Sending Smiles ~

I'm starting to love taking these shots that show how folks come in with an invitation looking for inspiration for their table centerpieces. How cool is the interpretation of the invites for Doree's birthday party floral centerpieces? Kudos have to go to design manager Holly on this one who matched the look and feel of the invites in all three dimensions! White gerber daisies, orange roses and protea along with accents of curly willow arranged in a cylinder complete with ribbon accents. The design is flawless and they looked amazing all set up at Forsgate Country Club last night!

Wanted to share a photo from Beth's Beatles themed Mitzvah from this past weekend. How cute are these oversized balloons, Beatles themed centerpieces (every table was a different album) and cool posters. Taking our inspiration from the the Sgt. Pepper and Yellow Submarine albums, we went with 60's style hot colors and fantasy butterflies. The adult tables had fresh floral arrangements of roses and gerbers and the look was completed with a toss of colorful skittles. What do you think? Do you think the guests felt like they had been thrown back in time? To see this and other examples of our design work check out our website at www.sendingsmiles.com and we'd love for you to like at us www.facebook.com/localflorist

Anyone that knows me knows that I just love Social Media. I'm a social person at heart but generally speaking my "career" really keeps me from getting out much. I meet brides and spend tons of time with my employees as well as husband (as he works here too) but that can be the extent of my days, weeks and months. And so, my social media has been a way for me to stay in touch with friends, family, past brides, customers and other florists. I love posting photos. Pics of the shops, the staff, our wedding flowers but I also have a fascination with taking photos of food. It always cracks me up to think that I might post a picture of an exquisite bridal bouquet and get a thumbs up or 2 and maybe a comment here or there but when I post photos of what I have made for Kevin and I for dinner, it's shocking what happens! The photo above left was Cod Loin from just this past Saturday and I guess it looked so good to some that they asked for my recipe. The photo above right, is

We don't often get to create cascade bouquets but I have to say, I really think Designer Holly did a fabulous job on designing this one. Created for today's bride Hoon-Jung, we were semi-recreating her very own mother's wedding bouquet. Although this one uses a nicer, more elegant selection of flowers (her mom's was all white carnations) I think she'll be pleased with the result. Using a combination of roses, freesia, bouvardia and dendrobium orchids with the traditional plumosa foliage, this bouquet has a bit more interest and texture than her mother's bouquet.  It will be interesting to see if more brides choose cascade bouquets to hand tied versions popular over the last 10 years or so. There is something to be said for an elegant cascade and I'm truly hoping that our bride loves her bouquet as much as we do! To see more of our wedding designs be sure to visit our wedding website at www.perfectweddingflowers.com or our Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/l

I wanted to share with you one of our wedding bouquets from this past weekend. How pretty is this bouquet we created for Christina? Lavender roses, white stephanotis, cream hydrangea, purple stock, deep plum colored Floragene carnations and pink gerber daisies really combined to create something special, don't you think? We really liked the coordinating bouquets we created for the brides maids. Pink gerbers, roses, carnations and peony, accented with purple limonium fillers. So sweet but still very elegant. Pink and purple still remains as a very popular wedding trend and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Looking at these two bridal bouquets, you can understand why! To see more of our wedding designs, bouquets and even centerpieces - visit our wedding site at www.perfectweddingflowers.com

As I write this, we are in the throws of wedding season. What fun it is, not to mention hard work. I love this photo from a wedding many years ago because not only was the couple adorable (I believe Annie and Tim, if memory serves me) but I loved their sweet little hanging cones on the ends of the pews at church. Let's face it, hosting a wedding is expensive but what a treat for us when couple actually put money into decorating the church. I personally love decorating the pews. Why? Well, because you only see a church decorated this way if there is a wedding. You'll never see pretty bows, netting, kissing balls or pretty cones of flowers like this if it's just Sunday services or even a funeral. Simple white cones were stung with chiffon ribbon and had three stems of cream colored stock and a touch of seeded eucalyptus. Very simple but very pretty, don't you think? These cones of flowers cost less than $25 each but how the look of this photo would have changed with out

Don't you just adore these tiny buds of perfection? We love designing with these clustered spray roses that come in shades from whites right on up to deep burgundy. Each stem has between 3 and 6 tiny rose buds and we often use them as a single stem flower in party and wedding centerpieces. Other times we use the buds in corsages and boutonniere designs. They are wonderful to use in our every day designs too and sometimes what you see on our website are clusters of spray roses and not the larger, long stemmed ones known as tea roses. The next time you stop into your local florist to buy flowers for yourself or as a gift, why not consider a bouquet of these elegant little flowers?