Today's Bridal Show - Huge Success!

We had an awesome day today at the Gwinnett Civic Center bridal show! Thanks to everyone who came out! We received so many compliments on our creative and beautiful designs, I thought I would post what our booth looked like. Below are a few images of the tables we had set up.. Consultations are already underway and I'm looking forward to meeting my future clients!!!

This was the overall look of our booth. We set up three tables with varying vignettes. I can't really say for sure which one was the favorite; everyone seemed to love them all! Can't complain about that!

The first vignette was a combination of blue, green, yellow, and ivory. The high rise centerpiece was designed using a trumpet vase with a floral wreath at the base. For this design, I used pale blue hydrangeas, blue delphinium, ivory roses, buplerum, and solidaster.

The bouquet also had ivory roses, and blue hydrangeas, and buplerum, but I also added green cymbidium orchids and ivory sweetheart roses. Everyone really loved this bouquet! The bouquet handle was wrapped in blue ribbon - a perfect match to the blue linen overlay.

The second vignette incorporated pinks, greens, and ivory with black being the accent color. For this tabletop centerpiece, I used a black candleholder and champagne roses and sweetheart roses, pale pink roses, green hydrangeas and pink waxflower.

The bouquet was a smaller version of the centerpiece and I also added buplerum and tulips. This bouquet was absolutely LOVED by one of our brides-to-be (20 years from now - she was only eight years old!), but she carried it down the aisle during the fashion show! She loved it so much that I couldn't take it back after her wonderful performance on stage - that one went home with her!

The third vignette was a spectacular vivid summer palatte featuring bright colors including yellow, orange, and purple. I used variegated purple dendrobium orchids and lily grass to fill the three eifel tower vases and I incorporated them into the base design as well. I also used orange roses, yellow lilies, purple stock and statice, green fugi mums, and blue delphinium.

Bridal Show THIS Sunday!

Come see us at the Gwinnett Civic Center THIS Sunday, June 27th from 1:00 - 5:00 PM for the Elite Events Bridal show!

We'll have several vignettes featuring timeless classics as well as a vivid summer palatte! You'll see bouquets, centerpieces, ceremony decor, and plenty of photos in our extensive portfolio. You can also register to win great prizes!

You don't want to miss this show! Hope to see you there!

Allerie's Wedding

When I first sat down with Allerie to discuss her wedding, she had just four words to say to me, "Blue and green M&M's." Her wedding color scheme was an exact match of those colors. Easy enough for me to picture in my head, but before I purchased any ribbon, flowers, or other decor, I had to go out and buy me a pack just to make sure. It was definitely a pleasure to double check those colors!

Allerie's photographer was great! Alea Moore Photography focused on all the right details of Allerie's special day and was very easy to work with. You will see her work in the pictures that follow:

The bridesmaids dresses were black with either a blue or green sash. Allerie's bouquet consisted of beautiful lady slipper orchids and roses. The bridesmaids carried roses, blue delphinium, and green hypericum berries in their bouquets.

I really loved the idea of the blue and green M&M's, so as an added touch for Allerie's wedding, I purchased these adorable little purses and filled them with her favorite candy for all the bridesmaids as a way of labeling each of their bouquets. And, of course Allerie received one too!

For the reception, Allerie rented beautiful table runners in blue and green. I designed her centerpieces with blue delphinium submerged in varying heights of cylinder vases with eith blue gems or green rocks and floating candles at the top. Simple and fun, yet very elegant.

You can see more phots from Allerie's wedding by visiting our Floral Festivities main website.

Jela'ni and Andra's wedding

Jela'ni and Andra got married at Ft. McPherson on July 11, 2009. She chose two shades of fuchsia as her main wedding colors and her flowers of choice were calla lilies, roses, and gerbera daisies. The bridal bouquet was made up of callas, and magenta and fuchsia roses and wrapped in silver ribbon. The bridesmaids carried the two shades of roses also wrapped in silver ribbon.

The ceremony took place outside at a gazebo. Jela'ni chose to have the entire gazebo draped in fabric and we provided the flower arrangements. To maintain the color scheme, we used snapdragons, roses, gladiolas, gerbera daisies, and alstromeria. It was 97 degrees outside so I made sure we used flowers that would hold up for many hours in that heat!

Jela'ni and Andra had over 250 guests attend their wedding and had almost 30 tables for the reception. The head table arrangements, shown here, were lined with eight 5x5x5 glass cube arrangements. Each vase was wrapped with an aspidtra leaves and had an assortment of flowers in Jela'ni's color scheme.

For the guests table, the bride chose to have cute and simple arrangments that would compliment the head table, but would be more cost effective since there were so many tables. One style was a grouping of gerbera daisies. The two vases are wrapped with aspisdra leaves which maintains unity for all arrangments and groupings look nice in odd numbers. For the third grouping, we just designed a small cluster of gerberas to sit directly on the table.

These are just some photos we took while setting up the wedding. I'll be posting some professional pictures just as soon as they become available.

How To Best Convey To Your Florist Your Chosen Wedding Color Scheme

So, you've picked out the perfect wedding dress. Although it took several trips to the bridal boutique and many emails and phone conversations with your bridesmaids, you have also amazingly found the perfect bridesmaid dresses. The tuxedos are ordered with the most perfect matching vests and everything seems to be falling into place. What's next? The flowers, of course.

What is the best way to convey what you envision to your wedding florist? Well, the best way to get an accurate match for your wedding flowers is to bring your florist a swatch from the bridesmaid dresses at the time of your consultation.

If an actual swatch of the material is impossible to get (and sometimes it is), then we resort to the next best thing. I would ask you bring in a piece of ribbon from a local craft store that is very close to the colors you are using for your wedding party. In other words, the best possible option is to have something in hand when you come to the consultation to convey what color, and shades of color, you wish to have for your flowers.

Clients frequently ask if they can bring me a silk flower to match the flowers to. While this is not the best option, it isn't completely out of the question. Silk flowers lose the vibrance of real flowers and are often made in non-realistic shades. I have brides bring in silk flowers and say to me, "This is EXACTLY what I want." I have to explain to them that there is almost NO chance of getting the exact same flower in the exact same shade. Simply put, real flowers look real, and silk flowers do not. It is a good tool to use, but you need to understand that real flowers will look different than silk flowers - every single time.

My least favorite tool for matching colors for a client's wedding is the use of internet sites showing flowers and colors. Don't get me wrong, I think the available internet sites are a great tool for showing clients the actual flowers (for example, what delphinium looks like), but in no way do I want to depend on the computer resoloution for shades of color. Just about every flower website you visit will have a caption at the bottom of the screen saying that they are not responsible for the accuracy of the shades of color that are presented on the screen. I have run into this many times when working with clients. I may suggest a Hot Princess rose, for example, and their first reaction is that they want to see a picture of what I'm talking about. I pull up the flower on a website only to be disappointed to find that the flower showing on the computer is not even remotely close to what I know a Hot Princess rose actually looks like.

The best way to communicate with your florist and make sure that you get the look you want is to show your florist something that is the same color as what you want your flowers to look like. Then, let your florist let you know if that color exists in the fresh flower world. Your floirst may not be able to show you a real life example of each and every flower type she chooses, but at some point you will need to trust the person you've chosen to be your florist.

Tiffany's Wedding

This was one of my favorite bouquets for the spring wedding season. Some might suggest that this is more of a holiday bouquet, but I wholeheartedly disagree! Although this bridal bouquet is red, green and white in color, the flowers themselves are definitely spring time selections. Made up of gerbera daisies, peonies, ranunculus, tulips, and freesia, I love the textures and variety this bouquet offers.

A Wedding WITHOUT Bridal Party Flowers!

I was intrigued when I met with a client about her upcoming wedding and she revealed to me that she would not like to have a bridal bouquet for her wedding! In ten years of meeting with brides, this was a new one for me! She proceeded to tell me that she would not be having any bridesmaids and, thus, would not need any bridesmaid bouquets. She went on to say no corsages, no boutonnieres, no flower girl, no ring bearer.

I put my pen down on the table absolutely amazed at what was taking place. As it turned out, this bride only needed flowers for the ceremony, reception, and guestbook table. BUT, she knew exactly what flowers she wanted: paperwhites and orchids.

Jennifer's wedding took place on Saturday, March 21 at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Atlanta. It was an intimate gathering of only about 40 guests attending. I designed this arrangement for the firelplace which incorporates white and green dendrobium orchids, cymbidium orchids, paperwhites, and lily grass. The vases had a flowing feel although they were actually three separate designs.

For the cockail hour, we kept the theme of the orchids and placed oversized votives on each table with a submerged cymbidium orchid surrounded by small river rocks. There was also a miniature version of the larger firelplace arrangment (above) done on a smaller fireplace in this room as well.

Jennifer loved the idea of having an Asian feel for her wedding with also a rustic and natural presence in her decor. For the reception centerpieces, she chose to maintain the continuity of using a glass container, but we filled it with polished river rocks. She wanted a very airy design of curly willow with just some blooms of dendrobium orchids in green and white. These were a great design which added a great amount of height to the room, but were airy enough for the guests to easily communicate with one another during the reception.