Meghan and Peter- A Scrumptious Seasonal Wedding!

Meghan and Peter were one of our first couples of our 2012 wedding season.  And what beautiful, peak-of-the-season blooms they selected for their big day!  We used a combination of Peonies, Ranuculas, French Hydrangea, Spray Roses, and Roses.  The bouquets, in all shades of pink, were a perfect compliment to the navy bridesmaid’s dresses.  We used the same flowers in the centerpieces, so everything flowed together perfectly.  Meghan and Peter were married at Our Lady of the Rosary and their reception followed at The Poughkeepsie Grand. Entertainment was provided by our good friend, Bri Swatek from Spinning with Style.  These beautiful photos are courtesy of our friend Elissa Davidson at EID photography (I especially love the shot of them on the bridge!).  Megan looked absolutely gorgeous in her wedding gown, and I think was one of the happiest brides we have had the pleasure of working with!  We wish her and Peter all the best!!!  Congratulations you two!!!

We were delighted to have worked alongside the following vendors:

Venue: The Poughkeepsie Grand

Entertainment: DJ Bri Swatek

Photographer: EID Photography

Transportation: Adriano Limo

That’s Fabulous! Friday- The Dreamiest Wedding Video We Have Seen Yet!

I know it has been ages since we have gotten back into our blogging, but as we start to wind down a little, the girls and I are going to try our best to update this blog more.  As most of you know we work VERY long hours here, especially the night before our weddings.  During one of these very late nights, just as I was about to shut down my computer, I got a notification that someone had posted on our Facebook page.  Well when I clicked on the link, the most BEAUTIFUL little movie appeared.  Although my hands were filled with splinters and cuts, and covered in glue; my eyes were so tired that I could barely see out of them, and my back felt like it was broken; when I watched this video it all melted away.  I was once again reminded of why I LOVE MY JOB so very, very much!  I hope you all enjoy.  Erik and Nicole were one of my favorite couples, stay tuned for more on their 100% green flowers.  And until next time, enjoy your weekend everyone!

~Heather

Nicole + Erik from Fred Lee on Vimeo.

Good things come to those who wait…

As many of you know we have had our busiest year yet, so much so that we had to move to yet another larger space.  While all of this is absolutely wonderful and we are thrilled to be working so much, it is a little difficult to accommodate all of the new 2013 couples who have been contacting us for consult appointments.

Please understand, we are very focused and committed to all of our current 2012 couples and are doing everything we can to ensure their events are perfect.   We assure you that the same attention will be given to your events in 2013, and know you wouldn’t want us distracted by lots of meetings and estimate writing during your wedding weeks.  Because of this, we are not going to be taking any more consult appointments until November.

But there is a silver lining!  To show you our appreciation for your patience, we will be offering a few discounts, beginning in November.  We do welcome all new inquiries at this time and will happily help you to get the ball rolling; however we will not be meeting with any new couples until after October.  Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding.

~Heather

Peonies, a Cautionary Tale

I am writing this blog to help ANYONE having a difficult time trying to force fresh cut Peonies to open.

I love Peonies!  Who doesn’t? I have never had too much trouble with them.  I once had crummy ones a few Decembers ago, but I passed them off  as a random, off season duds.  So I thought nothing of working with them for my spring wedding this past weekend.  I have never had a problem with in season Peonies.  It seemed simple enough, Roses, Spray Roses, Ranuculas, and Peonies.  Piece of cake, right? WRONG.

These Peonies were “bullet tight,” as florists call them.  Rock solid, not going to budge, tight as could be.  So I began my normal regimen of coaxing tighter bloomed ones to open.  Place in hot water with the proper floral solution, place on sunny windowsill.  This did nothing.  So an hour or two later, I recut them shorter, placed back in fresh hot water, misted them with water, wrapped the bucket and all buds in clear plastic, and placed them back on the windowsill.  I went home shortly after doing this, expecting there to be significant progress by morning.  Well when I returned, only one had opened, and it was still only about 50%.

It was time for the dunking technique.  I took each bud and dunked it into hot water, and shook it up and down, hoping to loosen the outer petals from the force of the water.  I left them upside down for about 5 minutes.  I re-cut them, placed into more fresh hot water, recovered them, and again, placed on the windowsill.  I repeated this technique every few hours.  I also plugged in a space heater, but kept it a safe distance, for fear that I might scorch the little buds.

When this technique STILL wasn’t working the night before the wedding I got my space heater, the brightest desk lamp I had, and repeated the same dunk, mist, cover technique but created a little heating area for them, surrounded by tall buckets and plastic.  Well I was finally able to tease them open at this point.  It was a VERY late night.

A few of them still weren’t open by the morning, so I cut them super short and used them in centerpieces, rather than put them into the bouquets.  Fortunately by the time we were pulling the van into the venue driveway, almost every one of the buds finally “popped”.  But not without a TON of help.

So the next time you question whether or not you should hire a professional to create your wedding florals, consider this story.  And if you are one of the professionals who is stuck in this situation, know you are not alone!  I think we have all been in this kind of situation at one time or another.  I would love to hear similar stories if you have one to share!

~Heather

P.S. If you were one of my brides trying to contact me this week and I was slow to respond, this is why.  And I assure all of you the same care and attention will be given to your florals should any blooms not cooperate as they should 🙂  Thanks so much for bearing with me, and your patience everyone!!!

Tuscan Themed Rehearsal Dinner- Locust Grove

No time to write much folks, we are full swing into wedding season over here!  Here is a lovely arrangement we created for a rehearsal dinner at Locust Grove today.  The party hosts opted to have us create one large focal point piece containing Lemons, fresh herbs, Ranuculas, Freesia, and Roses.  They elected to create their own custom centerpieces with the help of our by the bunch offerings with gorgeous Ranuculas and Olive Branches.  It is going to be one beautiful event by the time it all comes together!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

~Heather

Shadow Lawn Wedding Published on Style Me Pretty This Week!

I was so excited to see this wedding published on Style Me Pretty yesterday!

http://www.stylemepretty.com/new-york-weddings/2012/03/26/shadow-lawn-wedding-by-oh-darling-photography/#comments

Debbie and Mike were one of my favorite couples of 2011!!!  I have even more beautiful pictures of the flowers and details from this wedding that I REALLY need to get up on our website!  I’ll try my best sometime this week.

Debbie was a delightful bride to work with, and she left us the sweetest feedback!  Here is what she had to say:

“OMG! Heather is AMAZING! First of all, she is SOOO nice and fun to talk to. The flowers were something that I thought I didn’t care about – however, when I saw how beautiful they came out, I realized that they/SHE is one of the vendors that I am SO happy with! I wasn’t always sure that Heather understood what I wanted because its hard to communicate through email. But once we discussed everything, I felt like I was in good hands. Well, I didn’t know how good it was! The suggestions Heather made combined with my ideas just came out amazing. Heather is truly passionate about her job and loves what she does – and it shows! We had amazing flowers that didn’t break our budget. And I’m pretty sure I had the most beautiful bouquet ever 🙂 Heather wrapped the bouquet in material from a vintage victorian dress – who goes to that much trouble to get the details perfect?”

Thanks again Debbie, the pleasure was all mine!!!  I’m still getting non-stop requests for your bouquet!

~Heather