The Full Bouquet

Come see something pretty, we have moved!!!

We created somthing very pretty, and we are hoping you will stop by for a visit. Please find our new blog The Full Bouquet here. Your going to love our new home, and you should subscribe here! Hurry up, you can make inspiration boards on our new blog. We have abandoned this garden, for greener pastures!!!!

HC

Last weeks lovelies!!!

We have a busy week ahead of us with the potential launch of our new blog, the 86th running of the VA. Gold Cup and one very special bride.  We will be designing, designing, designing. I wanted to quickly show you some of last weeks creations. First up, the rehearsal dinner flowers for one of our events. They were so lovely!!

This event had a really unique and wonderful theme, but I am keeping it a secret until it's big release!

I made this lovely bouquet as an extra bridal bouquet for our Friday bride. I simply could not resist these tree peonies growing in my garden. Once I had finished the design we feared that the huge pollen area of the tree peony could potentially mess up my brides Monique Lhuillier gown. Being always diligent we decided to literally seal in the pollen. We used a paper funnel and spray on acrylic and the pollen could not budge. I loved this bouquet so much I just had to create it. Casey and Miriam got to do the doctor work of adhering the spray.

Our first wedding of the weekend was at the Sunset Room at the National Harbour.

Our bride and groom married on this pier. Photographer Abby Jiu was there to capture the day and I will share the real images from this event very soon. I loved this bride and her mom, we had so much fun designing their wedding. It was also a pleasure to work with Design Cuisine, Chris Laich, and Frost Lighting.

The Place card design.

We designed with 3 different types of centerpieces our first design was a square glass cube. All of the centerpieces featured viburnum from my garden, purple carnations, stock, baroness cabbage roses, tulips, and spay roses. Orchids were added to our taller designs.

Half of the elevated designs were in pilsner vases and half of the designs featured manzanita branches with hanging votives. This was a beautiful wedding.

Saturday's wedding was at Strong Mansion in Dickerson MD. This is such a beautiful wedding location, possibly one of the prettiest views and reflecting pools I have seen.

The ceremony is in front of the reflecting pool. The bride can walk out of the woods or come down the aisle.

I was able to capture this image of the bride and groom right after their "first look."

The bridal bouquet was created with deep red peony, purple hyacinthus, purple phlox, astrantia, blue privet berry, aggies, lavender lilac, purple anemones, and deep purple vandas.  A vintage brooch was pinned onto the bouquet.

A pink peony bud with black privet berry was used for the grooms bout.

Maids carried bouquets that consisted of all the flowers of the day.

Each table featured either our crystal stands, glass votive holders, mercury glass, or vintage glass containers.

Our place card table was to die for...

and the cake was simply stunning.

We may be blogging a little less this week but we will be here working, working, working!!

HC

Photo Shoot With Bride & Groom Washingtonian Magazine

As I anxiously await the next issue of Bride & Groom by Washingtonian Magazine, I am reminded how much fun it was to work on the last issue. You may not know this but we were asked to supply the bouquets for their big photo shoot in Waterford VA.  The shoot was titled Chapel Belles and being a Chapple, I thought that was very fitting.

We invaded the dark and sleeping little village of Waterford at 6:00 am. This is known as "Call time." The props, dresses, makeup, and flowers were all set up in the basement of the Church. Let me also say that Editor in Chief Jill Hudson Neal and most of the Washingtonian staff were also on site at 6am, extremely impressive. Knowing how much work goes into one of these shoots gives me a whole new and huge appreciation for this fabulous magazine. As models, artists, editors and directors got acclimated, scaffolding was built next to the church so that lighting, smoke machines, and photographers could all get where they needed to be. Waterford is a a small historic community in Loudoun County, and the residents are known for being very particular. It was so fun to see the people of the village a buzz with all of the excitement. Villagers gathered on porches to drink coffee and watch the production as if it were a movie.

In the basement there were racks and racks of dresses, tables of makeup, jewelry, props and of couse my flowers.

I was requested to bring some white maids bouquets and I think some pink bouquets. This shoot was always to be about the dresses and the bouquets were merely props, but I wanted the crew to have as many options as they did dresses. So, being the over achiever that I am,  I raced home and grabbed buckets of flowers from the studio. I also whipped up some other fun bouquets. I used the leftovers from the weekend and flowers from my garden to create some more selections for the shoot. I love having lots of options.

I made taupe toned bouquets with scabiosa and seeded euc.

 

I loved these white bouquets and the stem treatment I used...

Burlap and pearls.

Dahlias from my man Don!!!!

Green cabbage roses, green dianthus, green amaranthus, green berry and white tulips were wrapped with bark wire.

I certainly made way more bouquets then the magazine needed but I take every opportunity I get to impress my industry and I also love the chance to create for creations sake. I had so much fun working on this and I was so happy to be able to help with something this incredible. Being on the Washingtonians Best of List as Editors pick has been one of my greatest accomplishments, and quite frankly anytime they need flowers I will happily bring them buckets full.

When I came back to clean up for the day they were finishing one of their last shoots and this image shows just how many people it takes to bring something like this together. One other fun little side note, editor Jill Hudson is so freaking beautiful that she was actually an extra model for this set. It was so fun to look up on the hill and see her modeling.

Design Army of Washington DC was the creative/art director for the shoot and this particular shoot actually won a gold award at the DC Addy's and also a silver award at the District Two Addy's. Here are the pages that were produced in the little village of Waterford. By the way Waterford is just a few minutes from my home and in fairness to all of the other wonderful florists in the DC area probably the reason why I got the gig.

Oddly enough some of my favorite images of the day were created with the additional flowers I ran home for, absolute proof that you should always put in that extra effort, it pays off ten fold. There are no excuses for not putting your heart into something and always doing more than you were asked to do. We provided the flowers for this shoot on a five wedding weekend, managed the kids, and were still able to design with passion for this. One last fun image from the day, my sweet baby Grace in the car at the shoot, but unfortunately she missed the activity.

Be looking for the next issue of Bride and Groom, follow Design Army on Twiiter and Facebook and follow me, I am Holly Heider Chapple, Editors Pick.

Photography for the shoot was by Cade Martin.

HC

 

I BURNT THE PEAS

This is it!!  This is the week that we start designing full throttle and we will be pushing petals non stop from now until Thanksgiving. We are happy to be back to work and in full swing because it means we will be surrounded by incredible blooms almost daily, but this is also the week when I try and get all of the balls I juggle back up in the air.

I juggle and I juggle a lot, but these first weeks back in charge of everything, is an awkward dance I do. It's as if I am learning to juggle for the first time. I have to get all of the balls back in the air and jump in under them and pray they don't hit me on the head. The Winter allows for a slightly calmer time in my life, as if a house with 7 kids and a home based business can ever be called calm. In the Winter months we do not have to produce or write recipes. We primarily do consultations and contracts which happened to also be a 7 day a week job. Now that we are "live" again, we will be spending days writing recipes for our "flower buys", and we will spend many days a week standing at the design tables. Add to that chores like mowing the grass, planting, harvesting, end of school year activities, and actually delivering the wedding flowers, and well, you simply have a full schedule.  It may seem from the outside looking in that we do all of this flawlessly and I will admit the designs are yes, pretty much flawless, but I am not.  Tonight I burnt the peas. I was talking with a designer who needed me, working on the computer, half way watching my baby Grace as she spun around the house, and I forgot to juggle the ball of peas, so they got burnt. In fact I was not even making dinner I was just apparently supposed to be protecting it, and I blew that job.

Wedding vendors everywhere are all getting ready for the start of yet another wonderful wedding season. There is much talk right now about the royal wedding, but no wedding is as important as your wedding, the weddings we will be crafting for you. Wedding vendors are all hands-on craftsmen and they will be physically creating something for you, so please excuse us if we are away from our desks, or at an event. We wedding vendors will be trying to get all of the balls we juggle back up in the air, and watch out because some of us are human. Luckily it's always dinner that suffers, and sometimes the vacuuming, but not your designs! I burnt the peas last night!!

HC

Tricia & Jason Featured On Style Me Pretty

Some of our most favorite weddings from last year have been hidden under lock and key. Tricia and Jason's wedding was one of those events. Yesterday the wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty and can be seen here. From the moment event planner & designer Allison Jackson of Pineapple Productions told me about this event, I knew it would be special. Every element and detail was handled flawlessly by Allison and with photographer Anne Robert to capture the day we were rewarded ten fold for all of our hard work and planning.

Guests and wedding party wove through the vines to make it to the aisle on time.

The bride and groom exhanged vows on the top of a hill at Sharp Rock Vineyard in Sperryville. The mountain veiws were amazing.

 

I love this image of Tricia with her dad. Tricia carried a bouquet of green button mums, orange callas, orange dahlias, and several shades of roses.

Tricia and Jason in the vineyard.

Tricia and Jason with a goat, yes a goat. When Anne sent me the first images, my first question was " where did the goat come from?' Being a very clever photographer she found and borrowed the goat. Such a fun shot.

I loved creating this piece with dahlias from the amazing Don. This design welcomed guests on the lemonade table and was later used during the cocktail hour.

This fabulous Ikat fabric was the featured pattern of the day. It was used to create boards to display the  place cards, pillows for lounging areas, and custom table runners.

Perfect right? My vintage milk glass vases were used for the centerpieces with popping bright orange flowers.

Every element about this wedding was so much fun and comfortable.

Perhaps my favorite image of the day, our beautiful bride.

Please make sure you visit our post  on Style Me Pretty, you will be able to see more images from the day. Anne's work is amazing and you won't want to miss a single photograph. Many thanks to Allison for designing such an incredible event. This wedding is one we can all be proud of. It was an honor to provide the flowers for this special day.

HC