You know, in a way I am happy that it sometimes takes months after a wedding to get the albulm all set up and ready to print. The hardest part is putting together the best images, telling the story and EDITING. Impossible to to when you have an amazing destination wedding on your hands. That is what we had for the wedding of Tess and Erik. This wedding happened last spring on the beautiful Island of Bermuda. Have you been there? If not, I highly suggest it. The first time that I stepped off of the plane on that bit of English heaven in the atlantic, I knew that I would be inspired. It is not tropical, but has tropical elements. It is not English, but it has English elements. I adore it!!
Today is my husband's birthday. He is probably the most patient, kind and understanding man that I know. He is always there with soft smile, willing to pitch in and help with the many creative tasks that come up in the course of my business. We sat last night at the bar at Mike's to have a bite to eat for dinner. While there, we met a nice English lady who asked us the story of how we met and what was the secret to our romance. I answered and told her that on our first date I knew that Kevin was going to be the one for me. I brought him a mound of tulips and we played tennis together that night and eat great hotdogs at Nathan's. Such simple pleasures were so fun with Kevin and still are.
I always try to do some flowers for Kev. He likes flowers just as much as I do so it is nice that I too will get to share in the pleasure of their fleeting beauty. For today, this gorgeous mound of flowers in primary colors is in celebration of the man that I love. Thank you for all that you do for me and our family to live the special and unique life that we do.
Happy Birthday Kevin.
I have a very special friendship with the dynamic duo of Jill and Lauren of Person + Killian Photography. We know each other outside the scope of the wedding world and have had so much fun at holidays and on couple get always. Each time I see them I am thankful for such an amazing friends. Of course, we also work together within the fabulous worlds of weddings. Each year Person and Killian has thrown a party to thank the professionals that they work with. When they called and asked if I would arrange the flowers for their annual industry party I was thrilled to do this for them. They have done so much for me over the years and their friendship means the world to me. Of course I would jump to it and make this a floral display that would leave them chattering.
Amy Kimball of Amy Kimball Events, also a friend of Lauren and Jill's was in charge of the over all planning to the event. She and the gals worked out that they would have a winter wonderland theme party to be held at the majestic Boston Public Library. It was totally appropriate given that in New England over the past couple of weeks we have had an unprecedented amount of snow that has fallen and choked the city and country side with mounds and mounds of snow. The theme played out so well with the decor and details that Amy had planned. The soft lighting and amazing linens from Rentals Unlimited were the perfect backdrop to the "frozen" flowers that I would display on all of these wonderful display canvases.
Of course, when I am putting on an editorial display I am nervous. What will they think? I want it to be new and fresh and in this case, frozen. The flowers were easy. Spring flowers fill the market and are usually the first to peek their heads from under the snow. I chose mounds of Hyacinth, Roses, Orchids, Stock, Lisianthus and Amaryllis and put them on top of display containers that were actually filled with fresh snow and ice. I also used some special little LED lights in the glass arrangements to give almost a moon lit glow to the snow.
I often use potted flowering plants with fresh flowers. I love a little vignette mixing the two together. For the party I couldn't resist the rings of stephanotis vines. It looked like a modern wreath that had been frosted with snow. The scent of these flowers, forget about it, nothing short of heaven. For the vase arrangements, I was happy to show off a new collection that is actually a brushed steel type of glaze pottery. I thought that it's shape and modern take on "frozen" was perfect with the modern clustered mounds of bright white spring flowers.
Personally, I can be a bit shy at an industry event. Everyone wants to talk the biz. I live and breath it every waking minute. I am almost consumed by this wonderful passion that I have. I live and relish those quite moments in life when I can enjoy the company of my husband and dogs and of course my amazing friends. Lauren and Jill totally get this about me and for that I send them this. MUAAAHHH!!! You both should be amazingly proud of yourselves as hostesses to your party of the year. I am flattered to have been asked to showcase my work in the midst of such accomplished company. I look forward to our continued friendship and sharing the love.
The world of social media has grabbed a hold of our attention and is quickly becoming THE if not the only way that information and media is being exchanged.
As a company, it is important, if not imperative to relay the happenings and offerings of your company in the most efficient and cost effective way possible.
I am pleased to be working with How On Earth in Mattapoisett to help develop a custom blog structure and e:mail marketing platform to both catalog and advertise both the happenings within their retail store and within their intimate cafe. By doing this type of work and distributing it through the various and broad range of social media outlets, How On Earth is able to effectively communicate not only with their fans and customers but also become the exacting search relevancy when new customers and looking for what they offer.
I love being able to switch creative hats, as you know. Digital Marketing and Web Design allows me to use my camera and photography services, along with my digital design skills to offer a scalable marketing solution with affordable results. I look forward to working with How On Earth to help grow their business, organically of course.
Although my company offers many creative services, I never forget that I got my start with flowers. There is a serene peace that I get when I am in the midst of their color and of course their scent. Believe it or not, I sneeze like crazy because of them and I take this as a price to pay. Life is filled with dues and I am happy to pay them to live in such a beautiful world.
We often are called on just to do the flowers for an event. Sometimes other wedding planners will call on me to work with them to make their events a bit more special. As a company we have quite a few clients that call on us constantly to bring the fragile beauty of flowers as a showcase to their restaurants and corporate offices. The vast majority of the time I am working with flowers for a wedding. My process begins with our initial consultation either here in my office or by way of phone. In our conversation I hope to gather enough information to create flowers and a price estimate that are inspired by the brides vision and expectations. It is also important to discuss budget as fresh flowers can be expensive. They are flown in from all around the world. I can always work some magic on a budget as I have a vast collection of vases and decorative accessories that we as a company have amassed over the years. I offer these collections to my clients on a rental basis as an effective way to keep costs for floral costs down.
People often ask what do flowers cost? Of course that depends on so many varied details. My individual arrangements begin at 65.00, available for local delivery only. Floral collections for weddings and events begin at 500.00 and often range in price from the low end of 2500.00 to upwards of......let's just say a lot.
Most of the time, I tell brides that they should first allocate their budget to the bridal bouquet and the flowers for the attendants and family. These arrangements will add a special touch to the day and can often be maximized by placing in vases to be displayed at the reception. Flowers for the ceremony can often be moved and used later on at the reception. One thing, I never fight with a church. If they insist on keeping the flowers, I look up to the sky and say to myself, not a chance that I am willing to take, ha. ha. Ask your priest what they prefer, if your budget allows it, leaving flowers at the church is a nice way to say thank you to the church and to show off your style to the congregation for Sunday's Mass.
When it comes to table top displays we often create cocktail collections and dinner table collections. I create one or two different styles of flower arrangements to add an eclectic, but styled look to your reception. That really is more of a basic look for the flower collections that we are asked to create. From there we have worked almost at every venue on every budget and can create couture collections that collaborate with linens, lighting, decor and many other style layers that we offer as a company. If you read this and love my flowers, call me personally at 508.999.1120 to discuss your project. I am always happy to chat, I am always flexible and creative and I would love to work with you.
I am always in creative mode. It seems that I am constantly digging through the thousands of photos that fill my computers and other technology devices. Once in a while, I find photos that I have never published before. These flowers and party setting were inspired by the bouquet being thrown into the air. I used antique bouquet holders and filled them with lush mounds of Hydrangea, roses, lisianthus and my favorite, sweet pea. I then hung these bouquets over the cake and the table top arrangements which were showstoppers in an of themselves with five french tulips, one for each decade of celebration, springing from the lush mound at the center of the table.
I adore tonal and nuances of color, so it was totally appropriate that gold filled the rest of the room. It was lovely. I was an invited guest to this party. One of the 50 honored guests to celebrate with this incredible family. The party was a while ago at the Bay Club in Mattapoisett, but the photos of these details bring me right back to it. I can almost smell the sweet pea.
One of the fastest growing segments of my business is that of digital marketing and web design. It is impossible in today's world to run a business without showcasing your work with digital style. I am lucky that I have always thought that web design and getting your work out to the digital world is the fastest and most cost effective ways to market and promote your business. I have worked with Summer Street Builders for many years to build and maintain their web site and to host their domain name. The last time that I revamped it was about four years ago. Given that I have pushed my self to further my not only my digital design skills but my photography skills as well, I knew that it was time to get out into the southcoast, photograph Regis of Summer Street Builders amazing work, and to organize and catalogue so new clients can view it.
I have designed this web site so that it is not only attractive to viewers, but to search engines as well. I am sure that they will soon get a call to say that we saw your web site and now we want to hire you. I look forward to the continued digital development of their incredible building brand. For more information on my company's digital marketing and web design service please visit that portion of my web site by clicking here.
As I sit at my desk, I watch the snow slowing falling. The dusting of my garden and holiday decorations has me in the holiday spirit. The halls are decked and the gifts are bought and wrapped. I thought that it might be a nice time to send my wishes for a wonderful holiday season to my family, friends and the many fans that make the work that I do possible. I am truly appreciative of your support and encouragement as I work to make the world a little prettier day by day. 2011 looks to be a promising year with many, many brides starting to work on their weddings and celebrations. Of course, I will be right there with my camera to document the flowers, the mood and the decor. My feeling is that you are about to see the best yet from this little creative firm.
I hope that you take time to celebrate with those you love and that the spirit of the holidays fills your heart.
Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy and joyous holiday season. -chad michael peters