Sending Smiles ~

I love this shot of our bride Caroline from her August wedding as she struts along the streets of Princeton University's campus. Boy, things have changed in the world of wedding photography. Back in my day, you just stood there and hopefully looked good! We especially loved creating her brides maids bouquets of all hydrangea. They contained three different shades - green, light blue and then medium blue. Tied with a simple ribbon, they really complimented their blue dresses. Caroline's bouquet was created using flowers of different sizes and shapes from white, to pale blue with accents of sapphire. Blue has been a popular color for 2010 and I predict that trend will continue right on into 2011. That sounds good to me being blue is actually my favorite color! To see more of our wedding designs visit our website (and you'll see it's very blue) at http://www.perfectweddingflowers.com/

There's a few things I'm learning about myself as the years roll on. One is that I'm not liking getting old, but hey, who does! I'm also learning that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Hm, my husband says in my line of work it's a good thing but I think my poor employees would say other wise. But, onto the point of this blog... I'm noticing that I look at everything around me as if I were taking a picture. What's the lighting? What are the colors and how do they look together? What's the composition? Is there something in the way of making my "picture" perfect? I remember one time when my Event Coordinator David came back from setting up a wedding and proudly showed me the pictures he took. Now, mind you, this is on a tiny screen, not on a big computer. I did my usual, "These are great David, wonderful shots, except there's an exit sign in this one, this one is too back lit, the angle makes the flowers looks crooked and this one... loo...

Welcome back for Part 2 of "Inside the Design Bench" at Monday Morning Flowers. Part 1 explored all the work that goes into beginning to design wedding flowers. Our team works hard to make sure that everything is perfect for that special day. I know that sounds corny but it's true!! This part explores the actual delivery and set up of all the wedding flowers. By the time our set up team is back in the truck and heading for home base, 9 or 10 employees have helped to make it all happen! Now, back to bride Erin's wedding....Below is her bouquet. Depending on what our bride has chosen and if it's a unique looking bouquet, we try to get a quick picture before it leaves the shop. Future brides appreciate our ability to show them different styles and colors of bouquets we have created. Although the actual day of the wedding can be hectic, especially if we have more than one to set up that day, remembering to take a few pictures is top on our list of wedding details! Er...

Whenever I do a wedding consultation, one of the elements I'm always sure to discuss is the process of tagging all the flowers for my brides and grooms. This insures that not only is there no confusion about whose flowers are whose but also helps us to make sure that each floral is delivered to the correction location. How we do this is we e-mail each Bride a questionnaire for them to fill out and send back to us. There we ask for all contact information such as day of cells, wedding planner information, drop time desired, banquet hall and church contacts, etc. Then there is a place where we ask to the Bride and Groom to name each person in the wedding that is either wearing or holding a flower. Not only does this include bridal bouquets but also boutonnieres, corsages, etc. Lastly, we ask for this list to be broken down by drop off location. Most Brides forget that they may need their bouquets at one location for pictures and the gentlemen flowers might need to go directly to chur...

When you do as many weddings as we do sometimes the bouquets, centerpieces and miscellaneous items become a blur of colors and textures that come into the shop and quickly leave! It's so much fun and I rarely do a wedding that I don't absolutely love the outcome. I thought it might be fun to post some in my blog. It truly becomes a matter of finding just the right colors and flowers to translate their dreams into a reality for their special day! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Boy, there is just no way around it, I love color!! Take these bouquets for example. These were just delivered yesterday to our bride Jennifer for her wedding. Roses, mini callas, viking poms, stock, fall toned leaves and berries, what a stunning combination! I can't wait to see a picture of these colors up against the chocolate brown of the brides maids dresses!! Now take a look at these bouquets. How stunning are these! My bride Stephanie just loves peacock feathers. Purples and greens and peacock feather what a memorable, artistic combination for her wedding flowers. I'm sure everyone will remember her flowers! I had a bride in with her mom and they both expressed a dislike for green and green flowers. I couldn't disagree more! There are so many flowers that are naturally green. I love incorporating them in with other colors and even by themselves. I anticipate green being a popular color for years to come! Well that's my two cents on colors. My suggestion is use it...

I'm a firm believer that there are no "wedding flower mistakes" and I'm fond of telling my brides that there is no right or wrong way to go about choosing their wedding flowers. All flowers are beautiful and they are meant to be an expression of you and your special day. Now that being said there is one mistake that I notice couples making and it seems to cause them the most grief during the planning process. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes, it's about money, again. Is there anything in life that isn't in one way or the other about money? I don't think that anyone that has ever planned a wedding can honestly say that they did not have to make changes and compromises along the way because of money. That being said... Couples do not always leave enough of their budget for flowers and that in turn causes the biggest mistake in that they do not leave enough money for their floral centerpieces. I usually think of the personal flowers suc...