October 28th: Brandy & Brad

Brandy & Brad capped off a busy weekend for Bella Design Studio! Their Sunday nuptials were held at Pilgrim Chapel in Kansas City, MO. The bride carried a bouquet of assorted red roses. I used Black Magic, Black Baccara, & Charlotte roses to create more interest by using various shades of red.
Her bridesmaids carried posies of Black Magic roses, flame mini-callas, purple lisianthus, gold kangaroo paw, & smoke bush.
For the altar I did the traditional, large arrangement but also did this gorgeous garland! It measured approximately 8 foot long & laid along the front edge of the altar. It was composed of fresh lemon leaf, tree fern, gerber daisies, roses, solidago, & lisianthus. There were also matching swags hung on both of the outer doors of the church.
The reception was held at the Arrowhead Club at Chief's Stadium. For a festive feel, I did the centerpieces in Chief's colors! I created a bouquet of red roses & surrounded them with a collar of solidago & placed in a cube vase.

October 27th: Jill & Nick

Another one to add to my list of favorites! Jill wanted a very natural, botanical look for her flowers. She really didn't want them to be to "flower-y" at all! I picked up everything I could find at my wholesaler that I thought fell into that range. The only identifiable flowers I used were mini callas, champagne roses, & hydrangea. Everything else was some kind of foliage, pod, berry, or unusual flower type.
I used berzilla berry, arabicum, stars of bethlehem, leucadendron, bush ivy buds, magnolia leaves, smoke bush, & even a few things that I don't know the name of! The bridesmaids wore chocolate brown dresses, so the various shades of greens, cream, & browns looked gorgeous!
The reception tables housed a few different centerpiece styles. On some tables I filled cube vases with chartreuse moss & inserted stems of stars of bethlehem & curly willow. They had sort of a natural, unstructured, whimsical appeal to them.
Other tables had a wide glass cylinder vase that served as a hurricane to 3 assorted size pillar candles. The candles were accented with hydrangea blooms, canella pods, & magnolia leaves.
The pew flowers at the church were clusters of hydrangea, berzilla berries, champagne roses, & smoke bush. The stems were placed in water picks & covered with chocolate brown ribbon. The bride took these from the church & placed in cylinder vases that were on the remaining tables at the reception.

The wedding was held at Country Club Christian Church & the reception was in the Broadway Room of the Uptown Theatre, both in Kansas City, MO.

October 27th: Teri & Kyle

Unfortunately, my camera died on me at this wedding! I only got a couple of shots & there were so many cool things! The bride's bouquet was a combination of colored roses & hydrangea. The bridesmaids each carried a single color rose from the bridal bouquet accented with green hydrangea. The altar flowers & centerpieces were really cool, so hopefully the photographer got some pictures & I can post them later!

The wedding was at Corpus Christi Catholic Church and the reception was held at The Eldridge Hotel, both in Lawrence, KS.

Baby Bling!!!

One of my closest friends is due to have her first baby in December. She has already picked the name, Madison, & we had their shower on Sunday. Naturally, I was in charge of decorations & I went crazy!!! I decided to do a theme & came up with what I call "Baby Bling"!
Of course, everything was glitter, sequin, or rhinestones! I hand painted & decorated wooden letters to spell out the baby's name with glitter, rhinestones, & sequined lady bugs & dragon flys. These decorated the dessert table which housed the blinged/bowed out cupcake tower. The letters were colored in shades to match the baby's bedding & will hang on the wall in her nursery.
We did the traditional shower games & I made prizes for both the mother-to-be & the guest who won the game. The winner got to take home floral arrangments with rhinestone centered gerbera daisies, roses, & stock. The vase was finished with a rhinestone belt buckle ribbon treatment.
The prizes for the guest-of-honor were blinged out baby essentials! We had rhinestone studded Mary Janes, blinged out baby bottles, & a fashionable travel wipe case with the Pampers logo displayed in silver & pink rhinestones. My friend did not know what the theme of her shower was going to be so I wrote a poem that went along with the game gifts to clue her in. It said:

What sparkles & shines is not only a ring

It can bring style & pizzaz to almost anything!

Fit for a princess or a stylish mom

I'm sure you'll find, these gems are the bomb!

So why run about with ordinary things

When you can show off your posh Baby Bling!

It turned out to be a huge hit & I received tons of compliments. I really had a lot of fun pulling everything together & can't wait to do it again!

October 20th: Megan & Cameron

Megan's bouquet was an array of deep fall tones consisting of burgandy dahlias, Leonida roses, Hocus Pocus roses, flame calla lillies, & antique hydrangea.
Her bridesmaids carried small clusters of deep red gerbera daisies accented with safari sunset & black ribbon.
She had several different style centerpieces. Pictured are the cylinder trios filled with bittersweet branches, topped with floating candles. We did the same arrangment with rose hips under water as well. On other tables she had small cube vases filled with different flower types of gerber daisies, dahlias, mums, or roses.

The wedding was held at Old Shawnee United Methodist Church in Fairway, KS and the reception was at Homestead Country Club in Mission, KS.

October 20th: Debbie & Jason

I don't have enough room on my blog or enough talent as a photographer to show everything I did for this wedding! Debbie had such good taste in flowers & colors that it was easy for me to create beautiful arrangments! The bride's bouquet was a very creamy collection of antique hydrangea, Sahara roses, chocolate cosmos, miniature cymbidum orchids, & smoke bush. Her colors for the day were chocolate & cafe, so this bouquet was perfect!
The bridesmaids carried bouquets in deep fall tones that really popped against their chocolate brown dresses. The flower selection was chocolate colored dahlias, Leonida roses, miniature cymbidium orchids, rosehips, & smoke bush. The stems were wrapped with a cafe colored ribbon.
At the reception, I actually created 3 different style centerpieces. The one pictured was a collection of 4 cube vases. 2 were filled with cymbidium orchids & 2 were filled with water & floating candles. The space between the vases was accented with bittersweet vases in order to "pull" the vases together. I also created hurricanes out of tall, square vases wrapped with a sash of cafe ribbon that held a pillar candle placed in a bed of white rose petals. The third centerpiece was a tall, antique brass, trumpet vase topped with a full arrangment of calla lillies, Sahara roses, antique hydrangeas, etc. My photos didn't turn out "blog-worthy"!
I didn't have anything to do with the cake...I just thought it was really cool! It was done by Locke's. The ribbon & bow on the cake are actually made of fondant! The wedding was held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in KC, MO and the reception was at Californo's.

Chiefs vs. Bengals

I gave my husband Chief's tickets for his birthday this year. He is a huge Chiefs fan, I just went along for the ride! I must say, I had a great time! I think I watched more there than I ever have on TV!

Our seats were awesome! I bought them online at stubhub.com & was really impressed with what I got. I liked how they let you choose your section & then show you what is available. We sat on the goal line, 15 rows back from the field. I paid a little over face value for the ticket, but thought it was worth the price. The pictures I have posted were taken from our seats, so not too shabby!

October 13th: Jessica &

I met Jessica at the Bridal Show last fall. She fell in love with a bouquet I had created for the show & booked with me on the spot! I think that was the first time I actually had an event booked with more than a year until the wedding! For her bouquet, we recreated the show bouquet using Leonida Roses, Rosehips, Safari Sunset, Green Berzilla Berries, & Wine Mini-Poms. The bouquet was finished with wrapped Ti Leaves & another gorgeous beaded ribbon that I found.
To make the bridesmaid bouquets somewhat different, I did more of a monochromatic version of the bridal bouquet. They wore a goldish-bronze colored dress, so the flowers consisted of Leonida Roses, Rosehips, & Safari Sunset. I used the same Ti Leaf & ribbon treatment as on the bridal.
The church had aisle candleabras that we decorated with clusters of Leonida Roses, Green Berzilla Berries, & Safari Sunset. The flowers were attached to the stem of the candleabra with a shimmery gold/bronze ribbon. The wedding was held at Grace Covenant Church on College Blvd with the reception down the street at the Doubletree Corporate Woods.

October 13th: Angela &

Angela's wedding flowers were centered around a fall theme & a bridesmaid dress color of Peacock. The deep fall tones really reflect well on this color! Therefore, we chose to use rusty oranges, browns, & fresh green as the color palate. The bridal bouquet was composed of Vendela Roses, Champagne Roses, White Majolika Spray Roses, White Cymbidium Orchids, & clusters of Flame Mini Callas.
The bridesmaids carried bouquets of Leonida Roses, Flame Mini Callas, Brown Hypericum Berries, & Green Cymbidium Orchids. Their bouquets were bound with a beautiful jewel toned, beaded ribbon. The picture doesn't quite do it justice!
The wedding cake was a monster! A 7 layer confection by Caren's Cakes! I created a topper with cascades down both sides of the cake. We used the same flower types from the bouquets to decorate the cake. I took close to an hour to decorate but came out beautiful!

The wedding was held at Blessed Sacrement in Kansas City, KS and the reception was at Ritz Charles in Overland Park.

Faux Real!!!

I recently received what I think could be one of the greatest compliments ever! I had a bride tell me that she loved her bouquet so much, she couldn't bear the fact of never being able to see it again! Therefore, she requested a silk bouquet resembling the fresh flowers she carried on her wedding day. I have posted a picture of both, see if you can tell the difference!

October 6th: Ryan's Surprise Party

I didn't have any weddings this week and was kind of looking forward to the break! I did, however, decide to throw my husband a surprise 30th birthday party in our hometown of Topeka. This was more work than I anticipated, but the outcome was so worth it!

I started planning a little over a month ago. Trying to keep a secret that long is hard! There were a couple of occasions where I was sure he knew what was going on. On the car ride to the party, he was completely clueless so I knew it was going to be great!

The first hurdle I had to overcome was the invitation. Ryan is a twin & the party was supposed to be for both he & his brother. His brother found out & made it clear he did not want a party, so I was on my own. How do you throw a party for one twin when they both have a lot of the same friends & not have everyone wonder why the party is for one & not the other? I found the perfect invitations at http://www.creationsbyleslie.com/ Everything was smooth sailing from there!

The party was held at Berkshire Country Club. I decorated with the colors of brown, teal, & apple green. I hung Chinese lanterns across the ceiling of the club & attached old pictures of Ryan that I received from his mom. Ryan is a HUGE candy connoisseur, hence, the candy buffet. He loved that so much, he didn't want anyone to take any home!

I was also able to make use of the hundreds of green apples I had left over from the previous weeks weddings! I didn't want to throw them away but I am not really a cook either, so using them in pies, etc was a lost cause!

Thank you to all that helped pull this event off! Also, a big thanks to all that came for Ryan's big day. He was so happy to see you all & really appreciated everyone's attendance!

September 29th: Beth & Tory

Beth has been a friend of mine for years! We originally met working at the flower shop together & now work together again! The wedding flower business is somewhat seasonal in Kansas, I don't have many weddings in the winter months. Beth now works for a snow removal company & helped me get a position there last winter in the Accounting department. I have stayed on part-time during the summer & fall to ensure myself a spot for this coming winter.

Beth & Tory's reception were held at the Zoo in the African Market area! This was a really fun event to do! It was all centerpieces, buffet arrangments, & cake flowers. Their wedding was actually held the week prior in Herman, MO. Beth & I came up with really wild, artistic, outside-of-the-box arrangments. Her reception was broken up into different areas, so we tried to give each area it's own feel.

The main area had 60" round tables covered with apple green & chocolate brown linens. We used these really cool white vases I have & filled them with curly willow, green orchids, black magic roses, spider mums, & smoke bush. This area also housed the buffets. On those we filled large, glass, urns with green apples & curly willow. I arranged a wreath of black magic roses, red carnations, & green hydrangea around the top of the vase (unfortunately no picture of this, but it was cool!)

The bottom of the boathouse was where folks sat if they wanted to watch the band. We kept the arrangements simpler down here, but still with the same theme. Some tables had cylinder vases filled with green apples & uplit from the bottom. Others had a brown cube filled with chartruese green mossy branches & sprigs of yellow oncidium orchids spraying from the top.

The top of the boathouse is where I hung out for the most part. It was a cool way to look out over the entire party (350+ guests!) & see what everyone was doing! Up here we did 20" tall cylinder vases filled with river rock & curly willow stems with orchids attached.

Beth requested a large arrangement for the cake table & left the creating to me! I made a large "tree" out of curly willow & hung green apples from the branches. I attached yellow oncidium orchids to the branches to give the effect of golden leaves.

Our friend Allyson provided me with the pictures for the event. I was also a guest at this wedding, so when the flowers were done, I was at the bar, my work here was over! You can check out Allyson's work at: http://web.mac.com/inthemomentphotos

September 22nd: Jennifer & Ian (Courtesy of RPeters Photography)

I had to post this! I was checking out Rebecca's blog today & found this picture from Jennifer & Ian's wedding. This picture is soooo much better than the one I took! Thanks Rebecca!

For those of you who didn't see the previous post, you can view Rebecca's latest shoots at:
http://rpetersphotography.squarespace.com/rpeters-blog/

September 28th: Jill & Jerry

Jill & Jerry's wedding & reception were held at The Weston Red Barn Farm. What a cool location! This was my first time setting up an event there. Jill wanted a very natural, earthy, botanical look for her arrangements. Her colors were charcoal gray, mustard, & shades of blue-green. The bouquets were composed of blackberry privet, white stock, lisianthus, & various foliages.

For her centerpieces we did tablescapes in a variety of cylinder vases, urns, votive cups, etc. Some vases held submerged privet berries with floating candles, water lettuce, green apples, & pillar candles. The votive cups held various succulent & herb plants. The urns were filled with rosemary spikes surrounded by a wreath of hydrangea. A few tables had apple boxes that were created in a moss covered box, filled with Granny Smith apples & Mokara Orchids.

This event was so different than anything I have done thus far & I had a great time putting everything together! I had been feeling in somewhat of a "design rut" lately so this was a great, creative, pick-me-up! Thanks, Jill!