Sending Smiles ~

Oh how often I hear ~ "I want my wedding flowers to be simple but elegant". What does that mean? I think this bouquet below fits the bill perfectly, don't you? Last weekends bridal bouquet for Sangy consisted of soft white hydrangea, creamy white hydrangea, ivory and pale pink tea roses and.... well, that's all! Hand tied and loosely wrapped in a soft satin ribbon, this look is not only elegant but classic. 20 years from now this bridal bouquet will still be in style. What does simple but elegant mean to you? We'd love to know!! 

When I talk to people about their floral designs , whether they are for a wedding or just a floral gift, they often say ~ "I don't need those exact flowers, you can change the flowers to lower the cost". Here it is in a nutshell folks, changing the flowers, changes the look. Changing the flowers changes the texture and often changing the flowers changes the ability to make an arrangement in a certain color theme.  If you could create a very artsy, unique looking arrangement by using common flowers instead of expensive rare ones, everyone would do it, right? Take the bouquet in the picture below. This bouquet is created with quite a few different flowers such as scabiosa pods, mini calla lilies, spray roses, tea roses, hypericum berries and seeded eucalyptus. If you wanted to make a lower cost version of this bouquet, you probably could change out some of the callas with carnations but the calla lily has a very unusual shape and nothing else, with a lower cost, real...

Don't you just love daisies, especially pink daisies? So do we and how fun it was to create this sweet bouquet for a bride picking it up at our Yardley store last week. A mixture of light and medium pink gerbera daisies accented with fresh waxflower. Such a sweet, early spring bouquet ~ just makes us happy looking at it. Wedding season is just around the corner so be sure to come back often to see all the new wedding flowers trends for 2013. 

Don't you just love the stem accent on this bridal bouquet? An elegant cream ribbon accented with pearls and rhinestones. So romantic and elegant.  Sahara roses are by far one of our favorite roses here at the store. When a bride does not want white or ivory, these roses are a lovely shade of soft beige and along with the Sahara roses we added in Vendella roses which are a very soft ivory. In this case we added a rim of lace dusty miller for a hint of softness and a touch of silver, without the bling.   Notice the color below in full sunlight.  This photo taken in the store shows the creaminess of the roses and the full effect of the stem treatment. A soft wired ribbon accented with tiny pearls. The height of elegance and romance.   

Had to share one of this weekends wedding bouquets and what a colorful bouquet it is! It's not December yet and this colorful, fall themed wedding bouquet proves it. I love when brides are not shy about having colorful bridal bouquets like this one. Made from mini callas, orchids, hydrangea, hypericum berries, mini gerbers, roses, safari sunset, pin cushion protea and even blue thistle, this bouquet is sure to  be a look as she walks down the aisle.  Do you like this bouquet? Would you carry something so colorful on your wedding day? 

Have you ever wondered about those cool Echeveria Plants you are seeing all over these days? We love designing with these little guys. Sometimes we use them as a "cut" flower like this one which is left to float on a sea of polished river stones while other times we buy them as an actual plant that is still in soil. They are such a great addition to any floral arrangement or a bridal bouquet. Natural and long lasting, these tiny drought resistance plants come in all different sizes and shapes and some even have slight color variations like this one that has pink tips. In the cactus family, they don't need much water so they make an ideal compliment for your desk at work or coffee table at home. It feels wonderful to have fresh, living things in our environment so why not these adorable little succulent plants! To see these and other natural product we have for sale in the shop, why not visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com or our facebook page at www.facebook.c...

I don't often post wedding bouquet photos before we deliver them but in this case I had to make an exception. The days leading up to a wedding are busy for us here at the shop and this weekend having 3 weddings is no exception. I'm really looking forward to the ceremony being held at the Nassau Inn Ballroom tomorrow night. Design Manager Holly just finished her bouquet and it's a beauty. Using flowers in a combination that we often use - roses and mini callas, this one is speaks to the occasion and the holiday with the addition of silver hypericum berries and winter foliage's. Tomorrow nights New Years Eve wedding will be alive with lots of candle light and wisps of silver. The last wedding to be done in that ballroom before it goes under renovation, I can't wait to post photos for you to see of this and our other two spectacular New Years Eve Weddings!!  To see this and other photos of our wedding designs visit our facebook page at www.faceboo...

"What is your wedding flower style?" When I ask a bride that question, 80% will tell me, simple but elegant but what does that really mean? When you look in the dictionary the definition of these words, what do you find? Simple means: Free from ostentation and vanity, easy to understand and humble in origin. Elegant  means: Tasteful in design, dignified and graceful in appearance and cleverly simple. Take the bridal bouquet above? More than any other bouquet we've ever made, this one seems to strike a cord in certain brides. To me it's elegant but simple. It's natural but not wild. It has texture that stands apart from the wedding dress but does not compete with it.  But this type of bouquet only accounts for about 20% of the designs we create. Do I think that 8 out of 10 brides really want simple but elegant floral designs? Actually, it's probably the other way around. I think that 80% want complicated, cool, colorful, even funk...