We just moved into a new(much bigger space) and our recent client Sarah was a special one to all of us at Exquisite Designs…. This is the first of many events that we will be producing from our new studio in the west loop. Sarah came to us last year …. she wanted lots of blush, pale pinks and a little bit of romance in her flowers. She wanted a garden feel to her arrangements with accents of gold, candlelight, peonies, ranunculus, hydrangeas and roses.  She picked the perfect time of the year for her flower choices, the day was absolutely spectacular.

Not only did the weather cooperated, but we also had the pleasure of working with a great cast of vendors such as Tiffany from Soiree Chicago, Okyne Media, Bellissima Photography and The Drake Hotel.

Sarah’s bouquet was a stunner. Truly one of our favorite bouquets at Exq Designs with a textural mix of white and blush peonies (you got it, it had peonies in it), white sweetpeas, white calla lilies, dusty miller and blush ranunculus. I always know that if it’s a hard to let go bouquet, we’ve done our job. This was definitely one of those.

The bridesmaids carry handtied bouquets of blush ranunculus, blush sweet peas, champagne roses, dusty miller, light pink peonies, white stock and blush roses.

We created different tablescapes for their reception at the Gold Coast Room at the Drake Hotel.  All arrangements had white hydrangeas, blush roses, blush peonies, seeded eucalyptus, pale pink roses,  and pale pink spray roses.

The escort card table with compotes and petite antique gold vases along with floating candles

I even sneaked in a little green hellebores from my garden in her escort card arrangements.

Low compote arrangements of ivory hydrangeas, blush spray roses, jasmine vine,  blush peonies and dusty miller

This past week we got a call from the ladies at Michelle Durpetti Events requesting florals for a small wedding they were planning in two days. You read that right… in two days! Here is a sneak peak at the bride’s bouquet.

When the lovely Ashley Le Fleur asked if we would like to be part of a photo shoot for her we jumped at the chance. Anything coral and gold is hot right now… so how could I pass up on the opportunity. Her timing was absolutely perfect since I was planning my trip to NYC and I knew I could get some lovely things at the NYC Floral Market and bring it back with me. Yes, I brought these flowers back with me on the plane! It was a little bit of a hassle and totally worth it. Would I do it again?…. take a look at these beauties and the answer is heck, yeah!  To round out all the amazing vendors that Ashley brought together for the shoot is Ashley Biess who I have to say is an amazing photographer and was kind enough to share these images.

The lovely Ashley with our flowers

Free Spirit Roses, Blush Ranunculus, Coral Ranunculus, Coral Sweet peas, Pink Hyacinth, Viburnum, dusty miller and jasmine vine

If you loved this photo shoot, check out Ashley Biess website here for additional pictures

I just came back from NYC after catching up with my friends, the Chapel Designers. It’s been three years since I answered a tweet that asked ” Who wants to meet me in NYC?” posted by Holly Chapple, and I can honestly say that thru the power of twitter I’ve been able to meet some of the most amazing designers from all over the United States and the world…. as we had new designers from Australia, the Virgin Islands and Russia.

Meeting the designers is my one week before the wedding season begins were I can learn new design techniques, meet floral suppliers, find new flower varieties, shop for current clients, network with designers…. and share war stories.

During our first day we heard from a few of our fellow designers about what has worked for them, what direction they are headed and we also heard from Anne Chertoff, Naomi DeManana, the Floral Editor for Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine along with Abby Larson from Style Me Pretty.

Tomorrow on the blog…. Finally getting a chance to visit David Beahm’s warehouse in the Bronx, meeting the best hosts in New York City (truly some of the most amazing designers), learning Karen Tran’s design secrets, learning how to make a woodlands bouquet with Francoise Weeks and seeing why David Beahm is the king of large scale design.

Holly Chapple presenting a bouquet she made to Naomi DeManana from Martha Stewart Weddings

Photo Credit: Genevieve Leiper Photography

It’s been a busy March around here with events, trips to NYC and a bridal show in Chicago. Our friends at Martha Stewart Weddings were in town a few weeks ago hosting a bridal show at the Radisson Blu Hotel.  Martha Stewart Weddings created a table with a few of the items shown on their 2013 Winter Issue and they wanted us to create an arrangement inspired by the cover which featured Blake Lively’s bridal bouquet. We deviated a little (because who wants to copy someone else’s design!) but we were very happy what we designed.

Martha Stewarts Weddings Table Arrangement hosted blush peonies, jasmine vine, dusty miller, white sweet peas, pink o’hara roses, white stock in a silver compote

We also created an arrangement for Macy’s Registry Table with lots of garden roses, jasmine vine, pieris japonica and dusty miller

Invitation crafts created by the team at Martha Stewart Weddings

 Wedding cake created by Cake Chicago with a beautiful burlap pattern made out of buttercream.

 Not only we got to mingle with some wonderful couples we also got to reconnect with some of our favorite vendors but also meet some new ones!  Thank you to Anthony and Amy at Martha Stewart Weddings for thinking of us again!

We had the pleasure of working with Denise and Michael on their wedding at Germania Place this past weekend. Denise came to us via Left Bank Jewelry & Bridal Finery. She was a lovely bride and we decided that even though her wedding was close to valentine’s day we were not going to hold back on pretty flowers.

The bride carried a gorgeous bouquet of white garden roses, stock, white sweet peas, white callas, with accents of ranunculus, seeded eucalyptus and white cymbidium orchids.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of white stock, cream roses, white callas, white sweet peas and burgundy cymbidium orchids.

For the centerpieces we created duos of burgundy roses with accents of cymbidum orchids, argonis, red celosia and burgundy stock.