Early fall wedding ideas

I have been working on some ideas for early fall weddings - a little bit of fall coloration but the brightness of summer. Dahlias, teddy bear Gerbers, Sahara roses, burgandy foliage, some small pale yellow filler and sage foliage.

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White theme

I seem to be in a white and green phase these days....today I made this little piece for delivery.  Some peegee hydrangeas  and baptisia foliage from my garden with regular white hydrangea, tulips, lisianthus, and roses.  I like the asymmetric almost unbalanced look of this piece.

Bridal Bouquet

Today I made a small bridal bouquet in a holder.  The bride wanted all white flowers so I used spray roses, white callas, white dendrobium, white lisianthus and a little ruskus.   

Succulent arrangement

Last week I made this succulent arrangement in an old fountain for a wedding.  I love the play of colors in succulents and this container was great to work in.

Today's arrangement

This arrangement just went out the door to a bridal shower.  The client wanted a fresh green and white arrangement.  I used baby green hydrangeas, white Vivianne spray roses, white lisianthus and white scabiosa from the market and white peegee hydrangeas in bud, mountain mint, baptisia, and scented geranium foliage from my garden.  My green hostas line the vase.

Container gardens

Every year I plant up lots of pots for a client in Virginia.  They are scattered around the property mostly in pairs but there are close to 20 on the pool deck.  The color palette is usually lime green and red with pops of burgandy and fuschia.  I use a ton of coleus in these pots.  Coleus is such a dependable plant for containers - it gets better and fuller all season long and the colors are just incredible.  Don't mind the chewed up sweet potato vine - apparently the deer and rabbits have discovered these pots.

Free style ikebana

Today in ikebana class we made free style designs.  I used sago palm - one of my least favorite types of greenery.  It is thorny and stiff and just not my cup of tea.  But it has a bit of flexibility so I took the "leaves" off of one side, bent it into an oval and wired it together.  I made two of these and tried two different looks in a cream boat shaped container.  One with orange gerbers and solomon seal leaves, the second with scabiosa pods and the same leaves.  

Luncheon Party at Holton

Some little posies for a lunch party at Holton this spring.  I love pierus - it really extends the lily of the valley season in a way - it has a lovely scent and a slightly similar look.  I also used matricaria, scented geranium leaves, Sahara and coral roses.

Holly Chapple workshop

Last July I had the pleasure of taking a workshop with Holly Chapple at her home studio in Virginia.  We did a collaborative wedding set up and these are some detail shots that I liked very much.

Experiments

Just fooling around with things on hand...anthirium leaves, beautiful parrot tulips, eucalyptus and a burgandy airplant in one of my favorite black glass containers.

Wax flowers

Today I made a sample for a tall arrangement.  The bride originally wanted a puff of babies breath but I used a colorful wax flower instead and love the result...simple but effective.

Samples for an August wedding

These pieces are on the work table tonight - variations on a theme.  The bride loves Amnesia roses but today they came in a very tan color instead of the silver we were expecting.   I made some samples with them but also bought some lavender Ocean Song roses to use in alternate samples as well.  Purple spider mums, white astrancia, lavender spray roses, silvery lamb's ears and pink wax were all part of the testing of ideas.

Alix and David

Alix and David got married last Sat at the Whittemore House at Dupont Circle.  We worked with a blush, peach and pink color scheme and every piece was so pretty and soft.  I had lovely peonies, wonderful Emely roses and sunset colored calla lilies as the basics and added on to that palette with other complementary colors.  Everything was so pretty.

Dinner party at the Whittemore House

Today we made arrangements for a dinner meeting of doctors at the WNDC/Whittemore House in DC.  They requested predominantly orange arrangements with touches of red.  We complied and  I think came up with a nice color story for them.  What brought it all together for me was the burgandy agonis foliage.  In addition, we used fabulous local dahlias and great tropicals to make these pieces.

Niamh's bouquet

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Forgot to post this quick full on picture of the bouquet I made for Niamh.  Love the color palette on this one.  I used incredible garden roses in pinks and blush with gold and cream accents.

Tiny wedding

Yesterday I delivered a tiny but lovely wedding to the Tabard Inn in DC.  I loved everything about this wedding, the venue, the color story and of course the bride and groom.  They chose a personal and intimate way to celebrate their marriage and I was so pleased to be a small part of it.

Something a little different

Pieces for a dinner last night.  A bit of a tropical theme playing off of the tablecloth.  Red Protea, varigated Corydeline leaves, Vendela roses, green Anthirium, Aralia leaves and some other stuff.

First looks

I am working on a tablescape for a tiny wedding tomorrow.  The bride wants a tablescape with both milk and mercury glass.  I made a very long tan linen runner for the table, we will put an arrangement of doilies down it and then a tablescape of flowers and votives.  The flower colors will range from cream to yellow to peach to pink with a little burgandy thrown in.   I am using garden roses and peonies, I think this will be good.

Party at Landon

Landon had a thank you party for their volunteers the other night and I did the flowers.  I am loving the combination of coral, pink and creamy yellows.  I am really taken with these new (to me at least!) Teddy Bear gerbers - they are really lovely....  I also used astilbe, pierus (from the garden), cream lisianthus, baby green hydrangeas and a bit of blue hydrangea to tie things in with the tablecloth.  Such fun...

Color play

I love this color scheme - was playing around with some left overs - Combo and Faith roses and a lovely pink black eyed Gerber.  It reminds me of wearing a camel hair coat with a pink scarf.

Having a Kaffe Fassett moment

I adore Kaffee Fassett.  Adore is not even a strong enough word.   He is such a genius of color that I often wonder why I don't just carry around several of his books when I need to think about color schemes...If you don't know his work, please google him and you will see what I mean.

I have been trying to style my photos a bit - for years I have just taken photos against a blank background so I can have a record of my work, but as I look at the work of others I am waking up a bit.  I know, always a little late to the party.

Anyway, today I had a bride coming and wanted to have something on hand to show off.  I made a little piece from corals, pinks, creams and a little creamy yellow and of course greens to show off and then thought about presenting it on one of my antique quilts.  I loved this vivid color scheme and instantly thought about Kaffe and how he uses color.   I think this works pretty well.  The first photo is from my IPhone and the second from my Canon Rebel.  It is interesting to use different devices to see what you get..