Hydrangea Love

This past weekend we worked on a pretty country wedding that focused mainly on white hydrangeas and hot chocolate mini callas.

Liz posted a picture of the guest book piece with it's cozy ivory yarn wrap on Pinterest and the interest was through the roof!!!  So many other pinners added it to their boards and I even seen it posted on another bloggers site!

It's a super simple design but big showy blooms like these beauties can stand on their own with no problem!!

Come summer and fall you can find these flowers in shades of purple, blue, green and pink along with ivory.  The lacy texture adds visual interest to any bouquet and also acts as a support for some of the smaller and more fragile blooms.  The size of them mean that you only have to use a few blooms to get huge impact making them a favorite for bride's who are watching the bottom line.

We have lots of Hydrangea love.  Who wouldn't?

~K



The floral tool box

Okay, so I don't actually mean my floral tool box (yes I do have one and it actually has floral related tools in it!) I mean yours.

There are so many options for us information loving junkies out there that can make picking your wedding florals a snap. More importantly, they can help your florist (Which I hope is Purple Peony lol) make sure you get the bouquet you've dreamed up.  We've made a list of our very favorite options that you can easily access to put a plan in place.  So here goes!

Websites and Blogs - There are literally endless options for you to check out in terms of websites and blogs totally dedicated to all things wedding.  Some are very structured and high end like The Knot and Style Me Pretty.  Others are driven by real life brides and contributors like Weddingbee.  These are great options for brides that want to see colour palettes already put together for them and breakdowns of a wedding in full, from it's linens and decor options to the bridesmaids dresses and venue.

Magazines - There are regional publications like Weddings in Winnipeg (or Alberta etc.) and Weddingbells.  Both have information on vendors and product availability in your city and publish frequently enough that current trends are highlighted.  The above mentioned mags also have websites that update constantly and have vendor reviews, real life weddings and contests.

Photographers websites -  When I first started in this business I had a hard time knowing how to steer brides towards more realistic options. Magazines like Wedluxe have beautiful photos of amazing weddings but the price tags associated with these huge fetes are often out of reach for most brides.  A really great and often over looked resource for my brides are local photographers websites.  They often showcase realistic bouquets and table center options that can easily be recreated.  Another bonus is that the pictures will also be an indicator of what blooms are seasonally and regionally available.

Pinterest - If you haven't requested an invite get on it!!! But be warned....you might lose a few hours while you happily pin away.  If you are not familiar with this website it's a virtual bulletin board that allows you to bookmark and save images/ideas that catch your eye.  Everything from home improvement to recipes to wedding ideas and more can be found floating around the Pinterest website.  Anyone can sign up to follow your "boards" so if a bride pinned a collection of images to her wedding board her florist,decorator etc. could easily see what she's got in mind at anytime.  This is a fantastic way to collect all the details in one place and the fact that the original source of the image is always saved makes it easy to follow the thread back to the beginning and maybe find even more ideas you love! 

So there you have it! Some of our favorite inspiration sources laid out for you to take a peek at and maybe pick some floral elements you would love to see at your wedding.

~K

Last Weddings of the year!

We finished off 2011 with 2 weddings. The first was a pretty ivory and black wedding that had lots of sparkle added in. 

MJ and Bobby are actually friends of our and Liz was the MOH so we were very excited when they asked us to design their flowers.

The bride carried a mix of hydrangea, garden roses, spray roses, vandella roses and mini cymbidium orchids.  Her bouquet was highlighted with rope of vintage crystals and a sassy black bow.

Her four girls carried simplified clutches of hydrangea, garden roses and vandellas.

For the ceremony we added in two large floral accents that matched the pew bows.  A petal runner added some drama to the aisle.

Once the ceremony was done and the wedding party was off to take pictures we moved the large pieces to the brand spankin' new ballroom at the Raddison Hotel on Portage. 
The room had recently undergone a renovation and we happened to do the last wedding before the process and the first one after and let me tell you, what a difference!!!

The 23 guest tables had a 18"cylinder with white dendrobium orchids and submerged crystals placed in the center with surrounding tea lights for extra sparkle.

The head table got the royal treatment with elevated pomanders made of 60 vandella roses each, crystal votives and mint julep cups filled with garden roses and more vandellas!

Outside the room was the extra long guest table that had room for two different arrangements as well as their pretty guest book and presentation box.

A Purple Peony wedding wouldn't be complete without pretty bathroom flowers!

We have to thank Sterling Images (who captured the day for MJ and Bobby), The Raddison, Pam from Cake-ology and Sandy from Chair-ish your moments for all their help and hard work to make MJ's wedding so amazing for her!

For our second wedding we provided only the personal flowers for the wedding party and family of the couple. 

They wanted a "New Year's Eve explosion of sparkles" so we incorporated a ton of blue and gold accents that the Mother of the bride brought us.  I only have pictures of the brides bouquet (her 5 maids carried a smaller version) so I hope that they send us a few snaps once they get them back!!!

~K

Reaching out

Hello Readers,

In an effort to reach as many potential brides as possible we've created a listing on our local wedding magazines site, Weddings In Winnipeg.  If your planning a wedding or have just tied the knot here in Winnipeg you're probably already a member!

To share some love all you need to do is follow this link to our listing and then click the grey heart under Purple Peony.  The more likes we have the higher on the list of floral vendors we appear.

If you are a past client of Purple Peony you can give us even more love by writing a review of your experience with us.

Thank so much everyone!

We wouldn't be able to do what we do without you!

~K

Happy New Year

How is it possible that time moves so quickly?  It seems like I just started Purple Peony out of my kitchen and now here we are, entering into our fourth year of operations. 

We have come a long way since our very first weddings and New Years is such an appropriate time to look back on where we've been and to focus our energy on where we are going.   A major part of that reflection is to offer thanks to everyone that works with us to make Purple Peony the success it's become.

Our brides are at the top of that list because without them there would be nothing for us to do!  Thank you to all our couples (and their moms in some cases!!) for relying on us and trusting us to fulfill your vision for flowers and decor on what is one of the biggest, most exciting and important days of your lives. We truly appreciate each one of you and thank you for all the accolades and referrals you pass along to us.

Other wedding professionals that we work with on a day to day basis also play a big part in our success.  We've worked with   photographers who are willing to share their stunning work, venue staff that is ultra helpful, who make our job so much easier and planners and decorators that help us showcase our talents.  We've started updating our link list (in the left hand menu) to include these vendors that really are at the top of their class.

And where would we be without the help and support of our families?  The men who support us and help us lug boxes of flowers, vases and tools from studio, to ceremony, to reception and then back again are integral to our operations.  Parents that provide babysitting and help with the grunt work are the behind the scenes help that is so appreciated.

So thank you all for believing in us and supporting us so that we can grow this passion that has become a viable business.   Purple Peony will continue to strive to become the best that it can, offering our clients the alternative to the impersonal, quantity focused experience that comes with retail florists. We will continue to focus on our individual clients ensuring that the designers they meet with during consultations are the ones who will build their floral elements the day of the wedding.  We will focus on our customers’ needs and limit the number of weddings we book in favor of offering the highest product quality to our very special brides.

We take our jobs as wedding designers very seriously and want to repay the trust that our brides have in us with the highest quality of work for very fair, competitive pricing.

We look forward to all the challenges that 2012 will bring and are excited at the prospects.  Many key dates are fully booked and we continue to see growth that surpasses our expectations, making us a pair of very happy florists ;)

All the best in 2012!

~K 

Purple Peony goes to Kleinfeld's!!!

Ya we did!!!

One of the things on our to do list was to check out the Kleinfeld Bridal Salon.  As die hard wedding lovers we can often be found watching re-runs of "Say yes to the Dress" so when we found out NYC was in our future we knew we had to hit it up.

Since Liz is getting married in 2012 we briefly toyed with the idea of trying on some dresses but the timeline was just too short so it didn't work out.  That didn't stop us from heading in to scope out their accessories, namely shoes and sashes.  Reception sent us down stairs since we didn't have an appointment to talk with the girl who runs the add on show.  She let us peak around the fitting area and try on some shoes before taking us up to the sales floor.

The crew was actually shooting that day so keep your eyes open for a bride looking for a second dress for her masquerade themed reception. She goes with a bright red number and is wearing a Harlequin mask so she shouldn't be hard to spot.  You might see us loitering in the background!

 

As we were watching her make her selection Randy himself came out of the sales office and walked right by us!  My mom and sister jumped on the chance to for a meet and greet and had their pic snapped with him.  I was over in the corner chatting up Sara (the consultant that recently selected her own dress as a bride)  who is currently around 6 months pregnant and Joan one of the sales managers show fans would be sure to recognize.

The staff was all extremely helpful and fun to meet so I can see why brides want to be Kleinfeld girls. Sadly we didn't find what Liz was looking for but all three of us walked out with shirts to mark the occasion.

It was a great experience that we are so glad we got that chance to take part in.  We would totally recommend visiting the salon if you are ever in Manhattan - especially if you are a big Randy Fan ;)

~K



Oops!

The world of technology is not being very good to is right now. Due to some admin problems and limited email access our website is currently offline. We are working hard to try and fix our issues so please bear with us until they are solved. Until then our facebook page will be the place to check out our past work and to see what Purple Peony is doing as Christmas rolls in.

~K