Sending Smiles ~

THE NEWEST ADDITION TO OUR PRINCETON COLLECTION ALEXANDER The newest Addition to Our  Princeton Collection   Alexander  ~ we always love creating new flower arrangement designs but sometimes it can be hard to come up with a name. Not when we created this new design being added to our Selection called the Princeton Collection. Most of the designs in this collection have somewhat of an Orange and Black Theme because they are inspired by Princeton University. You may not be aware that we not only deliver to the University for the students, faculty and employees but the University is a wonderful client for us as well. We have provided many, many floral and balloon decor events for them over the last 30 years. It's always black and orange season when Princeton University is in session! This new design was inspired by and named after one of the most gorgeous buildings on the Campus Called Alexander Hall. We love this photo we found online because it truly shows how gorgeo...

You can't be located near a prestigious University like Princeton without adding a few things to your website for Students and Faculty. With PU everything is about the colors black and orange and so we had to create at least a few designs that have the Princeton aesthetic! Check out our whole Princeton collection Here !

Are you a fan of Orange flowers? Here at the shop, we sure are and not just during the fall season. Orange is popular all year round and this week we have some amazingly beautiful orange flowers in stock. Roses are always so pretty in orange but those orange mango mini callas, pincushion protea, gerbera daisies and tropical banksia are especially beautiful.  What is your favorite orange flower ? We'd love to know! 

So you are having an event and you want something for the tables but you don't have much money to spend? Well, big is not always better and when it down pop it out with color , color, color. Hey that could be a song, don't you think? Take these centerpieces for example; created for an event at Princeton University today. In this case a tight budget and a zillion tables (well, actually it was more like 80 but still a lot) meant that we had to really stand out with something that was going to be cost effective but memorable. Colorful gerbera daisies and underwater light to the rescue. These may not be huge but they sure are cute, don't you think?  

Have you ever seen a flower like this? This is a pincushion protea and the variety of this one is called Tango. Imagine including this in a Bridal Bouquet or a High Style Floral Design? Orange is a popular color for event design and even many of our daily designs are showcasing orange flowers.  I especially love the combination of roses, berries and protea, like this arrangement that we recently added to our website. A great floral gift for man, don't you think?  To see this and more of  our floral designs, visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com - we have so many floral gift ideas and we are always adding more! We want to be your local florist! 

The Pantone color of the year for 2013 might be Emerald but brides are still in love with orange. In shades from peach to a burnt brick orange  they really do make a strong statement. Orange is not just for fall any more with many couples choosing this color in the Spring and even Summer. Not sure what flowers come in orange and peach? How about roses, mini calla lilies, gerbers, hypericum berries, dahlias and even tropical protea's ~ today's brides can achieve just about any look from modern to romantic.  To see more Orange Wedding Flowers  be sure to visit our wedding site.  What's your favorite orange flower? 

It's always fun to share real weddings with our blog readers and this one is especially rewarding being we will be doing her sister Sarah's wedding next. Working on Adele and Chris's wedding flowers last year was both fun and exciting. We especially loved Adele's wedding bouquet of mini callas, protea, mokara and cymbidium orchids, berzillia berries, orange roses and fiddle ferns. Don't you just love the texture?  Adele and her sister Sarah have a bit of fun. Sarah's wedding is up next and very different than her sisters. But in this photo, the day belonged to Adele.  Adele and Chris seemed amazed by those cute fiddleheads in her bouquet. We're thinking the bouquet would not have been the same without them.  How sweet to have a carriage ride and to take pictures with this beautiful horse right in the heart of Lambertville, NJ.  Lambertville was the perfect back drop. The brown and orange color theme really popped against the fresh green...

We love creating flowers for special events, especially ones that take place in the home. What fun it is to match the colors and style of a room. Today we set up flowers for one of our bridal families. Because they are expecting many guests at the home starting tonight and all through the wedding weekend, they thought it would be a nice touch to add flowers in various parts of the house. This piece was created for the dining room table and matches the decor and colors of the room. This next arrangement greeted guests as they entered the home. We used flowers such as chocolate anthiurum, free spirit roses, safari sunset and pincushion protea, curly willow branches along with seeded eucalyptus and bronze colored cushion mums. The flowers add a cozy feel to an already lovely home, don't you think? 

Taking a peek into our floral cooler both last and this week you would see a sea of orange wedding flowers. Take these pretty bouquets from last weekends wedding for bride Diana's brides maids. The perfect "Princeton" themed flowers to compliment a "Blair Arch" ceremony on Princeton University Campus. Not all weddings and daily flower orders follow the Princeton black and orange theme but orange truly is popular right now and looking at these lovely blooms you can see why! What a happy color, don't you think? To see more of our recent floral, party and wedding designs, check out our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/localflorist

A meeting today with bride Adele got me to thinking about this blog topic. Working with brides to create floral bouquets that they absolutely love has as much to do with the "texture" the flower combinations create as the "color" theme of the flowers. For example, these bouquets were mostly shades of orange but had these been made using a single flower such as roses or even the dahlias, they certainly would have looked completely different. A bride that likes "texture" will usually love bouquets that have flowers in different shapes and sizes and even though they might be monochromatic, mostly one color like these, the flowers themselves might have slightly different shading with in the same flowers. These bouquets used both roses and tulips that showed mostly as orange but hints and lines of yellow. Take that color away and again, the look would be completely different. Anyone that has ever had a wedding consultation with me knows I generally attack the...

Wow, it's almost August and the tropical flowers are in demand. Orchids, Ginger, Bird of Paradise and even these huge Heliconia flowers are in the shop this week. Yup, that's me in this funny self portrait trying to show you how big this flower is. It's only fitting when the weather gets hot that we think about palm trees and island florals, right? Heliconia, how cool are they? Heliconia is named after Mount Helicon, the seat of the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts and sciences in Greek mythology. Heliconia, also popularly known as lobster-claw, wild plantain or false bird-of-paradise, is a beautiful flower with multi-color bracts and varied flower structure.They have bracts are so large and colorful that they almost hide the flowers altogether. This keeps the flower's sweet nectar from other birds so that only specialized birds can get to it. Heliconia grow from 3 to 30 feet! Next time you are looking for a single bloom or two for a special vase, why not consi...

So, I posted this photo on my facebook page and people went crazy! It must be color but let's face it, it's a simple bouquet of three very common flowers - roses, mini gerbers and carnations but the color really takes it from boring to bravo! Tiny accents of branched solidago and add the fact that all these flowers are ultra high quality and fresh and with a bit of luck, we'll have hit a home run with our bride this weekend!! To see more of our floral designs for every day and wedding visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com

Need something affordable to decorate tables for a picnic, shower or other event? Personally, I love these simple floating gerber daisies. These were created for an event at Princeton University and the black stones and orange gerbers really scream Princeton! Five inch square vases give the daisy plenty of room to spread out and show the black river stones. Easy for guests to take home and very long lasting.  Sometimes simple works best!!

Oran Alycia's bouquet , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . This bouquet, created for our bride Alycia, has been causing quite a stir on Facebook and Flickr.com showing me that Orange is a hot color for just about any season. Customers phoning in to request flower arrangements for get wells and birthday has shown a real preference for shades of orange, lime green and even yellow. Sunny colors, the perfect introduction into Summer!

Recently a wedding expert asked me for my ideas on some "Non-Traditional" wedding flowers that are nice to use in wedding designs. Of course, I feel that I'm lucky as my brides are so varied in their design tastes, I rarely do the same thing twice. Being floral bored is not in my vocabulary! That being said there are some flowers that come to mind that are fun to use in wedding work and a little out of the mainstream. That brings me to the picture at right. These lovely flowers are pincushion protea. Talk about drama! Later on this year we will be combining these interesting textures with mango mini callas. Can't take credit for the idea to combine them, my bride brought me an inspiration picture and boy is it going to be memorable!! I almost jumped for joy when she whipped out that picture! Orange continues to be a popular wedding color this year and these large flowers really add a lot of "Pow", "Zing" and "Pop" to wedding designs. Wou...