Alex & Teddy 8.11.12

With coffee in hand and an empty belly, Rebecca and I packed the van at the crack of dawn...summer fog hovered over the mountains as we drove down twisty back roads, past crumbling barns and cemeteries hidden by 100 year old maples. A breakfast wedding? I remember asking in our original consultation. Originally I thought it was totally bizarre....but once I saw the tent, with the most amazing view and the fogg hovering over the mountains, I finally understood what we were doing there at 8am. I was told that I should try and make everything look etherial...places where fairies would romp. Consider it done.
A bouquet for Alex, who wore the most beautifully etherial Vera Wang dress I ever did see.. ...come to find out morning sun is stellar for photos.  I collected these feathers while drinking at a friends house while trying to avoid having my toes bitten off by a gaggle of geese...and a few handsome ducks.  The bridesmaids carried pink and wore the softest shade of aqua with a tiny tinge of gray.  I like to leave notes. I get this from my mom... Fairly land complete. 

Megan & Jim 6.30.12

A snazzy monochromatic pallet of green and white set the scene for Megan and Jim's wedding. Simple, full of garden textures and modern, this one was a true stunner.

Gorgeous lady slipper orchids for Megan who just loved the stripes! Ruffled green garden roses make for extra prettiness.... ...sometimes there are so many centerpieces we run out of room... ...and we have to arrange in the other room. 

It must be love...

Hellebore. No other flower can bring out as many "ohhhhs" and "ahhhhs" with florists. Maybe a garden rose or an orchid, sometimes dahlias and ranunculus, but without a doubt....the Hellebore will always be a florist favorite. Maybe its the short season, and the fact that they seem so limited, one of a kind, and elusive. Blooming at the end of winter or in very early spring when no other flower has cracked through the earth, this little friend stands tall. Well, actually short...and somewhat hidden in the shade.

I love them for their amazing range of muted tones. Quiet shades that seem to work perfectly with any color you choose to pair them with. Dark plums with slight accents of gray, muddled tones of greens and cream with tiny adorable spots, and puce, the most horribly named....yet most beautiful color.

I also love them, because they are poisonous...and were once used to treat insanity. Funny how those seem to go hand in hand. I salute you little Hellebore. Thank you for making my March and April a little more interesting.

And so it begins...

....wedding season. The time of year a florist waits for with a mixture of emotions. The start of never ending work, emails and questions. The time when you can no longer make plans on a weekend, or eat regularly scheduled meals. But it is also the time of an explosion of creativity. Months filled with beautiful flowers and thoughtfully put together lovliness. Seeing your vision come to fruition, is something that one can only describe as exhaustingly gratifying. Our wedding season this year is long, running from April into January 2013. We have some beauties lined up, lots of orange and purple. Beautiful orchids we don't get to use too often, a traditional Hindu ceremony, lots of fruit and veggies, graffiti, and lots of gorgeous garden roses. All in all its shaping up to be a gorgeous spring/summer/fall/winter. With all of that out of the way, we kicked off the season with a tiny wedding complete with 12 guests in a room with a roaring fire at one of my favorite places (Home Hill Inn) surrounded by best the early spring has to offer.



See you soon...and more often. Until next time. 

Instant pretty

For those of you obsessed with Instagram, feel free to follow me! I'm always posting photos of things we're working in the shop, pretty flowers and things that inspire me. My instagram name thingy is Valleyflowerco. For those of you without Instagram, you can follow me here!  http://followgram.me/valleyflowerco

Becky tied the knot.

So listen, there are about 16-17 wedding that I haven't showed you yet this summer (because I'm a HORRIBLE slacker) and Becky's wedding was last weekend...but I love it enough to show it now. Plus its my blog and I can do whatever I want.

Becky didn't need a lot...just a few bouquets for herself, her sister and the moms. Not to mention a handful of boutonnieres and some tiny things for her flower girls. But quantity is not the name of the game here folks. Quality, quality, quality...who says you have to cover every inch of every man, woman and child not to mention the dog, your crazy Aunt Alice...and lets not forget Great Uncle Ned just to have a beautiful wedding? Ned doesn't like flowers anyway...just scotch.

Becky harvested the blueberries from her garden as well as the mint, wild raspberry and hosta...I went out the day before and picked the remaining lovelies from a couple local secret spots of mine, and with that. Beauty was born! All for very little money I might add, and I say this just so you folks contemplating DIY wedding flowers, wake up and smell the wedding cake. BAD IDEA, say it with me now....BAAAAADDDDD IDDDDDDEAAAA. (But thats for a different day, and a different snarky blog entry in which I tell you you're crazy.)

Just some random flowery things...

(oh, hello there...)

Oh, and in case you couldn't tell...it's obviously Dahlia season. Swoon.