The holidays flew by and Mary and I are gearing up for our busiest winter ever. We are so excited about the weddings we have booked so far for 2013 and are looking forward to meeting with many new brides as the year progresses. We have been terribly behind on blogging…too busy creating all these beautiful designs for weddings!  It is a new year though, so time to get back into the swing of things and back into our weekly blogging.  Today’s blog features a gorgeous wedding at The Flanders in Ocean City, NJ. Lindsay and Jim were the sweetest couple.  They were high school sweethearts and you could really see just how in love these two are.  All photos courtesy of Meyer Photography.

Lindsay carried a bouquet of dark purple and magenta flowers including baronesse garden roses, magenta stock, purple glad blossoms, dark purple lisianthus, and magenta gomphrena. The garden roses were accented with diamond pins. Don’t they have the best smiles!?!?!

Such a creative picture!

Lindsay loved bling so we incorporated it as much as possible; even doing Jim’s bout in a rhinestone encrusted bout holder.

I thought these flowers girls were just adorable.  Check out their dresses!

Another amazing shot.  The sky in this picture is breathtaking.

I loved how the place card table came out. Lindsay had these silver manzanita trees, so we accented one by placing it in a decorate silver mercury vase.  We added a fuchsia sash and hung our crystal votives holders filled with flowers from the branches.  I loved the cards radiating out from the center.  This is a perfect design for a round table like this.

The room looking gorgeous.  The linens really helped pull it all together and, along with the flowers, set the tone of the event.

Half of the tables were done with our silver mercury glass filled with purple stock, purple hydrangea, and magenta garden roses. Crystal votive holders added another touch of bling to the tables.

The other half of the tables were done with bleached beach grasses and purple and magenta stock in our tall silver vases.  Magenta rose petals and the crystal votive holders completed the look.

I love little touches like this.  A gladiola blossom was placed on each napkin for all of the guests.  Gorgeous!

The sweetheart table was draped with crystals and silver mercury candle holders.  Love!

This has nothing to do with flowers but I am obessed with boardwalk pizza….especially at a wedding!

The wedding cake was stunning!  I love when brides choose to do fresh flowers on the top, instead of a cake topper.  So pretty!

Just a reminder to all of our upcoming brides, we are excited to be participating in Running Deer Golf Club’s Bridal Show.   The show is a free event, taking place on January 13th from 3-6pm.  We hope to see lots of brides there!  We are also running a sample sale.  You can see anything on your wedding order at 50% off.  Check out all the details here, and contact us if you are interested, dawn@agardenpartyllc.com.

I can not believe September is almost here!  The kids are getting ready to head back to school….and more importantly, we have LOTS of fall weddings that are literally right around the corner!  I have been enjoying this summer.  We took a week at the beach to relax, and there were numerous other trips to the beach to set up weddings.  Janine and Guy’s wedding was my first experience setting up a wedding at One Atlantic, and WOW.  That place is amazing.  It is hard not to enjoy your job with views of the ocean out every window! I can’t wait until we get to go back there!  To sweeten the deal even more, the photographer for Janine and Guy’s wedding was the ever amazing Tami Melissa.  I was beyond thrilled when she shared these images with us!

How adorable are these blue little numbers that the bridesmaids are wearing?!?!?  The girls carried bouquets of all white mini callas, simple and sophisticated.

Janine carried a bouquet of white and blue hydrangea, white and blue delphinium, white mini callas, and mini blue hyacinth.

The hyacinth was a last minute addition…and I think it made the bouquet!  Also, check out that little bow detail we did with the ribbon wrap <3

STUNNING bride!

One Atlantic has this beautiful canopy set up in the ceremony room, which made our job so much easier.  We simply accented with ivory pedestals topped with blinged out vases of white dendrobium orchids.

We draped the front of the head table with this crystal garland, and then accented the garland with white dendrobium orchids.

Our Diana candleholders lined the back of the place card table just perfectly.

We assembled all of the centerpieces on site in this square glass vase. White dendrobium orchids were submerged in the vase and a mass of orchids spray out the top.  Of course, we had to accent the vase with a wide band of bling!

The blue lighting added the perfect touch!

Thank you Janine and Guy for letting us be a part of your day.  We love experiencing new venues and setting up at One Atlantic was amazing! Thanks again Tami for sharing these pictures with us!

This cloudy, rainy day needs some brightening up, so I decided to share this gorgeous spring wedding from this past April.  Jake and Kerri were married on a pretty, sunny day in April at Maris Stella Church in Avalon, with their reception following at The Avalon Yacht Club.  They worked with Caitlin from Just Be the Bride, a wedding planner that we adore working with. Rebecca Watkins did a fabulous job with the photos, and even got them published on Un-jersey Bride!

Kerri carried a stunning bouquet of all pink peonies.  We mixed Sarah Bernhardt and Alex Fleming peonies, and added just a touch of maidenhair fern to create this pretty bouquet.

The bridesmaids carried complimenting bouquets of light pink peonies, pink tulips, pink hyacinth (love!), and maidenhair fern.

 I LOVED all the potted plants in this church.  They looked amazing and were perfect for this spring wedding.

 The bridesmaids wore this springy shade of green called clover.  I loved the gowns, and the pink flowers against them.

 Such a sweet couple!

 In the entryway of the Yacht Club we did this manzanita tree with hanging pink crystals and pink peonies in the branches.  Kerri had pictures of her Jake, which we added to the tree.  This is a great way to show off those engagement pictures at your wedding!

 Half of the tables were done with lanterns that Kerri had, and flowering cherry branches.  The branches and cherry blossoms looked so pretty nestled among the lanterns.  We also added our crystal votives with a pink LED to add that touch of glamour to the tables.

 The sweetheart table featured our Diana candle holders with sand and a pillar candle.  Crystals votives and pink rose petals completed the table.  The two large pieces from the ceremony were transported to the Yacht Club and used to flank the head table.  Check out the cute “Mr.” and “Mrs.” signs hanging behind them!

 Here is a close up shot of the Diana candle holders with the sand and pillar candles.  So simple and pretty!

 Each table had these little books to be passed around so guests could leave a note for the couple to read on their anniversary.  Such a creative idea!

Thank you Kerri and Jake for letting us be a part of your wedding day.  Everything was so pretty and I loved how it all came together!  Congrats!!!

We have been heading down to the shore for a lot of weddings recently and we couldn’t be happier about it! Michael at Avalon’s Golden Inn started referring us last summer as their recommended florist after we wowed him with Jenna and Drew’s wedding, our business loves that kind of growth! Side note: Drew called me a few weeks ago and ordered a 1 year wedding anniversary bouquet for Jenna, so we made a beautiful arrangement for her using the same flowers from her wedding bouquet. WHAT A NICE GUY!! Serious brownie points there. More of our groom’s should do that!

Anyway, back to Heather’s wedding….here she is looking sultry in the sand (which was about 500 degrees!). The beach ceremony takes place right over the dunes in Avalon. Ahhhh, can’t wait to be there in a few weeks for vacation.

Her bouquet featured free spirit roses, gerbers, wired gladiolus blossoms, hydrangea and starfish wrapped with lace and secured with blue crystal pins.

It really held up in the heat! It was over 100 degrees that day!

Since the guys didn’t wear jackets, we did magnetic bouts of sashaba spray roses and starfish. How fresh!

The bright aqua dresses were so summery and pretty!

We didn’t have great pictures of her centerpieces (always get 2 photogs and ask them to document all the details you spent months planning!), but how cute is this alstroemeria tucked in the napkin. Love little details like that.

Keep cool at the shore everyone! We will be back at the Golden Inn this Saturday for an awesomely chic wedding featuring air plants, how fun!

So we’ve been in the wedding business almost 6 years now and it is safe to say we have learned a few things along the way (and continue to learn every day!). Dawn and I would love to share some of our insights with you, let us know if you agree or have anything to add!

***One more plug before you continue….Administrative Professionals week is next week (April 22-28th), don’t forget to thank your staff with a beautiful flower arrangement or thoughtful dish garden! We have lots of options!***Ok, now continue on your way…

TOP 10 MISTAKES BRIDES MAKE…

10. Being too matchy matchy.

While we love a cohesive look and want the colors to blend perfectly, it is kinda impossible to find tiffany blue flowers. We suggest going with complimentary hues for contrast (think jade green and yellow like Kim did below) or shades of purple (instead of all eggplant flowers).

Photo credit: Jac and Jules Photography

Also involved with this…letting the season dictate your colors. Just because you are having a fall wedding doesn’t mean you have to do orange. Look at this lovely November wedding with pale pink accents, so pretty! Photo credit: Marc Anthony Photography

9. Not trusting your professionals.

Most of our brides come in needing some guidance on what flowers to select, proclaiming they know nothing about flowers. We are happy to offer up some great ideas! However, some brides come in with exact recipes for us to follow. I always think it is best to ask the professional what they would recommend to achieve the best end product, I always do this to my contractor, hair dresser, etc and I have total faith in them! Allow the professional to do their thing, sit back, relax and be pleasantly surprised!

We love when brides say “I trust you, make me whatever you want!”. That’s what this bride did and she loved it! Photo credit: Caitlin Scott Photography

8. Thinking you can do it all.

One of my personal goals this year is to delegate more. It is too stressful to do it all, right brides? Ask your mother or mother in law for help with certain tasks, they would love to pitch in! Some of my brides ask me to just send everything to their mom and communicate with her. I think it limits the bride’s back and forth to her mom about the order and since mom is usually cutting the check, everyone thinks it is easier.

7. Keeping the budget a secret.

Ahhhh, the budgeting issues my brides face. I always appreciate when a bride lets me know the budget in mind ahead of time, it helps me guide her toward the best option. No use talking about an all orchid centerpiece if it isn’t in the budget.

6. Making your own centerpieces, there is a right way and a wrong way.

Oh boy, I could really go on about this. We get a lot of phone calls a month before a wedding from a frantic bride now hating her DIY centerpieces. She brings her bags and boxes full of stuff she has purchased from 8 different Michaels stores and pleads for help. The thing is, I often wonder if it was even going to save money since she had to go out and buy all the materials. We have so many rental options, let us carry the cost of purchasing the glassware. Besides, what are you going to do with 30 lanterns after the wedding anyway? If you do decide to do DIY, make sure you think about who is going to set up the centerpieces on the wedding day. We are happy to help out, but will have to charge a labor fee. It really isn’t the responsibility of the reception venue either.

This was one of the cases of “I had an idea but wasn’t sure what to do exactly” so she brought us the grasses and feathers and we did the rest!

5. Waiting too long to book vendors.

I read all the time on blogs and in wedding magazines that you should book your florist 6-9 months before the wedding. For popular months (May-October), we have had many Saturdays completely booked 9 months out. So if you wait to meet with us until 9 months before and then take another month to send in the contract, you might miss out! We book a limited number of events/day, usually a max of 3 (one per sister).

4. Not using seasonal flowers.

Now, this is our job to really guide you toward what looks best and is a good price at certain times of the year. Yes, we can get peonies November, but they are expensive, about 4 times the price of a rose. Same with dahlias, when we push the season (too early or too late) they start to look rough. Lily of the valley exists for about 3 weeks of the year (starting now!).

3. Hiring a cheap photographer.

This has nothing to do with flowers, sorry about that. But we see a lot of wedding photos from our former clients and you can really tell the difference between the inexperienced photographer with a crazy flash (think staged photos inside with awful lighting) and a true professional (see our vendors list for our favs!). Make sure you hire 2 photographers to capture all the details you worked so hard on to pick out, from the pre-wedding brunch to the farewells. It is a shame to see $4000 worth of centerpieces not make it in one photo and we have seen it too many times.

2. Thinking your fiance needs to decide on every detail.

Don’t get us wrong, we love meeting the bride AND the groom so we can do our best to meld both personalities into our designs (and for some reason, the guys love our shop!!). And there are some men who have more of a preference than you would think about the flowers! And then there are the men who just come along to please their bride, which leads to frustration on the bride’s part when he doesn’t chime in during the meeting. The best advice we can give: know your man. If you think he cares about the flowers, please bring him along! If not, enjoy the night with your moms/bridesmaids in tow. You’ll thank me later!

The lovely couple was a great team! He really chimed in and helped her feel great about her choices, so sweet. Photo credit: Tina Jay Photography

and the #1 mistake…..

1. Sweating the small stuff.

You hear this all the time, “don’t sweat the small stuff on the big day” and it is totally true! Surround yourself with positive and capable vendors and you won’t have a thing to worry about! True, every little thing may not turn out as planned (gasp, the pumpkin dahlias are not the exact shade of pumpkin) but what really matters that day is the commitment and love you are proclaiming to all of your friends and family. Nothing can compare to that feeling. Still get chills thinking about that experience on my own wedding day almost 5 years ago (4 years and 11 months ago to be exact). I recall being so anxious about my hair/makeup/dress/jewelry/weather/schedule/everylittlesillydetail until the wedding day came…and on that day I was so happy and excited that I got all dressed and never in looked in the mirror before going to the church! I remember turning to Dawn and asking her if I looked ok 5 minutes before walking down the aisle haha! All of those details were the last thing on my mind as I was about to start my new life with the love of my life. I hope all my brides feel the same way.

Did we miss anything?? What do you think?

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:

There is nothing more I love to see in my inbox than this, “I just wanted to say thank you for an amazing job that you did at Tiffany’s wedding. Everything was beautiful and we are so thankful that we used you to decorate for the wedding!” Well you are welcome Mrs. Samuel! Now we all know MOB’s tell the truth, so that makes me feel pretty awesome.

Tiffany sent us these photos from her wedding day last summer at the Golden Inn in Avalon NJ. Her groom, Dan, is a chef so they wanted to incorporate some culinary details into the centerpieces, but also nod to the beach theme. I think we did a pretty good job melding them both!

The bridal party flowers….

We accented the bridesmaid bouquets with rope and starfish.

Tiffany’s bouquet was wrapped with ivory satin and I made this little garland of starfish.

She loves bright colors, so we just ran with it! Fuchsia phals, purple sweet pea, green bupleurum, green cymbidium orchids, scabiosa stellata and orange spray roses did the trick.

Her adorable flower girl carried this pomander of orange babe spray roses with a twine ribbon.

Her bridal party included a man of honor! And lots of pretty ladies in periwinkle gowns!

The ceremony was held on the beach, just outside the Golden Inn in Avalon. We lined the aisle with carnation pomanders composed of orange, purple and green carns, hung with some beachy rope.

The back row of chairs was accented with our orange sashes and larger starfish tied on with rope, I loved this!

Now, here is the cool stuff. Being a farm girl, I love incorporating veggie into our floral designs. Chef Dan (the groom) encouraged us to use green, orange and purple vegetables with coordinating flowers as the centerpieces. This is what we came up with! See the lettuce in the background? The ceremony pomanders were reused on the long head table as well. A few scattered crystals add glam.

Orange bell peppers + orange roses.

Green zucchini + green celosia.

Purple leaf lettuce + purple carnations.

Accented with kale + crystals.

= LOVE how unique this is!

The up-lighting really added to the room too, totally transformed the look. We hope all the foodies out there loved it too! We are heading back to the Golden Inn in a few weeks, we have a lot of weddings booked there this year and we are thrilled about it. Today is our last day in the office, the rest of the week we will be working in the flower shop and on the road delivering our weddings. Hope you have a great week!

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:

Well we are still waiting on Baby Coombs over here.  Mary’s due date is tomorrow and we are so excited!! We can’t wait to meet the new baby and find out whether it is a boy or a girl!  We have been steady working on lots of projects. We have a bridal show coming up, February 12th at Running Deer, so we have been tossing around some ideas for that.  We decided that we wanted to offer a 50% discount on samples for any of our 2012 and 2013 brides that would like to see samples of their bouquets or centerpieces.  Any brides that have already booked with us that would like to see a sample at 50% off please contact me (dawn@agardenpartyllc.com) asap to set up an appointment for Saturday, February 11th.  We will then be taking the samples to the Bridal Show on Sunday.   I am also working on our 2011 album and have come across so many pictures from weddings throughout last year that, at the time, we didn’t have time to blog.  I love going through all the past weddings, it is so much fun looking back at our brides and their flowers.  Kim and Brian were one of your favorite couples of 2011.  They are the sweetest two people and seriously are so much fun and so in love.  Every picture I see of them just makes me smile.  Their wedding took place on 9/10/11, which of course, was one of our biggest wedding weekends of the year.  They were married in a church in Ocean City with their reception following at Greate Bay Country Club in Somers Point. I really loved all the details of this wedding.  The color scheme was great, jade green and yellow, and we got to bring in some of those modern elements that we really love.  Jac & Jules Photography did an amazing job with the photos, so check it out!

How sweet are these two!??!  For Kim’s bouquet we used yellow calla lilies, cymbidium orchids, yellow latina roses, and bupluerum.  I loved all this yellow, it photographed gorgeous!

The bridesmaids wore jade green dresses and held bouquets of all yellow long stem calla lilies.  We wrapped the bouquets with black ribbon and added a beaded jade green accent (I have memories of searching online for a jade green accent for these bouquets…I think it took 3 of us looking for hours before we found something that we all liked, ha!).

What a pretty little flower girl!  She wore a floral halo of yellow spray roses, so sweet!

The couple was flanked by our ivory pedestals with a mound of yellow roses on top and draped crystals.  Love it!

Brian and Kim exited the church with yellow rose petals raining down on them.

They had these adorable table number holders that held a single flower.  We loved them so much that we bought them after the wedding.  Let us know if you would like to rent them for your wedding!

Half of the tables had our smaller black cylinders filled with sandblasted manzanita with yellow roses, hanging crystals, and hanging votives.

The other half of the tables had our tall black cylinders with long stem yellow calla lilies cascading out one side.  We hung crystals from the calla lilies to add some more interest.

Their cake was accented with cymbidium orchids.  I love orchids on a cake, so pretty!

Thank you Kim and Brian for letting us be a part of your day.  We thoroughly enjoyed working with you two and loved how all of your flowers came out.  Best wishes to both of you!

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:

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!  I have been digging my way out…not the snow (that is the hubby’s job), but digging my way out of the sea of presents my two lucky little girls got.  A few days ago one of our sweetest brides of the year e-mailed us these pictures and I couldn’t wait any longer to share them. Casey and Travis were truly such a gorgeous couple and so sweet to boot!  I remember delivering this wedding, it really stood out to me because it was one week after my grandfather passed away and I found so much peace in working on this wedding.  It reminded us both that Poppop was so happy that we were pursuing our dream job. I loved the flowers, I loved working at The Chelsea, and I loved seeing the joy on Casey and her mom’s faces when we delivered the bouquets. Doing this wedding was healing to me…and that is a true testament to how much I love this job. This was the first time we had done a wedding at The Chelsea Hotel in Atlantic City and I was blown away, not only by the beauty of the hotel but by how kind and helpful the staff was. It was a pleasure to work with them and I really look forward to doing more weddings there. I would highly recommend The Chelsea to any bride that is looking for a wedding reception at the Jersey Shore. It was modern, the staff really went above and beyond to make every detail perfect, and you just can’t beat the location and vibe! Ryan Morey of RHM Photography was the photographer for the day and I am in awe of some of the amazing photos he got of the day.

I love a fun color palette like this one. Casey’s bridesmaids wore watermelon pink gowns so we did lots of yellow with accents of the pink, white and black to keep it modern. The bride’s bouquet featured yellow mini calla lilies, anemone, succulents, yellow freesia, white dahlias, craspedia, yellow roses and pink spray roses.

Another close up of Casey’s bouquet.  I loved all the shapes and textures in this bouquet. We accented her bouquet wrap with the lace from her mother’s gown, a very meaningful touch.

Casey and her bridesmaids on the boardwalk.  I have no idea how the photographer did it but I love colors in this photo.

Such a beautiful group of girls!

Casey and Travis, aren’t they a cute couple!

Close up of Travis’s boutonniere.  Craspedia, freesia, and a small succulent made the perfect bout.

On the beach…this looks like a painting!  LOVE.

Pictures like this would make any bride want a beach wedding.

Casey and Travis were married in a church but wanted to bring in some of the fun color aspects of their day.  We did these pomanders of yellow button mums and pink pearl pins to hang on every other pew.

Look how cute it turned out!!!

At the reception we were so excited to use these tall black vases.  We added a crystal chandelier and dozens of yellow oncidium orchids…the final look was stunning!

Love these orchids in this room!

For the other centerpiece style we used our shorter black vases filled with yellow roses and yellow spider mums.  We linked the vases together with bear grass and added some watermelon pink ribbon and of course a touch of bling.  I love spider mums, they are not often thought of for wedding flowers but they can looking so modern when used in mass like this.

Here is a shot of the yellow roses showing the vase accented with the pink ribbon and a rhinestone.

The pomanders from the church were brought back to the reception and placed on these silver platters to decorate the bar and cocktail tables.

One final shot off the overall room. Again I can not say enough good things about The Chelsea, this hotel really is stunning!

Casey and Travis – thank you so much for letting us be a part of your wedding day.  We truly enjoyed every aspect of your wedding and wish the both of you all the best in your future together.  We are so grateful for all of the kind recommendations you are sending our way too, keep ‘em coming! High fives to Ryan from RHM Photography for a job well done too!

Mary and I are so excited about the New Year and everything to come….2010 has been an awesome year for us, a year of great professional and personal growth, but I can’t help but wonder what 2011 will bring us?!?!?! Stay tuned to see what the future holds….we wish all of our readers a bountiful, beautiful and blooming 2011!

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:.

Danielle and Dan were one of those couples that bring a smile to your face just to see them together.  They got married on in Avalon at The Golden Inn(gorgeous venue for a wedding, especially if you are looking to have a beach ceremony). Unfortunately their beach ceremony got rained out at the very last minute, but these two just went with the flow….all they wanted was to get married, and moving the ceremony inside was fine with them. It was refreshing to see a couple that was so laid back, fun, and full of love for one another. Not only were the two of them super sweet, but their family was the best. Danielle’s dad was trying to keep the flower girl busy prior to the ceremony so he brought her into the reception room so she could watch us set up. She was the sweetest little girl, and while he was watching us he said ‘you sure do have a gratifying job, watching this all come together’. Those words really stood out to me, because he is absolutely right…we are lucky to have a job that we love. I was beyond thrilled when Langdon Photography sent us these photos. I was really impressed with their work, check out how amazing these colors look!

Danielle and Dan – aren’t they a cute couple! And her dress was so unique and perfect for her!

Danielle’s bouquet featured lavender roses, lavender sweetpea, asters, dark purple callas, scabiosa, freesia and brunia berries.  I will never get tired of working with purple, it is definitely my favorite color.

Her bridesmaids carried the same flowers used to make a smaller bouquet.  They looked amazing against their blue dresses.

I loved the stem wrap that we did.  We wrapped the stems with navy ribbon and accented with criss-crossed narrow purple ribbon and purple pearl pins.

All the beautiful women of the day! Notice their cute purple floral pins that Danielle had made for them, L.O.V.E.

The flower girl carried a pomander of purple carnations, cute!

For Dan’s bout we used a scabiosa, brunia berries, and wrapped it with ribbon.

We accented the bar with this large martini glass filled with a modern dome of carnations and bear grass.  We have 3 sizes of these martini glasses available for rent, you KNOW you want to add them to your wedding order now ladies!

We dressed up our silver birdcage with carnations and purple ribbon.

On half of the rectangular tables we used our Diana Candleholder Trio.  We swirled bear grass in the vase, and floated a candle on top.  These candleholders look amazing, and are one of our most popular rental items.

On the other half of the tables we used our Diana Pedestal Vase.  We used more of the bear grass in the vase, and topped it with a dome of asters, lavander roses, carnations, and scabiosa.

Their cake was so cute, check out the surfboarding couple on the top!

Thank you Danielle and Dan for letting us be a part of your day.  We had tons of fun working with you and loved doing your wedding flowers! We wish you all the best – 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:

Mary and I grew up spending basically every single weekend down at the shore, so to this day we love a trip down to the beach.  When Jessie came to us with her ideas for her wedding day, we got really excited.  Jessie was such a sweet bride, with tons of DIY projects and attention to detail that we love.  She was a bride that genuinely seemed to be enjoying every minute of planning her wedding, and of course we loved coming up with the florals for her big day. The ceremony and reception both took place at The Southern Mansion in Cape May, NJ on a gorgeous sunny day in September.  Mary and I were sooo impressed with The Southern Mansion.  It is gorgeous there and the staff was so helpful and accommodating, we would definitely recommend any bride to be that is looking for a location at the Jersey shore to check them out.  We can’t wait to do another wedding there.  Lucky for us T Alimario got some AMAZING shots of their wedding day (another vendor we love to recommend – he is an awesome photographer!).

Jessie’s bouquet featured callas, dahlias, orchids, circus roses, bupleurum, bear grass, and (one of my favorite details of all) white ostrich feather trim.  Her bridesmaids carried coordinating bouquets of tiger lilies, circus roses, and dahlias – all wrapped up with a pretty turquoise bow.

I LOVED her bridesmaids dresses – gorgeous!

For the groomsmen bouts we used a simple calla lily accented with the same turquoise ribbon and orange pins.

Great picture, what a fun looking bridal party!

For the ceremony we used two of our pillars (rental items) to stand these vase arrangements on, which were later moved inside to be used as reception decor.

We had some extra dahlias so came up with these impromptu to hang on the doors behind the couple.  We always try to use up every flower we order for our brides and pride ourselves on adding extra details like this to each wedding we do.

Jessie asked if we could use rosemary, which symbolizes remembrance, during her ceremony.  We tied rosemary and an orange lily to each chair to line her aisle.

As guests entered the reception room there was a small table set up with these little note cards, so that guests could leave their marriage advise for the new couple.  We added these vases of submerged orchids and floating candles to dress up the table.

In the reception room there are two fireplace mantels.  Jessie had framed pictures of their parents on their wedding day (another great detail!) and we just used fresh flowers and candles to accent the mantle.

Jessie made these to hang on the backs of the chairs – amazing!

She had given us these small paper orchids to use however we wanted…we decided to add one to each seating place.  Adding a single flower for each guest is one of those touches that really makes your guests feel special.

Half of their centerpieces were done in our Diana Pedestal, which could be rented or given to guests to take home. We filled them with circus roses, dahlias, and lilies.

The other half of the centerpieces we used our Diana Candleholders (rental item) with submerged orchids, turquoise crystals, and floating candles.  Check out the favors, salt water taffy…yum!

This vase arrangement is the same one that was outside at the ceremony site, it was moved inside to decorate the gift table.  Check out the gift box that Jessie made!

We added more vases of submerged flowers, candles, and calla lilies to the bar.  Literally every spare surface of this room had flowers (my favorite kind of wedding!).

This really had nothing to do with us (except we were drooling over these cupcakes), but check out these cupcakes from The Sweet Life Bakery!

Thank you Jessie and Scott for choosing A Garden Party for your wedding day!  We loved working with you and wish you all the best on your future 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: