I haven’t posted in awhile but the day has arrived when I have no choice!  I’ve had the honor to be part of a group of designers from all over the country.  We’re called the Chapel Designers.  Last year was the first year for us and we got the shout out asking who wanted to meet our “fearless leader”, Holly Chapple of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers in New York City.  It was just a random question from her but 17 of us all met in NYC the following March.  This year it was 36 of us!  I’ll blog about it in the posts to come.  (I’ve been a little behind!)

We were able to do so many lovely things and met amazing designers.  One of them that we were honored to take a design class at Flower School New York from was the fantastic designer Ariella Chezar.  It was a class on how to design in a compote.  After being in the floral business for 11 years I had yet to design in this way.  A compote by definition is a compotier – a dish, usually of glass, china or silver having a base, stem and often a lid normally used to serve fruit or candy.  These days compotes are becoming quite popular to use as centerpiece vessels.  Martha Stewart recently did a post called Crazy for Compotes (though it was already in the works when it came out)! It is designed using a frog (a heavy pinned floral holder) inside the compote.  Quite often a florist will use floral foam inside a vase to hold the flowers.  The little frog is a bit of a challenge to use when you’re used to another method.  The class was so inspiring that Isha Foss decided that we should each do an example of our own versions of the compote centerpiece.

This is the first one I designed.  It’s in an antique compote edged in gold.  I had flowers left from a photo shoot and it got so big and fluffy.  The last bits I added were some branches from our Hawthorne tree.  It’s not a traditional shape, this one is a bit higher than normal, but it’s so big and lush what’s not to like?

After looking at the first one all day, I decided that I would take it apart and try again. This one I designed in a vintage green glass compote.  All the flowers were from the design above except with some small touches from my garden.   This one has a bit of romance to it and as a friend said, weeds and roses, it looks like poetry.  Love that!  Which one do you like the best?

Following are images from some of my friends from the Chapel Designers.  Please check out their blogs by clicking on their names below the photo.  Enjoy all of the beautiful eye candy!

Isha Foss Events

Holly Heider Chapple Flowers

Alluring Blooms

Flora Verde 

Flirty Fleurs - Chuck

Flirty Fleurs – Alicia

Celebration Florals

Fleur:ology

Petals and Hedges

Bare Root Floral

True Florette

Modern Day Floral

Loda Floral Design

Courtenay Lambert Florals

Petals and Promises

Sweet Pea Floral Design

Exquisite Designs

Sebasta Designs

I’ll start this post by saying how excited I am about what’s coming for Grapevine!  There has been so much going on over the last year with many decisions having to be made about our future.  A near complete re-structuring of where we want it to go from here.

In the 11 years that Grapevine has been doing weddings, I have done over 200 weddings in the immediate Chicago area with most of the weddings we design not in the area where I’ve lived.  I’ve always  gone into Chicago on a fairly regular basis for work and fun, but now that our daughters (and my son isn’t far behind) have lived there for quite awhile I find myself there almost weekly.  My husband and I have lived out in the boonies (Crystal Lake) for 27 years next month!  We moved here to give our kids a calmer life with better schools (plus houses were less expensive!).  And since the drive time varies between 1 1/4 hours and 3 hours (yikes!) it seems reasonable to want to be closer to the places and people that I love.

AND the biggest bonus of all is that we will be more available to YOU, our future brides and grooms!  Yay!

So with our lease ending, the decision has been made for us to move closer to the city.  I’ve thought about it for years but the timing hasn’t been right.  We don’t know where yet, that will be a quest that will be coming in the late spring/early summer.  It will most likely be just outside of Chicago proper.  In the meantime, we will be meeting with our clients wherever is the most convenient for you.

I’m happy to meet at your venue, wherever that may be or at a cozy table at Starbucks.  I love me some coffee!

So be looking for updates, it’s bound to be exciting!

Engaged in 1976

I met this cute boy in the fall of 1975 when I was 19 and he was 22!  He was in community theater at the time and quite the popular guy with the ladies.  He promised he would call me but what I didn’t realize was that there was someone he had is eye on at the time but that didn’t work out so he thought he’d give me a try!  Our first official date we talked all night, which made my dad a little crabby, but we have been together ever since.  By the following spring we were living together (oh the horrors!), engaged in the fall and married on April 16, 1977.  We had a wonderful wedding brunch at the Barn of Barrington.  No 1-2 years of planning, no over stressing and no DIY!  And there weren’t many flowers because things were just a bit more simple than they are now.

Nothing went wrong except my brother-in-law wearing red striped socks under his white tux pants.  I don’t think I would have noticed anything wrong anyway.  I loved my Johnny and that’s all that mattered, we were babies and just happy to be on our own.

36 Years have gone by since this photo was taken.  I wanted to put up a wedding photo but I’m not sure where my album is and that has me a bit perplexed but it will show up and I’ll put it up when I find it.  We have gone through some really tough stuff but have managed to come out the other side each time still together and I’m sure there will be more.  It’s hard and takes lots of work but it’s worth it, every moment of fantastic and every moment of awful because the good really does outweigh the bad.

I wish for all the couples out there that get engaged today that they be willing to do the work so that they can experience these moments and know that they will come out on the other side happy to be Valentines forever.

Ahhh…..January 3rd.  I’ve had a couple of days to recoup after all the holiday happenings and our last wedding of 2011 for Jenna and Dave.  They were so fun together and really easy going as far as design goes.  Her bouquet was a composite rose with white, ivory and beige rose petals used.  I also tucked lots of crystals into the petal groupings for New Year sparkle!  These are so time consuming but I find it rather soothing to create these and I love the process of seeing it come to life.  These images were taken by my ever supportive husband John of  John Dart Photography.

They decided to have cocktails prior to the ceremony, then have their guests gather around the Huppah for the service.  It was so personal and intimate.  We used pane’ velvet for the poles and loops of Swarovski crystals on each corner.

After the ceremony ended they immediately went into their first dance with all of their guests joining in, so we had to be ready and waiting to remove the bases that the huppah poles were placed on.  Needless to say picking up 2 rather large & heavy metal bases was a bit tricky with people dancing.  As soon as I bent to pick up the second one the videographer stood on it with the bride and groom right next to me.  They took the opportunity while I stood there for a moment waiting for the foot to move to tell me how much they loved everything and how beautiful it was.  That sure put a big smile on my face and made me realize that’s part of why I love what I do.

This was such a great finish to a year full of trials and tribulations.  It made me realize there is lots to look forward to and many positive changes coming my way.  With the great clients we’ve had, the great clients we’ll be creating with this year,  and the great flower friends I’ve made, I realize anything is possible.  Thank you all so much.   Let’s all have a fantastic New Year.