Flowers + Fashion: A Bouquet Inspired by Balmain A/W 13

The color Acai is hot for Autumn! Olivier Rousteing has out did himself again with Balmain's A/W 13 line.  The richness and architectural detail of his work is beyond words. While Balmain's show was sublime in detail, our bouquet was quite the contrary. We choose sleek Picasso mini callas to best represent this fall palette.  We intertwined the callas ever so delicately creating this chic STUNNER of a bouquet.  It's simple, yet so powerful of a statement.  So, if your looking for a statement bouquet ladies, then try selecting one single type of flower you are absolutely head over heels in love with. Once you have picked your flower, request a mass bundle of them designed for your wedding day bouquet!

May Flower of the Month: Sweet Peas

April showers brought us lots of gorgeous May flowers, including these delicate lavender sweet peas.  Their scent is intoxicating, and their unique butterfly-shaped petal adds femininity and softness to all designs.  We often incorporate sweet peas in to bridal bouquets for a ruffled romantic texture.  The lovely beauty can also flourish out of a vase on its own for a charming ambiance. Sweet peas are endlessly adored by all because of their exquite appearance and fragrance. 

Kick Up Your Boots!!!

Hey Gents....Yeah we're talking to you!!!  So you may not be into flowers, or perhaps lack interest about what bloom you'll be wearing down the aisle.  However, it's time to show a little appreciation for the sake of your lady. You know what they say.....Happy Wife, Happy Life!

Which boutonniere best represents your wedding day style: Chic, Romantic, Earthy/Eclectic, or Artsy?  Not sure, well we are here to help!

Boutonniere 1:  is a chic style boutonniere of a white cymbidium orchid adorned with variegated lily grass and wrapped in black sateen.  This style represents modern, sophisticated elegance.

Boutonniere 2:  is a romantic style boutonniere of burgundy ranunculus accented by ruscus and wrapped in a sage sateen.  This style resembles femininity and sweet love.

Boutonniere 3:  is a earthy style boutonniere of lavender hellebores, green brunia berries, and green scabiosa wrapped in burlap.  This style is best suited for vintage or rustic weddings.

Boutonniere 4:  is an artsy style boutonniere of amethyst lisianthus, fern curls, and variegated lily grass.  This style is common for clean-lined, yet edgy weddings.

Pantone Fall 2013 Inspired Bridal Bouquet

We know Summer hasn't arrived in Chicago yet, and believe me we aren't rushing our three months of warm weather away.  However, we are keeping up with the trends creating dreamy bridal bouquets and wedding floral decor to inspire our client's for their upcoming fall 2013 weddings.  If you are planning on a fall wedding and unsure about your color scheme, then we recommend you refer to the Pantone color chart for inspiration.  

To create our gorgeous bridal bouquet we selected Pantone colors Lichen, Samba, Carafe, Deep Lichen and Acai.  We hand selected green beauties of ranunculus, scabiosa (a.k.a. googley eyes to us), brunia berries, and ruscus.  For acai we chose ranunculus and hellebores....absolutely to die for.  The rich samba colored was best accentuated by garden roses and ruffled spray roses.  Lastly, we picked chocolate ferns to represent the color carafe.  The romantic gardenesque style bouquet was finished off with a tweed ribbon detail.

If you are planning a fall wedding, please inquire about our services at 312.243.2690.

Modern Romantic Chicago Wedding at the Rookery Building

Bridget's bridal bouquet was the perfect balance of romance and modern artistic design.  Lush full blooms of garden roses accented by cleaned lined blooms of phalaenopsis orchids created her round style bouquet.  We threw in a few whimsy blooms as well, such as fritillaria and lisianthus, adding detail to the bouquet. 

Love this classic black and white city shot of Bridget and Michael!  Thanks to Nick Gerber of Gerber and Scarpelli Photography for all his wonderful work and capturing these timeless moments.

How cute are these ring bearer's?  Can we say adorbs!

The bridesmaids carried romantic bouquets of cymbidium orchids, garden roses, freesia, statice, and lisianthus.

The reception and ceremony took place at the Rookery Building.  Bridget chose two styles of centerpieces to adorn her dinner tables.  Style one was an elevated design of modern metallic branches incorporated into lush blooms of hydrangea, stock, tulips, brunia berries, and spiral eucalyptus.

Style two was a contemporary deconstructed centerpiece of hydrangea, stock, and green cymbidium orchids.

The final shot of the wedding.  The architecture of the Rookery building provided the perfect backdrop.

If you would like to see more from this wedding check out our facebook page.

Flowers + Fashion: From the Runway to your Bouquet- Oscar De La Renta FW13

WOWZA!!! From the runway to your bouquet, bold color is a hit for fall.  Oscar De La Renta's FW13 runway featured this vibrant hued gown in shades of coral, black, sage, cobalt, peach, and crimson with the combo of floral and aztec prints.  We are OBSESSED with the mixing of prints...can we say stunner!  

Inspired by De La Renta, we created this one-of-a-kind bouquet.  Anyone out there audacious enough to carry it down the aisle???  Call us if you are....  This avant-garde bouquet was designed with intricate detailing, like the gown.  We hand selected fresh blooms of mink protea, air plants, amaryllis, callas, snapdragons, and fern just to name a few.  Choosing the vivid blooms of coral and salmon counter balanced by neutrals of sage and black collectively harmonize the bouquet.

Wedding and Event Floral Trends for 2013: Ferns

We have seen a huge trend in the use of ferns for wedding and event floral decor this season.  A few of our favorite ferns we like to incorporate into designs are sword fern (bottom), foxtail fern (middle), and asparagus plumosa (top).  Ferns are very unique in style.  Each variety has it's own texture and shape creating abstract lines within artistic arrangements.

Stayed tuned for wedding images later this year showcasing the use of ferns.

Macy's Flower Show 2013 "The Painted Garden": Chicago - Natural Beauties Floral

 

We are honored to have been selected to participate in the Macy's Flower Show.  Our "bouquet of the day" will be on display March 24th-26th in the cosmetics department on the 1st floor.

The Macy's flower show theme was "the painted garden" with a far east Asian influence.  We selected bold tropical beauties of orchids, protea, eremurus, birds of paradise, gladiolas, roses, and amaryllis to create our floral garden.  Keeping with the theme, we adorned the arbor with gold frames, so when one looks through the frame they capture a "painted garden".  

A detail shot from the top of the floral garden.

A close up of our floral garden.

The Bouquet and The Dress: A Romantic Bouquet inspired by Elie Saab

The Dress:  This gorgeous gown is from the Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The gown is defined as romantic in style by showcasing its soft elegance of a lace bodice and flowy skirt.

The Bouquet:  In order to create the romantic style bouquet above, we first chose a color palette of champagne, ivory, sage, blush, and azure.  We hand selected a variety of beauties in various textures and sizes in order to create whimsical details within the bouquet.  Blooms of roses, veronica, delphinium, muscari, thistle, garden roses, rice flower, succulents, freesia, and cymbidium orchids were used to design the lovely bridal bouquet.  To finish off the bouquet, we adorned the stems with an elegant champagne sateen.

FORM: ART + floral

March Flower of the Month: Mimosa

While most of us may refer to the term MIMOSA, as a refreshing Sunday brunch cocktail, there is actually a flower as well.  Pictured above is a blossoming tree of yellow fluffy pompoms, known as mimosa.  This flower blooms in early spring and is the chosen flower across the pond for International Women's Day.  On March 8th, European men purchase sprigs of mimosa to give to ladies, which is the symbol for vitality, joy, wisdom, and warmth.  A proportion of the proceeds sold that day are used to support women's causes; such as breast cancer research, shelters for women of violence, and etc.  

Ohhhh and to all you American Gents, it's time get on board and recognize the importance of women in our culture!

Romantic Vintage Style Wedding at Greenhouse Loft in Chicago

This beautiful December wedding came together in just three month...and not a detail was missed.  Even Mother Nature was on board, providing the perfect backdrop for photos with a dusting of fresh snow.

Ashley carried a romantic bouquet of peonies, scabiosa, ranunculus, spiral eucalyptus, garden roses, stock, dusty miller, and queen anne's lace.

Her bridesmaids' bouquets were designed with blooms of stock, garden roses, scabiosa, spiral eucalyptus, dusty miller, and ranunculus.

Dashing marines and blushing bridesmaids!

The bouquets...swoon!

For the reception, Ashley selected three styles of centerpieces for her tables.  The first style was a collection of various vintage vessels featuring blooms of garden roses, stock, hyacinth, scabiosa, dusty miller, ranunculus, and spiral eucalyptus.

The second centerpiece style was a trio of mercury glass vases each featuring a mixed lush bouquet of hydrangea, stock, ranunculus, dusty miller, queen anne's lace, spiral eucalyptus, and garden roses.

The third centerpieces style was a single lush design featuring the same blooms in a birch container.

A view of the reception at Greenhouse Loft.

The lovely bride and groom.

We saved our favorite shot for last!  We can't get over how magical this image is of Ashley and Joe.  Maybe we are bias cause we are country girls and love a good scenic shot, but seriously how can you not love this shot? 

Thank you to Ashley Biess Photography for capturing this lovely wedding!

This wedding was also featured on stylemepretty.com.

Designer's Challenge: Bridal Bouquet created out of VDay remnants

Designer's Challenge: is a blind challenge given to a designer at Natural Beauties Floral.  The materials are selected and given to the designer to create whatever their heart desires.  

In this particular challenge, the designer was handed a variety of blooms leftover from Valentine's Day and a Wedding Sample to create a new design.  The designer chose to create a bridal bouquet.

The asymmetrical bridal bouquet is a composite of an air plant, ranunculus, scabiosa, succulents, mini cymbidiums, heather, mini callas, foxtail fern, tulips, spiral eucalyptus, and a few garden roses for good measure.  The bouquet is full of texture and abstract lines making it very unique.  An original piece of art, if I do say so myself :).

Detail shots.

 

Sometimes taking what is consider scraps and throwaways can turn into something so gorgeous!

Happy designing!

Cognac and Sunburst Garden Style Wedding at Galleria Marchetti

Kate and Tim's wedding fell on the perfect fall day for a garden wedding.  The ceremony and reception took place in Chicago at Galleria Marchetti.  The aisle, chair ends, and arbor were adorned with sunburst beauties of roses, mokara orchids, and james story orchids.  

Kate carried a traditional white bouquet of orchids, roses, astilbe, garden roses, and callas.  Kate's style was a blend of rustic gardenesque with clean lined elements.

Her flower girls carried white button pomanders adorned with cognac sateen.

The bridal party.

Each guests' place card was a petite bud vase filled with orange wax flower adorned with a rustic tag.

Kate and Tim chose two different style of centerpieces.  The style featured above was a lush arrangement of dahlias, mokara orchids, roses, maple leaves, mums, and buttons designed in a wooden box.

The second style of centerpiece was submerged orange mokara orchids.  While this design could be considered chic, due to the clean lines, we added a rustic burlap sash to each vase to keep within the gardenesque style.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of gardenesque blooms; cognac buttons, circus roses, orange dahlias, and mango callas designed in a chic format.

Images: Edward Fox Photography

The Bouquet and The Dress: Sareh Nouri's Bridal Collection

The Dress:  Sareh Nouri's Sophie gown is the perfect dream dress for romantic brides! We are obsessed with the soft textual layering of the skirt and it's delicate sweet blushy peach hue.  

The Bouquet: The perfect composite to compliment Sareh Nouri's dress is a soft toned bouquet with a variety of textured romantic beauties, like the stylized bouquet above.  To design the bouquet, we hand selected muted blooms of garden roses, spray roses, ranunculus, astilbe, lisianthus, queen anne's lace, wax flower and blackberries. The large round shaped blooms combined with the delicate whimsical beauties created an intricately detailed romantic bouquet. To complete the look, we wrapped the bouquet with a sage ribbon adorned with a bow. 

Planning a romantic wedding?  Contact us today at 312.243.2690 to schedule your complimentary consultation!

White and Green Garden Style Wedding at Crystal Gardens Navy Pier

Our bride, Melissa, wasn't quite sure what she wanted for her wedding day flowers when she came in for her initial consult.  She knew she wanted a sophisticated black-tie wedding with white flowers and black accents (linens).  As her wedding plans started to progress, she then added in green hypericum berries, branches, and ruscus to her designs to coordinate with the "organic" aesthetic of her and Don's venue, Crystal Gardens.  

Melissa's bridal bouquet was a composite of roses, spray roses, mini callas, freesia, lisianthus, mini cymbidiums orchids, green hypericum berries, and ruscus.  Don's boutonniere was a mini white calla accented by freesia and ruscus with a black sateen wrap.

Melissa and Don in front the famous Chicago landmark, Buckingham Fountain.

The centerpieces consisted of lush white hydrangea, white dendrobium orchids, branches, green hypericum berries, and ruscus which complimented the venue's natural interior perfectly.

 

Love this stunning shot of Melissa!

The bridesmaids wore black dresses and carried bouquets of white and green beauties.

 Thank you to Laurie Marie Photography for capturing these lovely images of our work!

February Flower of the Month: Anthurium

Some of you may find it odd that our flower of the month for February isn't a rose, but then again we aren't into what is considered typical, as we find it....hmmm boring.  So we chose anthuriums to be our flower of the month, after all it is shaped like a HEART for all you romantic lovebirds celebrating Valentine's Day this month.

Hidden in the deep rain forest of South America, Anthurium's love warm climates between 70 and 90 degrees.  They thrive on humidity and prefer to stay away from sunlight.  They are grown in shades of white, red, pink, green, purple, and bi-color combinations.  This flower is also known as the "boy flower" given the shape and structure of the bloom.

If you are looking for something a little more unique this VDay, send a lovely bouquet of anthuriums to your secret admirer!

A Rustic, Romantic November Wedding at Loft on Lake

Our bride, Kelley, was looking for romantic florals with a touch of rusticness for her November wedding decor.  She requested a palette of white, green, and vintage blue.  As for her bouquet and her Maid of Honor's bouquet, she chose white beauties with hints green accents.  A few of her favorite beauties were narcissus, ranunculus, freesia, garden roses, amaryllis, queen anne's lace, and white cymbidium orchids.  The bouquets were wrapped in rustic twine.

The bride and groom!

The reception took place at Loft on Lake.  With communal style seating, the tables were adorned with several arrangements down the center along with various heights of pillar candles all set in heirloom mason jars.  Kelley's grandmother provided all the vintage mason jars for her wedding which had been stored in her attic for years.  The centerpieces were designed with lush pale blue hydrangea, queen anne's lace, buttons, spray roses, and veronica.

A detail shot of the centerpieces.

A room shot of the reception for Kelley and Danny's wedding at Loft on Lake.

Thank you Victoria Sprung Photography.

Flowers + Fashion: Stripes Inspired by Oscar De La Renta SS13

Spring is in the air!  From the runway to your wedding day, nautical stripes are must this season!  We are absolutely in love with this Oscar De La Renta striped dress.  In fact, I kinda want one for myself I love it so much :).  Okay, back to flowers....  

If your a bride looking for a chic, modern twist to your wedding day florals, then we recommend opting for a print wrap on your bridal bouquet like the one pictured above.  The stripe wrap on the bouquet above provides a masculine, edgy contrast to the soft romantic beauties of roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, anemones, and navy berries balancing out the design artistically.  Detailing your florals, like with a striped wrap, is always important when personalizing your wedding day decor.

January Flower of the Month: Carnation

Carnations???? We know what y'all are thinking, blah!  But guess what we happen to like of few of them anyways, despite their negative reputation. They add lots of texture to our romantic style wedding designs.  And as for chic weddings, we align them head-to-head in a pave' format to create a very clean-lined pomander style design, which is quite striking if I do say so myself :). 

However, we aren't so keen on every shade of carnation.  The few that we do recommend are peach, plum, white, lavender, and eggplant.

Below is an image of a chic white carnation pomander style centerpiece at the Palmer House Hilton Chicago.