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.

Real Wedding - Stephanie & Jeff

Stephanie planned a beautiful purple wedding, a deep, rich purple. Purple bridesmaid bouquets, purple bridal bouquet, purple centerpieces - and all these gorgeous purple flowers looked stunning against the rich purple dresses and table linens.

When we arrived with the bouquets it was wonderful to see Stephanie's excitement - the bridesmaids loved them too and had a lot of fun with their bouquets.

Stephanie's purple bridal bouquet incorporated some ivory to create a unique bouquet for her without sacrificing her purple.


Gardeenia created this sweet little flower girl hairclip in plum orchids. Adorable!

Since this was a Morten Arboretum Wedding we kept the centerpieces low so that guests could enjoy the view of the beautiful property through the large window. A mix of flowers created a wonderful texture in this purple centerpiece and the different purples felt rich and vibrant.

This gift table bird cage we decorated to compliment the rest of the reception decor. a beautiful place for guests to place their gifts.

Real Wedding - Brinda & Mike

From the first time I sat down with Brinda and Mike I loved them. We had so much fun planning their two ceremonies and reception with lots of great ideas of how to use our designs to decorate everything.

First was a Hindu ceremony with flowers lining the aisle and arrangements on the stage in deep pink, ivory and green flowers, full and beautiful.

These arrangements placed on gold pedestals served as the ceremony aisle and then were moved to the top of these tall glass vases to become centerpieces at the reception.


Here is Brinda & Mike at the end of their Hindu ceremony, we then moved these arrangements, everyone changed and prepared for the Greek ceremony.

The men wore wine and green boutonniers to compliment the girls bouquets.


And here they are after their Greek ceremony. Brinda carried a beautiful cascading bouquet of roses and orchids.

I loved this cake topper, so cute. It was a long day for Gardeenia but so fun. We carefully transferred flowers from ceremony to ceremony to reception and the results were fantastic. Brinda & Mike were able to get the most out of their flowers and their budget which was wonderful.

Our 2011 Special is still going on - the first 20 brides to book 2011 receive 11% off and we're almost to 20 so give us a call today to set-up your complimentary consultation. 708-921-1463

Winter Brides - we have specials for you too. If you are planning a wedding Dec. - March receive special savings. Dates still available.

Real Wedding - Nicole & Mark

Nicole & Mark enjoyed a beautiful day for their downtown wedding this spring.

Nicole's bouquet was filled with rich flowers and colors including roses, dahlias, callas and orchids in plum, ivory and green.

Personal flowers included callas, orchids and roses as pin-on boutonniers and corsages and on pearl bracelets.A great day for some awesome outdoor pics.
Although Mark & Nicole included color in their personal flowers they chose all white arrangements which looked bright and sophisticated in the Empire Room at the Palmer House.

20 Weddings

Since May, Gardeenia has executed over 20 weddings - beautifully I might add.

"But, where are all the blog posts showing your excellent work, giving us ideas and inspiration?" you might ask.

Well, here's how it goes -
first of all, I'd like to hire a blogger to do this for me while I'm crazy busy doing weddings. (Anyone interested in the job?)

second, I need the wonderful, professional photos that simply take time to obtain from the equally busy photographers who photograph our weddings.

We're not holding out on you - really. (And you don't really want to see my own photos - I'm definitely not a photographer - thank God for the professionals.)

But we have done some wonderful weddings at places like:

The Patrick Haley Mansion
The Millenium Knickerbocker
Chicago Cultural Center
Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook
The Palmer House
Harry Carey's
DiNolfos
Ashton Place
Silver Lake Country Club
CD & ME
and more...

We've done small weddings of bouquets and boutonnieres as well as over the top lavish weddings and everything in between - modern and sleek, traditional, romantic - and lots of different color schemes.

So stay tuned - the posts are coming. Please be patient while I get the best pictures gathered to show you what we've been up to.

Here is something to hold you over - a great idea by one of our beautiful brides Kimberly.

Kimberly made little notes about love and we attached them to 12 roses.

Then I made an unsuspecting toss bouquet of these twelve roses with the notes.


Little did these girls know that when Kim would toss her toss bouquet there would actually be twelve roses flying in different directions through the air with sweet messages about love for each girl who caught one.
A great surprise!

Real Wedding - Allie & Tommy

I know that we are just stepping into summertime fun and beautiful summer weddings but I had to take a minute and show you Allie & Tommie's beautiful winter wedding.

It was a cold, blustery day but it was warm and cozy in Koten Chapel, Naperville. Silvery blue & white flowers and lots of candlelight invited guests to join the celebration.

Allie's full bouquet of blue hydrangea, white calla, white anemone, dusty miller and blue thistle was a beautiful, wintery mix.

Allie & Tommy took advantage of Naperville's lights to capture some very romantic shots.

Maggiano's Naperville glowed with these wintery white trees with hanging candles. A warm & cozy romantic evening and a very memorable wedding.