POSH Wedding & Special Event Floral: May 2008

Hi everyone! As planned I am going to try to feature one of the couples I am lucky enough to do flowers for every month. I want you to meet our 1st couple Kristen Wessels and Jeff Wegmann. They are pictured above. Their big day is planned for August 9th, 2008. Here are some fun facts about Jeff and Kristen's big day.

Kristen and Jeff are both from the small town of Dyersville, IA. Both lived there their entire lives yet never met until both of them moved to Cedar Rapids, IA and were introduced by a friend. The rest is history...

THE DETAILS

The Date-August 9th, 2008

Ceremony Location-Dyersville, IA

Reception Location-The Palace in Farley, IA

Wedding Colors-Chocolate and Pink

Wedding Party-6 Maids, 6 Groomsmen, 4 Ushers, 1 Flower Girl, 2 Ring Bearers

Wedding Party Attire-The girls will wear taupe dresses with chocolate sashes and the boys will sport chocolate tuxes with a dark chocolate vests, accented with taupe ties. The bride will be wearing a beautiful Maggie Sottero gown.

The Flowers-The girls will carry a combination of peonies, roses, calla lilies, freesia, day lilies, sweet pea, and dendrobium orchids, in various shades of hot, medium, and light pink, ivory, and lime. The bouquets will be accented with gorgeous crystals and stem wrapped with the same satin fabric used to make the maids dresses. Each handle will then be monogrammed with crystal W's. Kristen's bouquet will be made up of the same flowers only all in shades of white and ivory.

The Decor-This girl has great taste! The wedding has a fun yet elegant feel. Kristen's vision is for everything to sparkle and glow with beauty. Here is a sneak peek.....

An elegant entry made of white branches and lights will greet you as you enter this reception only to next feast your eyes on a gorgeous stacked white cake adorned with pink rhinestones sitting atop a cake table top lined with flowers, fruits, ribbons, and crystals. Hard to image I know...but this thing is so stunning.

On the guest tables Kristen had a clear vision of what she wanted to see. Tall glass vases filled with a mix of pink, lime, and ivory flowers. To give the vases even more height we decided to add white branches to the arrangements. Kristen still wanted to really convey a certain feel to the arrangements so we decided to go with submersible pink lights to add a little mood to the entire look. The lights will sit down into the bottom of the vase and shine up illuminating the entire arrangement.

For more.....come back here for pictures after the big day!

Wedding Color Trends

May 08

Hi all! Part of my job is to seek out the latest and greatest floral trends for the upcoming seasons so that I can share them with my couples. I have started a list and thought I would share some thoughts with you.

The hottest color that I am starting to see right now are shades of blue. The darker navy blues your cousin and sister had 8 years ago are not completely gone, but are being paired with shades like blue steel , turquoise, and tiffany blue, etc. are in. Blue is a great color to play with in regards to flowers. Various shades of purples, chocolate, pink, copper, lime, yellow, basically any color would look great against the blue. Blue is a fabulous color to use as your primary color because there are so many colors that accent it so well.

Although chocolate is still hanging in there, copper is really starting to make it's way into the wedding scene. Copper can be used in various fashions and various shades of color. Bright shiny copper is used more as a detail compared to a deeper richer copper which is often used for maids dresses or linens.

I recently got a chance to do bouquet with shiny copper wire accents. I curled the wire and placed it in the bouquet as accents. I also used the wire to tie on small accent flowers which hung from the bouquet. The wire can also be used to stem wrap boutonnieres and bouquet stems.

Don't think for a second that colors like pink and lime have lost their place in the wedding color wheel. They are still holding strong. Pink is making it's way into bouquets in many many different shades and lime is still the hottest accent bouquet color I have seen so far and has been showing up all on it's own with bouquets in variations of lime orchids, roses, callas, kermit's, gladiolas, bells of ireland, spider mums, etc. Keep your eyes peeled for much more of that!

Soiree Bridal Show

May 07

On April 27th I got the pleasure of designing the flowers for the Soiree Fashion Show at the Grand Harbor in Dubuque. I had such a blast! What a great group of girls to work with! I did about 12 bouquets plus some flowers to wear for the show. The girls all looked great in their dresses, so it was a blast to hand out the flowers as they went up and down the runway. Behind the scenes was fun and exciting as there was tons of movement and people going from one dress to the next and all the while my only focus was to make sure these girls had flowers in their hands before heading out of the curtain. I felt like I was backstage at the runway finale of America's Top Model....lol! :) (I watch way too much reality TV.....DVR is my friend!) I can't imagine the time and effort that must have gone into coordinating this event. Thank you Soiree for the fabulous opportunity to show off my flowers!

I almost forgot to mention the 2 banners we got to introduce at the show. They are white cloth 2x2 banners that read "Here Comes the Bride" and one the reads "And They Lived Happily Ever After." 2 adorable 4 or 5 year old twin girls walked along each side carrying one end of the rod going through the top of the banner. It was so cute!!!! I asked the girls backstage if they did a good job and one spoke up in a very feisty manner and told me. "NO! Because my sister didn't twirl right." I laughed and laughed. Must have been a touchy subject. They did such a great job! The banners are $40.00 and $45.00. They can also be printed with names, dates, monograms, etc.

These are really cool!

May 07

Hello! From time to time I hope to get to share some cool new products with you all. These are something I was really excited to share with you.

The pictures below are from a company called Blume Box. They produce these affordable, recycleable, and ready to be personalized boxes. I love them! They are so inexpensive compared to traditional vases and way cuter! The other super nice thing about them is, you can let your guests take them home without the fear of not getting your rentals or expensive vases back! They can reuse these over and over again too. I will post more pictures from some of the weddings that have requested to use them this summer.

You will see in the pictures there is a place card holder with a flower attached to it. These are called Blume Buds. Very popular right now! So cute! Call anytime for pricing! 563-923-4112

Photo Shoot

May 01

Hello! Had to share...I recently got the privilage of working with A fleeting Moment Photography out of Farley. Alissa shot some of my designs for me and Tanya her assistant helped out with the details. Oh my gosh, what fun! I had a blast. Alissa arranged with Mickey from Forever Yours, a bridal salon she works with, to provide a couple of dresses and her daughter Sarah to model.

What a wonderful cold morning. We had planned all sorts of fun and edgy shots. This being my 1st shoot, was not sure exactly what to expect. We had boutonniers in the sand, bouquets on rocks, steel, patterned paper, and a harley to boot! All kinds of crazy! Alissa has an eye and vision that is remarkable.

The inside shots were done 1st then we headed out side for some fun. My brother in law Nick brought his Harley to the shoot for us. It added a little edge to the photos. We all stood there shivering while Sarah posed like it was 80 degrees. What a trooper!

I am so excited to get these pictures up for all to see! Again, thanks to Alissa, Tanya and Mickey for the fun shoot!

1st Blog Entry and Introduction!

May 01

Hey everyone! I am a newbie at this blog thing so bare with me. I promise in time it will get more interesting. :) I guess I will start off by introducing myself.

I am Brandi Lewin, owner and designer of Posh Wedding and Special Event Florals. I know it's a mouth full. Posh Weddings, will work! I graduated from the Floriculture at Kirkwood in 2001, but have been in the industry since 2000. I had the opportunity to work under a wonderful designer who taught me alot about design. I also have had the opportunity to help open and managed a very large retail flowershop in Dubuque. Both were fantastic experience and helped me find what it is that I truely love to do.

What I discovered is that I love the wedding and event work. That is where I shine. I love to meet with brides and discuss their plans and hear their ideas. I love the excitement of the wedding day and there is nothing better than watching a bride fall in love with her flowers. This is why I started Posh.

I look forward to meeting new people who are planning the events or their dreams and also to start a good network of other event industry people.