Remember that weekend in July when it felt like 120 degrees outside? Well, while most people were cooling off by the pool or hiding in the air conditioning, Dawn was setting up this gorgeous wedding on the beach in Cape May. Despite the hot weather, Sarah and Rob’s beach wedding at the Southern Mansion turned out beautiful. Rebecca from The Queen of Hearts Wedding Planning helped put together this gorgeous wedding, and Amanda from Swoon Over It captured all the pretty details.  We really enjoyed working both of these vendors. Rebecca was amazing, she was involved in every detail and made sure the day ran perfectly.  I would def recommend Queen of Hearts Wedding Planning to any bride looking for a wedding planner.  Check out the photos from Swoon Over It!

The ringbearer carried this adorable little banner. This is such a cute idea.

Sarah and Rob used bamboo poles with sheer aqua blue fabric flags to decorate the ceremony.   The aisle was lined with shorter bamboo poles, blue ribbon and white flowers.  All of the bamboo poles are a rental and can be accented with whatever color fabric a bride prefers.  See how beautiful that sand is….well Dawn swore it felt about 110 degrees!  She took along her sister Sara and hubby Chip to help set up the ceremony….after the final pole was in place they all enjoyed some Rita’s water ice to help cool down!

The bride carried a gorgeous white bouquet with champagne roses, white dahlias, lisianthus, freesia and ivory garden roses. The bridesmaid had a smaller version  with light yellow stock, yellow lisianthus and white freesia. The bouquets looked beautiful with the white and khaki attire.

The bride’s bouquet was wrapped with ivory satin and accented with twine and a crystal brooch.  The bouts were white freesia and lisianthus, accented with twine to coordinate with the wrap on Sarah’s bouquet.

For the centerpieces, we used assorted cylinders with ivory, champagne and light yellow flowers accented with floating pearls, candles and crystal votives. I love how simple and elegant these centerpieces were.

This mantle arrangement features hydrangea, garden roses, floating candles and crystal votives. Candle light is a great way to set a romantic tone at your wedding and these crystal votives are a rental item that really adds a lot of look for not that much money!

Sarah and Rob’s beach themed cake was adorable. We used a few white lisianthus buds and tealight candles to decorate it.

Thank you so much Sarah and Rob for letting us be a part of your special day! Best wishes as you start your life together!

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

Mary and I have been busy little bees this fall.  Every weekend was booked with weddings and every weekend we would say “I love this wedding!”.  It cracks me up how every week we fall in love with a wedding, think it is the best one, and then repeat the whole scenario over again the following week!  We just can’t get enough of our brides, their creative ideas, and playing with all these flowers.  Sometimes a wedding comes along that is just perfection.  Molly and Rich were lucky enough to have one of those weddings.  Sweet Little Molly used to work with Mary at Butler Gardens, a local flower shop, so their friendship goes back to their high school days! It has taken me so long to get this blog up because there are about a million amazing pictures.  Finally, I just decided I am going to share all the ones I love so get ready for an amazingly long blog, ha!  Tina Jay was the photographer (she also raved about Molly!), and as usual her pictures didn’t disappoint!

Molly and Rich were married at Running Deer on a gorgeous day in July.  All the succulents that you see in the bouquets came from Molly’s mom’s garden…we went there and handpicked them ourselves!

Molly’s bouquet featured purple haze roses, green hydrangea, purple vanda orchids, dusty miller, freesia, and the succulents.  We accented the bouquet with pearl garland and tied family hankies around the stems. This is how smart Molly is – she did a bridal portrait shoot with Tina a few months prior to the wedding and we made up her bouquet sample for her to use during the shoot. Great idea! More brides should do that!

Um – could these girls be any more gorgeous!?!?

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of purple stock, green hydrangea, vanda orchids, bupleurum, dusty miller, and succulents.  The stems were wrapped with green ribbon and accented with a burlap detail.

I had to share this picture.  I am obsessed with this vintage chandelier.  Mary and I rescued this (from Mom’s attic – she rescued it from a casino in AC many years ago!) and now offer it as a rental item.  It is perfect for hanging from the pergola at Running Deer. We dressed it up with hanging crystals, springeri fern, and hydrangea.

Rich wore a bout of freesia, dusty miller, and a tiny little succulent.

For the ring bearer we made this adorable little pillow out of moss, twine, and a green button mum.

Amazing photo Tina!

Molly and Rich’s wedding was full of soooo many cute details.  Instead of a Unity Candle, they did a tree planting ceremony.  Molly and Rich each spread some soil on the gardenia, then their parents watered it (showing their support for the new couple).  Love this idea!

Ok – now I thought this was the CUTEST idea I have seen in a long time.  They had their guests shower them with herbs which guests were able to mix themselves according to their wedding wishes.  I love original ideas like this one!

We lined the aisle with shepherds hooks (rental) holding a mason jar of purple hydrangea.

The cocktail tables were topped with our burlap table toppers (rental) and a mason jar full of flowers.

Molly used this antique window pane to hold her guests seating cards (which were labeled polaroids of their dog!), which we accented with hanging moss ball garlands and vanda orchids.

We designed this ‘A’ monogram to hang on their sweetheart table.  This is such a cute way to dress up the sweetheart table!

We have been doing napkin treatments more and more recently.  A flat napkin fold with one flower added is such a nice touch that your guests will really appreciate.

I have been dying to show these items off…we had these items custom made for us by Cobb’s Mill in Alloway, and used them to decorate a long table in the entry way.  All of these items are now offered as rental items and are perfect for the bride looking for rustic wedding details.

This wooden pedestal was another one of our handmade, custom, designs that is now offered as a rental item.  We topped it with the trio of cylinders that Running Deer has for each table, and merely added floating candles, hydrangea, and succulents.  Each of the tables was covered with our burlap table toppers and a moss square, both are rental items.  We really pride ourselves on our extensive rental collection…stop by our studio sometime and check it out!

The Sweet Life Bakery outdid themselves with this gorgeous cake!  It is sitting on our wooden cake stand, also available for rent.

Thank you so much Molly and Rich for being such an amazing couple and working with us, xoxo!

Keep an eye on our website…big changes are coming soon!  Mary and I will be sure to make a big announcement when everything is up and running, but we are gearing up for a whole new website!

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

Rainy days = blogging days over here at A Garden Party.  I have been anxiously awaiting the photos from our rock the dress shoot that we did in August around Salem County NJ and once I got my hands on them last week I knew I had to get a blog up asap.  We partnered with Art+Life Photography, Salon Nicole, and some of our very own brides on this amazing photo shoot.  Mary and I have always loved checking out trash the dress photos, but are too chicken to do it ourselves….so we figured this was the next best thing.  We found a few fearless brides, got them some awesome hair and makeup from Salon Nicole, put together some amazing florals, and then let Debbie and Denise from Art+Life take care of the rest!  The pictures are gorgeous and we had soooo much fun designing the flowers and working with all of these ladies.  Check it out (sorry so many pictures…it took all the self restraint I had to keep it to 20!)…

This bouquet Mary made basically out of flowers and grasses that she cut from her yard…it is amazing what you can do with wildflowers!  She has always wanted to do a really wild and natural bouquet like this, something not so perfect. Rebekah looked gorgeous (wait until you see the shots with her dress covered in paint!).

Here is Gina carrying the same bouquet…isn’t her dress amazing!  She bought it at Kleinfeld’s, and then was willing to rock it again at our photoshoot…thanks Gina!

Mandy is one of those brides I now consider a true friend.  Check out her smile…this girl is nothing but sweet. And yes, those are artichokes in her bouquet.

She is carrying a bouquet of pink garden roses, cut artichokes, bleached ostrich feathers, and moss balls.

Every now and then Mary and I like to stop at Michael’s and buy whatever random cuteness that catches our eye.  The little paper flowers glued on the moss balls were one of those purchases!

I also obsessed with the beaded fringe we used on the wrap of this bouquet.  Little touches like this are what makes a bouquet so special and different.

Melissa brought along her hubby…he was so cute and the two of them looked amazing in basically every shot!  Here she is carrying a bouquet of hydrangea, maidenhair fern, and cut violets from about 20 potted violets.  Mary accented the stems with twigs and some burlap ribbon, so cute!

Here is Jordan…carrying our wildflower bouquet and a chicken, ha! This beautiful backdrop is provided by Mary’s brother in law, his farm is located near Mullica Hill NJ.

I had soooo much fun making this bouquet.  I used red roses, dark red mini callas, and dark black pearl peppers.  Then I accented it all with a charcoal gray pearl necklace, black ostrich feathers, and black tulle. Our thought here was “what would a bride NEVER carry on her wedding day”…please someone prove me wrong.

Rebekah really rocked this bouquet!

These next two shots of Gina were my favorites of the day, <3

Mary and I have been into finding new and modern ways to use baby’s breath lately.  Check out our spray painted rainbow of bouquets!

Ok – now get ready for some action shots….it all started with Rebekah and this all white bouquet…

Things got interesting when we handed paintbrushes soaked in paint to Gina and Jordan…

I LOVE how this shot came out….exactly as I pictured it!  Rebekah was so amazing, she let us do whatever, and looked fabulous through it all!

We ended the day with some fun in a flooded road(thank you to the hurricane), the sun setting in the background.

I don’t know a whole lot of people that could say they get to do things like this during their day at work.  Mary and I are so lucky to be able to have the chance to be creative and do fun projects like this one.  I hope everyone loves checking out all of the photos and I can’t thank the brides, Salon Nicole, and Art+Life Photography enough for all of their help with the shoot!

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

This fall has been amazing for us, but we have been starting to feel bad about not blogging more of our weddings.  We got these photos a while back from Ben Tapper, Endless Wave Photography of Ashley and Larry’s wedding.  Ashley met with numerous other florists, including celebrity wedding florist David Tutera (!), and ultimately decided to book their wedding with us because of our “ability to listen and understand the vision” of their special day. Ashley came to us with all of these awesome grasses and bleached peacock feathers and wanted to know what we could do (she was originally thinking DIY but felt too overwhelmed).  We came up with a centerpiece design that was just gorgeous…and only used a few flowers, check it out below.

Ashley and Larry were wed at the Clark’s Landing Yacht Club at the Jersey shore and wanted to embrace the beautiful natural elements of the location. The vintage chandelier, a rental item, was hung above the ceremony space and dressed with springeri fern, white peonies and hanging crystals. What a great way to personalize the ceremony space and create some added romance!

Larry’s bout was made of freesia and bark twine. To honor Larry’s father,  Ashley had a charm made on Etsy which we attached to the bout. A fabulous way to keep a love one close to your heart on such a special day.

Ashley’s hand-tied bouquet was a beautiful mass of white peonies, white ranunculus, quicksand roses, lisianthus and white freesia accented with bleached peacock feathers.

Look at all these gorgeous girls….Ashley was just stunning.

I love looking back on weddings we have done.  How perfect was this day…look at the sky!

High centerpieces were designed to bring grandeur to the reception. Grasses and feathers combine with springeri fern, maidenhair fern, jasmine vine, and roses to create a romantic nature-inspired design. The silver vase adds sparkle and a modern touch to the centerpiece.  We loved these vases so much that we went out and bought our own and now offer them as a rental item.

Working with Ashley was so much fun.  We love the bonds we get to form with our brides and she was one of those that truly felt like a friend to us.  Congrats you two…hope you are enjoying married life!  xoxo

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

As you may know, planning a wedding is all about the details. Sure, the centerpieces, bouquets and cake are the big items that people will notice, but it is the little things that will make your wedding memorable and will pull together your vision. Check out these great extras available at A Garden Party.

Table Runners

Your venue probably offers basic linens, but A Garden Party has fun table runners to place on top of your linens. Check out these gorgeous blue table runners we used at a recent aquarium wedding (more pictures coming later, we promise).

We also love these burlap table runners; they are perfect for rustic weddings. (To see more adorable ideas from Rachael and Connery’s wedding, click here.)

 Lanterns

A Garden Party’s lanterns are a great way to decorate your ceremony or reception space, and they add a beautiful romantic glow. Here are just two ideas for using the lanterns. (They also look amazing with a floral ring as your centerpiece.)

 This is a beautiful way to dress up a dance floor or highlight a sweet heart table.

 This is perfect for a fall wedding. In addition to lanterns, we can incorporate seasonal items such as pumpkins or fresh produce.

Votives

Votives are  a great way to add extra light to your ceremony or reception. A Garden Party has several styles to choose from, and we can use them to decorate a variety of areas such as your cocktail tables, bar, head-table, ceremony area, etc. Here are just two styles available at A Garden Party. For more ideas, please check out our other blog posts as well as our Facebook page.

These pink mercury votives are so pretty. We also have other glassware that matches these votives.

If you want a slightly bigger candle, we  have a variety of glassware that holds floating candles. We can even add ribbon and accents to the containers to coordinate with your colors and theme.

A few other “extras” you should ask A Garden Party about include:

• chair sashes
• cake stands
• napkin treatments
• and anything else your little heart desires.

We’d love to know, what extra details do you plan on adding to your wedding?

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

After a very hot summer, fall is almost here. To kick off the season, I’d like to share five great aisle decor designs by A Garden Party. Feel free to be inspired!

These buckets are perfect for aisle arrangements.

This is my all time favorite fall aisle. The burlap, mums, and sunflowers are the perfect combination.

Sunflowers are a classic fall flower. Plus, I love mason jars.

This design is simple and beautiful.

I love how simple and elegant a single Gerber daisy looks. Plus, the brown and orange are perfect for fall.

We’d love to know, how do you plan on decorating your aisle this fall? What is your favorite fall flower?

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact us by filling out the form below:

We are so excited about our new birch canopy! We purchased this beautiful, one of a kind canopy from a former bride of ours. She searched all over for the perfect wedding chuppah for her wedding at Pine Hill Trump National and was unable to find what she wanted. Determined to have the perfect wedding, she had her father and fiance build her dream chuppah. When we showed up on her wedding day to decorate it, we offered to buy it on the spot!! I have never seen a wedding canopy of such quality and presence, I just knew it had to be ours!

Isn’t the canopy absolutely beautiful?! For this particular wedding, we dressed the canopy indoors with a variety of nature inspired elements along with white lilies and amaranthus. Note the fern lined aisle, looooved it! The hanging crystal balls add a touch of glamor.

The generous size of this canopy allows for the bride and  groom to stand underneath of it (rather than in front) along with the officiant, while the wedding party are positioned on either side. This creates a fabulous frame around the couple.

We can picture this canopy being used in a variety of settings and seasons. For this inside ceremony it worked to create a beautiful focal point and then was later moved over their sweetheart table for an enchanting setting. It would be equally stunning used during an outside ceremony. The birch canopy would shine adorned with twinkle lights and hanging ornaments for the winter season and would be perfect for a summer ceremony including hydrangea and roses. If you are interested in renting the canopy please contact us. We look forward to sharing our ideas with you!

I got married about six months ago. After the wedding, I loved  hearing the guests’ thoughts and memories from the wedding. I was shocked by how many compliments we’ve received on the cocktail hour. I always considered the reception the highlight of weddings, but my guests made me re-evaluate my opinions. I now realize that the cocktail hour sets the tone for the rest of the evening. It is the first impression of the reception. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up from my guests and other brides to make your cocktail hour memorable.

•         Consider hosting your cocktail hour in a separate room.
•         Choose a room or area with high tables and bar stools. This allows guests to mingle rather than sitting for an hour.
•         Serve delicious food. Most likely, your guests are hungry and craving something yummy.
•         Consider foods that match your theme.
•         Serve fun drinks that coordinate with your theme. For instance, a beach theme might serve a signature drink such sex on the beach or Malibu bay breeze.
•         Decorate! The cocktail area is just as important as the reception, so utilize candles and flower arrangements to bring life to the cocktail area.

Below are a few designs by A Garden Party that would be perfect as cocktail hour décor.  

This is perfect for a place card table!

Mary and Dawn designed this cocktail table centerpiece for a bridal show at Running Deer. I love the martini glass vase!

Floating candles and orchids are simple but beautiful.

I love the different heights of these candles.

Rose petals and votives are an easy way to dress up the cocktail area.

These cube vases are the perfect size for cocktail tables! Plus, I love the bright colors.

I am obsessed with these spider mums.

This is perfect for a fall wedding.

 So I’d love to know, where do you plan on hosting your cocktail hour? How do you plan on decorating the area?

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact Mary by filling out the form below:

Your wedding cake is one of the central points of the reception and is highly anticipated by your guests. It should be as beautiful as your décor and should match the feel and tone of your wedding. An easy way to do this is to add fresh flowers that coordinate with your centerpieces and bouquets. A Garden Party can add fresh flowers to your cake, starting at $30. Since you might not order your cake before your flowers, this is a common add-on for brides. Please meet with your bakery first to design your cake and then send A Garden Party the cake sketch along with the cake delivery time line.

You can use flowers in a variety of ways on your cake, here are some examples of varying styles that the sisters have done. 

You can place flowers on top and down the layers of your cake like Alison and Fred.

You can place flowers, gerbers in this case, sporadically around the cake like Brynn and Drew.

You can do a pretty diagonal line across the entire cake like Tina and Jeremy.

You can put flowers in between the layers.

You can scatter petals around the bottom of the cake, as you can see here around Dominique and Glenn’s cake.

For more cake ideas, check out our “Wedding Cake” album on Facebook.

Cake Decorating Tips:

·         Design your cake with flowers in mind. You don’t want the flowers to look like an afterthought. Send a cake sketch to your florist to keep them in the loop! A nice inspirational photo never hurt anyone

·         White or cream-colored icing looks great any color flowers, but don’t be afraid to experiment with other colors. Let your baker do their thing; dare to be different!

·         Choose flowers that coordinate with the flowers used in your centerpieces and bouquets. You want everything to work together seamlessly.

·         Prepping and storing flowers can be challenging. You may want to let your florist handle this task. We have had experiences where the bakery is in charge of getting coordinating flowers, and that NEVER goes well. If the baker wants to decorate the cake, just let us know what time to have the loose flowers at the venue. 

So we want to know, do you plan on using fresh flowers to decorate your cake?

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact Mary by filling out the form below:
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Wow – last week was INSANE.  Hurricane Irene really tried to throw us for a loop….but Mary and I hung in there and got both of our weddings delivered and set up.  We even delivered our Cape May wedding a day early because of the mandatory evacuation!!!  The whole thing was crazy, but at the same time, amazing.  We love making our brides happy, and seeing both of our brides so happy on their wedding days, even with a hurricane looming, made our job extremely rewarding.  We have been super busy, and I have weddings stockpiled just waiting to be blogged about and I am so excited to share this wedding with you.  Anya and Matt were married this past May at the Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, PA.  The Aldie Mansion is gorgeous, both inside and out, as you will see in these pictures from Loveshack Photo. 

Anya was GORGEOUS.  I loved the softness of her bouquet.  We used white peonies, white sweetpea, yellow freesia, craspedia, succulants, buplureum, and geranium leaves.

Seriously…is this girl flawless or what!!!

I love a bouquet that has some movement to it.  I also really love that this looks very bridal because of the white, but is made more modern with the pops of yellow and green.

One last shot…just because the picture is so perfect.

For the bridesmaid we used the same flowers but in a more delicate size. We wrapped the stems with pale yellow ribbon and accented with rope.

I am all about craspedia for bouts.  How cute is this!  We accented the craspedia with a skeleton leaf, a tiny succulant, and accented the stems with a knot of rope.

Daisies made the perfect halo for this adorable flower girl.  Look at the adorable banner she is carrying!

This picture shows just how truly beautiful the Aldie Mansion really is.  Even on a day filled with thunderstorms, the outside was just pristine.

This has nothing to do with flowers, but I had to include it.  What a sweet idea!

For the centerpieces we used antique glassware that we collected (thanks mommom!).  Each table had either milk glass, green glass, or clear glass vases clustered in the center filled with monobotanical arrangments.

I thought this was an amazing idea…friends of the Anya and Matt called and ordered an arrangment to be sent and set up at their wedding.  I made this the morning of the wedding….and seeing it again reminds me of how much fun I had putting it together.

An owl cake topper = totally adorable!

 Thank you Anya and Matt for sharing this pictures with us, and for letting us be a part of your wedding day.  We loved working with you!!!

If you are interested in our floral design services in South Jersey, the greater Philadelphia area or Northern Delaware please contact Mary by filling out the form below:
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