NCGS Conference at Holton

This past week the National Coalition of Girls' Schools held their yearly conference at Holton. We made many arrangements for dinners and receptions and this piece was for a reception at the National Museum of Women in the Arts downtown. We used lavender roses, stock and mums, purple asters, veronica and lisianthus in a mix atop a collar of lime green baby hydrangeas.

Jeane's Bridal Shower

Last Saturday, my daughter Lucy and her friend Sarah, co-maids of honor for their friend Jeane, hosted a bridal shower at our house. The color scheme was pink and orange and we tried to go with those colors in all of the details. The night before the party we went to Target and bought 2 orange and pink polka dotted shower curtains that I made in to tablecloths for the outside tables.
We also found an orange ice bucket that the girls filled with orange and pink grapefruit natural sodas. They bought wonderful cupcakes from the famous Georgetown cupcake store and made some delicious salad, sandwiches and quiche. The weather was wonderful and that was a gift in this crazy rainy Washington spring. I made centerpieces for the outside tables, a buffet piece and a couple of arrangements for the entry table and living room. It was a lovely day.

more wedding photos

Here are a few detail shots from Sunday's wedding. Instead of a large escort table arrangement, this couple wanted to showcase photos of family weddings. To tie this in to the look, we put aralia leaves flat on the table under the escort cards and sprinkled tiny orchids among them. We also put some leaves and orchids under the guest book. The cake top was very simple - 3 gloriosa lilies surrounding a cymbidium orchid - I put the stems into some sea shells - simple can be good.

the wedding of Hannah and Brian

Yesterday Hannah and Brian got married at the Music Center at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda. The reception was in the lobby of the theater, a large open space. We hung turquoise and lime green lanterns to add color to the interior and made 3 versions of the centerpieces - low pieces with green spider mums, green and cream roses and red gloriosa lilies and spray roses, high pieces with submerged aralia leaves and cymbidiums and very tall pieces with monstera leaves and bamboo stalks with dendrobium orchids tied to them. The bride carried a cream and light green bouquet and the bridesmaids carried Charlotte red roses to match their red dresses. We made a new chuppah - and decorated it with the same palette of flowers. The rain held off, the ceremony was held outside and everything looked beautiful.

Baby shower at Virginia's

Last week I did some arrangements for a baby shower at the home of our friend Virginia. She asked for a yellow and pink palette for a baby girl and I used peach and pink ranuculus, pink and yellow Duette novelty roses and Creme de la Creme roses that are a light yellow for the table pieces and pink french tulips and varigated geranium leaves for the buffet centerpiece. Virginia set her tables with some pink and white striped tablecloths I made several years ago and used beautiful handpainted goblets - it was a pretty scene.

Dried arrangement

Lately we have been working on some samples for a restaurant in downtown DC and I remembered this piece I did several years ago for our friends at Tone on Tone, the antique store in Bethesda. I made this from dried hydrangea and lavender stems wrapped with a silk leaf. It was made to lay on a table, but it would be sweet hanging on the wall as well.

Erika's Wedding Shower

Erika and Brian had a very nice wedding shower last Saturday. They included family and friends, adults and children and it was a sweet afternoon. I made two arrangements, one for the buffet table and the other for the entry. I used Ballet roses, pink alstromeria, lily of the valley, korean lilac and matsamoto purple mums.

I am trying to find the best photos from the wedding from various sources and this one came in today. We used huge Livinsonia leaves in the table arrangements. I had several left over and one of the children found them in the basement. Next thing I knew, all the kids were asking for them and I handed them out and it was a charming sight to see them playing with them in the front of the house.

Wedding in the Hamptons

Last weekend, my husband Dave and Hal and I went up to the Hamptons to do the flowers for Susannah and Will. Susannah is the daughter of our very good friends Helen and Bill. At first we were a little worried about how to get the flowers up there - whether to have them Fed-Exed up or to try and order them up there, but with cool weather predicted we decided to buy hardy flowers here that could travel well in insulated boxes. So I borrowed my cousin's Tahoe and we stuffed it full of flowers, vases, apothecary jars for the dessert table, tools, bags of ribbon and raffia and everything else we could think of, tied Dave's bike on top and took off for the Hamptons on the Thursday before the wedding. We drove straight to the house of the bride and groom and unloaded, put the flowers in water and prepped for a full work day on Friday. We got everything done on Friday, Hal flew back to DC and Dave stepped in to help me get ready for the set up on Saturday. It all went smoothly and looked just great. This is a picture of the bride and groom taken by Bill, Susannah's dad. The wedding colors were orange, watermelon and pink. The bouquet includes callas, orange pincushions, ulhle ferns, Milva and Voodoo roses and an aralia leaf. The woman who owns a local nursery came by on Friday with 5 huge tubs of freshly pruned flowering branches. I used them to fill 4 large planters and to decorate the arbor. More pictures of this fun wedding will follow.

Spring arrangement

Even though the weather has bounced from the 50s to the 90s in the past week with rainy weeks bookending the early hot spell, it is spring in Washington. Last week I made this arrangement for a American Indian jewelry sale at Helen's house. In the fall I planted a lot of parrot tulip bulbs and used some of the yellow ones in this piece along with some left over flowers from the past week.

Party at Chef Geoff's

On Saturday night I did some small arrangements for a group of Holton alums who were continuing to celebrate Reunion with a dinner party at Chef Geoff's restaurant. I mixed iris, daffodils, daisies and delphinium to create an arrangement that was spring-like and also reflected Holton's blue and white colors. And thanks to Chef Geoff's for an super easy way to deliver the flowers - you park the car and walk right in to the party room! We like this type of delivery.

Landon tea

Last Thursday there was a tea at the home of the headmaster at Landon. We filled an oriental style bowl with tulips, roses and delphinium, made a mantle arrangment of red roses, parrot tulips and delphinium and brought a small piece for the living room with wonderful dark orange tulips, cream roses and seeded eucalyptus.

Landon event

Yesterday we did these small pieces for an event at the Landon Performing Arts Center. They asked for an orange and brown color scheme and this is what we came up with. We used Safari Sunset, orange pin cushions, dark orange tulips, seeded eucalyptus, Timeless roses and dark red mums.

Alice in Wonder

Saturday night there was a wonderful party at the National Women's Democratic Club at Dupont Circle. The occasion was the birthday of our friend, Alice in Wonder. As a gift, I made some small centerpieces and this piece for the buffet table. I celebrated spring with forsythia, cherry blossoms, Vendela Rosita and Sandy Femma roses,pink larkspur, green mums and pussy willow.

Get well gift

Last week Hal made this nice bouquet as a get well gift. We love the contrast of the bright blue hydrangeas with the orange parrot tulips,orange pin cushions and apricot Finesse roses.

Bridal Shower at Alice's House

A few weeks ago we made arrangements for a bridal shower given by our friend Alice. Again, we used her wonderful Victorian silver baskets and filled them with orchids, roses, foxtail and other flowers in a yellow, cream and green palette.

Holton auction

Last night was Holton's annual auction - I made 4 small pieces for the registration tables. I used Creme de la Creme roses, golden cymbidium, yellow lisianthus, blue eucalyptus, burgandy grevilia and white marticaria.

Accessories of Old

I have just added a link - on the right side of the blog - to the wonderful store called "Accessories of Old". Lisa and Andrew have an enormous collection of vintage ribbon, beads, costume jewelry and buttons. The first time I visited the store, they were not even open, but walking by, I noticed the ribbons and had to go in and see what was up. Andrew very nicely let me come in and look around and told me the story of Lisa's grandfather's notions store in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Well, my dad was born in Johannesburg 90 years ago and was the youngest of 12 and I feel surely that his mother and older sisters would have patronized the original store. Since the first visit, I have been in many times and told everyone about it. If you are in Bethesda, do visit the shop on St. Elmo Ave, or visit their web site where you can see their delightful offerings.

Last minute lunch

I got an email the other day at 8 pm for arrangements for a luncheon the next day, if possible. I ran over to my local Trader Joe's and picked up white tulips, peach sweetheart roses and an apricot yellow alstromeria. I have some varigated euonymous in my yard and had some left over seeded eucalyptus. I put all of this into a bright turquoise glass vase. Sometimes, it is a good puzzle to figure out how to pull something together when you don't have many choices.

Orange-ade

So I am thinking about orange these days as I design the flowers for a wedding in April. What I really liked was putting some orange mokara orchids, Goldy gerber minis and gold mini cymbidiums in a saturated turquoise vase. It is a great combination.

Attack of the Giant Philodendren

Yesterday I got 3 giant (100 cm) philodendren leaves for a wedding sample. The bride is going to have 4 25 foot tables for family style seating and we will have 3 vases with the leaves on 2 tables and the 2 other tables will have 2 vases. I put japanese fishing floats in the vases to raise the leaves up a bit. The leaves will form a sort of umbrella over parts of the table. I am experimenting with things to put on the table, just votives or leaves and flowers and votives - this is a work in progress but I really like these leaves.

Christmas at Helen's

Today I made an outdoor arrangement for my friends Helen and Bill and brought over an arrangement for their dining room table - they are having an early Christmas dinner tonight with both of their girls, one soon to be son-in-law and their new granddaughter.

For the piece outside, I wired some small Christmas balls onto twigs and stuck them into the oasis I put right on top of the dirt of the planter.....I also used ilex berries, cedar boughs, seeded eucalyptus, candy cane carnations and varigated greens.

For the other pieces, I used white hydrangeas, red roses, red and white tulips with the same greens.

Thanksgiving at Alice's

Every Thanksgiving I make some arrangements for the fabulous house of my friend Alice and her new husband Wilson. She has two gold wire mesh cornucopias that I fill with flowers and I usually do a couple of other pieces as well. This year I used white callas, dusty miller and magnolia leaves to fill the cornucopias and then did two small simple arrangements with more callas and leaves in two nice gold vases. And I just realized I made the dried hydrangea arrangement for her last year.

Holton party

Yesterday we also did some flowers for a Holton event held at a fabulous private home in Washington, DC. The house was decorated in cream and beige tones and we used brown orchids, cream banksia and unfurled fern heads with tropical leaves and river cane. The small pieces are made from brown orchids placed on grids of river cane perched on small glass vases, we also made an assemblage of 3 vases - brown orchids and aralia leaves with ferns on a large glass vase with more brown orchids inside, next to it is a medium size vase with 2 banksia flowers and a fern and in the smallest vase, a brown orchid on a grid. The frame held a grid of river cane with brown orchids, aralia leaves and a fern threaded in to make a picture.

Dinner Party

Today I made these pieces for a dinner party event. I wanted to have a fall color scheme but one that was not the typical rusts and browns. Instead I used Cherry Brandy roses, a dark burgandy celosia, seeded eucalyptus, kale leaves and dark red mums. I loved the contrast of the orangey reds and the silvery blues. In the tall piece I added some orange tulips for their graceful arcs.