In this photo you can see Heather’s awesome hair and bouquet:

THEN:

WEDDING STATS:

Couple: Heather & Joe
Wedding Date: June 27, 2008
Venue/s: Manzo’s Banquets
Colors: Gray, Purple, Magenta, Blue
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NOW:

LIFE UPDATE:

How Long has it been since your wedding?
2 years and about 3 months

What is your best advice for brides-to-be?
Don’t be cheap when it comes to the photographer.

What is your best memory from your wedding?
The speeches. All of them were great, especially my step-dad’s.

How IS married life? Any Advice for surviving the first year?
Married life is great. It’s all about compromise. You can stand your ground when you disagree, but it’s okay to share, and it’s okay to show a little humility.

Do you have any NEWS you want to share (pets, jobs, moves, babies, homes)?
No news really. We have a dog, Malachy. No kids, not yet.

This is me and Matt enjoying the wedding:

Stephanie’s bouquet was one of my favorites of all time. It combined shades of white with just the right amount of purple and blue accents. Flowers included roses, hydrangea, lisianthus, delphinium, spray roses, Stephanotis and orchids. The handle was wrapped in champagne satin with an ivory organza overlay and double S rhinestone monogram at the top.
The bridesmaids carried bold bouquets of dark purple, blue, raspberry, fuchsia, burgundy and champagne. All of the bouquets worked perfectly with the dresses and the bouts complimented them as well. The wrist corsages were a bold jewel-toned mix of blooms as well.

For the outdoor ceremony, we put shepherd’s hooks down the aisle with cardstock cones hanging from them with navy ribbons filled with a stem of purple hydrangea. We also put out one of my museum columns with supplies for a wine ceremony on it. The ceremony aisle hydrangea was later recycled for the cocktail hour centerpieces and cake.

For the reception, we had bubble bowls surrounded by votive candles and filled with lily grass that were filled with a stem of purple hydrangea after the ceremony. In the foyer, there was our card holder with a floral decoration on the top and ribbons in bold jewel tones adorning it. I also made a large, showy mixed arrangement for the escort card table. When you finally made it to the reception room, you were wowed with the stunning flowers, candles and linens. The family table was adorned with textured gold fabric provided by my friends at The Chair Couture. The guest tables had a contrasting navy linen on them. The juxtaposition of the two linen colors was perfect. On the family table, we did a long spread of candlesticks, votives, mixed full flower arrangements, petals and vases for the bouquets. For the guest tables we did a trio of submerged that were mixed with gold branches and wire. For the cake, I added purple hydrangea around the top and tiers. I also designed a monogrammed aisle runner for Steph and Steve as well as their GOBO which the DJ shined on the dancefloor.

I really enjoyed working with Stephanie and she picked a fabulous, picturesque venue and fabulous vendors including Cynthia Sally (MUA), Amy Christian (photographer), Karolina (DOC) and The Chair Couture (specialty linens). And I suppose you could include us along with those FABULOUS vendors she chose!

One of the things I loved most about Stephanie is that she wanted a WOW-factor and was very receptive to my ideas and suggestions. We checked out her venue and brainstormed a color scheme, we chose linen colors to compliment our floral arrangements and provide a big WOW-factor to the guests and she had a lot of great ideas and DIY projects of her very own which worked perfectly with the pieces I designed.

Stephanie and Steve are madly and passionately in love and she wanted that conveyed at the wedding and I think we achieved that feeling. There was certainly a lot of love in the air and everyone really enjoyed themselves. I will miss working with Stephanie and her event remains one of my favorites ever!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Hesser!

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Kate gave me free reign over the design and color scheme of her bouquet and Bob’s bout, they just had to be inspired by the bright, bold colors of Carnivale’s decor.

I had extra bright petals to decorate the sweet heart, highboy and guest tables and Carnivale provided some colorful glass votive holders to add to the mix. It looked great against the black linens and black chiavari chairs.

The cake was another story, Kate found photos of a cake she LOVED and wanted me to mimic it exactly. Everything turned out perfect in the end and Kate and Bob could not have been happier!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Kastner!

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For the personal flowers, Lauren carried a bouquet of vanda orchids, blue Bombay dendrobium orchids, purple stock, green cymbidium orchids, blue hydrangea, and lisianthus. The bridesmaids bouquets had blue hydrangea, button poms, purple stock, green hypericum berries, green mini cymbidium orchids and blue Bom dendros. The bouts and corsages were all made of orchids in purple, blue and green shades. The flower girl wand was awesome. I really am glad we decided to add the blue-dyed Bombay dendrobium orchids to the mix–that was a game time decision for us!

For the ceremony, we hung blue hydrangea from lime green ribbon from the chairs going down in the aisle. I also painted a monogrammed aisle runner for the aisle.

For the reception, we did 2 showy tall arrangements for the gift and escort card table that combined orchids, Bells of Ireland, Hydrangea, stock and curly willow branches. We did even taller versions of them with delphinium added to the mix for half of the centerpieces and the other half were submerged blue hydrangea with floating candles on top. The cake was decorated with orchids and orchid heads were also scattered on the head table, escort card table, cake table and gift table. I also did cute signs on 10 of my vases for the cookie buffet which looked really cute! It was really hard not to eat any of the cookies while setting up!

I enjoyed working with Lauren and she was such a gorgeous bride! I am so glad to have been a part of her wedding and wish her an AJ a lifetime of happiness!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Reineking!

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For the personal flowers, Megan wanted a white and purple bouquet of hydrangea, peonies, cymbidium orchids, sweet pea and vanda orchids. It looked fabulous and smelled awesome! The handle was wrapped in a piece of her Grandmother’s dress and there were 2 charms with photos of her Father and Grandparents in them. The bridesmaids wore plum dresses with eggplant waist bands and carried bouquets of mostly purple with green accents and emerald green handles. They also got an initial charm tied around their handles as an added accent. The corsages and bouts consisted of orchids, orchids and more orchids!

For the ceremony, we just did a monogrammed aisle runner and DIY bride Megan made silk pomanders for the aisle.

For the reception, we did a quad of square vases at different heights for the escort card table. In each height was a different look and flower type. One was cymbidium orchids wired to curly willow branches, one was submerged vanda orchids with a floating candle on top, one was Purple Crown Dendrobiums on silver sculptural wire, and submerged hydrangea in the last. Orchid heads were scatted on this table as well as the head table and cocktail tables. The centerpieces were done in 2 styles: one was a short, round mixed arrangement and the other was a trio of submerged orchid cylinders surrounded by a floral rim. They both were awesome!

I loved working with DIY bride Megan to plan her wedding flowers and decor! She had a lot of great ideas and it was nice to see them all come together!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Christoffel!

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Katie’s bouquet was awesome. It had lots of orchids in yellow and orange, mango and eggplant callas and blue delphinium. It was so textural and I just loved it. The bridesmaids carried bouquets of orchids, callas and roses in mostly orange and yellow with accents of eggplant and handles wrapped in navy satin. The flower girl carried a totally cute floral wand made with orchids and sweetheart roses. The guys wore calla, sweetheart rose, and rose bouts and the corsages had a mix of all of the blooms. The color combos looked awesome together.

The church was so modern and beautiful–it is rare to be surrounded by huge clear windows of bright light in a Catholic Church since so many of them have the dimmer stained-glass windows which don’t let in a ton of natural light. The altar was also more sleek and modern and they provided two dark wood pedestals for our altarpieces to sit on. The altarpieces were pilsner vases with curly willow branches and a mix of Mokara, Dendrobium and Oncidium orchids in yellow and orange. They were later moved to the gift and escort card tables at the reception.

Arrowhead looked great as always and I really loved the navy sashes on the chairs. I really love working this venue as its beautiful and the food is great and the staff is fantastic!!

For the reception, we did submerged centerpieces for the guest tables that had submerged purple dendrobium orchids in the tallest, orange mokara orchids in the middle height and yellow oncidium orchids in the shortest ones. Floating candles completed the look. The 2 pseudo head tables also got vases for the bouquets and petal accents.

The cake was one of my favorites of all time and based off of a design Katie found that originally had orange rose petals but we swapped them out for orchids instead. 3 strands of wired orchids popped of the top of the cake and were surrounded by orchids. Orchids also accented all of the tiers and the table as well.

We also put petals and orchids around the gift card holder, on the escort card table, on the memory table and on all of the highboys.

I was very proud of Katie’s table numbers that she put together–they look very similar to the ones I make! Way to D-I-Y!!! She also did little escort cards in wine corks all of which were from bottles drunk by the couple! Way to personalize it!

A big congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Calvey!

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For Jenean’s bouquet, she wanted all eggplant mini callas. To make it more full and even more purple, I added purple pearls and purple lisianthus to the callas and tied the handle with purple satin with an overlay of purple organza and purple pearls. It was just stunning! The bridesmaids were supposed to carry very simple bouquets of only 3 eggplant callas, but I felt they looked too small, so I sent her a picture message of them and asked if I could add some roses to make them fuller. Jenean totally agreed that they should be fuller and trusted me–and they turned out great! The flower girl carried a floral wand that was totally adorable. Erich and the guys all wore calla bouts and the moms had corsages that were a mix of sweetheart roses and nerine lilies.

We did not do any flowers for the ceremony since the church is so fabulous it does not need flowers…

For the Reception, I did a huge Beidermeier-style arrangement that was placed on the gift table. It had layers of flowers including hydrangea, mini callas, roses, stock, snapdragons, and curly willow.

For the centerpieces, we did 2 styles: one was a square vase with a fluffy mix of peonies, hydrangea, nerine lily, roses, stock and callas; the other was a trio of rectangle vases with eggplant ribbon around the bottom and white pillar candles inside. They both complimented each other well and worked perfectly in the space.

The cake was totally unique to the couple and was equipped with an ASU cake topper and yellow cymbidium orchids and maroon mokara orchids.

I loved working with Jenean planning her wedding flowers!  Another fun bonus for me is she has such great taste that not only did she hire me, but she also hired Kara Schultz to take her photos! I can’t wait to see all of them!

Here is one teaser from Kara:

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Poley!

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The flowers in the blue vase were bay leaves, pittosporum, roses, hydrangea, ranunculus, curly willow and tulips. The blue vase is vintage and we found it at an antique store. The vase is similar to those often referred to as “end of the day glass” that my mother-in-law collects so that was the main part of the gift–the flowers were a secondary bonus!

The flowers in the purple vase were for our favorite neighbors, Kevin & Jamie. Kevin saw me loading the car with wedding flowers this past week and asked if I could design something special for his wife for Mother’s Day. I had a lot of pink and purple flowers so I came up with this lovely arrangement–and I am into lace right now, so I wrapped some around the vase for an added accent.

Both arrangements were well-received (and well-deserved) by these great Mothers!

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I hope all the mothers out there had a great Mother’s Day! New to the mom club is our own Monica Simpson, whose daughter Annabelle Lucille was born yesterday morning. Both mom and baby are healthy and happy. Congrats to MOMica and Andrew on their first baby!

For the personal flowers, Jennifer’s bouquet was a mix of purple with white and flowers included callas, roses, stock, and tulips. The bridesmaids carried a smaller version of her bouquet with no white flowers. The corsages and bouts were made with callas, roses and orchids and the mini flower girl had a mini floral wand and orchid wreath. The moms also had a bunch of petals to toss at the couple at the ceremony (this is a Greek tradition that is very fun to watch!)

For the ceremony, in addition to the mother petals, we did 2 altarpieces for display on the ornate altar which were later reused at the reception. These altarpieces had hydrangea, stock, larkspur, orchids, curly willow branches, roses, and Trachellium. We also hung hydrangea from every third pew with silver organza ribbon and I painted a monogrammed aisle runner for the aisle.

For the reception, I moved the altarpieces onto the seating chart and gift tables for emphasis. We also had a bunch of accent pieces on the bar, guest book table, seating chart table, highboy table, sweets table and head table. For the centerpieces, we did two styles: Style 1 was a trio of submerged flowers in cylinders with floating candles at top and Style 2 was a trio of cylinder vases filled with clusters of flowers. The venue made them look even better by shining spotlights on them for emphasis.

I loved working with Jennifer and Niko to make their big day flowers spectacular! I hope they have a wonderful marriage and an awesome long honeymoon in Greece next month!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Stathopoulos!

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Courtney and I used to work together at Wilton and she actually used to live in my neighborhood too! We were introduced to each other by the fabulous makeup artist, Cynthia Sally, who actually did Courtney’s wedding day make up…and she looked so gorgeous!

Courtney’s bouquet was a total stunner. It was a huge, round, full mix of magenta and fuchsia peonies, purple hydrangea, eggplant mini callas, green cymbidium orchids, jaguar spotted pink mokara orchids, and purple anemones. The girls carried bouquets of white hydrangea, bi-color cream and purple mini callas, jaguar spotted mokara orchids, green and Bombay dendrobium orchids, and green hypericum berries. Courtney and her sister also had little pink butterfly brooch in honor of their mother in each of their bouquets. The flower girls carried pomanders made of purple hydrangea with lime green satin handles. For the guys, Andrew wore a double eggplant calla bout, Courtney’s son Jaiden wore a single eggplant calla, and the rest of the guys wore bi-color cream callas with purple throats. The corsages were made with callas and orchids. Everything coordinated perfectly.

For the ceremony, we did white hydrangea hung from every-other chair with eggplant ribbon and two altarpieces on pillars. The ceremony was given by Officiant Terry Brady, who is an awesome officiant and member of Chic Wed Pros (a wedding group I am a co-creator/editor and member of.)

For the cocktail hour, we created 3 lime-lined square vases with purple hydrangea in them for the cabaret tables and 3 clusters of candles surrounded by petals and bling for the highboy tables. We also decorated the photo booth and guest book tables with bling and petals. The escort card table was the main focal point and was a large manzanita tree with a base covered in assorted flowers with orchids, bling and votives hanging from the branches. I made Chicago-themed escort cards for the guests that matched the Chicago-themed table numbers I created for the reception. Courtney and Andrew also had a fun photo booth from one of my favorite photo booth companies, Photo Booth Express. They have great booths and awesome design (I actually do work freelance work for them!)

At the reception, we did vases for the bouquets on the sweetheart table and reused the flower girl pomanders on the back of the bride and groom chairs. The altarpieces framed the table and it looked just perfect. We did 2 different styles for the centerpieces: one was a trio of submerged cylinders with callas and orchids and floating candles at top and the other was a cylinder vase with a bunch of tall callas wrapped in eggplant satin and bear grass wisps in the bottom with a submersible purple LED light in the bottom. They also rented my rectangle gift card holder with monogram and its counterpart-the Wishes and Advice vase. Everything looked FABULOUS!

I loved working with my friend and former co-worker and neighbor Courtney! She is awesome! I am so happy for her and Andrew. I know they are going to have a lifetime of happiness! Congrats you two!

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