My Moon, Brooklyn NY

Who knew…... if I go through Staten Island it only takes me about 40min to get to Brooklyn!  Pretty cool!  Especially when I get to work in cool venues like this.  I've already had an inquiry from another bride for this spot and boo, I'm already booked for her wedding date (but it's another cool venue in NJ, The Inn at Mill Race Pond…so I guess I can't complain).

My Moon is a restaurant in Brooklyn that will shut the place down for you if you'd like to hold your wedding there.  Large enough to hold a good sized wedding, but cozy enough to create an intimate setting, the dark wood interior, large bar and amazing outdoor ceremony space and lounge have made this one of my favorite venues.  Not only that,  the manager Ruggero and the rest of the staff is wonderful to work along side.  Some venues that is not at all the case, like when I did a wedding last year at a venue in Morristown, the staff was yelling obscenities at each other in Spanish while they were setting up…and the stuff that they were saying was no bueno.  Even with my limited Spanish I understood…I mean come on doesn't everyone learn the curse words in other languages first…or is that only me :).

Fingers were crossed that the dark clouds that kept passing by would keep doing so.  It did eventually rain, but it wasn't until later into the evening so the ceremony went on as planned.  A line of Mason Jars with blooms of allium, peonies, lilies, gerber daisies, lotus pods, and peach tulips highlighted the elevated ceremony space.

The cocktail hr was ground level, next to the ceremony space.  Mason jars filled with electic mixes of flowers…I love this place!  

And I have to thank Allison Hooban of Nice and Easy Weddings for all the pictures.  It was so nice to have her there to take them, instead of me running around like crazy before the ceremony starts trying to get all the shots I want.  I met Allison on a plane from JFK to San Juan Puerto Rico.  She is married to one of my husband's college friends.  I wasn't sitting with my husband..we had to split up with the kids…he took the 4 and 6 year old and I took the baby.  Turned out Allison also was traveling with her baby who is the same age as my little girl, they were 8 months old at the time.  So we wrangled it so we could sit in the same row, and save some other poor souls from having to sit next to the potential crying, fidgeting, smelly babies.  (I wasn't as lucky on the flight home…the guy sitting next to me actually took out his laptop to work..imagine the fun I had trying to stop my curious little girl from pounding on the keys and deleting his very important looking spreadsheet)

The reception room was flanked buy 3 crescent shaped booths  with an arrangement of lotus pod, peonies, hydrangea, astrantia and mint.

The rest of the guests were seated at 4 long farm style tables with green, blue, and clear glass bottles with single stems of flowers.   (I collected the some of the bottles over the past year…I use California Olive Oil an it comes in three sizes in these amazing green bottles!)   A cheesecloth runner ran the length of the table…funny side note I found out, when looking for cheesecloth in this length, that it is also called ghoul mummy cloth by the fabric store from which it was purchased.     

The bar was anchored down by two large arrangements

My Photographer friend wasn't able to get any shots of the bouquets so these are my pictures taken at my house before we left for the wedding.  

The boutonnieres were made of eucalyptus, evergreen, astrantia, hellebore, and ranunculus.

The Bridesmaids carried bouquets of yellow lilies, eucalyptus, ranunculus, astrantia, and white peonies.

The bride carried a bouquet of mint, evergreen, hellebore, astrantia, coral peonies, ranunculus, white gerber daisies and yellow lilies.

 Now it's time for bed, up early again tomorrow for another NYC flower pick up…two weddings this weekend so I'd better get my sleep while I can!

Wise Words from a Floral Friend….

The following is a post by a fellow Chapel Designer, Julia Miller of Julia's Floral,  I couldn't have said it better myself!

"The emerging trend in wedding flowers is lush, lavish opulence. As brides
and groom are spending more time online researching options, their
knowledge and appreciation of flowers is growing.

So how can you have an amazing look within the framework of a "realistic"
budget?

The very best way to save money on your wedding overall, is to have fewer
bridesmaids, and to limit your guest list. Intimate weddings with finer
attention to detail are a growing trend, because it's challenging -- and
expensive -- to create a blog-worthy wedding when your budget is stretched
to entertain hundreds of people.

Couples who need to keep their flower budget under control must be honest
with their floral designer from the start. Please be up front with your
budget, if you know it. Then be open to the professional's recommendations
as to how to achieve the best look with the dollars at hand.

Some additional advice:

Never skimp on the bridal bouquet! It's in more photos than any other
floral piece. It should be amazing.

Use Pinterest only as a reference tool, to inspire a "look" for your
wedding. Deciding your "must have" floral pieces and bouquets on
Pinterest, often leads to disappointment later as you learn just how
expensive "celebrity wedding flowers" can be: peonies, anemones, poppies,
ranunculus, Phalaenopsis orchids and garden roses-- especially when out of
season!

"Local and seasonal" does not always mean "less expensive." These are
specialty blooms with short seasons, often organically grown, which
provide incredible interest to your floral designs. Allow your florist to
choose the best value and quality flowers available in your color palette
for a winning look that respects your budget.

Many of my couples wisely "repurpose" aisle to tabletop flowers. Again,
trust your florist to guide you in this process, because some designs
(like large filled glass cylinders) are nearly impossible to move without
the florist's staff there to do it, which will add to your bill.

Another idea: Rent! Many florists have wonderful props that help evoke
your wedding mood. You'll save time and money over tracking down these
items yourself, and they can be delivered and installed with your flower
order.

Above all, once you have hired a reputable florist who you connect well
with, and in whom you can trust, please resist the urge to "micro-manage."
Extra consultations can incur extra charges for many florists.

The best florists are booked solid all wedding season long, giving their
100% to brides and grooms every week. When it's your turn, they'll give
you their very best as well."

Featured on The Full Bouquet, Chapel Designers Series: Designing with Dahlias

Busy Busy!  As I gather everything for tomorrows wedding I'm taking a minute to procrastinate and show you some of my designs with Dahlias along with some of my very talented fellow Chapel Designers.  Enjoy!

CLICK HERE!  

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!