Sending Smiles ~

I love vibrant color so when Bride Jean walked in with a sample favor she had in mind for her May wedding at Rat's Restaurant in Grounds For Sculpture , I was thrilled to be chosen to create her floral designs .  First and foremost, I love roses . They are by far my favorite flower and even though I see lots of very cool flowers come through my doors each and every week, these beautiful blooms still make my heart go pitter patter. Know that Rat's has such a strong color palate and unbelievable charm, I couldn't wait to see this wedding all set up. Using 3 shades of roses ~ Hot Pink, Raspberry and Deep Orange ~ used in mass in silver mercury glass vase with lots and lots of candles ~ this wedding looked like a vivid dream! Our team of designers really did an amazing job.  I especially loved how the flowers looks with the brides maids dresses. Thank you Marie Labbancz for the amazing photography!  I especially loved the way the ceremony setting came out at t

Peach and Pink Wedding Flowers never quite go out of style (thank goodness) but when ever we create floral designs with these coordinator colors, they always manage to be a show stopper.  Bride Emem looked amazing holding her peaches, creams and pink bridal bouquet made from roses, garden roses, hydrangeas, peony and orchids.   The brides maids carried creations of cream hydrangea accented with pink and peach roses and pink cymbidium orchids.   Elegant brandy snifters filled with peach and pink flowers with ivy trails and curly willow loops placed on raspberry colored table linens. We loved the setting at Paradise Vineyards and a special thank you goes out to Jeri Houseworth for her amazing photography!  

Folks are loving blue flowers and at the top of their " Wish List " are these amazing blue dyed dendrobium orchids. Last weekends wedding was a mix of common flowers (baby's breath) and unique blooms (these amazing stem dyed beauties) and what a display they presented for Marisa's wedding at the The Palace in Somerset.  The first element that guests would see when they arrived was the silver archway and golden chairs that were decorated both baby's breath and blue orchids. As the bride walked down the aisle, she carried a cascade bouquet of baby and tea white roses, stephanotis and baby's breath, which her maids carried hand tied bouquets of just baby's breath.  As the guests entered they ballroom they were greeted with elegant crystal trees adorned with cascades of blue orchids. Sprinkled crystals around the base helped catch the light from the votive candles while pin lighting from above helped the tree sparkle. For anyone bride looking for

Yes, I admit we had 7 weddings this past weekend ~ 2 on Friday, 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday but  goodness, they all came out so pretty. Take this place card table below for a pink themed wedding at Nassau Inn.   I really loved the simple but elegant look of the silver branches on some of the tables and the soft romantic pink roses and hydrangeas on others. Bride Rebecca was very pleased!    Now moving on to vibrant and dramatic wedding colors, like those done for bride Jean and her new hubby at Grounds for Sculpture . It was chilly outside but these colors warmed it right up, don't you agree?    Moving on to the reception, the tables were filled with many, many mercury glass vases filled lushly with roses in shades of orange and hot pink. So vibrant and alive.    The place cards are my personal favorite; each card had a tiny clothes pin and were clipped to a single rose . Isn't that clever? If you think so, I'll take credit for that!  Moving on to a

Thank goodness it's Friday! Well, it's actually Saturday but when I thought I wanted to share what's going on in the shop today, I automatically thought of that old "office battle cry" because it absolutely does not have anything to do with working in a floral design shop in May. When Friday at 5 pm rolls around, it does not stop for us and as a matter of fact, things really heat up. Today we had many parties to set up, we're hot and heavy working on tomorrows 3 weddings (we had a small one today too) and I even got out to do a Floral Demonstration at D&R Greenway Land Trust for a couple of hours last night and this morning.  Here is designer is hard at work making Bridal Bouquets like this one for bride Jeri. Lavender and purple flowers hand tied ~ so elegant. We hope she loves it when she sees it tomorrow morning!    Roses, lisianthus, freesia, mini calla lilies... such an amazing combination for Spring.    Lots and lots of party floral cen

What fun floral bouquets we created for today's bride Melissa. A rainbow themed wedding was quite unusual and considering that we had to become "handy" with the flower tint, I think we did a great job. Wondering what flowers are naturally this color and what are tinted? The green bouquet had green roses that are natural but being there really isn't a green mini callas, those are tinted. The yellow bouquet is all natural, no helping Mother Nature there. The lavender roses are natural but then we did tint the mini callas, mostly because we wanted to control the color. The blue roses are stem dyed at the farm and the mini callas are also tinted. Each brides maid wore black dresses and so the color came from their bouquets .  What do you think about this rainbow themed wedding ? It's not for everyone but our bride Melissa loved it!

Natural and rustic is the theme of this bouquet for our Bride Alaina for her wedding at the Lambertville Inn. Locally grown lilacs, fever few daisies, succulents, blue thistle, silvery brunia and lime green buplerium make for a very textured, fresh picked bouquet.  Formal satin ribbon would not have gone with this bouquet so the stems were wrapped in a natural twine keeping with the sophisticated rustic theme of the bouquet.  Love the mini succulents we added to the bouquet, don't you? To see this and more of our wedding design be sure to check out our wedding website ! 

Sorry, I could not resist throwing a little fun into this " Green Themed " blog and don't you just love Kermie anyway? Actually, it is very easy being green at least in the floral design world. Have you ever noticed that when your food arrives to your table at an upscale restaurant their is usually something fresh and green on your plate?  Have you ever wondered why they add a sprinkling of fresh herbs on top of certain foods before presenting them? It is because these herbs not only brighten the palate but also liven the color of the food on the plate. Half the experience of eating is the presentation of the food on the plate and how appealing it looks to the eye. The reason we often add green to our floral designs , is the same reason that chef's add a pop of green on their culinary creations. Adding neutral green adds depth to the design as well making the other colors in the arrangement seem more vibrant. Take the arabicum, berries and hanging amaranthus in

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

Wow, that sounds so ominous but truly, most couples that I meet have not given enough thought to how much they can spend on their wedding flowers. When you began your wedding planning , did you set an overall wedding budget for all elements needed for the day? If not, that could be a problem down the line. I won't tackle that in this blog because I'm not a wedding planner but this statement comes from years of seeing families struggle to come up with the money to have the wedding they envision. If you don't have a working budget in the beginning and don't allocate dollars for each item needed, you are definitely going to exceed what you can afford. Here's a great worksheet that shows you most, if not all of the elements needed in a wedding. Easy Budget Wedding Spreadsheet ~  I'm surprised how often couples tell me they are already over budget and did include a line item for flowers! That's like going into a car dealer and saying I have no money t

It's just for the day! Yikes, we cringe every time someone says that to us while discussing wedding flowers . It's usually followed by "I don't want to spend a lot of money on them". Everything for your wedding day is for the day - you'll wear your gown once (but it will be in pictures), you'll listen to the DJ and dance (memories of fun that will last a lifetime) and you'll enjoy delicious food and drinks (hm, where is that the next day?).  Yes, flowers don't live forever (neither do people) but they do bring much to the "table" literally with regards to your wedding day. Take this wedding for Rhiannon and Joe ~ we had so much fun creating these fun wine themed centerpieces. They provided the mason jars and boxes and we did the rest.  Obviously they not only looked pretty on the tables but look what they did when they got them home? More than "Just for the day" don't you agree? 

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. 

Here at the shop we are in love with Baby's Breath and lucky for us, our wedding couples are loving it too. What was once considered old is new again and rightly so with all the new varieties available all year long. In this short video I talk about how this lovely "accent" flower can be used in many different types of wedding floral designs, especially for weddings.

We are so happy to announce that we have now added to our website a category including all our Upcoming Classes and Demonstrations. Not only does it provide you with the information ~ date, time & cost of each class, you can now reserve your space and pay directly online.  Our next class is our Scarf tying class on January 16th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Wine, snacks and a scarf of your own are included in the $20 price.  On January 22 ~ Wedding Planner Jasmine Cianflone from This Moments Events will be discussing "Diy? Oh no you don't! 5 things you should NEVER DIY". At this discussion , enjoy light snacks and champagne while you have all you questions answered. Only $15 per person, so this is a great event to bring a friend or a bridesmaid to!     Be sure to check back to this new Category often to learn about all our hands on Floral Design Classes, Ladies Events and more! 

When I meet with couples, I sometimes chuckle at the questions they ask me. For some they have read the "What to ask your florist" section in their wedding planners and although some are good questions, others are not really telling you what you need to know about the ability of the florist to do a great job on your wedding flowers.  Of course, nothing replaces recommendations from venues and friends and with all the places to view online reviews, this is the first place to start. If the florist is a "busy wedding florist", you should be able to see many reviews that will often stress similar things such as "they got my vision", "they worked within my budget" and the ever popular "they exceeded my expectations". Finding out from others about their experience is easier than ever. Sometimes depending on the review site, you can even email the past bride and ask questions. I know my brides have done it!  If a dear friend was look

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

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? 

Can you ever go wrong with an all white wedding ? One of this past weekends weddings had us using elegant flowers in shades of white with touches of crystals, candle light, diamonds and rhinestones. Jessica's bouquet was created using ivory roses, creamy white hydrangeas, white mini callas, ranunculus and touches of rhinestone sprays.  For Jessica's ceremony we provided our ivory satin covered chuppah accented with touches of fresh foliage's flanked by two elegant floral arrangements on garden pedestals.  In the ballroom, tall and lush floral displays were created up on 28" tall pedestal cylinder vases which are a rental item , then filled with clear gems, amber underwater lights, a single white cymbidium orchid bloom and fresh water. At the base were diamond like gems sprinkled over table mirrors and 3 crystal votive candles.  To formalize the chandeliers, we had 25 feet of crystals sprays to each fixture. I can only image what this looked like when the