Bridal Bouquet - White or Color

A question commonly asked during a floral consultation is, "Should my bridal bouquet be white or have color?"

The wonderful answer to this question is
"Whatever you love!"
There is no wrong answer here.

Below are some bouquets where the bride loved color:

Either a mix of colors or a monochromatic bouquet can be striking against your gown...

...and tie together the whole bridal party.

Some brides want their bouquet to be a little different than their bridesmaids and still have color so we add some white or ivory to their colors.

And of course there is the white or ivory bouquet which is never goes out of style.

It's wonderful to have so many choices and your floral design is one of the many places in your wedding to express yourself and your style.

Gardeenia Floral Design Studio with Deonna Caruso Photography

A great opportunity to partner with Deonna Caruso Photography on her beautiful photo shoot at the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills.

We created a beautiful fall bouquet in a soft autumn palate with matching boutonniere.

Thanks, Deonna, for letting Gardeenia be a part of this fabulous shoot.
Check out Deonna's work at
http://www.deonnacarusophotography.com

Summer Wedding at The Westin, Lombard :: Gardeenia Floral Design Studio

In our next blog posts we seek to highlight some of our beautiful summer and fall weddings from this past wedding season for all of you who are planning your summer or fall wedding now.

On a beautiful June day Eric & Jennifer had, what many would call, a perfect wedding.
Traditional and romantic in style with a hint of 'fairytale' made this beautiful bride's dreams come true.

We created Jennifer's hand-tied bridal bouquet with lush peonies, orchids, nerine lilies and roses with a beautiful rhinestone brooch highlighting the handle.

Her bridesmaids wore a soft blush pink and carried a mix of artistically crafted ivory and pink blooms including callas, roses, peony, orchids and nerine lilies.

The groom wore a sweet single white rose.

The ceremony was decorated in all white flowers including altar arrangements and unity candle.

Then on to the fabulous Westin in Lombard where guests enjoyed cocktails on the patio.
Small arrangements adorned the highboys giving a sampling of what was to come in the ballroom.

Some highlights of the decor were the mixture of high and low centerpieces in all white including hydrangea, lilies and roses.

Place card table included tall cylinders of sunken orchids with lighting underneath for a dramatic focal point.

Thick petals offered a the perfect stage for Jennifer & Eric's gorgeous wedding cake.

Looking to 2011 : Gardeenia Floral Design Studio: Chicago Floral Design Company

As the weddings wind down Gardeenia is gearing up - meeting with brides and grooms, creating new designs and planning 2011 weddings.

Here is some of our awesome staff, Nancy, Heidi, Laura(owner) and Mark at Bridal Expo Chicago at the Chicago Sheraton Towers. What a great show filled with luxury vendors offering top of the line wedding services. Our designs shined as we exhibited different color schemes in fresh designs and styles - something for every bride.

Purple and green promise to be hot colors this season. There are so many interesting flowers to choose from to create rich contrasts including berries, greens, ornamental kale and artichoke.

If you would like using some 'peacock' colors try adding blue to your purple and green combination. The bouquet above has a great earthy feel as highly textured eryngium, eucalyptus pods, berries and grasses are mixed with soft blue hydrangea.


Maybe tropical colors are for you, a splash of bright colors. Peonies, garden roses, pin-cushion protea, cattleya orchids in sherberty tones (is sherberty a word?) and how about this fun feather collar for a bit of glam.

For a more traditional look with a modern touch the beautiful rich reds of peonies and roses mixed with antique hydrangea look elegant and inviting including touches of brown fern curls, hanging amaranthus and burgundy ti leaves. This tall centerpiece has a little accent at the bottom for a finishing touch.

And for the bridal wanting to carry an all white bridal bouquet it certainly doesn't have to be boring. Mixing lilies, peonies, hydrangea, tulips and orchids - WOW! Nothing boring here only rich luxury.

Something fun and unexpected this little sparkly bouquet sure says a lot - beautiful gold tones, pops of white tulips and a fun beaded handle. Sassy.

Thanks to Angela Swan of Jumpshots for these gorgeous detail shots.

If you are interested in any of these designs or you would like Gardeenia to create equally beautiful bouquets for your wedding give us a call or e-mail today - we would love to meet with you at our Frankfort or Lombard locations.
708-921-1463
laura@gardeenia.com

Real Wedding - Brad & Laura

Laura is a young woman of style and her notebook stuffed with design ideas for her wedding showed me what a great sense of style and taste she has.
I met with Laura several times before Brad came in with her for a view of a sample centerpiece - when I saw them together it was easy to see they just belong together.

Their Downtown Chicago Wedding allowed them many beautiful photo opportunities as a trolley took them around downtown, to Holy Name Cathedral to take their vows and then on to The Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel for a lavish reception.

We had fun with Laura's bridal bouquet and her bridesmaids bouquets. Laura's was a beautiful mix all in white including peony, ranunculus, freesia, calla and phalaenopsis orchids. Each of her bridesmaids carried a bouquet of one of the flowers. It was beautifully symbolic of each of the girls playing an important and unique part in Laura's life.


The Millennium Knickerbocker looked stunning that evening. We filled the cocktail rooms, restrooms and balconies with flowers, transitioning from all white to the striking yellow ballroom. Laura loves a monochromatic style (which I love too). We designed all yellow luxurious arrangements on tall square vases with hanging candles on delicate gold wire.

We chose black satin linens which created a rich backdrop for all the beauty and detail at the Knickerbocker. With pin-spot lighting and the dramatic lighted danced floor a wonderful romantic atmosphere welcomed the bride and groom to their celebration.

Laura called me, much to my surprise, the morning after her wedding to thank me for everything, she had the most wonderful wedding and I love that Gardeenia was a big part in making that happen. Laura recently wrote this wonderful review on The Knot:

"I had an upscale wedding downtown Chicago and used Gardeenia Floral Designs. Laura and the rest of her team from Gardeenia did a fantastic job. I looked into Kehoe Designs and Heffernan Morgan, but chose Gardeenia because of their hands on approach and unique designs. Laura took the time to understand the look I was going for and came up with a lot of phenominal ideas that were completely my style. I would recommend Gardeenia to anyone. They are wonderful to work with!"

BIG NEWS!
Gardeenia Floral Design Studio has opened a second location!

We are now meeting clients in our new Lombard office conveniently located just off of 355 and 88. I'm so excited to be more accessible to our downtown and west and north suburban brides and grooms.

Real Wedding - Sara & Ramon

I had so much fun planning Sara & Ramon's wedding.

After an initial meeting at the studio I met with Sara and her parents at the church and venue to go over ideas and the best way to make both spaces look fabulous.

Sara's bridesmaids were wearing beautiful blue taffeta dresses so we chose greens & ivory for an elegant contrast. Sara was very open to textures and creativity in her bouquets and centerpieces (which is one reason it was so much fun.) In her bouquet below you'll see peony, calla, lisianthus, tulip and hanging amaranthus. The shape of her bouquet was a beautiful compliment to her mermaid shaped gown. A modified cascade or teardrop flowed beautifully and looked modern and sophisticated at the same time.

Sara wanted flowers everywhere so to make the most of the flowers we designed church arrangements that would become centerpieces with a few additional touches.

Above they were placed on pillars in the church, below they are placed on tall curved vases - we added a couple of extra flowers to fill out the bottom and it worked beautifully.

At this Chicago Cultural Center wedding we wanted to keep an elegant and luxurious feel making sure to compliment the room and also realize Sara's vision for her wedding.

Place Card table arrangement in ivory & green hydrangea, lilies, stock and hanging amaranthus.

This little arrangement was the perfect touch on the highboys during cocktail hour.

Low centerpieces complimented the tall centerpieces and we added elegant, curved candles.