Sending Smiles ~

This weekend's weddings seem to sum of the weather. On one hand, it's October 6th and the nights have started to get cool and the leaves are starting to drop here near our shop in Princeton Forrestal Village. Summer is definitely over and so our wedding designs for bride Dawn reflect the traditional fall feel of the season. Her bouquet was made using rich red roses along with a variety called Circus, which is a yellow and red bi-color. Along with the roses we have mango mini calla lilies, seeded eucalyptus, burgundy berries, Tango pincushion protea and very cool uhule fiddle ferns. She loved it!!  Now talking about weather, although the calendar says fall, the temperatures say summer, hitting highs in the low 80's so our next bride Kristie's bouquet reflect the feel of the day. Her bouquet was made using yellow fever few buttons, yellow and pink ranunculus, white mini daisies, garden roses, buplurium and gardenias. Gardenia's are special to Kristie and keep

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

Dave Hoeffel is an amazing disc jockey and great friend.  With his experience, passion, and success in the music industry - we just had to pick his brain!  Owner of Sound Choice DJ's, Dave has been a top pick for WeddingWire and The Knot, while he brings music to millions through Sirius XM Radio.  Here's what he has to say: Tell us a bit about yourself, Sound Choice DJ's and your time on Satellite radio? I've been a radio and mobile DJ for 37 years. I started Sound Choice in 1985 with the mission to provide non-cheesy DJ entertainment (which most of it was at that time) for weddings, specializing in unique locations, such as old mansions, historic sites and boutique facilities. I've also hosted radio shows for many years on AM/FM radio, and now Sirius XM Satellite Radio. To me you seem so well suited to your job, did you know you wanted to be a DJ from the time you were young? Yes. I've been playing records since I was 4 years old. I l

 Say what you want about baby's breath because here at the shop it's been a staple for weddings for the past year and the trend appears to be continuing into 2015. Case in point for bride Louise's wedding this weekend. Her bridal bouquet was created of elegant and traditional ivory roses called Vendela and baby's breath. The variety of baby's breath used has bright white florets that are full and open. Combined in her bouquet , they give her the soft and romantic bouquet she loved. Having grown up in England, Louise's love of baby's breath flowed over into the centerpieces as well. Such a lovely flowers for all seasons and a trend that we fully expect to continue for weddings next year. What do you think of this bouquet and the use of baby's breath in wedding arrangement? To see more of our wedding designs, be sure to visit our website at www.perfectweddingflowers.com  

I feel like it's been forever since I blogged but I guess surviving the biggest floral holiday (and creating floral designs for 2 weddings) will do that! Actually, I blogged on May 8th and talked about last minute Mother's Day Gift ideas and wow, what a great holiday we had. Ok, back to the topic at hand ~ Lovely Lilacs. Have you noticed those lovely lavender colored flowers starting to grace your bushes at home here in NJ and PA? Yes, the local lilacs are in season and one of last weeks weddings had us using bunches and bunches of them in wedding bouquets and centerpieces. Although we were a bit too busy to get the usual photographs , I couldn't resist this shot of our delivery van loaded with these amazing centerpieces. The fragrance inside the van was amazing and driver Jeff and Set Up Assistant Matt were traveling in style on their way to the Lambertville Inn to set this wedding up.  Elegant ceramic compotes were filled lushly with lilacs, lavender Ocean Song

Over the last two years we've been doing more flowers for same sex marriages. I have to say that I enjoy doing these weddings, not just because it's another source of revenue for the shop (and it certainly is) but I find working with these couples rewarding. Last night, I had a consultation with a lovely family (bride, sister and mom) and we were talking about the family dynamics that can sometimes rear their ugly heads during flower meetings. I'm sure that most people that either haven't planned a wedding for many years or have never planned one, must think that meetings with the florist must be tranquil and stress free. Unfortunately, I've seen things during consultations that could make your hair curl! I've seen grooms being mean to brides, brides being condescending to their groom. Parents being mean to their children, children acting downright rude to their parents and the list goes on. Sometimes I feel like I'm not just a florist but a therapist too!!

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

Isn't late September such a nice time to have a wedding? The weather has been a bit wicked this year being a bit more rainy and muggy than usual but we sure have loved the color combinations from some this months weddings. Orange has been popular all year going from burnt to corals (with pink undertones) right on into light, soft peaches. Take this bouquet above. Peach and orange roses, spray roses and berries accented with spectacular dahlias were the perfect color combination for a late summer, early fall bouquet. This bouquet was held by the brides maids and the one below was held by the bride.   The bride carried peach roses, orange spray roses, peach mini callas, creamy white roses and dahlias accented with peach berries. This bouquet was created for Amy's brides maids. An exact copy (but a bit smaller) of a bouquet we created for bride Keally last year (also featured in Contemporary Bride - NJ) this lovely combination of peach, pink, white and yellow was made using gerbe

First off, a super big thank you to all my staff who did an amazing job this Weekend arranging and setting up 4 weddings and multiple other events. Fall is certainly on it's way and this weekends events were a combination of late summer tones and early fall ones with shades of pinks and peaches once again.  Anna's a bouquet was a natural blend of country style blooms such as a Queen Anne's lace, berries, gumphria, millet and eucalyptus along with elegant blooms such as ranunculus, tea roses, bouvardia, dahlias and freesia. I especially love the burlap ribbon treatment on the stems. Her bouquet smelled and looked amazing in person!   Moving on to Heidi's bridal bouquet - hot raspberry pinks, greens and white in the form of roses, orchids, mini callas and ranuculus along with accents of rhinestone spray for a touch of bling.   Moving on to Taotao's bridal bouquet in all shades of peach from light into dark using roses and mini callas.   Moving on

 It is completely, impossible to get bored around here. This weekend had us doing three, completely different weddings and what great fun they were. We are also excited about our wedding designs but this week was especially gratifying. The bouquet above was created for our bride Danielle and was the coolest, funkiest bouquet we've been able to create since our Funky Peacock Feather bouquet. A hand tied mixture of mini callas, cymbidium orchids, mokara orchids, crespedia, pincushion protea,  limonium and the ever cool uluhe. What do you think of it? This next bouquet was created for the maid of honor for Pierre and Yves. The overall color theme for the wedding was Sunbeam, Tangerine and Guava with each girl carrying the opposite colors to their dress. This bouquet included all three colors as the maid of honor was wearing champagne. The rose varieties used were Gelosia (for the sunbeam yellow), Tropical Amazon (for the tangerine) and Movie Star for the (guava coral). With colors lik

"What are the wedding trends for 2010"? As I sit at my desk typing up Wedding and Mitzvah proposals for events I recently booked, I'm noticing that people are really starting to include Friday Nights and Sundays in the party mix. Not sure if this is trend to save money or because those dates are available but I think this year we are doing almost as many weddings on Sundays and Fridays as Saturdays. For your viewing pleasure I've included pictures from Trisha's wedding this past Sunday at the Crystal Plaza up in Livingston! Looking into 2010 I already have two weddings booked for January and both are on Sundays. Hm, I find this curious but I love it. At one time I would be lucky to do 1 wedding in January and I predict that we'll do as many as 6 to 10 for January, 2010. Having them spread out over the course of three days is much easier on us. This past weekend, for example, we had 1 wedding on Friday, 1 on Saturday and then a fairly large one on Sunday. Muc

There is one question that I get all the time from brides. Want to guess what that is? It's "how much are my wedding flowers are going to cost", of course! That is such a difficult question to answer, and not because we florists don't want to answer it. The truth is that some brides want lots of flowers and others want the bare minimum. I find that most fall somewhere in between. Taking the time to find out what the bride envisions for her day along with any budget she has set, is priority #1 during first consultations with me. The issue that have is that most families have not set an overall budget for their weddings. This is not good!!! Not setting a budget allows for overspending. You wouldn't ask your realtor to show you houses without telling them how much your mortgage was approved for, would you? You don't go car shopping with an open checkbook? Planning a wedding will be one of the most expensive "purchases" you will even make and I can not i

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.facebook.com/loc

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that more and more brides are going to be asking their floral designers to create cascade bouquets for their weddings. In the last 3 weeks alone, we have created 3 of these beauties and buzz on our Facebook page has been quite dramatic. Take the bouquet below ~ Bride Shedline was super pleased when Kevin arrived with her bouquet. Don't you just love the rich color in shades of purple. That in itself is an ongoing trend with many couple choosing purple as their wedding color. This bouquet was created using roses, mini callas, stock, lisianthus, carnations, limonium and touches of elegant foliage's. It's actually not that heavy and was super easy to hold (the biggest fear most bride's have when deciding on their bouquet is weight and ease of carrying it correctly). See my YouTube video that shows how easy these bouquets are to carry.  Another trend I'm noticing more of is the use of mixed plant material such as succu

With Valentine's Day behind us we look forward to all the Spring flowers that will soon be filling the shop such as hyacinths, sweet peas, tulips and other fun blooms such as lavender statice, daffodils, lisianthus and more. My personal favorite colors are the pinks and purples and don't you just love those huge Japanese Sweet Pea that Kristin is holding? They are enormous and very long lasting.  Soon the Spring weddings will begin and it's been fun seeing the colors and flowers that are in demand for Spring weddings. I'll be sure to post them as the year moves along! For now, let's just breath deep and wait for Spring to arrive. 

Last weekend saw us creating and delivering 5 weddings. How do we do it you might wonder but honestly, at this time of year the pace slows down quite a bit, allowing us to take on more than normal in the way of weddings. Thank goodness for these happy occasions during the summer to keep us stimulated and rejuvenated. This bouquet was created for bride Amanda and if her thumbs up on our Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/localflorist are any indication, she was happy with the gorgeous, fresh bridal bouquet we created for her. Roses in shades of deep pink and orange, deep plum colored carnations, mini viking poms and medium size sunflowers, an accent of orange lilies, limonium and buplurium and you have one, colorful summer bouquet! To see more of our floral designs, visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com

Someone called us the other day and said ~ "What do you do? I don't know what your company does". Hm, I had to think about that and there was a part of me (the Jersey Girl Part) that wanted to come back with "We do air conditioning and carpet cleaning" but as you an imagine, that won't win me any customers. This is not the first time I've been asked that question but our name really does say at least most of what we do. Monday Morning Flower and Balloon Co ~ we do flowers, we do balloons, that's not all but it's a big part!! This past weekend we inflated and delivered 500 helium filled latex balloons in shades of pink for a radio station "Breast Cancer" event. In fact, we inflate over 40,000 helium filled latex balloons every year. Just ask Alanna, Holly and Melissa and they'll show you they have the strong fingers to prove it!  Now yes, we also do flowers. Folks often say "I'll bet most of your flower sales come fr

I love doing weddings during the winter, mainly because we certainly seem to have a dry spell during January, February and March. We have done a few weddings so far this year and this bouquet was created for our bride Daria who is being married right as I type this blog. Deep rich red roses accented with crystal really strike a dramatic feel for February, don't you think?

It may seem a little "Late" to be talking about 2015 wedding trends and I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that we still have some last minute Fall and December weddings finalizing with our shop right now. I love these "Late Arrival Brides" because they give me a peek into next years wedding trends. Speaking of last minute weddings, Beautiful Emily shown below was a bride we worked with on her August 20th wedding . First meeting with her Mother (who had no idea what Emily might like to have for her wedding) we had to wait for Emily to finish school to finally dig into her flower wish list. This happened 11 days before her wedding . Yes you heard right, 11 days.  Although this may have added a few gray hairs to my head being I was not sure what Emily might like, plus I had to cost out and propose quickly not to mention I had missed every single deadline for order Farm Direct Flowers (this could be a blog in itself) but we needless to say, we w

We are happy to announce that we have again been chosen as "Best of Weddings Florist" for The Knot 2009. We were chosen as an Editors Pick! Monday Morning Flowers - Princeton is 1 of only 19 florists chosen for their "Best Of" publication for the whole state of New Jersey. We are both honored and humbled to be so considered among the other very talented florists around the country. Getting married? We just might be a good florist to choose!!! :o)