Sarah & Clayton
July 29, 2017

​Sarah and Clayton had a beautiful summer wedding at Herrington on the Bay. It’s an absolutely stunning venue – the palm trees and the little stretch of blue water make it look like you’re at a tropical resort, when in reality, you’re on the Chesapeake Bay in Southern Maryland! My stepsister got married here too about a year ago, so I was already familiar with the venue and had a great time revisiting this slice of paradise!

​Sarah had two requests for her wedding flowers: hydrangeas and lily of the valley! She loved hydrangeas, and her fiancé specifically asked for lily of the valley for sentimental reasons. I love it when couples choose flowers with meaning to them – whether it holds a special significance or is simply their favorite – though it does sometimes make the job tricky! Since lily of the valley is an early spring bloomer, but this wedding was at the end of July, it was a bit of a search to find the flower. But find it I did… all the way in Poland! I ended up using it in her bouquet and his boutonniere, just a little touch with a lot of meaning!
 
In addition to the lily of the valley, I also used white hydrangea, blue delphinium, white ranunculus, pink spray roses, champagne sweetheart roses, and baby’s breath for Sarah’s bouquet, resulting in a soft arrangement with a whole lot of charm! The bridesmaids’ bouquets were matching smaller versions of her bouquet, though with blue hydrangeas as the base and without the lily of the valley. Sarah’s style leaned more on the rustic side, so she painted some mason jars and wine bottles to use as the centerpieces. I filled these with hydrangea, baby’s breath, spray roses, delphinium, and campanula bells (to mimic the look of the lily of the valley at a more affordable price tag!). The arrangement for the sweetheart table was one of my favorite pieces of the day. I brought all the stems with me and created it on site, and the result was a cascading waterfall of blooms and greenery!

​Thank you to Sarah and Clayton for having me as part of your day! And I also want to say a huge thank you to my mom! Not only is she my go-to assistant when I need help with a delivery, but this wedding happened to fall in the middle of a move for me, so I ended up making all the arrangements in her basement (fun fact: baby’s breath gets its name from the fact that when you have a whole bunch of them together it smells like, well, baby’s breath after they’ve had a bottle. Now imagine a whole basement filled with it… sorry Mom!). Speaking of moms, this was my first wedding where the mother of the bride cried when she saw the flowers – I was so touched!
 
Venue: Herrington on the Bay
Photographer: John Heredia

Forgive me if I’m drowning you in pressed flower photos, but I’m so pleased with this Floral Memories concept! I previously shared Laura & Andrew’s final piece (what an awesome couple for letting me try out this service with their wedding), but one proof of concept isn’t enough!

For this second example I took inspiration from my bestie / social media helper Heather! She dug up one of her wedding invitations and I pulled flora that spoke to the aesthetic of her wedding—bright colors and lots of energy—such as orange roses and yellow mums.

​When creating the dried floral art by hand, it’s not just about using the flowers and greenery that spoke to you for your big day, but arranging the pressed pieces to compliment your invitation and the feel of your day.
 
With Heather & Matthew’s piece, I placed the invitation in the bottom right corner to let the birds create the beginnings of motion across the frame! Then I added petals across the frame to mimic the birds’ motion, and placed the mums in the top corner because it reminds me of the sun.

Don’t forget, If you book your wedding with me by Dec 31, 2018, you can ask for this pressed flower service completely free as my gift to you.
 
Fun, right? I’d love to be able to work some magic on your wedding flowers, too. As a reminder, this service is available to my upcoming clients only, as that’s how I’m able to acquire fresh flowers for you.

​When most people think of preserving their wedding flowers, the first image that comes to mind is a freeze-dried bouquet in a shadow box. That’s an option, for sure, but pressing your flowers in something more similar to what you’d see in an herbarium is an incredibly alternative.
 
A few weeks ago when I first announced a pressed flower service, Floral Memories, for wedding clients, I mentioned that I had flowers from Laura & Andrew’s drying in my office. Well… they’re dry enough to mount!

​Gorgeous, right? I press and dry one of each type of flower and greenery from your wedding and artfully arrange it in a modern frame with a copy of your invitation (or print of your choice). This beautiful memory of your wedding will last longer than a freeze dried bouquet and fit with more décor styles than a shadow box.

​As I gaze back at Laura’s stunning bouquet, I know these framed pressed florals are not a substitution for what she carried down the aisle. They’re another way to remember the wedding through colors, motion, moments, and beauty-filled joy.

​Honestly, and I know I’ve said this before, I wish I had thought of this for my own wedding.
 
You can add this onto the handcrafted floral design of your wedding for $150! As pressing and drying times vary, I can promise to have your framed floral art available eight weeks after your wedding.
 
I’m also offering a special through the end of the year: If you book your wedding with me by Dec 31, 2018, you can ask for this pressed flower service completely free as my gift to you.
 
Let’s make these gorgeous framed florals the trend in wedding memories.

Kristen & Nic
July 2, 2017
 
I had so much fun designing the florals for this wedding! Kristen and Nic got married at the historic Elkridge Furnace Inn in Maryland on a beautiful, sunny day in the middle of summer! It was CRAZY hot that day – like flowers-stay-in-the-van-with-the-AC-on-full-blast-until-the-last-second kind of day! It’s always a challenge to work with flowers in these conditions, as all that heat makes those delicate petals wilt like crazy, but thanks to the marvels of air conditioning and some speedy setup right before the ceremony, all the flowers made it through the wedding in full bloom!
 
One of the first things I discuss with my brides is their vision for their bridal bouquet – not only is it what brides are most excited to talk about and has that “Ahh! It’s happening!” feeling, but it also sets the tone for the rest of the wedding! Kristen wanted something soft, romantic, and classic to go with their wedding colors of white, blush pinks, and coordinating muted tones. With that in mind, we chose fluffy white flowers like stock and ranunculus, white dahlias, barely-there blush spray roses (majolica spray roses are my favorite! They have a STUNNING gold center when fully open!), light pink astilbe, and a touch of greenery. Her bridesmaids’ bouquets were smaller but similar in design to hers, with more focus on the blush and rose tones. The bouquets were wrapped with muddy blush and white silk streamers to complete the look!

I also created hair pieces for Kristen and her flower girl to match the bridal party’s aesthetic. Kristen’s hair piece was full of viney goodness! We decided on a barrette for the base for extra stability, and then I weaved in some deep green jasmine vine, blush spray roses, white ranunculus, and just a hint of blue tweedia. The result was a beautiful garden look to perfectly complement her gorgeous updo! For her flower girl’s wreath, I used pink spray roses, baby’s breath, and Italian ruscus, tied off with an adjustable pink ribbon!

​Kristen also brought over some super fun lanterns to incorporate into her floral design! I created a small arrangement of blush roses, white dahlias, spray roses, greenery, and stock to place inside each of the small lanterns, which were used to line the aisle for the ceremony and as centerpieces at the reception. The large lanterns were filled with greenery and fairy lights, framing the altar at the ceremony before moving over to the couple’s sweetheart table. The glow of the fairy lights in the evening was simply enchanting!

Venue: Elkridge Furnace Inn
Photography: Bowtie Photo
Videography: Shutter and Sound Films

​​A few weeks ago I posted a picture of my pressed plant wall on Instagram, and the positive response there gave me an incredible idea.

​The number one most frequent question brides-to-be ask me during consultations is: Can I preserve my bouquet?
 
It’s a great question, and I wish I had come up with a solution prior to my own wedding back in… ok… it wasn’t that long ago. Savoring memories of your wedding is so important, not only to bring back the loving happy feelings of the day, but to be proud of what your put together and to make your time and financial investments more worthwhile.
 
The answer to preserving your bouquet is complicated. Sure, you can overnight ship your bouquet to a service that will freeze dry it. That may cost hundreds of dollars, you have to go to the post office the day after your wedding, and the final product will eventually degrade over time if not taken care of properly.

(Let me be completely honest with you lovely readers, if you want to go the route of preserving your entire bouquet after the fact, here are some great options: Fantastic Blooms, Keepsake Floral, Suspended in Time.)
 
Instead of you jumping through those hoops, I have an elegant solution (remember my pressed plant wall?): I'll press, preserve, and artfully frame flowers used in your wedding for you. Since I order flowers and greenery fresh for each wedding, I can begin the preservation process immediately, when the plants are at their peak.

I have an important announcement to make! When people ask if I can do one-off arrangements for them, I have to say no, and it totally sucks. As a one-woman business, I currently don’t have flowers at the ready. (One day!!)
 
But I hear you, and I have a solution! If I can offer arrangements in quantity ahead of time, that allows me to order from my local vendors at wholesale prices. And that, my friends, means you can have the arrangements you want and I can no longer feel crappy that I’ve let you down.
 
With that, let me introduce to you, The Victorian Petal’s two Autumn Arrangements! These totally unique and hand crafted arrangements are filled with Orange Dahlias, Yellow Ranunculus, Copper Amaranthus, Pinecones, Feather Eucalyptus, (faux) Pheasant feathers, and more! I mean, hello gorgeous!
 
When I build centerpieces (or anything, really), texture is paramount. That’s why there are so many different types of flora in there. Even the simple pinecone is stunning and beautiful when placed as a robust counterpoint to the flowers. And the Ranunculus… I like to call them my dancers. Look at those curvaceous stems! Movement is so important too, so I try to draw your eye around the piece and keep every single moment interesting.

​When my husband Christian and I were looking at buying homes, having an office space for The Victorian Petal was a must. He’s supportive of my business, but I think he’s also happy to for me to have my own space with no sharing! (It’s fine, it’s fine, he has a Man Cave.)
 
Moving is a long and sometimes painful process, and having this office to look forward to really helped keep me focused and motivated. This is still very much in progress, but I think the idea of it is really coming together!!
 
The office is also my workspace, which is one of the reasons it’s so empty… I need room for flowers! The large mirror is for making bouquets, so that as I’m building one I can see how it will look from the opposite direction.
 
There’s also a Lazy Susan for making centerpieces, so that I can turn and turn them as they’re being built to ensure everyone seated around them is impressed.
 
I’m really inspired by floral paintings by the Dutch Masters: De Heem, Rachel Ruysch, and Willem Van Aelst to name a few (pictured below).  I just love the contrast of light and dark, the way the flowers are spilling over each other… they’re scrumptious.
 
So of course I’m having a mural commissioned! My talented sister-in-law Jess of Clarabella Murals will paint that large blank black wall!! I can’t wait to see how it turns out. For now, I’m enjoying the blush desk chair that matches my business colors. And don't mind Maddox, he's a great helper!

​We’re excited to announce some changes happening around our website and social media channels lately! It’s no secret that Sarah loves working with flowers more than she loves being online, and because of that The Victorian Petal’s web presence needs to be leveled up.
 
Enter: Heather! Besties since sometime in high school, Heather and Sarah have tackled quite a few projects together. Heather is currently earning an MA in Strategic Communication (from Washington State University), and has a background in Visual Communication and Marketing.
 
As part of her Strategic Communication coursework, Heather is enrolled in Professional Digital Content Promotion this semester. For that class, she has a semester-long project to work with a business to create and promote digital content for their brand. How exciting! So far, she and Sarah have worked together to ramp up this website and finalize The Victorian Petal’s branding.
 
Throughout fall semester, you’ll see several posts here, and on Facebook & Instagram by Heather that are designed to help Sarah promote her business. Please follow along on this journey to build The Victorian Petal’s brand! We welcome any feedback our viewers have!

This is a functional test post. Real blog content coming soon!

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