Bridal Guide September/October 2011 – Floral Fantasy
In Bloom New York's Floral Fantasy Store in Bridal Guides September/October 2011 Issue
A tight fuchsia hyacinth bouquet compliments the structured shaped of this romantic gown. The saturated hue of the open hyacinths really adds a beautiful pop of color to an otherwise monochromatic ensemble.
The hand-crafted silk organza florals in this Alyne dress is transformed into reality with the Duchess Garden Rose & Gloriosa Lily Bridal Bouquet.
For the ultra bohemian bride, a clutch of Yves Piaget Garden Roses is a statement in itself.
Enjoy!
A Garden Wedding for a City Bride
One of our favorite sorts of bride is the kind that not only feels open to an interesting design proposal but one that comes to us with a specific concept around which we can design her wedding. That’s why when Lauren came to us with 60 vintage & unique teacups she had been collecting for the year prior to her special day, we wanted to offer a dream design unlike any other in In Bloom history.
Preferring a garden ceremony and reception in a colonial mansion to a city wedding, the bride & groom chose to marry just North of Manhattan at the Round Hill House in Washingtonville, New York.
Given her taste for a romantic & old world wedding, Lauren asked for a primarily white bridal bouquet with pops of green and hints of the most subtle pink out there. We came up with a mix of white freesia, white garden roses, blush ranunculus, and white sweet peas – keeping the stems naturally long.
For the bridesmaid’s bouquets, we simply paired white garden roses and white hydrangeas. For the groom’s boutonniere, we coupled a white ranunculus with sprigs of rosemary. This became the first introduction of herbs later to be seen in the reception table designs.
Pillar candles of varying heights with small groupings of white rose petals marked the aisle for the youngest participant to walk down to the altar.
We decorated the cornice of the birch altar provided by the venue with trailing Spanish moss, spraying dendrobium orchids, light pink & white peonies, and open garden roses.
Pale pink ostrich feathers at each place setting added an interesting element to the two table designs centering around Lauren’s collection of vintage tea cups.
The first design included an antiqued white candelabra with five unique teacups and saucers. Each cup contained a single type of either blush or white peonies, blush or white ranunculus, or white garden roses to keep the design pure.
The fruit bowl table design incorporated green grapes, green apples, brown sugar pears, and touches of white spray roses as well as fresh spearmint in a brushed gold pedestal bowl. Three teacups turned into appropriate candle holders for white tealights.
What a memorable trip outside the city to filfill a dream wedding for Lauren and Jarrod. Congratulations again to you both!
Photo Credits: Growing Tree Photography
-Parker Voss
Table Design at the New York Weddings Event 2011
Wedding design is a favorite area of interest for us floral & event designers, so our participation in the New York Wedding Event yesterday at the Metropolitan Pavilion became the highlight of a great week. This was our first year participating in the annual bridal show, which showcases the talent of the city’s top florists, caterers, photographers, bridal fashion designers, planners, etc.
The basis of our table design centered around new and vintage tableware, transparent and opaque glass, as well as peach, white & gray color palatte we've been wanting to incorporate into floral design for some time now.
The overall table arrangements featured five types of flowers in peach and white. The three handkerchief glass vases – courtesy of Steuben Glass for In Bloom New York – paired beautifully with the vintage, ruffled milk glass containers. We decided on a pure peach arrangement of long-stemmed French tulips and Juliet garden roses for the central arrangement. The medium-size glass handkerchief vase contained white peonies, sweet peas and lisianthus. To the right, a low milk glass hobnail bowl displayed the perfect marriage of peach sweet peas and Juliet garden roses.
For the place settings, we used clear glass for chargers and also found vintage milk glass plates on top of which we set fragrant gardenias. We loved the wavy transparency of the Venetian stemware, and found additional cohesion by adding the clear & milk glass candlesticks.
Here we are (Roshy Naini and Parker Voss) enjoying our final design before the Pavilion doors opened at 5pm.
We always have such a great experience working with New York Weddings, and are grateful for the many new brides, vendors and friends we met last night!
-Parker Voss
Floral Board for American Eagle Outfitters
When American Eagle Outfitters came to us to design a floral board to be hung in their concept store for next season’s collection, we started to think what large, impactful and fragrant flowers would show off best on a 4’ x 5’ platform given the AE brand aesthetic. The American clothing and accessories retailer appealing to 15 to 25 year old girls and guys sought floral décor that freshly showcased the brand’s low-rise jeans, polo shirts, graphi T-shirts, and swimwear. Having seen one of our promotional materials featuring a detail of an anemone bouquet, they asked for a similar hued arrangment.
The final result combined stargazer lilies, purple roses, hot pink roses, white roses, white spider mums, green spider mums, iris, purple stock, pink gerber daisies, and white gerber daisies. We individually watertubed the flower heads before arranging them on a custom floral foam board.
We started arranging from the board's center so as to ensure an even overall arrangment.
The completed work showed off well amongst the company merchandise. Again, it's always a pleasure for us to combine retail and flowers, especially when the project calls for a design or scale out of the ordinary.
-Parker Voss
Spring Floral Trends for Bridal Guide
This month In Bloom had our second major feature in Bridal Guide magazine with our flowers featured in an editorial on Spring floral trends. We contributed several bouquets, each a very simple gathering of white or pink flowers to accessorize but not dominate the overall look.
Along with the March/April spread on Color Theory, our bouquets for this issue used a single color or subtle combination of pinks, whites and greens. The opening image features a bridal bouquet of soft pink roses, hot pink spray roses and seeded eucalyptus tied with two tones of pink satin and sheer ribbons as seen in a later image.
For these full-length shots, we provided a simpler alternative to the bridal bouquet that dominates the look; that is, the untied bouquet of a single flower type – such as the white peony blooms. Other pure options include the elegant yet often underestimated bundle of baby’s breath, or undoubtedly the blush ranunculus seen below. Open garden roses also tend to be a spectacular option coveted by brides for their beautiful fragrant.
Pick up the May/June issue of Bridal Guide to get a closer look at our flowers and the hundreds of wonderfully laid out pages on all things bridal.
-Parker Voss
A Verdant Bouquet for Bridal Guide Magazine
Green – as it is the leading color of all things floral (and evermore present in light of the growing environmentalism trend) – inspires us on a daily basis. So, when Bridal Guide magazine asked us last summer to design a bold, single-hue bouquet around a color of our choice we knew immediately that it would be the color GREEN.
Our inspiration for this particular combination arose from the local landscape on Long Island last summer where we were able to pick fresh sedum and succulents. Green applied to our love of adding fresh herbs (like mint) to arrangements for bolder color, texture and fragrance. We mixed the structured succulents with the more organic shapes found in the antique green hydrangea, garden roses, parrot tulips and variegated leaves.
Finally, we hand-wrapped natural cord around the stems to complete the look – perfect for a city bride at her garden wedding. Not only were we were lucky to contribute flowers to our go-to bridal magazine, our verdant bouquet landed on the cover page of the spread. Check it out in the current issue of Bridal Guide (January/February 2011) for a closer look!
-Parker Voss
Long Live McQueen!
Last Friday marked the 2-year anniversary of the death of British fashion genius Alexander McQueen. Though the spirit of his creation has been carried on with the creative direction of Sarah Burton, we appreciate looking back to the designer’s original designs finding parallel between feminine beauty and flowers.
McQueen's genius lies in his ability to dress a woman in an entire English rose garden or condense a wild lily patch into a single pair of high heels. In expressing a woman’s allure through the juxtaposition of female strength and sensuality with fragility, McQueen proves that the medium can be the message -- in this case, it is flowers. While McQueen's designs may seem to blur the line between art and fashion, his ready-to-wear garments are also certainly wearable and the patterns always beautiful (as seen in this anemone-inspired mini dress).
Looking beyond pattern, McQueen often streamlined floral silhouettes for his couture gowns in a much less literal interpretation of flowers.
What McQueen appears to have done is not only borrow the lines of the fluted tulip but also reinterpret them. In some sense, he beautifies what is already beautiful.
Certain couture ensembles such as this billowy, black silk chiffon gown even seem to evoke rare blooms (such as the bat orchid) perhaps without the designer's own intention...
... herein lies McQueen's genius and our greatest appreciation for a designer who can veritably transform flowers into dresses, and women into flowers.
Long Live McQueen! May his designs remain forever in bloom...
-Parker Voss
Roses, Roses, Roses
On the coldest winter days we start to feel a little extra lucky for working among fresh flowers on a daily basis. On afternoons when the inside of our refrigerator feels warmer than the weather outside, I can’t complain about arranging beautiful blooms for hours on end. I always enjoy working with roses -- not only since it’s almost Valentine’s Day -- but also because of their classical beauty and versatility. While some may try to deny their appeal or argue their overuse, I’m feeling assured to see their (quite impressive) presence around the city, especially now on Park Avenue thanks to artist Will Ryman’s new installation.
What has the artist done but brighten another New York winter by planting ten blocks with 38 super-sized rose sculptures? I’ve been more than deligthed to see a resurfacing trend catching on as of late last year with Isa Genzken's Rose II replacing Ugo Rondinone's love-it-or-hate-it “Hell Yes” sculpture on the New Museum’s facade, or even seen at the Golden Globes with the giant, sequence rose blooming on Natalie Portman’s gown by Viktor & Rolf.
Yes, I do adore roses in all their colors, sizes, shapes, and mediums, but I also have a few favorites -- the one at the moment being the “sweetness rose” whose white petals transition into a vibrant pink at the edges.
At the end of January we arranged the centerpieces for a beautiful private party held at the Doubles Club at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on 5th Ave using this special variety. The design incorporated the sweetness rose along with white garden roses and mix of blush peonies, white hydrangea, white lisianthus, white ranunculus, and dusty miller.
Stunning in their own right, the arrangements beamed in the signature red clubroom with pink linens.
In case you enjoyed these arrangements, you are welcome to participate in our current Valentine’s Day promotion on Gilt City where you may pick up a bunch of classic red roses in a simple ball jar just in time for the holiday: http://www.giltcity.com/newyork/inbloom ...
...Meanwhile, happy V-day and don’t forget to check out the gigantic roses on Park Ave if you’re in New York before May 31!
-Parker Voss
A Stunning Holiday Party in Connecticut
Before the New Year, In Bloom New York traveled north of the city to arrange flowers for a special holiday party at a private home. Our designers tailored the arrangements to suit the interior décor while maintaining a holiday feel.
The main hallway boasted two large arrangements combining flowering quince branches, naked seeded eucalyptus, white garden roses, white amaryllis, white hydrangea as well as mini green hydrangea.
Parker Voss – one of our designers – between the main hall and dining room arrangements.
The dining room centerpiece incorporated similar elements to the hallway arrangements but with amnesia roses for soft color.
The four niches in the library became the perfect display area for four very artful arrangements of red amarayllis and dried cecropia leaves. The result appeared both substantial and sculptural.
Instead of a traditional garland for the mantel, we chose a simple yet impactful pairing of red, white and green arrangements using amaryllis and anemones in leaf-wrapped containers.
The simplest arrangment such as this fishbowl with amnesia roses gave finishing touches to the upstairs landing/coat-check area.
Fresh cut greens like those added to these jardiniers bring any room to life. We also added Spanish moss to the wrought iron chandeliers wrapped in grape vines.
Thank you to everyone for all the compliments on our interpretation and display of holiday florals for a wonderful private party!
-Parker Voss
Skintimate Studios Event
Another night in NYC and another amazing event honoring the winner of the first Skintimate Studios all-girl film program. Skintmate, the #1 women’s shave prep brand, provided teenage girls with an opportunity to work alongside Director Gail Mancuso to see what it really takes to make a movie. The winning group of ladies, Team S.O.S. saw their 12 minute short film “Save our School” premiered at Skylight West followed by a true NYC after party. DJ Mia Moretti and electronic violist Caitlin Moe played while celebrity guests Molly Simms and Jessica Lowndes enjoyed popcorn and signature cocktails.
Inspired by the New York City skyline, the barscape adeptly showcased the new Skintimate line of shave gel. Vases of contrasting shapes and sizes incorporated florals in varying shades of pink. Roses, daisies, lisianthus and antique pink hydrangeas are just some of the blooms used.
To view more photos of the event, click here!
Enjoy!
