One of the biggest trends in flowers for 2012 weddings is all about the color green!  There are tons of ways to use green in your bouquet.  The above bouquet has folded green leaves, green hypericum berries, Belles of Ireland and Emerald roses along with eucalyptus.  One of our favorite bouquets from last year!

Other beautiful green flowers and accents are hellebores, hydrangea, seeded eucalyptus, green beading, zinnias, succulents, mums, coxcomb, calla lilies, orchids, bupleurum, lotus pods and so much more!!

(photo by Kimberly Williams)

Ahhh – Nicole…I will never forget when you whipped out that photo of your dress when you came to my studio. It was love (for me) at first sight!!  I wanted your blue dress on my blog and now – here it is baby!

Nicole had tons of dried purple, green and blue hydrangea from her mother’s backyard for us to use!  It meant a ton to her for us to use them as we added other fresh, local and sustainable flowers into the mix!  This incredible fall bouquet worked beautifully with her gorgeous blue gown.  Her bouquet was comprised of burgundy dahlias, link pink ranunculus, scabiosa pods, astrantia with hints of the dried hydrangea.

Jeffrey wore such a handsome suit and we created a matching boutonniere comprised of a single burgundy dahlia and florets of the dried green hydrangea.

The centerpieces were comprised of dried hydrangea, dahlias and roses which were set off beautifully on those chocolate pin-tuck linens!  YUM!

Congrats to Nicole + Jeffrey on such a beautiful eco-friendly wedding!  Stay tuned for more images in our featured weddings section of the website!

The gorgeous photos are from Heather Z Photography!

We are thrilled that our friends over at Design Cuisine have gotten their Green Restaurant Certification.  This is another incredible accomplishment that Design Cuisine can add to the list.  This certification is not to be taken lightly and we wanted to take the beginning of this week to applaud Design Cuisine for their dedication to sustainability!

We have a fantastic wedding from the fall that we will be posting shortly featuring some green elements that Design Cuisine created with our team!

Stay Tuned!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/design-cuisine/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/congrats-to-jordan-jeremy/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/congrats-to-jordan-jeremy/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:00:14 +0000 Chris Easter http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=3124

We were so happy to be a part of Jordan and Jeremy’s wedding day last weekend at the Ronald Reagan Building!

We custom made a lot of very fun details for their wedding that I can’t wait to share once I get the photos back from Ralph Alswang!

Above – you can see our new trellis that we have in stock.  It is with reused wood and is seven feet tall by five feet wide by three feet deep!  We added curly willow, peonies and green cymbidium orchids.  We also provided our custom gold  stage cover, pink step and pink and yellow aisle runner.  I can’t wait to show you the rest!

Congrats Jordan and Jeremy!

Credits (from left to right)

Wedding Poppers

Bubbles

Birdseed packets

Pom Poms

Love Birds

Bio-degradable confetti

Amanda with Occasions helped to create a beautiful eco-friendly wedding buffet for the couple.  All left-over food scraps were placed into compost bins and the food was amazing!

Here are a few photos from the day:

The chuppah was adorned with purple delphinium and white and green orchids!  We will be using it again next week at the Westin Grand!

The bride choose beautiful shades of lavender and purple flowers with a hint of green (including local fresh English lavender, delphinium, freesia, roses and calla lilies).  While the bridesmaid (her sister) had a simpler bouquet to match her pretty burgundy gown.

We love being able to be creative!  Using deer moss and curly willow to create a real tree-like feel inside the mansion with the escort card table.

The centerpieces reflecting the escort card table and the bridal bouquet.

We always have a fun time creating interesting concepts for a real eco-friendly venue such as Woodend!  We will be there next week as well for Soneela and Walker’s wedding!

Cheers! – Katie Martin

Our new structure gives us the ability to customize the size of the structure to fit your needs!  The basic structure is 6x6x8 feet as shown here:

You can attach greenery garlands and other fabric to the top!  We now can customize the top portion of the chuppah to fit the size of your stages.  We have a couple coming up that are 3×4 feet and 3×5 feet. One of the weddings we are customizing the top to accommodate a family tallit!

The structure is made of local, renewable lumber and some of the pieces of the wood that we have used for customizing the top has come from reclaimed wood that we have stripped and refinished – so it is eco-friendly as well!

Make this chuppah yours with fabric, flowers and size!  We look forward to being a part of your wedding day!

Cheers, Katie Martin

(Photo was taken by Steve Voss from Shulamit and Eric’s wedding at the Meridian House this past July 5th! – Congrats!)

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Check out the wikipedia entry here!

Congrats Katie!

I have been getting a lot of emails about how Dana & David are coming along with their Green Wedding Plans!!

Her dress is picked, she met with Avalon about Eco-Cuisine as well.  They are getting married at Mount Vernon United Methodist and they have picked out their invitations!  With that – they have also chosen a logo!  

We will be using their logo on their invitation envelopes and programs and stamps!  However – we specifically helped her choose a logo that did not have the date of their wedding.  Why is this green?  So they can use the logo for the rest of their lives.  They will have other celebrations and things to do in the future together – so why not have a logo that is a stamp for their lives.  Reusing items from your wedding is key to being green and keeping the memories of your wedding vibrant and alive in your daily living!

We are off to see Debbie at Cakes By Design tomorrow to pick out their cake!  Stay tuned!

***Katie

1st thing – hire a wedding planner that knows who is really green and who is not.  There are a ton of wedding professionals that say they are green for marketing purposes but have no concept of what the philosophy is behind being green.  It is not just about using green products and organic foods.  It is also about giving back to the community and not being wasteful along with a slew of other guidelines depending on the type of wedding professional that you are looking for.  As a wedding planner and a florist, I see a sea of waste after a wedding and it is always our goal to reduce waste before it happens and reuse, compost or recycle what is not not used or wasted after a wedding.  We can give you creative ideas on how to do that for your wedding.  There is not a formula for a green wedding – it is more about your general attitude towards your wedding prior to the planning process.  Find like-minded vendors to go with your philosophy as you start your life together!

If you can’t afford a wedding planner (or think you can’t) – make sure you read as much as you can before get started! 

I tip my hat to those that are really interested in doing it right!  Check back often for weekly green tips!

We had a wonderful time last Friday helping Dana to pick out her green wedding dress by Adele Wechsler at Promise for the Savvy Bride!  Jessica’s store is right on the same block as our office – so it was super easy to just pop over to the store!  Take a look at the fun photos taken by Tom from Documentary Associates.

Robin Fisher was there from Polished to help Dana find the best dress for her and her sister as the maid of honor.  Finding the right style for your wedding day can be tricky – but not with this dream team!

I just sat back for the ride.  It was very fun to watch Dana try on the dresses sent overnight from Adele directly to make sure Dana had the perfect dress for her eco-friendly wedding.  The Eco-Couture bridal gowns are amazing and full of fun details and sophistication!

A no!  THAT IS NOT THE DRESS SHE PICKED!!!!  That will be secret until the day of the wedding!  Stay tuned – more updates and meetings are planned.

Katie

We are meeting with them on Saturday to go over their wedding plans.  Then we will walk them over to Promise for the Savvy Bride to try on her eco-couture wedding gowns by Adele Wechsler!

We are so excited for them!

Check out all the green vendors at:

www.greenweddingconsortium.com/DCGWC

Stay tuned for the upcoming Washington DC Green Wedding Consortium’s blog where we will be documenting all of Dana & David’s plans….in the meantime – check back here!

We will be posting a press release shortly that we will be giving away a $50,000 Green Eco-Friendly wedding at the Washington DC Couture Wedding Consortium 2009 Bridal Show.  The show will be from 12-5pm at te Decatur House Museum on 1/31/09.  Yes – that is next Sunday!

The FREE Green wedding will take place on April 22, 2009 – Which is Earth Day – which is also a Wednesday.  You will be required to sign a release form as the wedding will be promoted in various ways as well as showcased in Katie Martin’s upcoming book about Eco-friendly weddings.  You will also sign an agreement that you will not be holding another wedding.  This will be your only wedding.  Please do not apply if you already have planned your wedding or you are in the process of planning your wedding.  You must only be engaged and be willing to be flexible and have a carbon-free, green wedding with us.

The following vendors will be providing services:

Decatur House Museum – Venue

Elegance & Simplicity – Eco-Friendly Green Wedding Planning

Green Love Events – A subsidiary of Elegance & Simplicity will be providing the flowers and invitations

Documentary Associates – Tom Van Veen will be providing green photography

Love Life Images – Jennifer Domenick will be providing green photography

Carola Myers – She will be providing green eco-friendly make-up for the day of the wedding for the bride

Avalon Caterers will be providing catering.

We look forward to seeing you at the bridal show!

For more information – please register here:
http://www.dccwc.com/2009bridalshow.htm