{Jay and Anne}

15 September 2012
Private Residence
Lexington, KY
 

Details, details, details.  I loved working with Anne! She has an absolutely wonderful creative touch.  She needs to join the Hide and Seek Design team...wink, wink.

When we met and she explained her vision and her attention to the details and all the finishing touches I was really excited and honored to be included in her Wedding.

Anne and Jay have a stunning lush backyard retreat and that is exactly where they shared their vows and celebrated with friends and family. I could hardly put the camera down to install all the flowers.  From orange textured flowers, to hanging lights, to burlap runners, to a kid's table with coloring books I wanted to get lost in, to a Photo Booth that consisted of antique frames hung in the trees, the list could go on.

If you cannot tell I loved working with Anne, so to parallel her attention to detail I spent a lot of time adding in small delicate flowers to her bouquet and all the corsages and boutonnieres.  Ranunculus, Star of Bethlehem, Daisy Fever Few, Zinnias, Scapiosa Pods, Veronica, Roses, Marigolds, etc, but I think my favorite added touch, which was added fresh, no not dried, was the pitcher plant.  So awesome!

Congrats again Anne and Jay!

Till next time......seek great design!

{Caleb and Iskra}

09 September 2012
Historic Morgan Hunt House & Le Deauville
Lexington, KY
 

Loved Caleb and Iskra's Wedding.  It was filled with quaint details and showed the true charm of Lexington.  The wedding party and guests, who came from near and  far (South Africa, England, and beyond....yes really far cool places!) filled the beautiful Gratz Park Inn for the weekend.  The ceremony was in the garden at the Historic Hunt Morgan House and the reception followed a block away at the amazingly delicious Le Deauville, true French cuisine.  The day was crisp and sunny!  The walk-ability between scheduled events made for a wonderfully relaxed, romantic day and evening. Guests strolled from hotel room to ceremony to reception all within my favorite district of Lexington. Beautiful historic architecture everywhere.  The reception, the restaurant Le Deauville, was transformed into what literally left me imagining I was standing in a cafe in France.  All the windows, floor to ceiling, were pushed open to interact with street, the flowers and the ambiance were truly perfect.

The flowers were filled with romance and an antique flare.  All the girls' bouquets were slightly unique and included a variety of flowers, garden roses, dahlias, mokara orchids, brunia, lambs ear, etc; and Iskra's petite all lavender bouquet looked wonderful against her unique fashionable dress.  All the flower decor was accented with dainty feathers and grey succulents with pink tips.  I LOVED this wedding and cannot wait to see the professionally photography.

Till next time.....seek great design!

{Adam and Brittany}

08 September 2012
Bell House
Lexington, KY
 

Working with Brittany was such a joy.  When she told me she loved greenery and unusual flowers I knew designing was going to be fun!  She was planning somewhat of a rustic / natural wedding, so we introduced a variety of accent foliage, green flowers, browns and deep, saturated purples.  Her bouquet was filled with green ranunculus, green callas, all sorts of textured seeds and finished with white astilbe and ball zinnias.  We also added brown cymbids to only Brittany's bouquet and Adam's boutonniere for an extra special touch. And finally, her baby's bonnett was wrapped around the stems of her flowers.

The girls had bouquets full of safari sunset, alstromeria, brunia, roses, lisianthus, textured seeds, and my absolute favorite, chocolate cosmos.  These tiny chocolate / burgundy flowers added such a charm to the bouquets.  They were also added to the grooms boutonnieres.

Loved making the corsages because we whipped out a new design.  For one of the two styles, we used a single large ranunculus head and surrounded it with tiny, detailed flowers.  It was well received!  Lately we have been trying to focus more on filling our designs with extra details, and pushing the envelope with new ideas.

The ceremony  was at the historic Bell House in Lexington.  Brittany had rented beautiful wooden chairs for this outdoor celebration.  For a simple, but successful touch, we tied baby's breath bouquets with burlap ribbon to the chairs along the aisle.  It was so pretty.

Congrats again you too!

Till next time.....seek great design!

{Nathan and Ryann}

02 September 2012
Castle Hill Winery
Versailles, KY
 

In the middle of the Bluegrass, in Versailles Kentucky there is a Castle!  Yep, who would have thought right?  Well Ryann and Nathan planned their rustic wedding right next to this Castle, on the cute and charming Castle Hill Winery.  Their ceremony site sat on top of a sunny knoll, with a great view of the Castle.

Ryann was enjoyable to work with and very enthusiastic and open to all sorts of different and unique ideas for her bouquet.  She had always wanted white anemones for her Wedding, the beautiful all white flower with bold, black centers, but unfortunately they are out of season in the fall.  So as a compromise / substitute, we used awesome, fabric flowers!  Just loved this addition!  Not only was it a billion times better than using silk flowers, but it added a very unique touch to her special day.  The rest of her bouquet was comprised of hydrangea, freesia, ranunculus, spray roses, baby's breath, etc.

We also tied memory charms to the handle treatment of her bouquet.  All her loved ones that could not be physically present on this day walked with her in spirit.  Love this touch and think more brides should use this idea!

All the bridesmaids' bouquets were simple with red roses.  The burlap handle treatment added rustic class.  Also, the boutonnieres came out great with the addition of the seeded eucalyptus.  All in all everything looked rustic but clean and matched all the decor at the ceremony and reception.

Congrats again Nathan and Ryann.  Best wishes to you both and your life together!

Till next time....seek great design!

A little MORE fun with KioKreations

A week ago I traveled back to Chicago Land to help a good friend, Kristen, owner of KioKreations with more weddings.  The trip back North to my Midwest homeland was much MUCH more exciting this time around because it involved an adorable, red-headed baby named Aria.  Yep Kristen had her baby!  I was so happy to hold her 4 days after she was born.  Such a cutie. So, with Kristen on maternity leave, there was some serious "flower designing" that needed to happen.  Both Weddings were again stunning because KioKreations is the best!  I had the pleasure of taking the lead on the first Wedding which had awesome colors and beyond all else, a fabulous venue, the Danada House in Wheaton, Illionois.  The architecture flowed quite well from the old historic mansion into the beautifully designed outdoor spaces.

The reception area was a recent addition to the back of the house, and I have to say the architects and the design team did a great job.  The addition was seamless from old to new, and the space, with glass walls and modern lighting fixtures, integrated visual connections to the outdoor gardens and surrounding nature preserve.

I also worked this wedding with Denise, from Weddings by Denise.  I loved getting to know her, and learning more about her business.  It is always great to say I have one more friend in the Chicago Land area to visit.

Oh, and this Wedding used the wonderful lavender herb!!  The aroma filled the reception!

The second Wedding was great as well, but the colors and design were completely different from the first.  Instead of a rustic, elegant look, the flowers were bright, loud and modern.  I loved the collaboration of all the yellows, oranges and purples.  Billy Balls, which have been a popular flower lately, always make arrangements look fun and interesting.

Till next time....seek great design!

{Aaron and Erin}

04 August 2012
Hillary J. Boone Center, University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
 

Another beautiful wedding!  Pinks, white and POLKA DOTS.

Erin said she loved the fluffy and textured, but clean look, and that is just what she got.  Her bouquet was gorgeous!  Filled with hydrangea, cymbidium orchids, freesia, tulips and cabbage roses.  It just screamed beauty.  We wrapped the bouquet and the groom's boutonniere with excess fabric from her dress.

The Girls' bouquets were full of a variety of roses, mokara orchids and hypericum berries.  The mixture of roses added so much texture to these awesome bridesmaid's' bouquets.  The guys wore polka dot bow ties, so we wrapped all the girls' bouquets with the same detail.  Against the pink of the flowers, it looked pretty awesome.

The reception, held at the Boone Center, is beautiful alone, but with all the flowers it looked spectacular.  Plus we loved working with wonderful vendors, Martine's Pastries and Glint Studios; the Boone Center staff treated us with such generosity, we look forward to many MANY more weddings there!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!  Loved this wedding.  Congrats again Aaron and Erin!  Thanks for choosing us, and it was a pleasure geting to know you and your family!

Cake Design:  Martine's Pastries

Till next time.....seek great design!

A little fun with KioKreations

Last weekend I had the pleasure of assisting KioKreations, a boutique florist in the Chicagoland, with two Weddings and a baby shower.  I used to work for KioKreations when I lived in Chicago and really bonded with Kristen, the owner, and her team.  Our styles and practices align and last weekend Kristen filled me full with tons of new knowledge and tricks of the trade. The reason for my trip all the way North to the Windy City?  Oh course to visit the girls I loved working with, but more importantly to help Kristen prepare for her maternity leave.  She is an expecting Mama due any day now so I slipped into the role of floral and event designer so she could put her feet up and try to kick back and relax.  I was hoping little Aria, Kristen is expecting a girl, would make her way into the world while I was in town, but no such luck. I will be returning in three weeks to help with more weddings, so hopefully by then I will meet Aria face to face.

Take a look at the two Weddings we worked hard on....One focused on purple tones and the other on yellow tones.

Purple Wedding

Yellow Wedding

Till next time......seek great design!