Sending Smiles ~

This past weekend we had the pleasure of creating wedding flowers for Nicole and Kyle, who held their wedding at Hopewell Valley Vineyard in Hopewell, NJ. Mother Nature was in rare form and I honestly think that it was one of the best weather days of the whole year. Using all white flowers, relying heavily on Dahlias, Hydrangeas and Garden Roses, the arrangements were earthy but elegant. On each side of the tent we created large displays of hydrangea in tall clear glass cylinder vases.  Cocktail tables, both high and low were placed around the vineyard and inside the meeting space. We especially loved the wooden chairs and stool not to mention the table cloths that intermixed a soft burlap style with other sporting a beige and white check pattern.  The 28 elegantly appointed guest tables each had a floral centerpieces measuring 12" high by 14" wide. The centerpieces were created in low dishes and then filled with flowers in shades of white and cream, which included ...

We love when our families share pictures right away with us, like this past Saturdays wedding. A winter white wedding held during Christmas at St. Paul's in Princeton and then on the Nassau Inn in Palmer Square, both settings looked amazing for the holiday season.  I especially loved Kate's elegant tear drop shaped bouquet of white roses, orchids, stephanotis and peony.  With a sea of Rich Red Poinsettia's Kate and her Flower girl share a little lovin'!   The flower girls wand of roses and deep gold tinted ruscus foliage with streaming ribbons. Actually easier to carry than you might think, we bet she felt like a princess for the day.   The escort card table stood tall and elegant to greet the guests.  The centerpieces were styled half tall and half low. This one was created with cascading orchids and gold Italian ruscus.   The low centerpieces were designed in a wreath arrangement with a bowl of floating candles int he center. These m...

Planning a wedding is fun but expensive and I find that often brides & grooms over think their bridal flowers. Hydrangea to the rescue. Take these bouquets for example; simple but by no means small yet they are elegant, natural and as amazing as it sounds, quite budget friendly. In the case of these bouquets, extra touches such as chiffon ribbon and draping hanging amaranthus took them from boring to beautiful and only slightly added to the cost. Lesson to be learned here? No need to over think the flowers and by all means, take the budget friendly route. Your Maids won't mind, your guests won't notice and your wedding budget will love you for it! To see these and more of our everyday and wedding floral designs be sure to visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com  

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...

I admit that I love doing winter weddings. Last weekends wedding for bride Suzanne was especially pretty. Her bouquet was created using white anemone's, silver brunia berries, white roses ~ both tea and sweetheart size and light accents of lace dusty miller.  The reception was very intimate and romantic with lots of warm candle light and keeping the white and silver color theme going. The Nassau Inn's Palmer room was the perfect place for this winter reception, don't you think?  Low and long centerpieces created with roses, hydrangeas, dusty miller cedar and gerbera daisies were perfect for the 2 long guest tables. Floating candles added a soft glow to the room. To see this and more of our wedding designs, be sure to visit our wedding website at www.perfectweddingflowers.com 

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 ...

We are love doing weddings and it's just so much fun when photographers and brides share photos with us, like this one from Janet Lanza Photography. Created for our bride Allison on 9/15, this bouquet was just so simple and elegant. Hydrangeas, roses, gardenias and ranunculus accented with silver tinted seeded eucalyptus with a simple rhinestone band - just makes you say... ahhhh.  What more could a girl ask for?  To see this and other of our wedding designs, be sure to check out our new wedding website at www.perfectweddingflowers.com . 

 This red bouquet might look familiar from a previous blog post but I wanted to update and share the reception photos. Alexandra's wedding held under a tent at Fernbrook turned out lovely, even though the weather was not 100% cooperating! The brides maids all carried bouquets of white Vendela roses which looked so pretty with her fabulous red bouquet!  The centerpieces were styled in two different ways. The low centerpieces were hydrangea and roses arranged cleaning and simply in a clear glass cylinder vase. The matching above eye level pieces were hydrangeas, roses, hanging amaranthus and curly willow placed up onto our elegant clear glass pilsner vases.  Alex and her family hired us to hang these huge lanterns along the tent and they lit up when the lights came down. I can only imagine how amazing they looked when the storm blew in and the wind picked up. It had to be very memorable! The clean and romantic look of all white looked so elegant. Don't you ju...

We love the traditional look of this classic cascade and if our likes and comments on our facebook page are any indication,  this bouquet seems to hit a high note with folks. Our Bride Laura sure seemed to love it when it arrived! Check out our video below to see how to correctly hold your Cascade Bridal Bouquet. White tea and baby roses, delicate stephanotis blooms and accents of babies breath along with ivy trails create an elegant cascade. This is me holding the bouquet and I can tell you that it was both easy to hold and not as heavy as you might think. Honestly, out of 100 weddings we do each year, we only create 2 or 3 cascase each year (we have another we are creating next weekend for our bride Sarah) and when we do, it's really a big deal around here. I love that his bouquet is so clean, classic and all white . In this case, the color being the same as her gown will make this bouquet an accessory for her, rather than a distraction. What do you think about ...

"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...