Garden Romance

"If I had a flower for every time you made me smile and laugh I'd have a garden to walk in forever" 

A budding and blooming flower garden is always the best place to be come the Spring! So when this beautiful couple chose to have their wedding at Independence Harbor, our team was excited to have such a colorful backdrop for their "I-do's"!  Independence Harbor, in Assonet, MA is known for their thoughtfully planned and well maintained flower gardens. From the moment you step onto the grounds of this venue you are immediately greeted by color, luscious scents, and a welcoming feeling almost as if you have entered a dear friend's garden. Add a sprawling back deck, good cocktails and a fun and vivacious family and you have the makings for a great wedding!

Hannah and Elliot were wed on June 3, 2016 surrounded by their loving family and beautiful scenery. From the beginning we were excited to design for this young and energetic couple because of their great love for one another and their excitement for their new life together. Hannah, a designer at heart, chose a beautiful spring palette of soft peach and pink coupled with hints of sage green. With the boys wearing slate gray suits and the girls wearing blush pink, this palette complimented all of the natural details in the surrounding landscapes. Early June is one of the best times of year for locally grown flowers because you have the most amazing Spring blooms including anemones, poppies, ranunculus, and sweet peas combined with early summer favorites like peonies and lisanthus! We chose to keep the designs classic, natural and definitely romantic for this garden-inspired wedding. 

Photographer: Melissa Rabbit Photo

Venue: Independence Harbor

American Grown Makes Front Cover: A look Behind the Scenes

Southern New England Wedding Magazine announces its 2017 front cover....and it is filled with local and American grown flowers!

“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart." - Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

In 2016 I set out to achieve one of my career goals, to have my floral designs published in print. Up until this point I had never had my work published in a magazine or even a newspaper. Only on blogs, websites, and on social media which has always been an honor and something I am super grateful for as it is a win for the Slow Flowers Movement!  However to me, print is the highest of these honors, preserving your work or words for a moment in time, not to be replaced by the next big thing.

Although I did not know how this dream would come to be, I knew I needed to surround myself with great people who shared a similar aesthetic as me and who created work that I believed in.  So I called in my dream team! The first step: great photography! Photography that invites you in to its warm and glowing pictures, allowing you to imagine yourself in the very spot where the picture was taken. This meant Maaike Bernstrom. For anyone who knows Maaike and her work you know that her ability to capture the natural light is out of this world! Her photos are so crisp and clean that each image tells the perfect story of the day. To compliment Maaike's style, I knew that part of the inspiration behind this shoot needed to be about the rural farming landscapes, beautiful golden sunlight, and the seasonality of the time of year. 

Seasonality? Well that is what The Local Bouquet does best! As the core of our mission, all of our designs use 100% local and American-grown flowers that are seasonal and sustainable. I wanted to let the flowers be showcased in a very natural and effortless way. Flowers were chosen that were rich in color and full of texture including locally grown dahlias, lisanthus, ornamental cabbage, shiso, smokebush, and private berry. From the bouquet our bride held, to the table we set, the whole shoot aimed to inspire any bride getting married here in Southern New England by highlighting the abundance that Fall offers.

To achieve an effortless yet refined look, I brought in another local talent, Jenna Kinghorn from Styled by Jenna. Jenna is a home and events stylist who has an incredible eye for setting the most perfect table while adding chic and cool elements that are outside the box like this plaid shawl turned table cloth. Jenna's style makes you want to stop and stay while taking in every last detail. With the locally grown flowers as her inspiration, Jenna chose warm tones, bringing in softer natural elements like the linen and jute runners and warmer metals including the copper and antiqued brass. A touch of modern was added with the glassware but then a more traditional pattern was picked with the place setting- all of which was graciously provided by The Pottery Barn.   

This stylized shoot would not have been complete without the unique and locally made elements including the beautiful hand woven table runner and napkins found on the table which were made by Amy C. Lund. Finally, the stunning calligraphy by Posh and Prep owner, Julie Mancini joined our team to add the perfect element of romance and natural beauty to the look.  

In the end, not only did this shoot get a four page spread in Southern New England Wedding Magazine's 2017 issue, but it received the huge honor of getting front cover. Talk about a career high! I am so thankful for the amazing team that helped create this vision and I love knowing that an American grown bouquet will be on newsstands for the entire year, inspiring brides near and far! Pick up your copy today!

Photographer: Maaike Bernstrom

Venue: Private Residence

Event Styling: Jenna Kinghorn

Model: Sarah Stebbins

Dress Company: Celia Grace

Table Settings: The Pottery Barn

Table Linens: Amy C. Lund

Calligraphy: Posh and Prep

Dessert: Easy Entertaining

Bouquets of 2016: A look back

Now that our 2016 wedding season has come to an end and we are finally settling into the slower winter months here in New England, I find myself looking back at all of the beautiful weddings we had the pleasure of designing for this past year. Call me crazy, but I definitely go through withdrawal from not being surrounded by beautiful, fresh, and fragrant blooms during the week. Wedding galleries and a good cup of coffee are what cure my winter blues around here and help me to plan new and exciting design ideas for all of our 2017 brides.

One of the things I look forward to the most is looking back at all of the bridal bouquets I designed for our lovely brides. Each season is filled with its own list of gorgeous flowers as well as unique foliages and flowering and fruited branches that we love to incorporate. While 2016 focused heavily on the ever popular blush palette, I had the opportunity to work with some other favorites of mine including jewel tones like red and deep burgundy and even got to highlight soft peach tones.

Thanks to all of the amazing farmers I have partnered with over the past five years, these bouquets were nothing short of stunning! This year really topped the charts in the amount of different varieties I was able to source from my farmers, who work so tirelessly to give us designers the very best product as possible. Varieties of beautiful peonies and colorful dahlias along with countless amounts of annuals including anemones and ranunculus all filled our cooler throughout the season, allowing us to offer our brides the best of the best while choosing a more sustainable product. While our mission is to use 100% American grown flowers in all of our designs, more and more of the flowers I designed with this past year were grown locally, all from within a 23 mile radius. This is very exciting news and encourages me that not only is our mission working but our customers are seeing the value in buying locally, especially when it comes to their wedding.

So to celebrate this, we are kicking off the new year with a look back. Let's take a trip down memory lane and see all of the beauty that was grown and designed in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2016. 

Photographers: Hello Love Photography, Addie Roberge Photography, Carey MacArthur Weddings, Sara Smile Photography, Meg Heriot, Michael David Photography, Melissa Rabbitt, Lovely Valentine. 

Venues: Stone House, Bittersweet Farm, The Newport Beach House