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

That’s Fabulous Friday!- Published, a HUGE Birthday Present, and Even More!

I know, I know, “come on Heather, where are all these blogs?”!  Sorry folks, but what an exciting spring this is turning into for us!  There are so many happy things to report lately!

First of all we were published again, this time on The Plunge Report with Jillian and Jamie’s absolutely LOVELY fall wedding!  Here is the link:

http://theplungeproject.com/real-wedding-jillian-jamies-elegant-homespun-wedding

Then a monumental event occurred, on my birthday of all days!  Preston Bailey (my all-time FAVORITE floral designer), actually commented on his blog about something I wrote in response to one of his questions, and posted a picture of one of my designs on his website!! I was beyond overjoyed!  For years I would read his “Design For Entertaining” book before I fell to sleep at night.  I loved that book so much,  I used to bring it to work with me while I was working at another flower shop, and drive my coworkers crazy with it.  He is the florist I most admire, for his relentlessly brave, innovative and BEAUTIFUL floral creations!  This is surely one of the very greatest honors in my life!  Here is the link if you don’t believe me:

http://blog.prestonbailey.com/2012/03/09/friendly-friday-great-ideas-for-dealing-with-tricky-guests/

We have also recently become very good friends with another artist here in our building and can’t wait to show you some of the things we have been cooking up!  You’ll have to wait until April to find out more.  And there may even be a Free Flower Friday or two coming soon, so if you haven’t “liked” A Night in Bloom on Facebook yet, now would be a good time to do so!

 Have a great weekend everyone!!!

~Heather

Mompreneur Mondays- Gardening With Your Kids

From a very early on I have involved my children in gardening activities.  One of my proudest moments as a flower mama was when Matthew plucked a crunched up dry leaf off of an African Violet and wrinkled his nose at it.  He was about one and a half at the time.

It hasn’t always been easy doing garden work with my little ones, however I have noticed that one of the easiest way to get Matthew to snap out of a bad mood is to put him to work; carrying heavy buckets of dirt and watering cans, and digging around rocks.  Not only does it give him some exercise and tire him out, but it is a great way of distracting him from whatever put him in a bad mood in the first place.  I recently began a winter project planting tons of Echiveria/ Hens and Chicks, and involved him in the process.

For his first activity, I buried all of the plants under tons of potting soil.  I had him bring his Firetrucks along and dig and “rescue” the Hens and Chicks.  Once he did that, I showed him how to plant them and water and mist each one with misting bottles.  Have you ever seen a four year old or toddler with a mister or water gun?  It doesn’t get much better!

In the days that followed we had his mini bulldozers in the dirt, filling flower pots and vintage teacups for me.  Messy and dirty?  For sure!  But he absolutely LOVED it!  And we had beautiful potted plants to enjoy at the studio and at home!  Of course if you are going to try this type of activity with your own children you must supervise them, this isn’t an activity where you want to leave your kiddos to their own devices.

Since the Hens and Chicks were such a hit, we have now moved on to fresh herb gardens and are having tons of success with them as well.  Stay tuned for more reports on our progress and stories on how we are slowly getting Violet (our one year old) involved too!

  Here is a photo of one of our finished creations 🙂

That’s Fabulous Friday- Supporting the Locals, and Signs of Spring!

This has been one CRAZY week!  As you have probably noticed I already skipped a Way Back Wednesday blog entry.  What can I say, business is going really well for us these days, and I couldn’t be happier or feel more blessed!  Not only do we have so many beautiful weddings ahead of us, but some of you have become such good friends, that much like our couples of the past, you keep my work from actually feeling like work.  Thank you all so much!

The first most fabulous piece of news to report is that gluttonous displays of wealth, via floral designs, have become a thing of the past.  See ya later entire carpet of rose petals! It just seems inappropriate to fill large vases with fruit slices when so many families are struggling to even put food on the table these days.  Rather than opting for gigantic topiary balls stuffed with Roses on tall glass vases (that all end up in the dumpster), Hudson Valley couples seem to be requesting understated, but very elegant floral displays.  This new trend is carried out by  incorporating reusable rental items, recycled materials, and locally and domestically grown flowers, plants and produce.  Make no mistake, the weddings will be just as beautiful (and in many cases, just as pricey) as those with the towering candleabras.  However they will incorporate much more customized focal point tables, such as place card tables and bar areas.  And even better news is that our LOCAL economy will benefit from this trend!  We are currently looking into a way to recycle wedding flowers as per many of your requests, and will keep you posted once we have finalized this type of offering.  Hopefully by the end of this month.

The second piece of fabulous news this week is that spring may be arriving early!  Although we actually had snow yesterday and the day before,  I did notice some early signs of spring earlier in the week.  On one of my walks I saw some Crocus, and the Tulips are already emerging from the ground at my house!

There is plenty more fabulous news to come, but in order to keep reporting on it, I must get back to work!  Have a great weekend everyone!!

~Heather

 

Tips on Tuesday- Fragrance Should Also be a Consideration

It is so easy for brides to get caught up on the look and feel of bouquets and wedding flowers, and there certainly is no shortage of photos to browse through these days.  However I would encourage everyone planning a wedding to consider fragrance as well.  Sense of smell is said to be the strongest sense we have tied to our memories.  So although you may never forget how beautiful your wedding flowers looked, there is nothing like unexpectedly getting a whiff of a flower that may have been incorporated in your bouquet.  So many of my memories are tied to fragrance.  If I ever get a whiff of something that has a memory associated with it, I can almost immediately be taken back to that time.

Some of the most fragrant flowers I would suggest using for wedding work would be: Double Stock Flower, Lily of the Valley, Peonies,  Wax Flower, Sweet Peas, Stephanotis, and Gardenias, just to name a few.

Are any of you incorporating fragrant flowers into your wedding day in some way?  What is your fondest memory tied to scent?

~Heather

 

Mompreneur Mondays- Running a Business with Children Involved

With our production season quickly approaching you will notice these blogs will become shorter and shorter!  This week is all about weighing the pros and cons of keeping your little ones with you, as you work.  For me it is pretty easy for me to have my kids with me during my “off season”.  This time of year I pretty much live at my desk writing estimates, researching, and number crunching.  However there are still a few days out of the week that I do find I need to have my little ones in daycare, just so I can do my grown up work; such as have meetings and make phone calls that cannot be interrupted, etc.  I also feel that my kids benefit from socializing with other children for at least part of the time.

Production season is another story entirely.  I cannot possibly have my children, ages (four and one by the way) underfoot while I am working with glass vases and extremely perishable product.  Occasionally when we are having clean up days and waiting for flowers to arrive, I will have them with me, and I find they absolutely love it!  At least Matthew does (my four year old).  He really enjoys helping me plant flowers, and has been watering my plants and helping me pick up stems since he was two.  I think there are far worse things than having your children grow up learning a trade.

I know many wedding professionals and other Mompreneurs who run successful businesses with their children in tow, and I’m wondering, how do you all handle it?  Do you keep your children with you all the time?  Have them in daycare?  What works best for you?