One of my personal favorites at the Inn because it's elegant but cozy. This room also has lovely daytime light but when the sun goes down, the glow comes ...

Susan's Bouquet , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . Yesterday I had a potential bride call me and ask why bride's let the stems show on their hand tied bridal bouquets. I have to say, I did not know how to answer at first. I understood what she meant, she wondered why they choose not to have them covered by ribbon but I think this bouquet really tells the story of why you might want to let the stems show. How pretty these delicate stems of mini callas are! To cover them completely in ribbon would take away part of the beauty and simplicity of the flowers. As I'm fond of saying - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to each their own. Personally, I love when the stems show. What do you think?

Simple Candle Centerpieces , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . I wanted to share these pretty centerpieces created for an intimate wedding held at the Salt Creek Grill this winter. Tall, square vases filled with natural river stones were the base for these candle centerpieces. Tied with a chocolate brown ribbon, the effect was natural but romantic. The location has an earthy, modern feel and these centerpieces really blended in with the environment. Flowers are nice but if budget does not allow why not consider something like this?

http://www.per/ Wow - Say Pink! , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . These wedding bouquets were created last weekend for our bride Amy's wedding. Wow! Talk about punching it up with color. Light pink alstroemeria, shocking pink roses, fuschia mini callas with loops of lily grass created fun, spring bouquets. Even though pink never truly went out of style, it's back with a vengence! The deep color was limited to the bridal party and by the time guests arrived to the Breakers Hotel at the Jersey Shore, they were treated to more serene shades of pink (see escort card table arrangement below) using dendrobium orchids accented with grasses and white hybrid lilies. The sun was shining and the ocean shone a dazzling blue. A perfect day for bride Amy!!

Escort Card Table , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . It's funny how trends change, things go in and out of style. Sometimes slowly, sometimes very quickly. One thing that I've noticed is that more bride are asking for lilies again. There for awhile, most brides I suggested them to showed a dislike of these pretty blooms. Last weekend we had three weddings and this particular bride used lilies in both her bridal bouquet and this piece that was created for her escort card table. What I love about lilies is not only their star shape but also their buds. This design included simple foliages accented with lily grass. Add a few pale pink Erica dendrobium orchids and a stunning display is born. Two weeks ago one of our clients chose all white hybrid lilies in tall rectangular vases accented with navy ribbon tied simply on the vase in a knot. The perfect centerpieces for the two young boys celebrating their holy communion, the mother said she was still g...

Ok, I know that I just wrote a blog yesterday but I'm catching up on some floral reading (Floral Management to be exact) and I came across some information that really got me excited. Recent studies (I know that sounds soooo boring) just revealed that those who send flowers, in comparison to other gifts, are viewed as successful, caring and emotionally intelligent people!! Ok, so that is not too boring, right? Wow, how can you be a florist and not be excited about that. As a consumer, isn't that awesome news? I know the power flowers have over people and there a  million reasons why the next time you need to send a gift, or let someone know you are thinking about them, flowers ARE a wonderful choice. Where else can you call in the afternoon and have a beautifully arranged, hand delivered gift arrive in the very same day? I'm sorry, I know there are lots of choices in gift giving these day and many are easy to order but dang, how much easier can it be!! It is our strength...

I know, you read that title and said "Of course I care" and you don't even know what I'm about to write, do you?? hehehehe. Too funny but I'll bet that's what you are thinking. This blog is about wedding flowers. And it's about brides. Wedding flowers and brides. Two of my favorite things, most of the time. So back to the title - Do you care? Do you care about your wedding flowers? Are they important to you? I often ask brides during my consultations to tell me how important their flowers are to their overall wedding. I use a basic scale from 1 - 10. One being "I could care less if there was even one single flower at my wedding". Ten being "I must have flowers everywhere" and five being "I'm an average bride, they are important but I don't want to break the bank". First off, I have to tell you right now that I don't care if you are my bride and you tell me you are a 3, a 5 or a 10, as long as I can make you happy. ...

Have you ever had someone walk into your house and say something nice about it? Doesn't that make you all warm and fuzzy? Personally, I'm a homebody. To me my house is my castle, my sanctuary but if truth be told, so are both my shops. When someone walks in and says something nice about them, I'm so happy. Yesterday I met with a bride and she was so complimentary about my Bridal Showroom. It just gave me the warm and fuzzies inside! Well, today it's snowing - again. I love the snow but I especially love the way both my shops look in the snow. First off, our new Yardley location is off the "quaint" meter in the snow and the picture above proves it !! Our Princeton shop with it's lovely woodwork and big open windows, is also a charmer. Today is the third major snow fall we've had, not good for business but honestly, don't my shops look adorable in the snow? To the left is my house. It also looks amazing in a snow storm. Nice to be inside, all wa...

When you were a little girl and dreamed of your wedding day, there's a good chance that you dreamed of wearing a long white gown while you carried a gorgeous bridal bouquet of white flowers Classic and elegant, creams and white flowers complement your gown without competing. Worried that a white bouquet is boring? Never! Create texture and drama by using flowers in various shades of white and cream. Flowers of different shapes and sizes also add dimensions. The bouquet to the left is lightly accented with pearl studded stephanotis and lisianthus buds give this bouquet softness. What about the simple bouquet to the right? The bouquet was the perfect complement to bride Jennifer's gorgeous gown. Tiny rhinestones along her bodice were the perfect inspiration for her pretty bracelet and rhinestone studded stephanotis. Cream colored roses created depth and a light collar of white ostrich feathers soften and the bouquet and looked fantastic against her soft tulle skirt. The ...