A Chapel Designers Feature on "The Full Bouquet"

So I'm a Chapel Designer…it's like AA for floral designers….I'm working on updating my blog and website with my badge….but my May is packed to the gills and of course my girls, my brides, come first. 

I'm just sneaking a minute away from them to tell you a little about the Chapel Designers, and if you haven't heard of us you will…we are an amazing group of floral designers and we are located all across the United States…and some of us are even in Europe.   The group was started by Holly Heider Chapple, she does amazing floral designs in the D.C. area, besides just being an awesomely genuine and wonderful woman.  She realized that support was lacking within the flower community.   Designers didn't want to share what they knew…and maybe you say "Well sure, if you figured out how to create something why would you let someone else benefit from your knowledge"  She is changing that.   The philosophy of the Chapel Designers is that we are honest, open, supportive, and in this as a whole we all become stronger.  

We last met in New York City, I posted about attending the conference a month or so back.  Say I want to buy a floral cooler and don't know were to start…I can turn to my fellow Chapel Designers and through our private Facebook forum ask and immediately other designers start responding with questions to ask when buying the cooler, things to look out for, problems they've experienced.  It's amazing.  So when you hire one of us, realize that there are almost 200 other designers who've got our back.  We are a total Flower Power Posse.   

So weekly Holly Chapple dedicates one of her blog posts to our work.  Her assistant says…send me picture of your work with ranunculus…we do, and some of us are chosen to be featured on the blog.   Happily I was featured a few weeks ago…on a ranunculus post.  Here's the link to see me and the fabulous work with ranunculus by my fellow Chapel Designers.  

Toasted Wed Event Part II

The light inside the venue didn't really allow me to take good pictures of my 'stuff' so two days after the event I finally had a chance to snap my own shots of my designs…

I designed all of these arrangements without oasis…it's the green stuff that soaks up water and you poke the flowers into.  I'm trying to phase it out of my designs as it is sooo bad for the environment and breathing in the particles is no bueno.   I used pin frogs instead..heavy round metal disks with pins sticking up out of them.  

I think this ranunculus is my favorite…

Yes, that is an orange….and kumquat!  

Toasted Wedding Event Brooklyn NY

  I was in such a groove before vacation, but I was looking forward to a little break….my groove was totally thrown off and I feel like it took me forever to catch up with everything when I got back.   

The first thing I had to look forward upon my return was the Toasted Wedding Event in Brooklyn.  I had no clue what my booth was going to look like, even two days before the event.  I did know that I wanted to incorporate a hanging branch 'chandelier' in the design…that's it…I didn't even have a color palette.  I'm doing a version of the branch 'chandelier' this June and the wedding show was the perfect place to try it out!   I was hoping that the flowers would speak to me when I went into the flower district in NYC.  Boy did they…so much so that I actually made a second trip in because I couldn't stop thinking about the white peonies I didn't buy the first time around!  It was so freeing not to have a shopping lists…just to buy the stuff that looked cool to me!   And if I tell you the color palette ended up being purple, orange, and white you might gag, but once you see what I came up with below you will be a total believer!  

 Here's my booth.  I used my birch branch Chuppah draped with white fabric.  My new sign! 

Here is how the branch chandelier turned out…..for the wedding in June it will have tea lights on it!  

How absolutely sick is this succulent….seriously I can't even take it!

And my corsage jewelry.  Perfect alternative for the cheesy prom bands or something different for your bridesmaids.  That's a ring i made down in front! 




Then I snuck outside to get some better pictures of the bouquet.  On my way out one of the 'bouncers' for the event said…."for me".  I said "Sure" and handed it to him…I took some close up shots of the bouquet…...but this one was my favorite :)….isn't he cute!  

I was standing on the corner looking like a fool waiting for the wind to blow just right….it took about 5 minutes to get this shot!  I love the beautiful flowers with the roughness of the mailbox and graffiti.  

The bouquet had wheat, artichokes, rose hips, white peonies, white lilac,  succulents,  daffodils (from my own garden!) garden roses, clematis, eucalyptus pods, allium (the stems on these guys were awesome..I had to show them off)

Here's looking forward to an amazing May!  

Ahhhhhhhh…..On to the Toasted Wedding Event Brooklyn April 13th, 2014

I just got back from a long vacation. (If you like bumpy roads, Jeeps, deserted beaches alive with sea life,turquoise water and sugar sand check out Vieques PR.) I'm sitting here with my coffee, prepping all the orders for flowers and supplies for my May weddings, enjoying a relatively quiet morning.  (As quiet as it gets with a 6 year old who asks me every few minutes if I can play Ninja Turtles, and my other two children and their various needs…so annoying ;)!

I'm also putting the final touches, in my head any way, on my designs for the Toasted Wedding Event happening next weekend in Greenpoint Brooklyn.  From the moment I found out about the show I wanted to be a part of it.  After I submitted my photos and application I was happy to be accepted early, and to have my work used to help promote the show.  I was really honored.  And I feel like I've made some new friends in the organizers of the event.

Because of this event,  I've not only been in Style Me Pretty, but found out when I got back from vacation that I had been on the New York Daily News!

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/toasted-brooklyn-wedding-expo-indie-brides-article-1.1732300

(It was important to me to be totally on vacation, I did not bring my computer, and I only checked my phone to see if our 1/2 day sail trip was still on…unfortunately it was cancelled due to high seas..sigh..we spent the day at the pool at the house we rented drinking rum punch with family…life is really difficult isn't it.)

Needless to say it's been a great past few months.  I'm looking forward to wedding season and I have some really pretty designs for my brides in the works.  And I can't wait for the cool designs I have up in my head for the show to come to life.  Come see me!