I gave you a sneak peek last week from a wedding we did at a new venue called Love Point.  What I did not tell you is that it was Casandra Tressler’s wedding!  She was 2010′s Miss USA International and came from being Miss Maryland!!! Above is the bridesmaid bouquet to accompany the beautiful bridal bouquet that we did for her (click here to see).  Filled with garden roses, pink freesia, white delphinium and white mini calla lilies.

The venue has a view right on the bay looking straight at the Bay Bridge!  We did the centerpieces as well.  Windows took care of the catering and rentals.

The bride opted for three different centerpieces.  Starting with this rustic style with wheat grass and river rocks in our reclaimed wood boxes.

Then the second arrangement was our milk glass filled with pink garden roses, calla lilies and hydrangea.

Last, but not least, are the tall trumpet glass vases with dendrobium orchids and curly willow accents!

Congrats to Casandra + Estebe!

I am still waiting on the professional photos from my trip to Minnesota for Jennifer’s wedding day!  But I thought I would do a second installment in the meantime with some of the photos I took of the flowers that I made for her.  Above is Jennifer’s bridal bouquet with vendela cream roses, white phaleanopsis orchids, white hypericum berries, white freesia with a few ranunculus tucked in there with peacock feather accents!

Waylon, Jennifer’s gorgeous groom, donned a lapel with local greenery, a peacock feather and green hypericum berries (it was pretty windy that day)!

The bridesmaids held such fun bouquets with folded aspidistra leaves, eucalyptus, emerald roses, belles of Ireland, hypericum berries and a peacock feather accent.

Then – here finally – the groomsmen lapels…loved them.  All the peacock feathers came from Waylon’s family farm!  Love it!

Stay tuned for more!

We were so excited to have a wedding at the Arena Stage recently.  It has been renovated and it is absolutely beautiful.  I only had the chance to take photos of the bouquets before my staff went to deliver as I had to be at the Hotel Monaco on the same day.  Hopefully we will get the chance to showcase more photos from the wedding at a later date from the couple’s photographer!  Above is her fun and wispy bridal bouquet comprised of bupleurum, green cymbidium orchids, rosemary and white phaleanopsis orchids.

Her bridesmaids bouquets were comprised of white mini calla lilies and mini green cymbidium orchids.

Stay tuned for images from the Hotel Monaco!

We have had so many lovely weddings this summer.  Here are few photos I took from a wedding we did recently at Meridian House (one of our favorite venues)!  The above is the escort card table arrangement with pink Dutch hydrangea, marigolds and green cymbidium orchids.

The centerpieces mirrored the escort card arrangement with a pretty white square ceramic vase.

I had a little fun with the Indian wedding garlands by hanging it over the statue that is under the Linden trees outside.  They used our simple reclaimed wood chuppah with a sage green sheer cloth topper from us for their ceremony.  The garlands for the ceremony were composed of white mums, jaguar pink orchids and marigolds.

Stay tuned for photos from a wedding we did a couple of weekends ago!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/floral-designs/meridian-house-indian-wedding/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/fruit-infused-floral-designs/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/fruit-infused-floral-designs/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:30:41 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=5220

Infusing flowers is something we love to do!  Of course pears have their whole “perfect pair” mentality in weddings, but I just love using then for their colors.  Mixing floating pears and orchids is a perfect combo!

It’s hard to find an all green centerpiece at certain times of the year…but you can’t go wrong with pears, vibernum and bupleurum!

Having a citrusy feel to your buffet is perfect with bright orange linens and a lime filled vase.  Limes were used after the event! (Arrangement includes green Dutch hydrangea, orange unique and black magic roses with burgundy cymbidium orchids).

We loved creating this backyard oasis cocktail  display complete with tropical foliage, oranges, orchids, snapdragons, lily grass and pin cushions.

An event we did many years ago which still gets so many accolades!  Oranges and kumquats filled the vase with pretty and simple curly willow branches with words of love from the Paper Source.  This event was at the Decatur House and was actually on the cover of their brochure (another photo with our flowers is currently on the cover!)

More to come tomorrow!

(Photo credits – 1st – Amy Deputy, 2nd-4th – Katie Martin (me), 5th – Rodney Bailey)

We were thrilled to be a part of Jane’s (our in-house calligrapher) wedding in March!  Of course, she did her own calligraphy!  There are also some other wonderful things about her wedding day at Ceresville Mansion!

Her beautiful Mon Cheri gown was found on consignment and it fit her perfectly with no modifications!

She also had such a pretty color scheme with these jewel toned tulips from New York and calla lilies from Holland for her bridesmaids.

We also did simple submerged orchids as centerpieces.

We loved her simple and beautiful cake from a local bakery in Frederick.  We did a simple cake topper for her.

With everything being local – she really did an amazing job at keeping her wedding as eco-friendly as possible!

Congrats Jane!  We love you!

(Photos by Documentary Associates)

Following up on our post from this past Tuesday, we are excited to bring you more details from the reception at Margaret and Patrick’s beautiful wedding at Rust Manor in Leesburg.  Transitioning into the reception, Margaret and Patrick went from a purple and green theme to adding blue to the mix at the reception.

We used a mixture of different centerpieces: 2 low and 1 tall (tall not shown here).  We had some great navy fabric leftover from another event that complimented the color scheme well and wrapped some of the low vases with it! Our graphic artist designed the table numbers, programs and more!

The bride’s mom came up with a great quilt idea to have each of the guests write a note to the bride and the groom on quilt squares to incorporate into a finalized quilt!  I had so much fun with the mom gathering ideas and our carpenter on staff made that cute sewing station stand from reclaimed wood!

I just love how bright and cheery the spools of thread are!  This was all a surprise to the bride the night of the wedding.  Her grandmother was a quilter and it was a wonderful and bittersweet reminder of how family lives on in traditions.

Yes – you have probably seen a similar cake in The Knot!  She loved it and Design Cuisine did a great job of replicating it for her with their wedding colors!

Combining both of their family’s heritage – we brought in Lebanese Debke Dancers and Irish Celtic Dancers towards the end of the evening!

Then, if that was not enough – we made sure they were sent off with Irish Lucky Clover Cookies, Baklava and Mulled Cider to Go!

Many Congrats to Margaret + Patrick!

Vendors

Photography – Kathy Blanchard

Veneu – Rust Manor

Wedding Planning, Design, Florals, Lanterns, Programs, Signage – Elegance & Simplicity, Inc.

Catering + Rentals – Design Cuisine + DC Rental

DJ Music Services - Disc Jockeys On Call

Videography – Blue Sky Films

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/margaret-patricks-lebanese-irish-reception/feed/ 1 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/purple-purple-everywhere/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/purple-purple-everywhere/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:30:38 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=4566

Over the past few weeks I have met with so many fun brides that are looking for purples and lavenders for their wedding flowers!

So it got me thinking – I better do a blog post about this!  I created the above color palette as I met with one of my clients and we came up with a fun design scheme complete with flowers, furniture and colorful linens galore!  Purple has always been one of my favorite colors and can be used everywhere!  So here are my picks for purple for your wedding and your home!

(Credits Top Marta Locklear, Documentary Associates and ME!)

Some of the best purple floral designs use hydrangea, roses, calla lilies and orchids.  But don’t forget fresh lavender, veronica, delphinium, stock, aliums, carnations, agapanthus, caspia, statice, anemones, hyacinth, muscari and so much more!  Check in with us to find out what is available for your wedding day!

This photo from Apartment Therapy is just delicious!  This should inspire you to use purple with matte gold items for your wedding day.  Go with matte gold chivari chairs and gold rimmed plates to get this regal look! Heck – get someone like Kendall’s Cakes or Cakes by Design to paint with edible gold on your cake or wrap pretty matte gold ribbons around the tiers of your cake.  (And no – I will not spray any of my flowers with gold – sorry folks!)

And this beautiful combination of purples, aquas and blues is enough to make me swoon!  I am starting to dream of an amazing lounge combination with purple and blue flowers with funky aqua bridesmaid dresses!  The splash of red gerbera daisies adds the extra touch of whimsy!

If you have not found inspiration for your purple wedding and modern home landscape here – let me know and I will whip up something purple next week!

Growing up my favorite color combination was purples with soft pink tones, so you can imagine my delight when Dennis and Danbee sent me their color palette all the way from South Korea!

The soft and delicate tones of lavender and grey with a touch of pink pizazz was perfect for their fall nuptials at Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University and Dumbarton House

One of the many reasons why I love weddings so much are the many children I get to meet along the way!  Every once in a while we get the cutest darn kids at weddings and this one was no exception.  I love the photo to the right of the little boys shoes – how darling are these traditional Korean wedding outfits!  I could not take my eyes off of them!

CUTIE PATOOTIE AWARD for sure!

We created this fun, fresh and modern escort card table design with fabric covered vases, submerged flowers and a bit of whimsy with the manzanita branches. The light lavender tone of the phaleanopsis orchids worked perfectly with their palette!

We used modern white vases with phaleanopsis orchids, hydrangea and ranunculus for their centerpieces to go on top of the gorgeous velour linens provided by DC Rental!

Our in-house graphic design artist created the menu for the couple and they went a little DIY by doing the printing and assembling themselves (and added a little oomph with the ribbon and square)!  Design Cuisine catered this fun-filled event and provided the beautiful tabletop items!

We added lavender lanterns to our inventory for their wedding and Sugarplum provided the beautiful tent, liner and uplighting to lend an ethereal feel to the reception.

Cakes by Design provided this absolutely simple but lovely lavender cake!  Just delicious and almost to pretty to cut!

And we could not resist putting in this hilarious photo of the best man break dancing to the perfect dance music set from Disc Jockeys on Call.  Break dancing always a includes a little luck – so the Korean ducks helped not only in the longevity of Dennis and Danbee’s marriage – but in the longevity of the best man’s spin!

Congrats to Dennis + Danbee!

Photos by Documentary Associates

As tomorrow is a big day for anniversaries for me – I wanted to start off this final flower fave blog post with my bridal bouquet from my wedding in the Dominican Republic!  Our Anniversary is tomorrow along with the Anniversary of the Magazine!

My best friend and Logistical Manager on staff Keya Beale made this bouquet for me.  She traveled to the Dominican Republic to be with us on that very special day!  We have had three brides this year fall in love with my bouquet (but those leaves can really only be found on the beaches of the Dominican Republic)!  We brought the beading down from some leftover Christmas decorations we found and picked the limes from a local market along with the phaleanopsis orchids!  My brother was our best man and photographer for the week, along with his wife and associate Angela – whom you will see a photo from her wedding below! (Documentary Associates)

This was one of my favorite photos taken by Jennifer Hughes this year for a wedding that will be featured in Baltimore Bride Magazine.  I love the bridesmaids bouquets as the ranunculus was just perfect that weekend in the spring and the hydrangea and mini cymbidium orchids complimented the overall color scheme of the day!

Not the fanciest of floral designs – but fun nonetheless. This wedding that we did with Sara from Bella Notte was photographed by Greg Gibson.  We love working with both of them and I, in general, just love limes.  A lot of the photos from this particular wedding are actually in the current brochure for the Decatur House!

And yes – if you have been following my blog over the past couple of months – I am obsessed with the Ourisman Wedding with images taken by Love Life Images.  Candace just let me get as creative as I wanted to be and the designs we created were flowers that I will never forget.  Their wedding will be featured in the Washingtonian Bride & Groom Shortly – so I am sure I will blog about them again!

I loved making this bouquet for my friend Angela, one of Tom’s associates at Documentary Associates.  This wedding and this photo always makes me smile for so many reasons.  First of all – I just love this photo.  The bouquet I made for her as a gift…but that day it rained like cats and dogs….I MEAN IT RAINED!!!  She got married on Chincoteague Island and my hubby and I strung up a bunch of lanterns in the small tent behind this lovely bed a breakfast.  By the time the rain stopped – there were literally DUCKS swimming underneath the tent, the lanterns were destroyed and the ceremony location had to totally be moved to a new location.  Of course, the wedding planner in me kicked in and everything worked out just fine. I am still so thrilled to see my two friends married and now happily awaiting a new baby!

Stay Tuned Tomorrow for the Anniversary Issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings (and don’t forget its my anniversary too)!

Cheers!

As we wind down 2010, I will start posting some of the favorite flower designs that have inspired our brides and grooms the most and are the basis for a lot of our new designs for 2011 weddings!  I will try to post “Flower Faves” at least once a week for you!

I thought I would start with yellow this week as it has been such a popular trend color in 2010.  Billy balls being the center of attention obviously!  The first two photos were taken by Documentary Associates from Kate and Mark’s wedding that was featured in the Washingtonian Bride & Groom. The above bouquet was featured in our 1st issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine (photo by Love Life Images).

This is also one of my favorite yellow orchids displays that we had at a fantastic orthodox Jewish wedding at the Meridian House (photo by Steve Voss).

And I will sign off with the underrated yellow pin cushion!  It apparently takes a daring bride or groom to use these!  I love love love pin cushions as they also come in orange and they are just fun fun fun (’til her daddy takes the T-bird away fun)!  Fantastic colors year round!  (photo by Documentary Associates)

Let us know what your favorite yellow flower is!  I certainly have not listed them all here!

Without showing you too much of the actual reception until tomorrow, this gives you a glimpse of how fun this wedding was!   This was the view from the oculus in the Atrium at the Ronald Reagan Building (where the cocktail hour was held).

Here is a fun close-up of the cocktail hour arrangements with moss covered vases with twine and curly willow and filled with pink peonies and yellow orchids.

The escort card table arrangement requires a few photos since it had 4 dimensions with 3 arrangements and the beautiful pink escort cards.

The escort card arrangement was comprised of a low yellow fabric colored vase filled with pink peonies and vibernum.  The tall vase was covered with moss, curly willow, twine, and yellow orchids [which also had manzanita branches with hanging pink votives attached to it (not shown)] along with a medium size vase filled with a submerged green cymbidium orchid stem and river rocks.

The sushi bar was a huge hit!

The guest “sign-in” was their matted engagement photo by Documentary Associates - we just provided the pen and the cute floral arrangement (please notice that cutie patootie ribbon on the vase as it totally matches Jordan’s bubbly personality)

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where we show the utterly fun and unique reception that Jordan and Jeremy let us create for them!

(All images by Ralph Alswang)

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/jordan-jeremy-cocktail-hour-details/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/custom-chuppah/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/custom-chuppah/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:41:04 +0000 Chris Easter http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=3288

As we get ready for another weekend filled with weddings, I just got this photo off my camera today.  We have had such a wonderful year so far with many of our clients letting us get creative while using their own family heirlooms and treasures.  This custom designed chuppah we made for our client was no exception!  The bride’s mom made a wonderful and meaningful quilt for her daughter’s wedding. We custom designed the frame to make sure the quilt would sit well on top then added some curly willow with orchids on the poles.  It was so beautiful on that warm spring day at the Sewall-Belmont House!

Have a wonderful weekend and Mazel Tov!

For those of you who do not follow me on Twitter – I thought I would go ahead and post the three images that I posted to  Twitter the day of Jordan and Jeremy’s wedding on June 26, 2010.  Keep in mind all of these photos were taken by my Blackberry – so they are not the finest in photography!  Those will come shortly from Ralph Alswang!

As you can see – this was a very bright and summery wedding!  I can’t wait to show you all the pink, yellow and green yummy details.

We created our signature photobooth for Jordan with her colors and style from her wedding.  Above is Jen Franz from Documentary Associates who took the photos at the photobooth during the reception! I can’t wait to show some of the funniest photos I have ever seen from a photobooth and the funnest props!

Now this photo is really terrible and does not show the true essence of this decor piece at the reception.  We brought in actual school lockers that we painted in their wedding colors!  We still have the lockers in stock as we just could not part from them!  Inside the lockers were her stuff, his stuff and then in the yellow locker – their stuff.

There is so much more to show – so stay tuned for the professional photos – which will be so much better than these!  But I just could not wait to show these to you!

Here are a few more photos from the wedding we did in the spring with Sara from Bella Notte at the Willard.  Rodney Bailey always does such a fantastic job at capturing these moments and the details.

I love this photo of the bridal bouquet.  Classic wedding with a classic bridal bouquet comprised of white cymbidium orchids, white lisianthus, white roses, stephanotis and white mini calla lilies.

These tall centerpieces in trumpet glass vases were comprised of white hydrangea, peach and pink roses, peach lisianthus, white and light pink dendrobium orchids, yellow mini calla lilies along with curly willow and cherry blossom branches (with a few orchids submerged inside the vases as an accent).

Click on all images to see larger versions with more details!

Another set of floral designs from the spring from a wedding that Rodney Bailey and I did at the Decatur House is coming up next!  Stay tuned!

I am slowly catching up to posting photos from weddings from earlier this spring!  Here are a few images from a beautiful wedding at Mount Airy Mansion in April.  Photos by Brian Lusby!

I love the fun orange and purple complimentary color scheme from this wedding!

Look at that pretty Paula!

Loved her bridal bouquet comprised of white cymbidium orchids, phaleanopsis orchids with crystal and lily grass accents!

Love love love her dress!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/spring-wedding-photos/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/vintage-wedding-design/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/vintage-wedding-design/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:20:09 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=582 There are several options you can go with when it comes to vintage wedding design.  The dress, flowers, accessories or just everything!  Here are a couple of design elements for a vintage wedding day that I love (click on the photos to find out where to buy or who took the photo!):

A simple vintage dress can be bought online or at a consignment shop – huge savings typically for a style like these:

When in doubt – go to Etsy – you can find some amazing dresses and accessories online:

Then, of course, you have the vintage headpieces to go with them (and think about for your bridesmaids as well)

photo by The Observatory

Vintage is something that never goes out of style as not all brides like it or can pull it off.  You will never look dated in photos as brides have been using these styles since they 1st came out in Victorian age and the 20′s.  Think about bright red lipstick! Something large and white in your hair will be offset gloriously with bright red lips (consult your make-up artist!)  Check out this style – white, black and red on a bride is classic Hollywood glamour throwback to the 1940′s:

Vintage floral design means an abundance of flowers.  Vintage means interesting scent combinations and voluminous floral designs.  Think hydrangea, peonies, roses and orchids. Here are few of our own floral designs that work perfectly with a vintage glam design:

photo by Documentary Associates

photo by Love Life Images

Don’t forget about the vintage jewelry and think about color gemstones as well!

photo by The Observatory

Make the day sweet with our Vintage Candy Jars!

It is green to go Victorian and Vintage when you are reusing items!

I will post more about Vintage weddings soon!

Cheers, Katie Martin

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

We have them in both four and five feet heights.  The pedestals can used to either place a vase on top of them or (like in the photo of above) vases can be placed inside the pedestal to make the pedestal seem like a vase in and of itself!  We are using them at an upcoming wedding at the Ronald Reagan Building with manzanita branches!  Imagine the possibilities for your event!

Thanks to Documentary Associates for coming out and taking the photos for us!

They had such a beautiful day and used some of our new inventory for their wedding.  I simply could not wait to show all of you how wonderful the day went.  Photos will not do justice as to how much fun the guests had while dancing to the groom’s favorite band from Philly.  The food by Design Cuisine was amazing (as always) and the wedding professionals that Erin and Chris chose from our preferred list were top notch in every way.

Congrats to Erin and Chris!

Take a peek here:

Below we have their escort card table arrangement which turned in to their note card station for guests to write their well wishes to the bride and the groom!

Here are our fun new tea lights that we hung in the tent for a touch of whimsy!

St. John’s has a beautiful parish house attached the back of the church with fantastic high ceilings.  Erin’s bridal bouquet was shot against one of the beautifully decorated walls below.  She used a family heirloom pin to decorate the bridal stems.

They chose one of the most amazing menus, the guests raved about all night!  Not to mention the fun key lime mini cupcakes and the french fries passed out later in the evening!

Instead of writing or printing out table names, the groom went around town to their favorite restaurants and took photos to label their tables with!  Their low centerpieces were filled with fresh Dutch Hydrangea and fragrant local peonies.  Their tall centerpieces (not shown here) were tall trumpet vases filled with white and green orchids.

More to come! Stay tuned for some new news!

Cheers,

Katie Martin

Green Floral design for your eco-friendly wedding in Washington, DC

Katie Martin from Elegance & Simplicity was featured in My Day Magazine as the DC area’s leading green wedding expert in regards to her green (eco-friendly) floral designs.