I was at the grocery store last night and happened to grab the 2009 fall/winter issue of The Knot magazine. I was over the moon to see one of our bouquets featured in one of their color stories - black & white. I forgot that we had designed a bouquet back in December of 2008 and delivered it to a NYC loft for a photo shoot just before taking off to Colorado for Christmas. It's amazing what a difference a professional photographer makes (if you saw the photos I took of this bouquet, you would understand)!!

Thank you to Meredith at The Knot for including us - we are so excited!
Cheers,
Dawn

Last week, I asked a friend (and talented photographer) Brea McDonald to come by and take some 'behind the scenes' shots of us hard at work before a wedding we did at the Galley for Meghan and Darryl. Here are some fun insights into a 'Day in the Life' at Soiree Floral:

This is me wrapping the bridal bouquet. I love it when brides choose to carry color in their bouquet. This one has lots of texture.

photo by Brea McDonald

Picking out the tablescape is just one element of our design services. Here, I'm with Jen Shepherd of Placesetters looking at chargers and napkins trying to get the colors just right. Don't you love this twig linen??!!

photo by Brea McDonald

Welcome to the jungle - when we get close to crunch time and we're about to load up the van and head to the venue - I usually misplace my tools at least a dozen times. I need them velcroed to me!

photo by Brea McDonald

Sometimes things get a little messy. Contrary to popular belief, the flowers don't clean themselves.


photos by Brea McDonald

We had a beautiful day here last Saturday for Stefanie and Serge's wedding at The Galley in Nantucket. One of the elements the couple really wanted to focus on was a bar on the beach for their guests to enjoy.

We came up with this idea and placed an open air 'sheltered' structure with a bar underneath for guests to tickle their toes in the sand. They had a wonderful time, and many guests snuck out during dancing to have their photos taken during sunset.

Design elements like this make your day unique, they are great for photo ops, and they help keep guests moving through the tent.

Great idea Stefanie! I'm so glad you were open to our ideas.

This past Saturday we had the pleasure of completing a year long design process with our wonderful couple Jen and Erik. Jen planned her entire wedding (while finishing up school and graduating from Harvard the Thursday before her wedding!) down to the finite details of driftwood table sign holders. This was a very unique Nantucket wedding in that Jen had very modern tastes. Their ceremony was held at First Congregational church and we worked in some florals/greens that reminded her of her roots from the Northwest. I am by no means a photographer (and I can't wait to get my hands on the professional photos) but I could not wait to share this bold color scheme of Teal, Turquoise, White, and Yellow. Here are a few photos from the church:



Her bouquet was one of my all time favorites - the textures with the berries and pods along with the trailing maidenhair fern were both whimsical and oh so sophisticated. It looked amazing with her dress!

The reception was held at the White Elephant, complete with turquoise linens and ghost chairs. We used a bold pop of yellow with callas and manzanita branches for the perimeter tables, and loads of long stemmed white callas for the center tables. The head table was dripping in phaeleonopsis orchids, cymbidium and dendrobium orchids, with white callas completing the tablescape. The tabletop rentals were from Placesetters.

How fun is the cake display? Again, going away from a traditionally styled cake, Jodi Levesque of Jodi's cakes and I collaborated with the bride to bring her magazine tear sheets to life.

The escort table was supposed to be a lucite table with ferns and floating blooms inside the table with the large manzanita display above. Unfortunately, the table broke before it was brought over to the island, so we switched it out with the glass tabletop you see in the photo. Still amazing, and the bold turquoise ribbons on the escort cards adds to the design with the repetition of the striping on the table.

I can't wait to see all the photos by Claudia Kronenberg when they are done!!!

Nothing says wedding like an all white bouquet. Most brides swoon over big, fluffy blooms and you can't go wrong during the summer with garden roses. Here, we created an oversized white bouquet brimming with shades of white, and lots of texture. Both the texture and shades of white are important for photos (especially your black and white photos) - otherwise your bouquet will look flat. I even snuck in a few feathers towards the lower half of the bouquet - what groom wouldn't want to hold a bouquet like this while his bride powder's her nose?



photo courtesy of the brilliant husband and wife team at Brian Phillips photography.

This is a dramatic bouquet (again, done at a photo shoot with Grace Ormonde, and photographed by the brilliant duo at Brian Phillips Photography) that speaks for itself. This is not for the faint of heart. Black sunflowers, chocolate cosmos, flowering eucalyptus and pods, kangaroo paw, fiddlehead ferns and to top it off - black feather boas and trailing gold and black satin ribbon streamers.

I picture a fall bride, a non-traditional wedding dress, and a reception in one of the many fabulous 'loft' venues in NYC.

Designing bouquets is one of the favorite parts of my job. To me (and I'm obviously biased) the bouquet is one of the most important accessories a bride has on her wedding day. We did a photo shoot with Grace Ormonde - and the amazingly talented duo of Maria and Brian at Brian Phillips Photography captured these shots.

This particular bouquet is great for a Nantucket bride. Brimming with textures in a soft color pallete of greens/creams/whites. The bouquet even includes some blooming onions and variegated kale. The handle of the bouquet is wrapped in jute with shells for the finishing touches.