The Full Bouquet

Photo Shoot With Bride & Groom Washingtonian Magazine

As I anxiously await the next issue of Bride & Groom by Washingtonian Magazine, I am reminded how much fun it was to work on the last issue. You may not know this but we were asked to supply the bouquets for their big photo shoot in Waterford VA.  The shoot was titled Chapel Belles and being a Chapple, I thought that was very fitting.

We invaded the dark and sleeping little village of Waterford at 6:00 am. This is known as "Call time." The props, dresses, makeup, and flowers were all set up in the basement of the Church. Let me also say that Editor in Chief Jill Hudson Neal and most of the Washingtonian staff were also on site at 6am, extremely impressive. Knowing how much work goes into one of these shoots gives me a whole new and huge appreciation for this fabulous magazine. As models, artists, editors and directors got acclimated, scaffolding was built next to the church so that lighting, smoke machines, and photographers could all get where they needed to be. Waterford is a a small historic community in Loudoun County, and the residents are known for being very particular. It was so fun to see the people of the village a buzz with all of the excitement. Villagers gathered on porches to drink coffee and watch the production as if it were a movie.

In the basement there were racks and racks of dresses, tables of makeup, jewelry, props and of couse my flowers.

I was requested to bring some white maids bouquets and I think some pink bouquets. This shoot was always to be about the dresses and the bouquets were merely props, but I wanted the crew to have as many options as they did dresses. So, being the over achiever that I am,  I raced home and grabbed buckets of flowers from the studio. I also whipped up some other fun bouquets. I used the leftovers from the weekend and flowers from my garden to create some more selections for the shoot. I love having lots of options.

I made taupe toned bouquets with scabiosa and seeded euc.

 

I loved these white bouquets and the stem treatment I used...

Burlap and pearls.

Dahlias from my man Don!!!!

Green cabbage roses, green dianthus, green amaranthus, green berry and white tulips were wrapped with bark wire.

I certainly made way more bouquets then the magazine needed but I take every opportunity I get to impress my industry and I also love the chance to create for creations sake. I had so much fun working on this and I was so happy to be able to help with something this incredible. Being on the Washingtonians Best of List as Editors pick has been one of my greatest accomplishments, and quite frankly anytime they need flowers I will happily bring them buckets full.

When I came back to clean up for the day they were finishing one of their last shoots and this image shows just how many people it takes to bring something like this together. One other fun little side note, editor Jill Hudson is so freaking beautiful that she was actually an extra model for this set. It was so fun to look up on the hill and see her modeling.

Design Army of Washington DC was the creative/art director for the shoot and this particular shoot actually won a gold award at the DC Addy's and also a silver award at the District Two Addy's. Here are the pages that were produced in the little village of Waterford. By the way Waterford is just a few minutes from my home and in fairness to all of the other wonderful florists in the DC area probably the reason why I got the gig.

Oddly enough some of my favorite images of the day were created with the additional flowers I ran home for, absolute proof that you should always put in that extra effort, it pays off ten fold. There are no excuses for not putting your heart into something and always doing more than you were asked to do. We provided the flowers for this shoot on a five wedding weekend, managed the kids, and were still able to design with passion for this. One last fun image from the day, my sweet baby Grace in the car at the shoot, but unfortunately she missed the activity.

Be looking for the next issue of Bride and Groom, follow Design Army on Twiiter and Facebook and follow me, I am Holly Heider Chapple, Editors Pick.

Photography for the shoot was by Cade Martin.

HC

 

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? & I Am Modern Magazine

It's 8:00 a.m. and I have just woken up in my daughter Abby's dorm room at JMU. I spent the night with her and my 3rd child Hannah, who will also be attending here next year. I feared I would not be able sleep in the dorm. As it turns out I had a mini vacation and I got to sleep in until 8:00 a.m.. Roommate Shelly is sound asleep in her bed and my girls are crashed on the floor. I woke up thinking "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The question is constant here "what dept. are you in, what do you want to do after school? "

When I was young all I wanted to be was a mother. I did not understand why I was expected to go to college. I remember asking my friend that very question, "why are they making me leave home and go to school, when all I want to do is get married and have babies?" Being a good girl, I did do as my parents hoped, and I left for college. I managed to finish 2 years of school before I went to work for a small airline called Presidential Airways. At the time, being a floral designer was far from my mind and not even a notion or an idea.

I married at 21 and had my first child very shortly after we married. Our goal was to try and figure out a way for me to stay at home with the children. During this time I was creating floral arrangements from my property and people began to ask me if I would do their wedding flowers.  In truth I had no idea about designing for a wedding, but I did have an inherited love and passion for flowers that my parents had passed on to me. My parents owned Heiders Nursery which was an amazing garden center. I had grown up in a family owned, home based business and I had always been surrounded by flowers. In fact Daddy still has a little garden center in Lucketts today called Heider Farm Market. It turns out that my destiny or my career found me and it's clearly in my blood. Today my husband and I are raising 7 children and I get to work at home and be with our kids. When I look back to my youth, I did not know where I was going, or how I was going to get there, but I was always certain with hard work and integrity I would find my way. Considering I could not answer the question "what are you going to be when you grow up?"  each little success is an added huge pleasure. In The last four months alone, we have been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Washingtonian Bride & Groom, Brides Magazine, The Knot, Southern Living Weddings, Get Married Magazine, Loudoun Magazine, and most recently in I Am Modern.  As my girls lay sleeping on the floor, I can't help but wonder what they will be when they grow up, but I have faith they will get where they need to get, and that some little seed is waiting inside of them to bloom.

 Here is my feature in I Am Modern.

 

 

HC

STYLE ME PRETTY BEST OF 2010

Style Me Pretty just launched a new on line digital magazine called E-Glossy. The magazine features the top 20 weddings of the year, " the best of 2010". I am pleased to bring you the wedding of Kaitlyn and Benjamin which can be seen on page 108, or here. This wedding was chosen from over 1,000 weddings by the readers of SMP. I am obsessed with the images from this wedding, the dress, the paper, and yes my flowers.

Kaitlyn carried a Holly Heider Chapple bouquet of white cabbage roses, white milky way roses and white majolica spray roses.

Possibly one of my all time favorite pictures ever.

Centerpieces were created with white football mums, and masses of white carnations. Orange roses and petals were used floating in cylinders of water.

PaperMoss designed all of the paper products for this wedding. Make sure you visit the original blog post with Style Me Pretty to see the rest of the amazing paper details from this event.

Thanks to photographers Three Blondes and a Camera, Jennifer Lust Photography and Laura Ashbrook photography.

I am in Love with this wedding.

NOT 1, NOT 2, BUT 3, WEDDINGS FEATURED WITH SOUTHERN LIVING WEDDINGS

We are over the moon, totally thrilled, and really proud that 3 of our weddings have been chosen for the annual issue of Southern Living Weddings. This fabulous issue features 25 weddings and 3 of those events were events that I had the incredible pleasure of creating flowers for. All three weddings were designed and styled by the amazing team at Ritzy Bee Events, and all 3 weddings were photographed by the one and only, Kate Headley Photography. It seems everything we partnered on last year was a complete and total hit.

I also had flowers from a fourth wedding make the bouquets and boutonniere section. My bouquet is the bouquet in the bottom left corner, and my fabulous bout is also in the left hand bottom column.

See the story of Allison and Chris...

Jessica and  Eric...

and Betsy and Hunter in the newly released Southern Living Weddings.

Another Happy Dance for us here at Holly Heider Chapple Flowers LTD!!!

 

OUR FEATURED WEDDING IN THE KNOT MAGAZINE

We are so pleased to share the wedding of Heather and Jon which was featured in the new issue of The Knot.

Many thanks to Three Lights Photography and event designer Vicki Grafton of My Simple Details for making this such an awesome and note worthy event.

Our Holly Heider Chapple bouquets were truly delightful and inspired.

One of my favorite things about this wedding was the use of mini burlap clusters in the maids bouquet. The bride loved brown scabiosa pods, which look like this...

but the pods were unable due to season, so I created mini burlap clusters to mimic them.

I thought my little burlap wanna be pods were freaking awesome.

Mothers were given bouquets of lavender and white freesia. I love, love, love, mini bouquets for the mothers. Give the pin-on and wrist styles corsages to the grandmothers.

Vicki styled this table with props from her house and mine. My birch boxes are a personal decor item that I let Vicki borrow. Evan bought them for me last Winter and I could barely let them leave the house.

The wedding party was seated at this fabulous king sized table.

Vases were wrapped with burlap, and designs were created with white freesia, hydrangea, berry, and peony.

Maids bouquets were also added to the tables for additional decor.

This wedding was stunning! I am so glad I got to work with such a wonderful couple and such wonderful vendors.

We are also happy to announce that we get to keep our best of weddings title for 2011 with The Knot. We are seriously kicking some floral you know what.

Happy married life Heather and Jon, your wedding was awesome!!!!!!