Hello, my name is Jessie Walker, floral design intern, and I am here to introduce you to A Garden Party’s newest blog series: Bride Diaries! We want to give you a look at real weddings from the bride’s point of view. We sent our bride Emily the following questions and she was gracious enough to send us her responses! We hope you enjoy this new series, more posts coming soon!

1. What was your all-time favorite moment of your special day?

I think my favorite moment was our first dance.  It was a chance for us to be alone and together for a few moments and to take it all in.

2. We know things don’t always go as planned…Were there any entertaining wedding bloopers?

I don’t remember any bloopers.  Believe it or not, everything went as planned!  Everything was perfect and the day ran smoothly.  The only thing that was of concern we the weather.  Early in the week the forecast was for a beautiful, sunny day.  However, two days before the big day, the forecast changed to “periods of rain and cloudy.”  So, that became a big worry!  But, the weather held out. It was a little overcast, and we only saw a few drops of rain.  Our biggest blooper was the honeymoon, but that’s another story!!!

3. Any wedding toasts that made you laugh, cry, or gasp?

I don’t really think we cried or gasped.  We may have chuckled a bit at stories mentioned from our pasts.  The toasts were genuine and touching.  Our groomsmen and bridesmaids did a great job.

4. It’s okay to admit it – did you have any Bridezilla moments?

Not, really!  I’d say the only moment was when putting the programs together.  The programs were a little complicated, and the wedding date was getting close, so things were a little stressful!  I may have gotten a little nasty with my sister, while working on them!

5. Did you have a wedding planner? If so, did it make your day run smoother? Was it worth it?

We did not have a wedding planner.  We planned everything on our own, along with lots of help from our families and input from our vendors.  However, we did have a friend, Darin Pfeifer, who helped to coordinate the whole day, making sure everything was ready and set up how it should be on the actual wedding day at the reception site.  Darin did a fabulous job, and sure enough everything was perfect when we arrived at Pratt Gardens!

6. Cake or cupcakes? What was the flavor?

We had a three-tiered cake.  It was marble flavored on the first layer, chocolate chip in the middle, and lemon on the top.  The butter cream frosting was ivory and it had yellow flower details made of frosting.  My brother-in-law, Richard Kopp, handcrafted our cake topper – two little wooden lovebird with a heart in between.  They were adorable!

7. We always try to bring your floral dreams to life…did we succeed? In what ways? Is there any room for improvement?

When we arrived at both Corpus Christi Church and Pratt Gardens, I was blown away by how beautiful and perfect everything looked!  It was spectacular!  Dawn and Mary really brought my vision to life.  Everything was just as how I had imagined it to be.  I loved the bouquets and arrangements on the pews and doors of the Church.  The tree with my hanging bird ornament favors was adorable.  My favorite was the table décor – loved the burlap runners, ribbon on the napkins, and of course, the array of bottles and vases (we provided our own) filled with a variety of yellow flowers!  I received numerous compliments on the beauty of it all.

8. What song really got the party started?

I don’t remember a particular song that got the party started.  I think as soon as the DJ started playing and dinner was over that the guests started dancing!

9. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your:

Venue? 10, Pratt Gardens

Food? 10, Di Paolo’s Italian Restaurant

Flowers? 10!!! A Garden Party

Music? 10, DJ – Ed Bowman

Photographer? 10, Photography by Gary Johnson

10. I’m sure your day was amazing, but if you could change one thing about your wedding what would it be? Or would you not change anything at all?

I would not change a thing!  It really was the perfect day!

Mary and I spent last week down at the shore with our family (yes, we even vacation together!) and while the break was amazing, I am glad to be back!  It is always nice to have that time to relax….we both came into the office this morning completely refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the wedding season.  I am excited to blog about this wedding….not only because Melissa was one of my favorite brides, but also because the flowers are so pretty!  Melissa, and her adorable husband, participated in our Rock the Dress photo shoot that we did last summer and lately I have been stalking her facebook checking out the pictures of their gorgeous new baby girl. We always love working at Running Deer and will actually be headed there this Saturday for Julianne’s pretty pink wedding.

Melissa’s favorite flowers are daisies so we, of course, made sure we incorporated them into her bouquet. We also used yellow dahlias, lavender stock, and silver brunia berries.  A vintage lavender hanky that belonged to her grandmother was tied around the stems.

I love this shot of the flowers in the center of the ballroom floor!

How cute are these bridesmaids!  I loved the varying shades of purple dresses and the one floral printed dress is so cute!  They carried bouquets of lavender stock, lavender dahlias, yellow mums, and silver brunia berries.

We added lavender rhinestone pins to the daisies in Melissa’s bouquet for that perfect touch of shimmer.

I loved this yellow bout against the grey tux.

Interesting story about their ceremony.  Everything was set up outside and ready to go…the sun was shining and the weather was gorgeous.  Suddenly a thunderstorm blew in and the amazing staff at Running Deer quickly moved everything inside.  Here are the shepherds hooks with hanging vases of purple hydrangea lining the aisle – outside.

And here they are moved inside!  Just goes to show that either way, inside or out, your wedding ceremony will be beautiful!

I am in love with these cute little lavender votive cups.  We lined these along the front of the head table…with a few daisies to accent.  These votives are available for rent (we have lots of colored votive options).

A single daisy was tucked into each napkin.

The centerpieces were a trio of square vases accented with lavender ribbon and a yellow daisy.  The vases held lavender stock, dahlias, and hydrangea.

Check out these cute purple bud vases!  Also available for rent.

The Sweet Life Bakery did an amazing job with the cake.  I love the pop of yellow against the white!

Thanks Melissa for sharing all of these amazing pictures with us.  You were a gorgeous bride and we loved working with you!  Congrats on your new baby girl!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  I am up nice and early this morning, before my kids even….which means I have some time to squeeze in a little work before we hit the parade.  I am kind of in love with these photos from the talented JPG Photography.  You can see even more photos over on their BLOG.  Katie and Bob had their reception at the always gorgeous Camden County Boathouse last October.  Katie wanted a natural wildflower feel to her flowers, one of my favorite styles of design.

Her bouquet consisted of ivory dahlias, peach gladiola blossoms, scabiosa stellata pods, blue thistle, ornamental raspberries (LOVED using these!), anemone, lavender, and locally grown ornamental grasses.  Katie was a stunning bride!

The textures in this bouquet were amazing.

The stems were wrapped with burlap ribbon and had an accent of champagne lace.

I love this picture!

Bob wore a bout of a scabiosa stellata pod with a touch of ornamental rasperries and blue thistle. 

Great shot of the bridal party.  The bridesmaids wore blue gowns and carried bouquets of peach dahlias, scabiosa stellata, and blue thistle.

Mary accented the cake with fresh flowers to reflect the wildflower theme of this wedding.

Thank you Katie and Bob for letting us be a part of your day.  We loved working with you on your wildflower wedding! 

We also wanted to let our brides and know that the shop will be closed July 14th – 22nd.  We are going to take a nice little vacation with our families before we dive back into weddings.  We are excited about all the events we are working on this summer, and fall.  Thank you so much for all of your support!

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!

 Wow, it has been a true whirlwind of weddings for us!  The busiest we have ever been, thanks to our wonderful clients. Today we are happy to introduce the st-st-st-stunning Bianca and Brian, who celebrated their wedding last fall at the beautiful Running Deer Golf Club in Pittsgrove NJ. Steve Magnotta from Intrigue Photography shared these photos with us.

Bianca wanted to keep it simple with white mini callas, curly willow, seeded eucalyptus and a few rhinestones…mission accomplished!

 See what I mean, stunning???

Bridesmaids carried coordinating bouquets of mini callas and bear grass, studded with rhinestones. I loved the ribbon we used to wrap them with, just a little touch to make them look special.

From the pergola, we hung lanterns and a large floral accent piece. Lanterns lined the aisle as well.

Close up of the floral decor on the pergola….callas gone rustic with hydrangea and curly willow!

Who doesn’t love lanterns?

Mini callas were submerged in Running Deer’s vases for a simple yet romantic display.

Thanks again to Bianca and Brian for inviting us to be a part of your wedding day! It is an honor to be a part of so many meaningful events, we take it pretty seriously ’round here

Dude, can’t believe it is almost June already. It is currently 90 degrees in our office (gotta love old houses, freezing cold in the winter, sweltering in the summer, even with the AC!) but I’ve decided to cool off for a few minutes and blog about Diana’s January 6th wedding at The Merion. I recall this wedding vividly because it was one week before my due date with Sam and I kept insisting on helping Dawn deliver the wedding. We decided to compromise: We both do all the designing, but she went to set it all up with Torey, our other designer. I guess she was afraid I would go into labor during the set up…that would be a wedding to remember! Dawn and Torey did a great job, and thanks for looking out for me sis!

Side note – Diana and her mom are so sweet! Total pleasure to work with!

Diana’s bouquet…..soft white peonies, anemone, ranunculus and dusty miller with crystals <3

All photos by Ashley Sorbello Photography.

What a beautiful bride, I know we say that a lot, but really, look at her!

Look how pretty the maids are! We just did one of her bridesmaid’s weddings a few weeks ago…thanks for the recommendation Diana!

Tall wintery centerpieces on our new tall silver metal vase, featuring silver birch branches, white hydrangea, white spider mums, roses, spray roses, dusty miller and hanging crystals. We are obsessed with these vases, so sleek and pretty. We just got in the coordinating silver bowls too!

A close up….the dusty miller makes it, right?

She loved candles, so the Diana trio (perfectly named!) lit the other half of the tables. Crystal votives sparkled at the base.

Anyone feel cooler yet? Yeah, me neither haha. Happy almost 5 months Diana and John! Sam serves as a good reminder.

WOW – wedding season has hit and Mary and I have been living in a sea of flowers for weeks! I can’t believe we haven’t done a blog since the beginning of May, and we are going to really try our best to blog at least once a week through the wedding season. We have been making it a point to post little wedding sneak peeks on our facebook, so pop on over there if you need a wedding fix.  The past few weeks have been insanely busy, but also so much fun.  My sister in law, Torey, is now designing for A Garden Party, and I feel so fortunate that I get to work so closely with my family and friends, doing something I love.  It has been so refreshing working side by side with Torey.  She brings in so many unique and creative ideas and I know between the three of us, we can accomplish just about anything.  It has been amazing to see our business grow, and bringing on a new designer was the next step for us.  We are so excited to see what this year is going to bring; so far we are off to an amazing start!

Today I want to share a stunning wedding that we did in February.  Leigh Anne was a gorgeous bride and I have been dying to show off these pictures.  Leigh Anne and Anthony’s wedding took place at The Westin in Mount Laurel.  Their wedding was an elegant black and white affair with touches of blush pink, lots of crystals, ostrich feathers, and candlelight.  I always love setting up at The Westin because we usually stay to flip the room after the ceremony, which means I get to hide out and hear the bride and groom’s wedding ceremony   Dan Lerro Photography did an amazing job with the photos, check them out for yourself.

Mary did an amazing job with Leigh Anne’s bouquet.  The bouquet featured white peonies, tulips, anemone, cascading white phalaenopsis orchids, strands of blush pink hyacinth florets, and rhinestone studded lily grass and stephanotis.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of white peonies, tulips, and anemone.  The junior bridesmaids carried kissing balls of white spray roses. I love that each of the bridesmaids wore a black dress of their choice and the black fur wrap on the flower girl is just darling!

Many times we are set up and gone long before the bride arrives to check out the venue.  However, I had the chance to witness Leigh Anne checking out the room prior to the ceremony, and it is moments like this that make this job so worthwhile.  Seeing her walk down the aisle and the smile on her face was priceless.  We lined the aisle with our wax luminaries filled with blush pink ostrich feathers.  The luminaries cast the perfect glow and are ideal for lining an aisle.

On the place card table I used more luminaries filled with white hydrangea, ivory roses, champagne spray roses, and black ostrich feathers.

Here is a close up of the wax luminaries used to line the aisle.  I love the feathers!

Half of the tables were done with tall square glass vases accented with a wide band of rhinestone trim.  In the vase we submerged white hydrangea and floated a candle.  Smaller square wax luminaries accented the tall vase.

I was obsessed with this centerpiece.  This was the first time that we used the wax luminaries with a square floral design and I LOVED how it turned out.  The luminaries that lined the aisle were moved after the ceremony and placed in the center of the square floral design.  We used white hydrangea, white football mums, ivory roses, and spray roses.

I love using scatter crystals…check them out decorating the cake table.

Our silver birdcage accented with two tall vases filled with submerged hydrangea.

Thank you Leigh Anne and Anthony for letting us be a part of your wedding day.  We really enjoyed designing your flowers and wish you both 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:

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:

Happy Friday Flower Fans! It’s Mary this time, I think it is about time to relieve Dawn of some tasks now that I am back to work full time (with Sam at my side!). Our schedules have been delightfully full of client meetings, lots of quotes mixed with lots of Pinterest boards (see some wedding inspiration here folks!), and planning for the Centerton Country Club Spring Bridal Show (don’t forget to register).

This weekend we are honored to be a part of Caitlyn’s wedding, so it got me thinking about another Caitlin we got to know last August. Her wedding reception to Richard was celebrated at Lucien’s Manor in Berlin, NJ, after their church ceremony in Cherry Hill; both full of bright orange, coral, hot pink and green. Caitlin was such a sweet bride, especially when I had to call her a few days before her wedding to let her know that the hot pink dahlias that I ordered came in looking rough. I just didn’t feel comfortable using them because the color was a little off and I couldn’t get a replacement due to short supply, so I called her to ask if we could sub them for hot pink gerbers instead. She happily agreed and let me know how grateful she was that I called to keep her in the loop. I try to run my business how I want other businesses to treat me, and I would certainly want to know about a change to my order and that all options have been explored. So anyway, let’s see how it all turned out!

Caitlin wanted a traditional look with lots of color, so we created a bouquet of pale pink dahlias, movie star coral roses, peach mini gerbers, green hydrangea, orange celosia and stephanotis with rhinestones.

The happy couple, congrats!

I thought this was a pretty way to incorporate flowers into an updo, even though it is a silk orchid, still looks so romantic!

Close up of a bout.

The sage green dresses were flattering on everyone and you know I am digging that little flower accent.

I like the printed dresses for the little junior bridesmaids!

The ballroom at Lucien’s was dressed up with 2 centerpiece styles: one tall chic vase with gerbers inside and a mounded arrangement of green dutch hydrangea, gerbers, roses, and gomphrena. Coordinating floral rings with candles adorned the other tables.

Thank you Studio K Photography for sharing the photos and a big thanks to Caitlin for being so understanding! We wish you many many years of happiness…

xoxo, Mary and Dawn

Time to get back to the next Caitlyn’s wedding..the damask print accents are so cute! Good thing Sam likes that carrier sling thing <3

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: