Real Wedding: Ikumi and Chris

At the end of June, I worked on charming wedding here in Baltimore. Ikumi and Chris were married on a beautiful June evening at Gramercy Mansion. When I met with Ikumi to talk about flowers she mentioned wanting shades of purple for her bouquet.  This was an exciting challenge to me because I couldn’t wrap my head around monochrome purple.  Purple means something different to everyone. When asking the growers for purple that week, the shades were all so different.

At first, I tried to leave out the phlox and balloon flowers that looked more blue against the bee balm. I liked how it looked, but it looked a little …boring. I added in the more bluish purples, with the green mountain mint and I think it really made it alot for interesting and really beautiful.

Ikumi and Chris had small dinner reception at the Charleston, one of my favorite restaurants in Baltimore.  I loved the centerpieces we made for the dinner tables because the included Bells of Ireland. Everyone loves Bells of Ireland for their bright green color and weird suction cup “petals”. Locally, Bells of Ireland are only available for a few weeks in June,  so I try to use them as much as possible.

Thanks to Talmar and Belvedere Farm for providing us with these beautiful flowers!

Special thanks to Heather Coburn Photography for the fab pictures of Ikumi and Chris.

Congratulations to Ikumi and Chris! Wishing them much happiness in the years to come!

French Farm Inspired Photo Shoot!

Over the summer, I was so fortunate to be part of a totally amazing, creative, gorgeous photo shoot with lovely ladies from Jill Andrews Gowns and the uber-talented team of Lindsay and Shane from Readyluck!

The flowers we created for this shoot were very simple and natural. They added color to a mostly neutral palette.

The bouquets were made up of larkspur, baptisia and some wild weeds.

The tablescape was so much fun to create and it looked stunning with the fading sun.

The first centerpiece was a simple jar of late blooming lilacs.

The second arrangement was filled with larkspur, lilacs, allium and wild greens.

 

Thanks to Talmar, Plant Masters and Farmhouse Flowers for these beautiful blooms!

To see more from our French farm inspired shoot, check out 100 Layer Cake’s blog post and  LoCoFlo’s flickr site.

Real Weddings: Leslie and Michael

I love clients that love flowers! Leslie was a joy to work with leading up to the wedding day. She was super excited about the flowers – and so was I…which is the perfect combination!

Leslie looked stunning at her wedding. She carried a garden style bouquet filled with dahlias, lisianthus, salvia, beauty berries, eucalyptus, lavender and mint.

We lined the center aisle with these overflowing chair hangers. They were filled with mint, lavender, eucalyptus, tuberrose, ageratum and dahlias. They were perfect for adding great, natural fragrance to the ceremony.

 

Leslie collected an eclectic assortment of glassware for us to use for the table centerpieces. They ranged from a vessel that looked like a disco ball to a vintage measure cup. While each table had the same types of flowers, they were each unique as a result of the beautiful selection of vessels.

 

We had such fun working on Leslie and Michael’s wedding. Thanks to the great folks at the Josephine Baker Parks Center and to Chris at Ridgewells Catering for making set-up so easy!

Thanks to our amazing growers for always working with us to get just the right selection of flowers for each individual client! Flowers this week were provided by Wollam Gardens, Locust Point Flowers, Talmar, Farmhouse Flowers and Belvedere Farm.

Thanks to Erika Freber Photography for these beautiful photos!

Special thanks to Leslie and Michael for choosing Local Color Flowers! Wishing you much love and happiness in the years to come.

Flower Farming Starts and Finishes

One the the things I love about LoCoFlo is our close connection and relationships with the farmers we work with. On any given week, I see and talk with the growers more than I do my friends and family.  This is a business that requires regular contact by phone, email,fax and visits to the farm and farmers markets. It’s easy to become…friends.

This past week I was excited to meet and spend time with Talmar Garden’s newest employee: Brindley Fisher. Brindley will be my regular contact at Talmar for ordering flowers. Ordering flowers from local growers is different than calling up a wholesaler or emailing an online distributor and making an order. One call or click and your done. Not so in our world.  Brindley will be the person who lets me know what’s growing each week. It’ll be Brindley that walks me around the greenhouses, hoop houses and fields to show me what will be available in the coming weeks. It’ll be her that emails me, texts me, calls me to let me know how many lisianthus are blooming, in what shades and what the stem lengths are.  It’s farmers like Brindley at Talmar that provide the beautiful flowers, herbs and greens for our weddings and events. They make our work possible.  I’m excited by Brindley’s  enthusiasm for her work-and for the human connections that come as a result of the work. I’m looking forward to working with her this year.

I was also saddened this week to find out that one of my favorite growers has decided to stop growing flowers and leave “the business” all together. After some health problems slowed him down last season, he decided, after much consideration, to stop growing. I’m sad for so many reasons. This is a man so full of information about flowers that was ALWAYS so generous with his time to walk me around the farm and TEACH me. I have learned so much from him. I’ve shared coffee with him, made crafts at his house and cut flowers in the field with him. He has been a huge supporter of LoCoFlo and while I know that won’t change, I’m saddened to lose that weekly, sometimes daily connection with him. 

As we start our 4th year, I want to say how grateful I am to all of the growers we work with. Grateful for the beautiful flowers they provide. Grateful for everything they teach me (and they are teaching me all the time). Grateful for their support of LoCoFlo. Grateful for the relationships we have built. Grateful to call them my friends.

Real Weddings: Amanda and Kevan

Amanda and Kevan were married on a perfect summer evening at Black Ankle Vineyard.

I loved meeting Amanda. When we met, she really only had two request for her flowers-she didn’t want anything formal-and nothing that looked like “prom”! She wanted everything to be very natural, with lots of greens and herbs.  She wanted the flowers to compliment the beautiful scenery at Black Ankle.

Amanda’s bouquet was naturally shaped  filled with mint, eucalyptus, basil, asclepias, lisianthus, crested celosia and zinnias.

The girl’s bouquets were bright, colorful and looked great against their apple red dresses. The bouquets were filled with sedum, basil, asclepias, crested celosia and zinnias.

Vases of flowers were placed throughout the vineyard to add vibrant splashes of color to the natural surroundings.

The couple was married under this arch decorated with bunches of lilies, basil, mint, eucalyptus, crested celosia and lisianthus.

Doesn’t this make you wish you were at this wedding! So FUN!

The happy bride!

Thanks to Black Ankle for…just being fabulous! Thanks to our growers for these beautiful flowers! Belvedere Farm, Locust Point Flowers and Talmar..you guys ROCK! Thanks to Web Wright and WEB Photography for the beautiful pictures. To see more photos from Amanda and Kevan’s wedding, check out LoCoFlo’s flickr site.

Thanks to Amanda and Kevan for choosing Local Color Flowers! Congratulations to the happy couple!

Real Weddings: Callan and Jerry

Callan and Jerry were married on a gorgeous Sunday morning in September in historic Mt Vernon Park. I can't lie, since it was in the park, Eric and I dropped off the flowers, went and had breakfast and then watched the ceremony from a nearby sidewalk. Everything was just beautiful! A perfect Baltimore wedding!

When I first met with Callan and Jerry back in the winter, Callan told me she wanted to incorporate daisies in all shapes and sizes in the wedding. She also told me that the " theme" of the wedding was "a Bicycle Built for Two". Who couldn't love that! I told Callan that daisies were probably not in season in early September-but not to worry. We would pull together lots of "daisy looking" flowers to fit in with her theme.

Callan's bouquet was filled with white and yellow gerber daisies, zinnias, dahlias daisy mums and asters. We also added a few splashes of mountain mint.

The girls bouquets were similar and looked great against their dresses.

The reception took place right across the street from the park at the Peabody Court Hotel. The centerpieces were made up of eclectic pieces that Callan had collected including antique books, loose tea tins, tea pots, tea cups, colorful glass goblets, salt and pepper shakers and more. While each table was unique, they all looked perfect together!

    

As if all of these creative touches weren't enough, Callan and Jerry also had me decorate their "bicycle built for two" With cut flowers and tulle bows-what better way to ride off into the sunset!

Thanks to all of the growers who provided such beautiful flowers for this wedding including Belvedere Farm, Farmhouse Flowers, Locust Point Flowers and Talmar.

Special thanks to Lindsay MacDonald for the beautiful photos. To see more photos of Callan and Jerry, check out Lindsay’s blog or check out LoCoFlo’s flickr site!

Congratulations to Callan and Jerry-an adorable, creative, loving couple! Thanks for letting LoCoFlo share in your special day!

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: Meredith and Scott

Meredith booked her wedding with me over the phone.  We talked for about an hour about her wedding which would take place at Woodend Sanctuary.  I was immediately excited because I love working at Woodend. It’s just a beautiful, natural sp0t-perfect for a summer wedding.  I also loved hearing about how she and Scott spent a lot of time at Woodend bird watching! I loved it!

The wedding colors were shades of pink, a little purple and bright green. For the end of July, we had a great selection of pinks including zinnias, lisianthus, Echinacea, coxcomb, plume celosia, dahlias and phlox. We included green zinnias and mountain mint for a splash of green.

I especially love this sweetheart table. The colors were so vibrant in this mostly green setting.

The two larger arrangements in this photo were used out in the grove for the ceremony and then were moved inside to decorate the mantle. Reusing your ceremony arrangements a the reception is a great way to get the most out of your flowers.

Thanks to our growers including Bridge Farm Nursery, Belvedere Farm Locust Point Flowers and Talmar.

Special thanks to the amazing Jocelyn Mathewes of Studio Mathewes for taking such amazing pictures! She captured the beauty of the couple and the space perfectly. To see more photos from Meredith and Scott’s wedding check out Jocelyn’s blog!

Congratulations to this happy, happy couple!

Labor Day Weekend: A Sneak Peak at the Flowers

Another busy, beautiful weekend for LoCoFlo! The weather in Baltimore has finally broken and it’s perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. Each of our weddings this weekend incorporated beautiful urban and rural outdoor space into their weddings.

Maggie’s wedding took place at St John’s Episcopal Church in Glyndon Maryland. This rural setting was the perfect place for an end of summer wedding.

Jam jars filled with zinnias, ageratum, snap dragons and tuberose were place all over the ceremony and reception site include all around the perimeter of the “dancing” tent!

One of my favorite parts of this wedding was the “farm stand” that acted as a favors table. Instead of giving their guests traditional favors, the couple had LoCoFlo set up a farm stand filled with local fruits, veggies and other treats that the guests could choose from at the end of the night. The couple provided reusable grocery bags for guests to take home their food in. You have to love a couple that strives to make their wedding purchases creative and socially conscious at the same time!

___________________________________________________

Heidi’s wedding took place Saturday evening on the patio at Gertrude’s restaurant at the BMA. The bride requested deep and brightly colored flowers in jewel tone colors. She was really excited about using eclectic flowers and colors to showcase both what was available locally and her own creative style.

The bride’s bouquet was filled with zinnias, dahlias, mountain mint, coxcomb, salvia and plumed celosia.

The bride’s daughter was the Maid of Honor.  She let me know when we met that she was not really the type of teenager that wanted to carry a big bouquet of flowers. Her dress was purple, blue and black and she wanted something interesting and unique that would compliment her dress. We made her this bouquet full of purple salvia and ageratum, fuchsia coxcomb, plumed celosia and dahlias, a few purple gomphrena and lots of mountain mint. ___________________________________________________

Callan and Jerry’s wedding on Sunday was just pure fun to work on! They live in Mt Vernon. They got married in Mt Vernon Park. The bride wore high heeled yellow vegan shoes with her tea length dress. The tables at brunch were filled with eclectic “vases” that the bride collected over the last few months including tea cups, tea pots, little animal creamers and more! They rode away on a Bicycle Built for Two (that i decorated with flowers). What more can I say? I love them!

I couldn’t help but sneak a peak at the actual wedding. I stood on the sidewalk with other passerby’ers…tearing up at this beautiful Baltimore scene!

Thanks to all of growers-you know who they are by now-but they make our work possible! Belvedere Farm, Bridge Farm Nursery, Farmhouse Flowers, Locust Point Flowers and Talmar.

Thanks to Jen, Carla and Eric for helping with design and set-up. They were awesome!

And special thanks and congratulations to this weekends great couples. I am always so happy and grateful to be part of their big days!