A romantic proposal contest

If you are planning to propose to that special someone in your life, here is a chance to have a team of experts assist you in creating the perfect day for her. Enter the contest by clicking on this link:http://www.visionsonbendedknee.com. Best of Luck! 

2011: A Year in Flowers by Natural Beauties Floral, Inc.

2011: A Year in Flowers from Natural Beauties on Vimeo.

 

Plumes and Plum wedding at the Palmer House Chicago

Palmer House Chicago

A jewel tone wedding is sure to metamorphose any room into an elegantly sumptuous occasion. The richness in blooms adorned with feathers and gold ribbon creates a majestic ambiance.  The romantic/chic style of this wedding was truly captured through the simplistic, yet textured designs. 

The bridesmaid's wore a shade of aquamarine. In the flower world, we are quite limited to natural flowers of this turquoise shade. We recommend choosing a neutral color palette, or a jewel tone palette to compliment the bold dresses. Our bride, Lauren loves peacock feathers. She felt it would be a great adornment to the topaz dresses, as well as, her lovely style. The bridesmaid bouquets were designed with amethyst lisianthus, garnet spray roses, purple sapphire stock, amethyst irises, blue agapanthus, and pink topaz phalaenopsis orchids. The bouquets were wrapped in a stylish gold ribbon for a royal detail.

At the Palmer House, the centerpieces showcased the jewel tone color palette as well. The arrangements definitely gave the feeling of glamorous romance. The aquamarine hydrangeas, amethyst stock, garnet spray roses, deep ruby dianthus, and amethyst lisianthus just blossomed through out the night. The centerpieces were adorned with natural peacock feathers to achieve a couture style.

Lauren's bridal bouquet was designed with ivory roses petals all hand wired to create a chic glamelia bouquet. We dressed up the bouquet with ivory ostrich feathers to accent the bouquet. On the wrap, we took an ivory sateen woven into a french corset adorned with swarovski crystals. This bouquet is an elegant classic style that is timeless. 

We would like to thank Nina and Cecilia for all these amazing photographs. You can see their work at http://ninaceciliacreativespark.com

A Chic Persimmon Wedding at Chicago Venue One

Persimmon/White Wedding at Venue One

The color orange: warm-hearted, cheery, fresh, and vibrant.  We always love something out of the ordinary that creates a bold statement.  The bride's mother (Faye) came to us just four weeks before Alyssa's wedding day.  Faye, an U.S. ambassador for the Netherlands, requested various shades of orange blooms to carry out the fall color theme. One of Faye's favorite flower is the ranunculus (lower right hand picture).  She described the details of Alyssa's style as sophisticated while incorporating modern and chic elements. Faye truly loved the idea of a deconstructioned design to capture Alyssa's style.  Since, the linens were incorporating three different shades of orange, persimmon, and melon, she wanted the flowers to reflect the same essence.  

The flowers we worked with were lilies, cockscombs, roses, mini callas, hydrangeas, and ranunculus.  The room at Venue One was divided into sections, therefore each seating area showcased its own particular bloom.  

Alyssa's bouquet was the ever-so-chic glamelia style bouquet, a true classic. It was designed with hand-wired ivory vendela roses adorned with ivory ribbon on the wrap.

A little side note...while we were setting the wedding we had the honor of listening to Alyssa's brother, Anthony Rapp of the original broadway production RENT, sing "Seasons of Love".  A lover of musicals, this was great way to end the day!

Our couple, Alyssa, the founder of Bottlenotes, and Hal, a professional scout for Boston Red Sox, were also featured in the New York Times for their wedding.

 Blanchard Photographic

Thank you to Blanchard Photographic for this lovely image of the couple, and the bride's parents.

White Wedding Flowers at Adler Planetarium Chicago

Adler Planetarium Wedding

Just another white wedding...NEVER!  We are total lovers of all white weddings. They are by far the most stunning and timeless of all.  The bride and groom, Kristin and Luciano, came to us knowing exactly what they wanted for their wedding floral decor.  So, to say the least our job was pretty simple.  We just had to make their vision come to life at the Adler Planetarium.  

Kristin loved white hydrangeas and lilies accented by greens.  The centerpieces we created were just that, with some additional blooms, such as snapdragons, chrysanthemums, and spray roses for texture.  Down the center of the vase we submerged snapdragons.  Each arrangement was also surrounded by floating candles, adding a little romance to the evening.

Kristin's bouquet was absolutely gorg!!! We created her bouquet out of 40 orchids blooms of phalaenopsis, cymbidium, and mini cymbidiums.  

 We want to thank Kevin Weinstein Photography for these absolutely beautiful images.  His work is simply magical!

Check out other images from this wedding in our wedding gallery.

Red/Gold Wedding Flowers at the Millenium Knickerbocker

Millenium Knickerbocker Wedding

Looking for something rich and regal for your grand wedding affair?  We recommend choosing a ruby or amethyst hue for your wedding day flowers. The deep floral tones create a luxurious warmth ambiance adding full body of vividness and elegance. Our couple, Jennifer and Faheem chose a ruby palette for their wedding flowers embellished by shimmery golds; complimenting the decor of the Millenium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago.  

The grand affair hosted an extensive guest list, therefore we proposed Jennifer and Faheem to select three different centerpiece styles.  Hand selecting three style of arrangements, adds depth and dimension to the room. The first design was a gold ceramic vase paved with freedom red roses.  The pave design is very simple, yet displays ornate character.  The second floral design featured submerged red mokara orchids embellished with floating metallic gold candles.  Again, so simple, yet romantic.  The third design for their regal wedding was definitely an eye-catcher. A tall glass cylinder showcased an exquisite design of metallic gold branches adorned with crimson James Story orchids.  As guests were seated at the dinner tables, the room was filled with lots of laughter and appreciation of Jennifer and Faheem's special day. 

A Pink and Green Chicago Wedding at Spiaggia

We had never met Jessica and Anthony before the day of their wedding.  The couple happens to live in London, so we corresponded via email in order to create their dream wedding vision. (P.S. We also provide Skype consultations to all our international brides planning their weddings state-side.) Jessica's style was very lush and chic.  She chose a color palette of hot pink and green for her floral decor.

Jessica's bouquet was designed with chic blooms of white dahlias, mini callas, and roses.  The bridesmaids carried bundles of roseberry fuchsia roses collared in rainbow ti leaves.  Their centerpieces at Spiaggia featured hydrangea, aspidistra leaves, button mums, spray roses, and dianthus.

Thank you to our friend Heather at Serendipity Photography for these wonderful images.

Chic Chicago Bridal Shoot

Our friend Evan, of Evan Hunt Photo, asked us to create a lovely bouquet for a photo shoot at Boutique Victoria Couture Bridal.  We were so delighted to design this all white chic bouquet for our friends.  The bouquet is a creation of white dahlias, anemones, snowflake sprays roses, dianthus, and amaryllis.

Stay tuned for more pics from another style shoot we just completed with Evan.

Holiday Home Decor

We love decorating for the holidays!!! We get jingles in our ears and rosy cheeks this time of year. Generally, the traditional evergreen and crimson color tone is found throughout many homes and offices. However, we like to leap into a neutral color palette when traditional colors do not compliment its surroundings. In particular, we like using metallic colors to give an elegant feel to one's abode. We recommend using metallic gold with ivory, cream, taupe, and natural wood tones. If you home color palette works better with a metallic silver, then we recommend white, slate, and icy blue hues. 

In the photographs above, metallic gold shimmers as our predominate color. The holiday tree features metallic gold ornaments, crystal clear teardrops, mercury glass balls, and crystal beaded stars. The top of the tree is adorned with a lovely creation of gold and ivory ribbon.

We embellished the coffee table with over sized natural pine cones dusted in gold paint. Also, to add a bit of glitz we took spray glue to the tips of the pine cones and rolled them in glitter. We love the natural elegance they bring to the table decor. 

On the kitchen table, we laid a burlap runner to give a natural earthy feel to the tablescape. We used a grape wood branch, mercury glass candle holders, pine cones, metallic votives, gold wire leaves, and gold wire holiday trees. Its a simple, yet an elegant display that is admirable during one's holiday fete. 

Vintage Glam Wedding Style

The Vintage Glam Wedding Style is created using multiple blooms with lots of texture embellished by glamorous adornments. This style works great for the modern bride and groom who are looking for an eclectic, elegant appeal. 

This bridal bouquet featured champagne roses, eggplant calla lilies, amethyst anemones, white phalaenopsis orchids, white lisianthus, wine scabiosa, and white freesia.  The mixture of clean-line and frilly blooms in the bouquet created a shabby chic look. We adorned the bouquet with lovely ostrich feathers and a glam silver sequin wrap. 

The bridesmaids bouquets were designed with purple beauty asters, moss allium pods, eggplant calla lilies, wine scabiosa, moss brunia berries, sage scabiosa, and dusty sage kochia.

The boutonnieres were all designed a bit different to reflect an vintage appeal.  We used an array of chic and frilly blooms for depth and texture.

How to make a glamelia bridal bouquet

Oh my, Oh my....I'm so in love with this glamelia bouquet I recently made for a bride. Its an old fashion bouquet that has become quite popular today in the wedding industry. Its sophisticated and classy, yet it screams ooh lala! The glamelia bouquet is one of the most time invested bridal bouquets (3-4hours), however its all worth it in the end when you sit and day dream with your cup of tea as it gleams and glistens. I wanted to share a little information on "how to" make this bouquet because I get numerous requests on how the bridal bouquet tranforms to resemble a large rose. 

• Step #1: Gather 75 roses for a large bouquet. (50 for a small bouquet)

• Step #2: Carefully remove the petals from each rose head (leave one solid rose for your center), with out tearing or bruising the petals. (It takes approximately 750 rose petals to make the glamelia bouquet shown above.)

• Step #3: Take three to four individual rose petals, and hold together. Next, gather a piece of wire and bend 1/4 of it over. Insert the first wire into the rose petals at the base. Grab a second piece of wire and bend the same way, then insert into the rose petals at the base. The two pieces of wire shall cross at the base of the petals. Then, take your green tape, and tape the two pieces of wire together.

• Step #4: Keep following the step above until you reach a large quantity of wired rose petals. 

• Step #5: Pick up the solid rose for the center of your bouquet. Then, begin taking your wired rose petals and begin placing them around the center rose. As you add the wired petals, tape the wires together after completely a full circle. 

• Step #6: Continue Step 5, until you reach the full bouquet. 

• Step #7: Add greenery, ribbon, or feathers around the bottom of the rose petals to give the bouquet support. 

• Step #8: Cut all the wires off to a desired length to prep for ribbon.

• Step #9: You will need to tape the end of the wires to prevent any injury, then add a piece of cut ribbon over the end of the wires. 

• Step #10: Begin, wrapping the bouquet with your desired ribbon. 

AND...ooh lala, your bouquet is complete for your fete!

Succulent Event at Gallery 1028

It was a Thursday morning....we had opened up our lovely email inbox as usual. Scanning through the keepers and deleters, we found an awesome keeper! It called for 32 centerpieces for a corporate event scheduled for Monday at 12pm. We were truly ecstatic to get an another event for the weekend....however, it was crunch time! To most you of this may seem like plenty of time to throw it all together, and typically at NBF it would be no big deal. However, we had one slight difficulty...our wholesaler was out of succulents and agave.  And we didn't just need 20, which we could find at a local plant store.  We needed 70 succulents!!!!  Seventy stems of roses is a land slide, but succulents...another story.  Since Ali, the creative director at Relevent NYC, specifically requested succulents and agave for the event which was featuring Don Julio Tequila (tequila is made from agave), substitutions were out of the question!  We had no choice, but to produce exactly what the client requested.

So....our adventure began.  We placed the order for the succulents Friday morning hoping and praying they would make it to Chicago on time.  Since, the succulents were coming from Holland there was no time for delays.  The earliest they would arrive into Chicago was late Saturday night.  We knew our minds weren't going to rest until we had the succulents in our hands.  On Sunday at the crack of dawn, we grabbed a cup of Joe and took a road trip to a warehouse by the airport....hoping to find our little treasures. Oh, they had ARRIVED! We were jumping up and down, and grinning ear to ear like kids in a candy store. For once, O'Hare was on time (Haha).  We jetted back to the city to begin designing our masculine creations.  By Sunday eve we had finished the centerpieces....AND it was time to nap! 

On Monday, we delivered at 11:30am sharp to Gallery 1028 for set up.  Ali was truly pleased with our designs. Whew!!!  Time to breathe....breathe....breathe.  Another Successful event for NBF.

Wonder what kind of excitement next week has in store for us.......

Comparing Floral Wedding Proposals

When it comes to choosing the perfect floral design company for your wedding, many clients quickly realize that the search for a florist can be endless.  Deciding who to entrust with your floral decore often comes down to referrals, online reviews and/or which vendor appears to offer the most flowers per dollar spent.

Which leads me to the subject of this blog post: How to compare wedding/event floral proposals and where discrepancies can occur.

As a smart consumer, you should gather about three proposal from different vendors for each facet of their wedding to compare and contrast.  The vendor you choose should be based on how well you connected with them during the consultation, the quality of service they provide, and yep, you guessed it...budget.  

When comparing proposals provided by different floral vendors, we find it best to keep in mind the following 3 variables when decided which florist to select: the type of flowers, the quantity of flowers and the quality and creativity of florist's work.

1.  Types of flowers

There are a wide variety of flowers all varying in price; therefore, no two bouquets are exactly the same unless they have the same exact flowers listed in the design and the exact amount.  At NBF, each bouquet is custom designed to the individual and never just an estimated price.  Below are two examples of bridal bouquets. We will explain how they differ below:

• Example Bouquet #1:  A round style bouquet of white blooms, including mini white callas.  The bouquet will be wrapped in white ribbon.

• Example Bouquet #2:   A round, romantic bouquet of lush white peonies, white japhet orchids, white polar star roses, white phalaenopsis orchids, mini white callas, white sweet peas, white freesia, and white ranunculus.  The bouquet will be wrapped in white sateen of a corset style and accented with crystals. (A bouquet by Natural Beauties Floral)

A quick comparison of the 2 example bouquets establishes that each bouquet is all white and includes mini white callas. However, Bouquet #1 neglects to mention the additional blooms the florist intends to include in the bouquet. Perhaps they may only include two other blooms, such as roses and ranunculus.  Even though each bouquet may have the exact same number of blooms, Bouquet #2 includes pricier blooms, like japhet orchids and peonies. Therefore, the price of the two bouquets cannot be compared based on the types of flowers provided by each floral designer.

2.  Quantity and quality of flowers

Typically proposals do not include the number of flower stems in each design as this varies for every design.  Some floral designers may not even figure out an exact amount when giving an initial proposal; generalizing their pricing to every bride.  However, at NBF we take the time to figure out exactly what we are including in each design.  This way there are few, if any, changes from the initial proposal to the final.  

Typically, these numbers are not listed in the proposal; however, a general diameter of an arrangement can be given at anytime.  Since, the quantity of blooms are not listed in proposal, again this makes it difficult to compare two arrangements provided by two different floral designers.  

Always ask your florist for a general sizing or request a sample if unsure.  

3.  Quality and creativity of the florist's work

When choosing your wedding florist, the quality of work is an important factor one should consider before making their decision.  One can determine the quality of a designers work by viewing their online gallery, or by asking to view samples of their past work during the consultation.  If you are unable to determine the quality of work and artistic ability of a florist, then ask a friend or family member who is savvy on style and design for help.  

Your floral designer should be up-to-date on all trends, and able to create your wedding floral vision based on your style.  Also, note that if you are going with a company which is artistically creative and detailed in designing, then you are more than likely going to pay a lil more money than what you would for an average florist.  

---

Overall, one can see that comparing floral proposals isn't so straightforward.  They can differ greatly.  When trying to decide between two floral companies for your wedding florist we recommend you ask to see a sample of one of your designs.  Most likely it won't be complimentary, unless you have already committed to the company as your floral vendor.  

Therefore, we suggest purchasing a prototype of your chosen design.  Most likely the florist will allow you to apply this amount to your wedding proposal, if you choose them as your floral vendor. After all, this is a once in a lifetime experience, so why not make sure everything is just as you envisioned it would be for your big day.

Styling: Wedding/Event Floral Decor

As the saying goes..."it's the little things" that not only matter most but often determine the difference between good and great.  We believe this saying holds truth when it comes to designing floral decor for weddings/events.  Yes, the details may be minute in thought and seem rather pointless, however they will make a world of a difference once the big picture comes together.  Before we even begin designing a wedding, first we must determine the style of decor. Once the style is determined, the wheels begin to spin on which details will bring the vision to life.  We will go through the process of how we style a wedding, from the bouquets to the dinner tables.

#1.  Determine the color palette

We recommend choosing one predominant color that is a "must-have" for the wedding/event.  We assist our clients in selecting this color by what the client gravitates towards. The color may be chosen based on their inner persona, an image they viewed on the web, or perhaps the color of the bridesmaids' dresses. We recommend something you will love forever, as your wedding pictures will mostly like be on display for sometime to come.  

Working from the predominant color, we will help you will choose two to three accent colors to compliment the main color.  Also, when playing around with colors, we always recommend one neutral tone, such as slate or champagne. This keeps the decor looking elegant and sophisticated.  A few palettes we think that work lovely together are: 

• slate-yellow-white 
• champagne-peach-blush-pink  
• white-pale-aqua-cantaloupe

If you are having difficultly deciding on a palette, definitely check out one of our favorite color inspiration wesbites, ThePerfectPalette.com.

#2. Determine the style 

Style is often a reflection of your life and personality.  One's personal style can be determined by the way they dress, their home decor, types of places they travel to, or down to one's favorite cocktail.

We design events based on the following decor styles: chic, bohemian, artistic mod, or romantic. Some event/weddings may be designed with a combination of two styles. 

#3. Choose the blooms

Each particular bloom is a reflection of the style of the wedding/event.  

• Chic events are clean, stately, and typically designed in a monochromatic format.  White flowers work best for chic weddings...just simply timeless.  Some of our favorite flowers for chic weddings are callas, orchids, hydrangeas, and roses.

• Bohemian weddings are an eclectic combination of many blooms of various shapes and sizes.  We usually choose a muted color palette of various colors along with a pop here and there of something bold.  Some of our favorite flowers for this style are garden roses, dahlias, veronica, ranunculus, queen anne's lace, scabiosas, and hydrangeas.

• Romantic style events are a collection of various flowers in all shapes and sizes to create depth and texture within the design.  Most romantic flowers are typically round headed flowers, creating femininity and softness to the design.  Any color palette can be designed in a romantic style.  A few of our favorite romantic blooms are roses, dianthus, ranunculus, peonies, berries, lisianthus, and japhet orchids.

• Artistic mod style weddigns are generally very simple, clean, masculine, and architectural in design.  They are often considered minimal, abstract, or even avant garde.  We usually throw in a little bit of flare when designing with this particular style by creating the unusual.  It's as if we are creating contemporary modern art.  The best blooms to use for this style are callas, orchids, diathus (paved format), and holla leaves. 

#4.  Choose containers for centerpieces

The glassware/containers will need to compliment the overall style of the wedding/event.  Again, the littlest details will help achieve the big picture.

• Chic wedding containers are often clear, black, or white glass in the shape of a square, or cylinder. Remember the decor needs to be kept clean-lined.

• Bohemian wedding containers can inhabit a wide variety of shapes and styles to create the eclectic feel.  From tin cans, mason jars, mercury glass, vintage bud vases, to anything in you can find in your grandma's attic. The containers should reflect an archaic, worn-in, rustic feel.

• Romantic wedding containers are often ceramic or glass vases defined by a curvy edge.  We love apothecary jars, and hurricane vases for romantic weddings.

• Artistic mod glassware is very minimal and simple, such as squares, rectangulars, or cylinders. This type of glassware will not compromise the floral art.

#5. Add adornments/embellishments to the decor 

These little details makes a world of a difference in style, yet it's probably the smallest on the list and often forgot about, or seen as not necessary.  

• Chic arrangements are often very clean, we keep the adornments to a minimal for this style. Typically, we will wrap the vase with a sateen sash using one of the wedding colors.  This hides the floral stems keeping things tidy. Also, as an added touch, a simple orchid bloom adorning each guest's napkin.

• Bohemian weddings...let just say its all in the details and adornments in order for this style to be done right. We love wrapping arrangements, bouquets, and boutonnieres in twine, lace, or a vintage pastel velvet. Feathers are also big for this particular style.  They add a whimsical, earthy flair.  A few other little details we love to incorporate in bohemian style weddings are: antlers, bird cages, bell jars, and metallic candlesticks.

• Romantic weddings are best adorned with lots of candlelight...the warmth of the heart.  We love hanging candles off manzanita branches, as well as, various height elevated candles surrounding a lush floral design. We believe candlelight can add an intimate touch to any room.  A few more of our favorite embellishments for romantic weddings are crystals, or ruffled chair covers.  They truly reflect the girlishness in the hopeless romantic.  

• Artistic mod weddings often incorporate industrial elements.  We may used an abundance of wire to wrap bouquets or add structural art to a design.  This is one style where the embellishments are kept to a minimal.

In closing, we hope that you enjoyed learning about Natural Beauties Floral's approach to wedding flowers & event styling. If you are interested in learning more about our styling and design services, please feel free to contact us at (312) 243-2690 or email us at info@naturalbeautiesfloral.com to set up a consultation.

Florally,

Jan & Jillian Yuhas

Fall Ombre Bridesmaids Bouquets

Ombre Bridesmaids Bouquets

Ombre: adj.; a graduation in tone or color.  This fall wedding incorporated a color palette of golden yellow, orange, and burgundy.  In order to achieve the ombre effect we started with the palest color, yellow, and began creating the first bouquet.  Bouquet #2, we used the initial color, yellow, while gradually adding in the second chosen color of blooms, orange.  Movin' along...we did the same for the rest of the bouquets until we eventually created the darkest bouquet of the color palette, burgundy. As you can see, the ombre design creates an artistic element throughout the romantic bridesmaid bouquets.

The yellow blooms we used were: craspedia, spray roses, hypericum berries, yarrow, carnations, and ranunculus

The orange blooms: spray roses, dahlias, carnations, hypericum berries, ranunculus

The burgundy blooms: spray roses, ranunculus, carnations, hypericum berries, astillbe, asters

A Summer Sunset of Color at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago

 Kris and Alisha's wedding at Galleria Marchetti

When Kris and Alisha walked in to our shop for their floral consultation they came with a blank slate and their cheery personalities. They mentioned they didn't have a vision for their florals, except that they wanted something summery and fun!  Alisha had decided upon an eggplant color for her bridesmaids' dresses, so whatever we decided upon for florals was going to have to compliment the amethyst dresses.  After we got to know these two lovebirds, we knew lots of vibrant color what was the answer to reflect their happy-go-lucky personalities and warm summer wedding (was 110 degrees on their wedding day).

Alisha's bouquet was a bold combo of yellow cymbidium orchids, eggplant callas, yellow craspedia, red gerrondos, burnt orange lilies, amethyst trachelium, and accents of lily grass.  The bridesmaids' bouquets were a smaller version of Alisha's.  Kris and his gents wore red gerrondos accented with yellow craspedia, amethyst trachelium, and lily grass.

The ceremony and reception took place at Galleria Marchetti.  For the ceremony decor, we sprinkled the aisle with circus rose petals and adorned the chairs with hand-ties of burnt orange lilies, craspedia, and trachelium.  As for the garden arbor, we intertwined dendrobium and mokara orchids up each side.

At the reception, Kris and Alisha went with all tall arrangements of romantic/gardenesque curly willow adorned with amethyst dendrobium orchids, orange mokara orchids, yellow oncidium orchids, and red james story orchids.  Each arrangement with lit with hanging candles.

Thank you to Peter Pawinski Photography for these rockin pics!

Its a yellow and blue wedding at the Union League Club of Chicago

Laura and Jeff's wedding at the Union League Club

When we first met Laura, she mentioned she loved the combo of yellow flowers with blue accents. And who doesn't love yellow? We definitely think its a fun color to work with, especially on your wedding day.  Yellow represents happiness, as in happily ever after.... so the story goes.  As we began talking about designs and flowers with Laura, she mentioned a few of her favorites: roses, button mums, freesia, and chrysanthemums. Luckily, all the flowers she loved naturally were available in golden yellow. 

On the day of Laura and Jeff's wedding, we were overjoyed to show Laura her dream bridal bouquet. Her bouquet was designed with white freesia, white chrysanthemums, yellow roses, yellow button mums, white sweat peas, and yellow carnations. To finish the look, the bouquet was embellished with a navy blue ribbon with a white criss-cross overlay. Also, we adorned the wrap with Laura's grandmother's rosary.  It's always touching to add a memory trinket to your bridal bouquet.

The reception was held at the Union League Club of Chicago.  As for the centerpieces, Laura decided on two individual styles which are featured above. As a designer, its always fun to play around with centerpiece options.  This creates depth and character within the room.

Thank you to Cristina g for the lovely images above. 

Purple Wedding Flowers at Chicago's Swissotel....Oh My!

Shannon & John's regal wedding flowers

This was the second wedding we were asked to design for this family.  We had the honor of designing Shannon's (the bride) brother's wedding last year.  They both went for a bold color scheme, however they chose very different styles.  Shannon wanted the romantic grand affair, while her brother and sister-in-law chose artistic floral elements.

Shannon and John's wedding ceremony took place in the park behind the swissotel.  The weather was perfect that day for an outside wedding, given Chicago's sketchy weather this summer.  So luck was already on their side! As we set-up the ceremony decor, the bride's father assisted in marking of the area in the park from the public for where his daughter's wedding was about to take place.  We adorned the aisle with lush purple hydrangeas and strung crystals and orchids from the garden arbor.  Down the aisle, the maids carried romantic bouquets of purple lisiathus, lavender freesia, plum phalaenopsis orchids, and eggplant carnations. The bouquets were adorned with a platinum wrap to compliment the girls' two-toned dresses.  The gents wore purple phalaenopsis blooms as their buttonholes.  

As for Shannon's bridal bouquet, she requested something modern yet romantically elegant.  We created her bouquet with white japhet orchids, white garden roses, delicate white spray roses, and ruffled white carnations.  The bouquet was wrapped in white sateen adorned with crystals.

After the bride and groom tied the knot, it was off to the reception.  The centerpieces were a combination of short and tall.  The short centerpieces were a tri-design of purple mokara orchids, violet lisianthus, and amethyst hydrangeas.  The tall designs were romantic lush balls of lavender spray roses, purple mokara orchids, eggplant carnations, amethyst stock, and purple alstroemeria.  The purple blooms illuminated the room throughout the night.

Thank you to Melissa Diep Photography for her wonderful images.

A Pink Affair at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago

Jennifer and Matt's wedding at Galleria Marchetti

When we first met Jennifer, she had her mind set on a romantic English Garden wedding theme. She brought in a few pictures to help describe her color palette and vision. After looking at various floral books, she hand picked her favorite wedding flowers. She chose blushing anna roses, champagne sahara roses, pink godeita, navy blue viburnum berrries, ruffled variegated pink carnations, pink cottage yarrow, green bulperum, and english ivy. Jennifer mentioned she was having her reception at Galleria Marchetti. It is such a unique venue that features one of kind outdoor affairs, I knew it was a the perfect location to capture the true essense of an English Garden wedding. After we began finalizing all the details, Jennifer mentioned using stone pedestals for the centerpieces. My sister and I went on a scavenger hunt finding the perfect stone pedestals. The natural stone pedestals featured the soft romantic garden centerpieces .

Bridal Bouquet for Photo Shoot at the Trump

It was mid-morning....enjoying my cup of coffee, when I decided to create a bridal bouquet for this lovely photo shoot I was partaking in at the Trump Hotel.  My sister and I were asked by our friend, Colin Lyons Photography, to lend a hand by showcasing bridal gowns for our mutual friend Alice Padrul Bridal Couture. The love and passion for flowers just kicked me to my feet as I randomly strolled through buckets of flowers at my wholesaler. I knew I wanted something that complemented my natural skin tone, as well as the dresses I would be wearing for the shoot. Picking the flowers on a whim was invigerating and exciting due its spontanity of something fresh, new, and unplanned. Each bloom I picked was just lovely on its own as it peeked up at me from the bucket of water. After my lovely stroll through the cooler came to an end, I had a hand full of: sage scabiosa, soft silver dusty miller, apricot callas, peach girlie foilies spray roses, cream ranunculus, white pods, moss green wheat, and ivory vendela roses. Sorting through all my lovely finds, I started my creation. My creation transformed into an electic earthy bouquet; a true compliment to my personality. And off to the shoot, my sister and I went to meet our friends at the Trump Hotel.

***This bouquet was featured on www.weddingchicks.com for bouquet recipes.  Also, please check out our vendor listing on www.weddingchicks.com.