The Centerpieces

You saw the flowers here.  You saw the bridal bouquet here.   Now you get to see the centerpieces!

I was fortunate enough to have the fantastic talent of C. Chavis Photography come by and take some pictures of my latest - of course we included the cute little model.  I would recommend you get yourself a cute little model, mine really make the flowers look good!  

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Many thanks to Chris at C. Chavis Photography and to my little model!!

hot update

It is hot in Indiana, reader.
Too hot to go out, too hot to drive, too hot to do anything.
We went to the pool today and it felt so lovely and refreshing, until we loaded back into the car to go home. All that heat and humidity rolled over us like an unwelcome fog. But enough about bad heat!

Here is some good heat!
As I mentioned, my last bride chose hot pink as her main colors. Hot pink and white to be exact.
For her bouquet she wanted touches of hot pink, with the main flowers being white.





The flowers were a sort of Midwest-meets-the-tropics.
I used plenty of locally grown zinnias, hydrangea, astilbe and delphinium, adding more exotic cymbidium orchids and roses.
I especially love the white zinnias, many of them green or bordering on green. Is that green? Or white? The kinds of colors that make you look twice. I like those.

Thank you, of course to my lovely model, the Josie, my own exotic locally grown flower.

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An Anniversary

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending a celebration in honor of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's 15Th wedding anniversary. I had the distinct pleasure of creating four sweet little bouquets for each of their daughters to hold as they stood, along with their five brothers, on either side of their parents for a marriage blessing. What?! Nine kids? Yes, this is my sister-in-law, she of the 10Th pregnancy while running Tharp Events fame. We love each and every one of the people in that family.

Anyway! On to flowers!
Crista asked that each bouquet be a different color, to match each girl's favorite color.
Julia had blue, Beca took purple, Emi loves yellow, and little Ava held pink.
I took flowers from my favorite grower, added a few from my own garden, and came up with these sweet little bouquets.
I added two butterflies to each nosegay, to symbolize Chad and Crista, and mostly so the girlies would have something lasting to remember this day with.

The ceremony was beautiful, the "bride" and "groom" were lovely, and the girlies were sweet.








When trying to plan bouquets in different colors, the important thing to keep in mind is that they have unifying elements. All the bouquets were round, tight nosegays. All the bouquets had butterflies, and all were equal in size. The flowers matched because they all had a "just picked from the garden" feel. We didn't attempt to match orchids with daisies with gardenias.

You can keep your bouquets from being too perfectly matched as long as the pieces are cohesive. A similar style, type of flower or bouquet shape unifies separates into a whole.

How sweet they look with their happy smiles, and sweet bouquets!

Congratulations Chad and Crista, may you be blessed with many more happy years of marriage!!

We have a winner!

Is it 7ish yet?

I am sorry about the delay, we lost track of time at the beach.
My husband grew up with Friday night pizza on the beach, arriving just in time to watch the sunset.
My kids are growing up with the same.

So!
A winner!
Yes! We have a winner!

Erin S.!




Erin , I'll be by bright and early - maybe even before nine. Maybe.
If you are not up, I will leave them on your porch.

There will be more flower give aways, friends, so if your name wasn't drawn this time, just try again.
Thank you to all four! of you who entered. If we keep this up, your odds of winning will definitely stay good.

Free Flower Saturday!

I know, I know, the alliteration is all off.  These flowers are being given away today, so I suppose we could call it Free Flower Friday, but the delivery will be Saturday, so in the spirit of truth in advertising I'll ruin the flow of words.  You don't mind, do you?

Keeping in mind that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am imitating one of my favorite florists, Saipua, and doing my own Midwestern version of her Free Flower time.  The idea of giving a way flowers just because they make me happy and I want to make you happy as well just sits right with me.  You should check out Saipua, her flowers are so beautiful and natural and a little bit crazy.  Love the crazy.  If I lived in Brooklyn I would be parked on her doorstep a lot.  She also gives classes at The Little Flower School, and they look like so much fun!  Again, if I lived in Brooklyn....

Anyway, this is the Midwest.  Here in Chesterton, Indiana, we have beautiful flowers, and we just might have flowers for you!

Here's how it works:  to enter, please leave a comment on this post.  One comment per person, please.  Unfortunately I will have to limit entries to local people only (Northwest Indiana, please!).  You have all day to enter and if you want to diminish your chances of winning, please tell your friends!  At 7ish tonight we will randomly draw a name, and I will post the winner here.   Your flowers will be delivered to your doorstep on Saturday morning, just in time to decorate your freshly cleaned for the weekend house!  Or you could just shove that big stack of newspapers, magazines, empty mugs, and books off the coffee table and place the flowers there as a distraction from the mess.  Either way works for me.

Have a happy Friday!

hot!

It's not that hot out, really. It is perfect weather for an outdoor wedding, though! Yesterday I headed to LaPorte to pick up flowers from Becky at Green Trail Farm. She grows her flowers sustainably (translation: it's hard work), which I love. She grows a whole variety, which I also love. She does not, however, grow Gerber daisies. So today I headed to the wholesaler in Highland to round out the flower order.

This weekend's bride chose hot pink and white as her colors. A wonderful, bright combination for a bright summer day. They will marry at the watershed, which is the perfect backdrop. Hot pink dresses, bright flowers and a gorgeous location. Who could ask for more?

Did I tell you that I took all four kids with me to get the flowers in Highland? I did.
Usually the husband keeps them, but he could not today.
All went well. Until my Deli, my crazy monkey boy Deli, decided to jump off the loading dock.
I had gone down the stairs with all my children following me to get into the car (or so I thought), while the owner of the wholesale opened the dock doors to begin piling my boxes of flowers for easier loading. Guess which duck was not in a row?

The owner and I just had time to begin yelling "Don't!", when SuperDel flung himself from the heights. He landed on his feet, and then his hands, and then his face. Oh, his poor face. He now sports an enormous scraped up goose egg on his forehead. But if you ask him if he'll ever do that again he answers, "We'll see."

Those were today's adventures with flowers. I think no matter what happens tomorrow it will be much calmer.
The flowers look lovely, tomorrow the bride and her attendants will look lovely.
No one will have goose eggs on their foreheads, I hope.
I'll post pictures very soon.