In case you were wondering I got you lilacs, sweetpeas, garden roses, purple tulips parrot tulips, bupleurum, sweet unique roses and it’s huge! Some of the flowers even came from my garden and it smells divine.

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

These next three bouquets were created by Victoria Clausen from Romance of Flowers I absolutely love the classic glamelia bouquet below. It’s stunning.

This post gets even better….. you get to see so many more bouquets from Chapel Designers all over the US. Enjoy and be inspired by all the different styles!

Holly Heider Chapple Flowers LTD: http://thefullbouquetblog.com/?p=25873

Celebration Florals:  http://bit.ly/11Bc48t

Gertie Maes:http://www.gertiemaes.com/blog/

Soiree Floral: http://blog.soireefloral.com/

Colonial House: http://colonialhouseofflowers.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/bouquets/

Stacy K Floral: http://www.stacykfloral.com/blog2/?p=4489

Wild Bunch Studio: http://wildbunchstudio.blogspot.com

Passionflower: http://www.passionflowerevents.com/main/blog.jsp

Alicia Jayne Florals:  http://aliciajayneflorals.com/blog/?p=162

Goodness-Gracious! Florals: http://tulipiere.com/2013/04/29/46/

Urban Petals: http://myurbanpetals.wordpress.com/?p=3233

FloressenceFlowers: http://floressenceflowers.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-favorite-bridal-bouquets.html

Wild Bunch Studio: http://wildbunchstudio.blogspot.com

Passionflower http://www.passionflowerevents.com/main/blog.jsp

On Butterfly Wings  http://onbutterflywingsblog.com/?p=356

Fleur:ology  http://fleurologydesign.com/?p=721

Alluring Blooms  http://alluringblooms.com/chapelbouquet/.html

Posh Floral Designs: http://poshfloral.com/memory-monday-favorite-bouquets

Francoise Weeks: http://francoiseweeks.com/2013/04/bouquets-2/

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

So we got on the bus and went over to the Bronx. Not only did I get a tour of David Beahm’s warehouse, he explained large scale design but I also got to learn how Karen Tran puts together her amazing tall and lush designs along with learning how to create one of Francoise Week’s amazing woodland bouquets.

David Beahm up on the ladder explaining all about large scale design, ensuring the designs are safe and also how to make them. I have to say I love David Beahm, he is an out of this world designer and the best part…has no ego. Not only is he confident of his work and his designs but he also goes thru the same trials and tribulations that all business owners do. He is no different and he was candid enough to share it with us.

Large scale design by David Beahm…. it’s a 20′ long statement piece of cherry blossoms, hyacinths, roses and calla lilies. Words cannot describe how magnificent this piece was in person. It took three designers close to 5 hours to create and around 20 bales of cherry blossoms.  The scent reminded me of spring.

I have to say Michael and Vanessa deserve a medal for THE best hosts in all of NYC. New Yorkers are quite nice. They truly love their city… Vanessa and Michael, a husband and wife team that own Verde Flowers are the epitome of hard work, dedication and working hard to live your dream. Their shop flooded with four feet of water during hurricane Sandy.  They rebuilt and their shop is absolutely beautiful. I felt it was incredibly moving that Vanessa made it a point to bring her child to work (she even has a dedicated room for her son) in her shop. Vanessa and Michael… I had a wonderful time meeting both of you. Thank you for opening your shop to all 60 of us!

Not only are Vanessa and Michael amazing hosts…. look at the arrangements they can create. This picture doesn’t do this beauty justice.

While rotating design stations after lunch I got the chance to create a woodlands bouquet with Francoise Weeks.

I went for the ombre effect with green dianthus, muscari, green hellebores, astarantia, seeded eucalyptus, green moss and whites…. fringe tulips, white clematis vine, and a few ranunculus.

And then there was Karen Tran, after a long day of learning I got to learn from the one and only Karen Tran. She created one of her iconic tablescapes. I was amazed to learn how petite Karen is and how quickly she can move, lift her arrangements like nobody’s business and do it all with grace… she even thought us how not to mess up your manicure! She has quite a bit of tricks up her sleeve and I do have to say…  she is quite the smart businesswoman too.

Photo Credit for all the amazing images goes to by Genevieve Leiper . All the ones that are a little blurry…. that would be by me.

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

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!

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.