The Full Bouquet

Laurie & Matt - Loudoun Wedding - Whitehall Manor

Believe it or not, I cried over this bouquet!! Last April I created this amazing bouquet for my bride, Laurie. It's hard to believe it has been almost a year since her wedding. It was the weekend of the Leesburg Flower and Garden Show and before I hit the show, I went into the garden to get my white lilac. Perhaps it was the sheer beauty of what I was creating, or the symbolism of making a bridal bouquet with my precious white lilac that had me in tears. I am not quite sure what pushed me over the edge, but I was indeed crying. I planted that lilac almost 18 years ago. I found my true love for flower design over the lilacs and the Leesburg Garden Show. The bouquet was also featured in Get Married Magazine last year.

The bouquet was created of white lilac (from my garden), sahara roses, white mini calla lily, white peony, and white stephanotis. Laurie brought me tiny crystals to insert into the bouquet and extra beading from her gown, which I used to wrap the stems.

We designed altar pieces with white callas, and white flowering branches.

The reception was held at my Whitehall, yes secretly in my dreams I am the owner of Whitehall.

This wedding also introduced me to the amazing talents of photographer Katelyn James. I just adore this fabulous artist, not only for her talent, but for her spirit, and her commitment.

A big huge shout out to Laurie, who made her own centerpieces. Stunning!!!

This Loudoun wedding was a beauty!!

Holly

ALISON & MATT - THE MERIDIAN HOUSE

Last May I designed the flowers for Alison and Matt's big wedding at the Meridian House. Alison was one of the easiest brides I have ever worked with.  Alison knew exactly what she wanted and I happened to be one of the things she wanted. Alison found me through the Washingtonian's best of list but my blog happened to be one of the very reasons she booked me. In fact Alison booked and deposited Holly Heider Chapple Flowers without a consultation. My blog gave her the inside look to what we do here, and she loved what she saw. 

Alison is one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. Every detail was so perfect. I remember standing in the courtyard of the Meridian House watching photographer Matt Mendelsohn get these shots and thinking WOW, like really, she is the quintessential elegant bride.

Alison chose a bridal bouquet of white peony, pink peony, lily of the valley and white ranunculus. The maids carried hot pink ranunculus, green hypericum berry and light and pink peony. Every blossom was chosen by my amazing bride.

The rooms of the Meridian House simply glowed. Elevated designs were created with white dendrobium orchids.

Low centerpieces were designed with white peony, green viburnum, mini green hydrangea, and white stock. The mantels were designed with clusters of peonies, and candlelight.

A traditional wedding cake for the bride.

A fun cake for the groom.

Many thanks to Matt Mendelsohn Photography for these lovely images. Applause and praise should also go to Design Cuisine for the catering and Ritzy Bee events for planning services.

Happy married life Alison and Matt!!! It was a honor to bring you my flowers.

WINTER WEDDING- WHITEHALL MANOR-GLITTERIZED

This past weekend Holly Heider Chapple Flowers, had the pleasure of managing and styling Lauren's wedding at Whitehall Manor.  Every wedding we work on is a fabulous learning experience, and this wedding was no exception. Lauren and her mom are both busy teachers. They had some really great ideas for the wedding but they needed help getting everything set up and cleaned up. Since it was Winter, we had a little extra time on our hands and we took on some projects we have not taken on before. Essentially we had wedding withdrawal and time to help. The family had a place card display and candy bar that we did the styling and set up for. The ballroom would also need to be transitioned from wedding site, to reception site, so it made sense for us to stay on and help. 

We also set up the ceremony area by placing programs in all of the chairs, and reserving seats for the family.

This windowsill became the backdrop for the wedding, it leads up to an original huge arching window. This makes for a beautiful ceremony site. It is enormous and when we have a wedding indoors at Whitehall I love to use several centerpieces and tons of candlelight in this space.

Maids carried gorgeous bouquets of dark purple carnations, hydrangea, silver brunia that had been dipped in glitter, purple tulips, purple roses, lavender stock, and purple anemones.

Guests were invited into the original ballroom of the estate for cocktails.  Here they picked up little snowflake ornaments that directed them to the correct table.

We took great pleasure in glittering many of the flowers for this wedding. It was a technique we created over the Winter and fell in love with, so we were dipping flowers in glitter constantly. This wedding became our glitterized wedding.

See what I mean, this window is so pretty.

To create the brides bouquet we used purple hydrangea, purple and blue anemones, black baccara roses, mamy blue roses, agapanthus, and blue muscari dipped in glitter of course. Great grandmothers brooch was used to bind the bouquet. Notice it is silver and blue and could not have been more perfect for this purpose.

The glitter was important because the family had a subtle snowflake theme throughout the event. It was the glitter that made these typical Spring time flowers Wintery. We used dark purple hydrangea, purple cabbages, purple & blue anemones, purple carnations, purple mums,  ranunculus, snapdragons, delphinium, stock, muscari, tulips, hellebores, and scabiosa throughout the evening. Dusty miller and silver brunia were dipped in glitter to make the large centerpieces sparkle.

My silver mercury glass went perfectly with the look of this wedding.

In order to keep the family on budget we repurposed many of the florals. We were busy all night moving flowers from location to location. The maids bouquets, and the altar designs became centerpieces, and the place card table designs became the displays for the buffet.

Our candy bar creation was amazing and we had a wonderful time buying inventory for this space.

We loved designing the candy bar and we will be happy to design these in the future. We now own all of the glass, scoops, and fun little accents that make this type of design awesome.

It was a true pleasure to be with the family throughout the evening as we are typically home fast asleep when the fun is going on. This was a very busy night for us and it was amazing how much time went into setting up this wedding.  Our being here throughout the night was essential as there were so many jobs as florists we needed to do including the major set up and an outrageous breakdown. Our lovely new crystal stands took 3 people an hour to build & set up and 3 people an hour to take apart and box back up.  We often think as rental props as less expensive but moving all of that inventory in and out of a venue is insane. We had a full cargo van of non floral products that included glass, candles, votive's, candy bar equipment and crystal stands.  Flowers arrived in an additional cargo van.

Many thanks to DJ Aaron Hahn who kept the night moving.  Aaron owns the DJ company Matrimonial Sounds. We also had the pleasure of working with photographer Mike Pullum who was a friend and co- worker of the bride.

Many thanks to wedding planner and stylist Vicki Grafton of My Simple Details who came to photograph the evening on our behalf. Vicki is an awesome designer and a budding photographer. Vicki did an amazing job capturing our glitterized wedding. This was another fabulous Loudoun County Wedding.

BEAUTIFUL MIDDLEBURG WEDDING - LARA

On Thanksgiving weekend, my bride Lara married in the town of Leesburg. The wedding reception took place at the Middleburg Community Center. This was an awesome Loudoun wedding. I am head over heels for this event, the photography, the gowns, the flowers, the couple, all perfect. Many thanks, to photographer Kate Headley for sharing her gorgeous work with us. She captured this wedding incredibly.

Thanks also to planner Jamie Sears of Simply Chic Events, and Lisa Schulz, The Posh Planner for teaming up on such a beauty.

Lara and Steve!

Lara's amazing bouquet was created with pink mocha roses, Yves Piaget pink cabbage roses from california, pink peony, hot pink cabbage roses, spray roses, pink ranunculus, silver brunia and silver dusty miller. The bouquet was bound with grey velvet trim from Britex Fabrics in SFO.  The family rosary was added to the bouquet.

Notice how the guys have coats, but all of the pretty girls are freezing in sleeveless dresses. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Mercury glass vases were filled with all the flowers of the day. Don't let those Yves Piaget roses fool you, they look just like peonies in this picture.

These crystal candle holders are new inventory that we actually acquired from Lara. We are excited to be offering this romantic centerpiece option this year.

For an extra treat enjoy Kate Headley's 8mm film of Lara and Steve's wedding day.

 

 

BEAUTIFUL-PHOTOGRAPHY BY GENEVIEVE LEIPER

This is my beautiful bride Allie, she married last fall at Lansdowne Resort. Her Loudoun County resort wedding was captured by the totally remarkable Genevieve Leiper. Allie's wedding was totally stunning and I was grateful that I was working with a talented photographer, getting images of the day is crucial for me.

The bridal bouquet was created with sahara roses, cream hydrangea, white phalaenopsis orchids.

The pastry chef at Lansdowne should be applauded for her beautiful creation. This cake was one of the most lovely and complicated designs I have seen.

The gold and crystal candlesticks found by Allie and her mom added additional glamour and candlelight to the tables.

Working with Allie and her mom was one of the highlights of last year. Their sense of style and color was awesome and creating their designs was so fulfilling. Knowing Gen. was capturing the day made it all that more fun.

Lansdowne Country Club.

Genevieve also shoots destination weddings, here is a great shot of her working in St. Kitts, she is also pregnant. I love those hard working mom's. Husband Charles took this picture with the iPhone.

Anyone considering a destination wedding should seriously consider Gen. and then consider taking me along as well. I am ready to do some tropical floral designs. Lets Go!!!!!