Real Weddings: Katie and Tom

Katie and Tom were married at the end of October at the beautiful Elkridge Furnace Inn. This beautiful couple was a joy to work with. Not only did they have a great style they also had some great ideas for their flowers. Tom wanted to use toad lilies if they were available for both the boutonnières and the cake. Katie’s mom was going to bring us magnolia leaves and dried crepe myrtle from their home in Georgia for us to use in the centerpieces.  It was these personal touches that made the flowers so special.

Katie carried a bouquet of white dahlias ringed with magnolia leaves. The stems of the bouquet were wrapped with a tartan plaid which looked great with the deep green of the magnolia.

The girls carried bouquets filled with vibrant fuchsia dahlias  mixed with magnolia leaves.

The centerpieces were made in low, rectangular, glass vase filled with dahlias, dried crepe myrtle and magnolia leaves.

This cake table and cake was one of my favorites of last year.  Dahlias, dahlia petals and toad lilies covered the table and cake.

Thanks to Wollam Gardens and Locust Point Flowers (and Katie’s mom) for the beautiful flowers and greens.  Special thanks to Brian Slanger Photography for the beautiful photos.

Congratulations to Katie and Tom! Wishing you all the happiness in the world!

Real Weddings: Krista and Sam

Krista and Sam were married on a beautiful Fall day at Corradetti Glassblowing  Studio in Baltimore. It was a perfect location for this creative, beautiful couple.

The bride carried a bouquet filled with orange and white dahlias, white snapdragons and mountain mint.  It was simply wrapped in natural color raffia.

 

The bride’s friends all held single stems of different colored dahlias and snap dragons which were collected in a special arrangement at the reception.

The reception tables were decorated with the bride’s grandfather’s antique apothecary jars filled with vibrant, unique dahlias, herbs and berries.

          

Thanks to Wollam Gardens, Locust Point Flowers and Pahl’s far for the absolutely beautiful flowers.

Thanks to Love Life Images for these amazing photos.

Special thanks to Sam and Krista for choosing Local Color Flowers for their wedding. We loved working with them. Congratulations to the happy couple!

New Growers for LoCoFlo

This has been a great week for LoCoFlo! On Wednesday, I went  to Annapolis to the Mid Atlantic Growers meeting. This group of growers meets in the winter (November, January and February) to discuss best practices, share upcoming flower orders, listen to speakers, get trained on new techniques-and mostly just TALK about growing flowers.

Somehow…I get to go to these meetings even though I’m not a grower…which is AWESOME!  I learn so much in these meetings about new flower varieties, new design techniques and more. I also get to meet new growers that are close enough to Baltimore to sell to LoCoFlo.

This month, I especially enjoyed meeting and talking with  Madgie from M and M Plants in Montgomery County and Suzanne Montie from Red Chimney Flower Farm in Bowie.  I’m excited to have set up a phone meeting for next week with Wenfei Uva of Seaberry Farm.  I was also encouraged to hear about some young growers buying land and trying to make the transition from regular job to flower grower. The more people growing flowers locally the more options we have for our clients. So keep growing! Finally, through the magic of Facebook, I got connected to Plant Masters in Montgomery County. Check out their Facebook page to see beautiful photos of their locally grown flowers.

I’m so excited for 2011-to visit new farms and buy from new growers!

Fruity Options for Wedding Centerpieces

LoCoFlo loves using the best locally grown, seasonal flowers for our clients special events. But flowers aren’t the only thing that go into these creations. We often use berries, foliage, fruits, veggies and more to add color and texture to our designs.

This year, we had several opportunities to use fruit from Reid’s Orchard in Pennsylvania. Mr. Reid has the most amazing fruits and vegetables (for both eating and designing). I especially love shopping at his stand because I get to visit with two of my favorite farmers-Katie and Anna Maunz!

In August, we created centerpieces for a wedding in Virginia with over 100 pounds of produce from Reid’s. These centerpieces were definitely a conversation starter-both amongst the multicultural staff at the hotel and the guests! 

For the couple’s sweetheart table!

All of the produce from this wedding was donated to the DC Food Bank at the end of the night!

Just a few weeks ago, we used some great green apples in these lush fall centerpieces for a wedding at the cloisters. (These apples made their way back to me  this week as a gift of spiced apples from the couple!)

What would a Fall wedding season be without a seasonally inspired centerpiece of gourds, pumpkins, apples and pears.

Besides using herbs for boutonnieres and bouquets, we often add sprigs of herbs to the place settings to add a little color and fragrance to the table.

 

Fruits and veggies also made their way to favor tables as well. Here are two examples of LoCoFLo brides that had us set up a Locally Grown Farm Stand full of local produce and reusable grocery bags for their guests could  take home with them.

For sure, LoCoFlo gets to work on some of the coolest, most progressive, creative, socially conscious, beautiful weddings around!

Thanks to Reid’s Orchard, Breidenbaugh Farms, Martin’s Farm and Pahl’s farm for the beautiful produce and herbs!

Real Weddings: Trish and Nick

LoCoFlo brides are not your average brides. They are creative. They think outside of the box. They love nature. They love to personalize their weddings. No generic, run of the mill weddings here.

When I met Trish, I knew I was going to enjoy working with her. She let me know that her and her fiancé Nick were going to get married at ThorpeWood in the Catoctin Mountains (about 75 minutes from Baltimore).  This was a perfect setting for this nature loving, animal loving, bike riding couple.

At our first meeting, Trish told me that she and Nick wanted to incorporate bike cogs into her bouquet and his boutonniere. She also told me that the centerpieces would be made out of large bike cogs-all of which Nick would send me from the bike shop where he worked. Now, I can’t say I knew what a bike cog was at first. Trish showed me some pictures and I assured her we could make it happen.

We used shot glasses for the “vase” in the center of this bike cog centerpiece and filled them with all kinds of herbs (basil and rosemary here).

The boutonnieres turned out great too! I was a little worried about how heavy they would be, how I would get them to stay on-but they turned out better than I could have imagined.

And then, there was the bouquet. Jen and I agreed, this bouquet was one of the most fun, most beautiful bouquets we ever made!

It was full of eucalyptus, dahlias, snap dragons, herbs, millet, statice and curly willow.

Can you see one of the cogs sticking out under one of the dried lotus pods?

 

We also attached one to the handle of the bouquet!

 

Thanks to our growers who provided these beautiful flowers and herbs including Belvedere Farm, Pahl’s Farm, Locust Point Flowers and Talmar. Special thanks to Brian Slanger for these beautiful photos!

Special thanks and congratulations to Trish and Nick! Thank you for letting LoCoFlo be a part of your special day! We loved it!

 

Real Weddings: Mat and Emily

I  was excited to work with Emily because she had a beautiful, natural vision for her wedding (and she was SO NICE!) She and Mat were getting married at Naylor Vineyard in in Stewartstown PA at the end of July. To compliment the site, Emily was interested in having mostly herbs and greens in her bouquet and centerpieces. She also wanted a splash of purple and white-which worked wonderfully with the surroundings at the vineyard.

We filled the  bride’s bouquet was filled with basil, mint and eucalyptus. We used lavender, salvia and lisianthus for splashes of purple and white. It was a lush bouquet that smelled awesome!

The  boutonnieres were simple, made of  salvia, mountain mint and a little sprig of statice.

 

We tied bouquets of lilies, eucalyptus and mint to the arbor where the couple were married. The view of the vineyard could not have been more beautiful.

The centerpieces were mason jars, orangina bottles and little juice glasses filled with herbs ad flowers. The three pieces were clustered together in the center of the tables.

Everything about this wedding was just perfect!

Thanks to our growers for such wonderful flowers and herbs! We are grateful for Belvedere Farm, Locust Point Flowers and Talmar! 

Thanks too to Chris and Michelle Glass for the beautiful photos!

Congratulations to Mat and Emily! Wishing you a long, happy life together!

August 7, 2010: A Sneak Peak at the Flowers

This was a big wedding weekend for LoCoFlo. We had two great weddings this past weekend.

Saturday morning’s wedding at the Pete Rawlings Conservatory at Druid Hill Park was such a great Baltimore Summer Wedding.  The bride was wearing a vintage Mexican  wedding dress and wanted flowers that would compliment that colorful embroidered flowers on her dress.

We filled her bouquet with red zinnias, asclepias, coxcomb and gomphrena. We also included bright yellow zinnias, purple salvia, statice and gomphrena. Finally we added fragrant green mountain mint and rose scented geranium. 

The bride provided her own vases including this beautiful purple glass vase and colorful Spanish bottle seen below.

It was just a beautiful vibrant wedding!  Saturday evening’s wedding was also vibrant and lush and unique. Anna and Matt got married at the American Visionary Arts Museum. Anna wanted unique, modern and eclectic flowers in deep purple, orange and lime green.

We made two different centerpieces for the tables. The first, a 5 inch by 5 inch cube was full of green hydrangea and green emerald tassels, orange zinnias, coxcomb, asclepias and gomphrena and deep purple buddleia and and gomphrena.

The second set up tables had a similar cube (but a little smaller), a small little cube with an orange zinnia and a tall square vases with one single, beautiful gladiola.

Thanks to everyone who helped out this weekend. All of LoCoFlo’s growers were great this week! I really did buy every orange flower within about 50 miles of Baltimore. All of this weekend’s flowers came from Belvedere Farm, Bridge Farm Nursery, Locust Point Flowers, Pahl’s Farm and Talmar. Thanks to our great LoCoFlo designers Jen and Marina and our delivery helpers Cathy (seen above working hard) and Eric!