28th Street Flower Market, NYC

I have spent the last 3 days in NYC just taking in the views, the food, the culture, the history, and, of course, the FLOWERS at the Flower Market on 28th between 6th and 7th. Yes, it is that time of year, and the flowers are outstanding! In addition to the cut flowers, several of the wholesalers have pots of bulb plants - hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, and one of my favorite things - flats of wheat grass! Yes, I do love to see the wooden flats planted with wheat grass. I don't know - there is just something about that look. I will be using something like that for an upcoming wedding, and I can't wait.

At any rate, I talked to Cas Trap, owner of Dutch Flower Line this morning. We were talking about the fabulous flowers in his shop today. They looked to be just picked - even the sweet peas from Japan, of all places. Cas and his brother Remco Van Vliet also own an event design company. In addition, Remco does the flowers in the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art each week (BIG, BIG, BIG designs), and I have taken classes from both of them at Flower School New York. Cas still teaches at FlowerSchool NY, but Remco and Cas both have started their own flower school as well. They are originally from Holland and their father and grandfather owned a flower shop. It's in thier blood as they say.

Oh, do I envy all the floral designers whom I saw this morning picking up their most beautiful flowers for their work this weekend. However, I have them beat when it comes to getting their flowers to their shops. Mine come directly to my door, and I do not have to deal with NY traffic or public transportation. Once I bought flowers for an event that I did at the Union League Club in NY, and navigating the subway with the flowers (and Chloe in her Sherpa) was not easy!!!!

Enjoy the pics!

Here is a picture of blue Tweedia for one of my upcoming weddings. I wanted to show Kelly what it looks like.

The next two are of the view from our hotel room, as I waited on my husband to get back to the hotel from work so that we could go to dinner. We are staying on the West side near the Theater District and I LOVE the restauant called Hell's Kitchen located on 9th between 47th and 48th. We went back their for the second time last night!!! The last time we were here, I think I went there 3 times.

Now that I'm thinking about food, I'll show you a picture of the dining "bar" in Pearl Oyster Bar located in Greenwich Village. We ate there on Monday night - again it's one of our favorites. The raw oysters were so fresh - Blue Points. We also had some fried! I had smoked salmon over a Johnny cake with cream fraiche. So, so good!!!!! Please know that when I get home, I'm having Leek Soup for 48 hours like is suggested in French Women Don't Get Fat because I have over-indulged, but enjoyed every morsel and sip. But before that, dinner tonight in midtown at Artisinal!!!!!!!

Homage to Spring

Last Saturday was the wedding of Kelly and Ben. They were truly two lovely people. I was honored to design the flowers for their wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and working with Kelly's step mom to plan all the details for the wedding. Her training as and attorney was so evident as we went through her checklist. The whole experience was a joy. I wish Kelly and Ben the best of luck as he begins his residency program and they begin their life together.

I called the bouquet my homage to spring using my first lilac of the season, Van Dyke white tulips, gorgeous white heather and lovely silver brunia with dusty miller to help create our very soft palette for this wedding. I also was asked to wrap the stems of the bouquet with the lovely handkerchief that Kelly's grandmother carried when she got married.

Pictures will be forthcoming, but we used peach and buttery roses, flowering quince, white French tulips, Dusty Miller and masses of Baby's Breath to set the stage at the reception. Everyone seemed blown away by these flowers. I was extremely proud of the results, and so thrilled to see the happiness on everyone's face when they saw the flowers. Oh, and the boutonnieres were so "fresh" and sophisticated....dusty miller leaf with a bunch of silver brunia wrapped with a black satin ribbon. The girls carried bouquets of mini green hydrangea, peach roses with white tulips and feathery eucalyptus. They just popped against the periwinkle blue dresses.

Winter Wonderland Wedding

The wedding was originally scheduled for November, but the Army decided to keep the groom in Afghanistan a little longer than planned. The date was changed to January.  So, Brittany and I went into planning mode to change the color palette from November tangerines to white and "sparkley" for a January "winter wonderland" theme. After the initial shock of having to redo everything, we all got excited about the new look....white-white, winter-white, silver and little white lights in curly willow branches that were sprayed white. It was a beautiful wedding, and the bride's sister met with me the following Monday, to plan her upcoming August wedding. The mother of these two girls, is just as excited about the next daughter's wedding as she was about Brittany's wedding. She is a dream....they are all a dream to work with and to know! Oh, and it didn't matter that the high on Jan. 7 was about 67 degrees or so. It was a lovely all white wedding and love abounded! 

One Year Anniversary

My son and his wife (my beautiful daughter-in-law) just celebrated their one year anniversary. I can't believe it's been one year since that magical weekend. I love to look at all the pictures from the wedding. I wish I could show you more of the events of the weekend. But, here are just a few of that lovely, special event in our lives.

 

Belmont Bridal Show

I am participating in a Bridal Show at Belmont in Fredericksburg on January 22, 2012, from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm. This is always a lovely event with quality wedding professionals participating in the show. If you are interested, you can go to the following web site and print a 1/2 off the admission price coupon http://belmontevents.umwblogs.org/. I would love to meet you and talk to you about your wedding flowers. See you there!

These are a few of the images to be included in a power point that Belmont is putting together!