Flower Girl Wagon

 Do you have a flower girl that is very young?  Maybe not yet walking or little enough to be very unpredictable?  A wagon is a great way to get that little girl down the aisle.
Here is a flower girl wagon we decorated not to long ago.

Photo by Xsight

Fabulous Bouquet Blog

Hi brides, do you need a little help finding the bridal bouquet of your dreams? There is a new blog, the brain child of a couple that couldn't find a great site to browse bridal bouquets. They are gathering bouquets from florists across the nation and blogging them making it easy for you to browse.
Check it out. bouquet-bouquet.com

The wedding planner.... me!

Jennifer Lopez made a gorgeous wedding planner along with her fabulous eye candy love intrest Matthew Mcconaughey, now I'm not saying I look anything like Jlo, besides the booty, but as I am going to be a wedding planner this weekend I couln't help comparing myself with Jlo, dark hair brown eyes in love with a blondie

I have been a bad blogger, but wow, it's gets tough to keep up during wedding season, with ordering flowers, designing flowers, delivering flowers, setting up the wedding design, whew!

This weekend, instead of floral designer I get to put on the wedding planner hat. A dear friend of mine owns a lovey estate, her friends daughter wanted to get married there, our other friend, my best friend, is a fabulous cook, so of course she offered to do all the food, can you see where this is going? They get knee deep in it and call me....HELP! So This week I have been knee deep in timelines and emails rather than flowers....

So next week, I hope to have some disks of recent weddings to share with you.
xoxoxo Martha

Great wedding planning advice from the Knot

I just had to copy this artical, some great words of wisdom to anyone planning a wedding.

10 Wedding Blunders to Avoid
From blowing your budget on your dress to hiring friends instead of pros, here's a heads up on 10 wedding headaches you can definitely do without.

By Meredith Bodgas

1. Try not to get attached to your flower choices.
When you book your florist a year before your wedding day, he can only guess which blooms will be available for your wedding. If you have to have, say, asters, you could be disappointed. Instead, choose backups to your main blooms and add them to your contract. Think in terms of colors and shapes instead of specific flowers.

2. Think twice before you send save-the-dates to everyone.
Until you mail out invitations, your guest list isn't final. And it shouldn't be: Friends you're close with when you get engaged may be mere acquaintances by the time you get hitched. Reserve save-the-dates only for those guests you know will be invited, like your families.

3. You will regret it if you skip videography.
Photos only take you so far: Videos let you hear your voice tremble as you say your vows and watch your friends tear up the dance floor. With more people documenting your wedding, you'll see things you may have missed on the day.

4. Be careful not to blow your fashion budget on your dress.
Maybe you have $1,500 set aside for your look. That doesn't mean you can buy a $1,500 gown! Tack on tax, and if you're not buying off the rack, you could get charged for shipping. You might need alterations, too. Consider your undergarments, shoes, hair accessories and jewelry when budgeting as well.

5. Avoid micromanaging your vendors.
You're choosing talented pros who understand your vision, so let them do their jobs! We know it's tempting to control every detail so you're guaranteed to love the results, but you won't have the time, and you certainly don't have the experience your vendors do. After your initial meetings, trust the pros to get it right. And, you know what? They almost always will.

6. Think hard before you pick your attendants.
Your bridesmaids should be your closest friends. Period. They can also be your sisters, cousins, aunts and even your mom, but they have to be people you'd trust to be there when you most need them. You don't know new friends well enough yet to be sure they'll support you in tough situations (every bride encounters one at some point), and picking people because a family member demands it or so you and your man will have an even number of attendants are also decisions you'll likely regret.

7. Please restrain yourself from telling everyone your plans.
It's so hard not to talk about your wedding. Try. The more you share, the more opinions you're going to get about your choices, whether or not you ask for them. Plus, part of wowing your guests is surprising them. If they already know that you're changing into a different dress for dancing or sending guests home with a batch of your grandma's cookies, they won't be quite as impressed on your wedding day. If that's not enough to deter you, talking about your plans means opening yourself up to copycats, who may actually be marrying before you do. The last thing you want is your friend stealing your idea for your surprise grand finale.

8. Seriously, stop booking your salon appointments last.
We get it: You want as much beauty sleep as possible, and you don't want your 'do to fall out or your makeup to fade before you walk down the aisle. But guess what: Busy stylists will likely get to you late if you're last in the chair. Schedule your appointments in the middle of your attendants'. It's not a big deal for a bridesmaid to switch to a less complicated (read: quick) hairstyle if she's pressed for time. That's not an option for you.

9. Don't even think about speeding through photos.
Speaking of not having enough time, any less than an hour isn't enough for a portrait session; an hour-and-a-half is closer to ideal because you'll look more relaxed in your pictures (and those first few never come out as well as you hope). Squeezing photos into the first half-hour of your cocktail hour will make you anything but at ease. If you refuse to see your groom before the ceremony, take pictures separately beforehand so the only shots left to take after the ceremony include both of you.

10. Avoid "hiring" a friend instead of a pro.
Sure, your pal was the king of the mix CD back in the day, but that doesn't mean he'll make a great wedding DJ. Same goes for your friend who won't leave home without her Flip — this doesn't make her a videographer! Even on a tight budget, you're much better off paying a vendor with experience to take care of the biggies, like the music and the food. Don't you want your friends to enjoy your wedding instead of having to work through it, anyway?

Fancy Pants Blog!

Today I wanted to give you all the heads up check out my floral friend Shannon's new blog, www.fancypantsweddings.com. Shannon has 20 years in the wedding business behind her and a lot of good advice to give, so head over and explore her blog, she has advice and inspiration to help you plan a fabulous wedding, plus she is hilarious! Oh and she is featuring one of my weddings too!

Morning coffee or I love wedding blogs!

I really do love my computer, I totally don't know how to use it most of the time, but I love it anyway.
I have a little morning routine, I wake up send my husband off to work then I sit on the couch with the best cup of Joe you ever tasted. I cruise lots of wedding blogs, I love photography sites, planning sites, and now and then I hit the big cities and see what the citified floral designers are doing. It is my favorite time of day, all my children are safe and sleeping, (it's nice to know where they all are for these brief moments).
It's also been a privilege and lots of fun to have my work featured on so many different blogs! In fact in the last 3 months Blooms has been featured in Hong Kong, Ireland, London and as of yesterday, Paris!!!
While checking out a post Jamie of itsajaimething.com did of my work, I found I had a comment, (see how this works, your on one blog, then you HAVE to click to the other blog etc.... and so on and then oh no you better get the kids in the car to get them to school)
Anyhoo, I came across http://www.luxeproductionsnw.blogspot/ the owner, Misty had left a comment about my work so of course I knew she must be fabulous because she liked my stuff and she is! I browsed her blog and loved it, you should take a minute and browse it too!

I have heard of wedding planners, wedding consultants, event planners, etc.... but Misty is a, are you ready? She is a Celebration consultant! I just love that title, it sums up what this is all about, the celebrations of our lives, be it a wedding, birthday, anniversary, shower these occasions aren't just obligations or formalities, they are the chance to celebrate, to bring together people we love to share in our lives, and hey as far as I"m concerned that's what life is all about!

Thats me, celebrating that it's Friday!

Choosing your wedding colors

One of the first steps in planning your wedding theme is to choose your colors. I often ask my brides to think of the colors they have around them, the colors they have decorated their homes with, the colors of the clothes in their closets, or what color just makes you happy when you see it.
A fabulous site to help you with your color planning is Pantone www.dessy.com/my-lists

Here you can mix and match colors, order color swatches to take with you to your vendor appointments and even put together inspiration boards to see how it all comes together.

Bouquets by Blooms by Martha Andrews

Your engaged, now what?

Congratulations on your holiday engagment, 42% of couples get engaged during the holidays, if you are one of the lucky ones you are probably eager to start your wedding planning. It's never to early to book your vendors as the best ones usually fill their calenders quickly.
Planning your budget is the first place you should start, there are quite a few wedding budget planners online,
Martha Stewart budget breakdown., Brides.com budget planning.
These are great tools as you go into finding your venue and making appointments with vendors.
Once the "finance part" of your planning is done, the fun begins! I encourage my brides to start with an inspiration board, tear out pictures you love from magazines, soon a pattern will emerge, styles and colors that you are drawn to will become apparent. Once again, there are countless websites to help you a great starting place is Style me Pretty, they have put together inspiration boards to get your creative juices flowing.
Each bride will have different priorities, for one the cake will be the centerpiece of her wedding, another bride loves wine so perhaps a greater portion of her budget will go to special vintages and for some brides, those dear to my heart, bridal flowers will be a priority so perhaps more of their budget will go there. Once you are on this path I like to come up with a phrase to describe your wedding; Modern winter, vintage country, clsasic city etc... this will help your vendors get a feel for the direction you would like to go.
For a more detailed explination of where your flower money goes, you can go to my pricing link, Flower pricing
The bouquet above is Blooms signature bouquet