Helpful Floral Tip

I did the absolute perfect wedding two weeks ago. Not because it was the MOST beautiful, or the MOST expensive (or for that matter, it wasnt the cheapest either) or the MOST anything really. But what it taught me was to educate my brides about seasonality, color, and stability, efficiency, and weather resistance better. These arent always things you think about as a florist. You mostly want to make as much money as possible, while making your bride as happy as she can be and hope to get to be a bit creative in the process. But lots of suprises happen, and because flowers usually arrive in our state only a day or two ahead of the wedding, once these problems are identified, often there is no time to fix them. A wedding like this offers NO surprises.

This wedding was the BEST wedding because it was so appropriate for absolutely ANY bride, ANY time of year, ANY budget, at ANY venue, during ANY weather conditions, with ANY delivery method. So here is why you should think of these things as a soon to be bride.

*Green and White hydrangea with green cymbidium orchids was the entire wedding.
*Neutral decor, season-free color pallete, works with ANY colors for dresses and accents
*Durable, available all year long, weather resistant to rain, snow and heat and lack of water
*Because you only order 3 flowers, great price breaks happen when you order in bulk. Can be tailored to ANY budget.
*Can increase or decrease the use of the cymbidiums to make a more modern, contemporary, upscale wedding, look beautiful. You can downplay the use and use garden containers, urns or family heirlooms to make an event seem more simple, fun, and family oriented.

*Centerpieces were lush candle rings with tall glass cylinders in the middle with candles.
*These take very little time to make, reducing your costs, but give HUGE impact, increasing WOW factor.
*Candles can be done formally as tall pillars, more romantically as floating candles in water with uplighting, or more whimsically with colored water, colored sand or jewels and floating flower shaped candles.
*The rings can double as pew/chair decor before reception and them be moved over to tables after wedding to double their use.
*They are easy to transport reducing and damage in transit.
* The design of these gives you the impact of having tall showy centerpieces without having the visual blocking effects of tall centerpieces.

*All bouquet work was done as handhelds. Hydrangea are large, occupying most of the space of a bouquet requiring very few flowers to make a bridal bouquet look stunning while being super affordable. They hold up well out of water and are very durable, never bruise when touched or laid down, and make a good base for almost ANY flower. The green cymbidium orchids are easily wired and taped and run through the middle of these making a stunning show. Fun ribbon wraps can be totally bedazzled, bejeweled, done all out, without it looking over the top, because of the neutrality of the flowers.


Truly the perfect wedding. Whatever your budget, whatever time of year, wherever your venue, think of hydrangeas to avoid any potential floral shortcomings :)

Don't DIY

I recently came across this interesting article on MSN from The Knot. It was titled, "Biggest Wedding Regrets," and listed several 'lessons learned' by those recently married. The whole article was great - a good, quick read for any bride-to-be. My favorite section, however, was the last: "About the Planning." Here's the excerpt:

About the Planning
"We wouldn't have done DIY invitations. The amount of money we saved just wasn't worth the time it took us to make them."
Tip: It's important to understand the nature of the projects that you're taking on before you or your loved ones commit to something you ultimately just won't want to finish.

"I would have hired a day-of coordinator. It got irritating when people would ask questions like, 'Where should I put the extra programs?' after the ceremony."
Tip: The one thing most brides don't get on their wedding day is a break. If you want to enjoy individual moments more and deal with questions and disasters less, hiring day-of help should be a high priority on your to-do list. The quality time you'll gain is well worth the fee.

This made me realize how often we all can get caught up in the do-it-yourself mentality. The proliferation of home improvement shows today demonstrates this, and our DIY attitude spills into many other areas. I recall one time, years ago, commenting to my mother that I would never buy anything I could make myself. I was looking at some baskets, and having just learned to weave in art class, decided I wouldn't buy one, because I had the skills to make it. While this is sometimes a good thing - enjoying a hobby is important - we no longer live in a time when it is necessary or cost-effective to do everything ourselves. More often than not, time, frustration, and money are saved when we choose to have a professional take care of something rather than doing it ourselves, even if we are capable.

At circle•the•date, we're here to help. We can provide ideas, creativity, and services for your wedding day that will allow you to truly enjoy it - not only the event, but the time leading up to it as well. You are a brilliant, highly-capable individual. Don't get caught-up in the DIY trap.

A-List Winners!

Hooray! We had great success here at circle•the•date on The Indy Channel's A-List this year, and just had to share the good news! Two of us won our category, and one finished second... not too bad! So, now you have confirmation that some of Indiana's best wedding professionals are working together, under one roof. One-stop-shopping with the best. :-) Here's the rundown:

Eventful Florals won "Best Flowers in Indianapolis" (She was first as 'florist' last year, too!)
Concept Design Studio won "Best Invitations in Indianapolis"
Morgan Matters Photography won "Top 5 - Best Photography in Indianapolis" with a 2nd place finish

Thank you to everyone who voted - we all truly appreciate your support!

WHY NOT TO BE A "BINDER BRIDE"

You’ve dreamt of your wedding day since you were six years old. Your mother has cut out pictures of wedding dresses and engagement rings since you were in college. You’ve analyzed every shade of pink you can find, and have a swatch board trying to decide whether your colors are “Blush” or “Bashful”. Unless you are, in fact, Julia Roberts, and have an abundance of time and money, you should never be burdened as a bride-to-be with these decisions. The differences here for your guests are between “That’s pretty” and “Hey, that’s pretty”. We in the event business refer to those who have floor plans, and checklists, and swatches and pictures of every bridal bouquet they have ever seen in Martha Stewart Weddings, simply as BINDER BRIDES. And you know who you are ..... :)

We got in this business to HELP you with your weddings, not steal them from you. You have an idea, we make it a reality even better than you imagined. You keep control, and we just become robots that can’t use our skills and expertise. As a florist, I was born to be creative. I have a floral imagination that makes Martha Stewart look like she works at the gift shop in the hospital. The bride sees a picture in a magazine and brings it to our consultation. She says, “DO THIS”. “THIS I LOVE”. So now I get to be a monkey instead of a designer, and you don’t even know how AMAZING it could have been! Magazines show you perfect pictures of fresh and sometimes artificial flowers, under perfect lighting, that was made like 30 minutes before the shoot. It may contain flowers that are well out of season for your wedding, certainly things that may or may not be obtained by your local florists, and often, if silk is used, don’t come in the colors being shown to you. Not to mention that half the flowers used are likely well out of the average brides price range. These bulk magazines create trends that get repeated by every other bride in the area, and you think you are being unique. Ha! Martha got you, GOOD!


People in this industry are here to take your ideas, not decisions, and turn them into a vision that will take your breath away on your big day. How fun is it to know EXACTLY what to expect that day? How memorable are things that are PLANNED and STRATEGIZED? Hire an event planner. Let THEM be the planner and strategizer…then you get to relax, and OH MY GOODNESS! ENJOY YOUR DAY! Why? Because that is what they get paid to do, make YOUR day stress-free. Perfect! Spend the week before your wedding drinking margaritas and getting pedicures. Instead of creating an exhaustive list of every picture you’d like taken, “Mom and Susie and Uncle Ray with bride”, “all the bridesmaids with grandma’s dog”, hire a photographer you KNOW does a great job, because you have seen their work, and let them take candid shots all day…You will be SURPRISED when you get those photos back, and they will be better than the ones you had planned. Why? Because photographers know how to take pictures and you don’t, goofball. Here’s another tip, just because invitations are expensive does NOT mean you should go to Michael’s or Target or some other evil empire, and buy pre-made, pre-folded, crappy ass card stock to have your invites printed on. Call a professional; let them design it with YOU in mind. Get people excited about your big day the moment they open up that envelope. You’ll get better gifts.



Take an idea, or a few ideas, and let us roll with them…..when you do, three things will happen.
#1. You will get exactly what you hired us for. You don’t hire florists and photographers, event planners and graphic designers, because they follow lists well….You hire us because we are creative geniuses who KICK ASS.
#2. You will enjoy the ENTIRE planning process without stress, fear, guilt, or anxiety. If you feel these emotions, AND you have put down your binder, you have hired the wrong vendor.
#3. You will have memories you never knew you could have. You will feel like it was money well spent. Everyone at your wedding will know it was truly unique and very YOU and will spend their whole night saying just that. And even YOU will enjoy your wedding day.
Put down the binders, stay away from Martha Stewart Weddings, and the Knot.com…..be YOU.

Summer's Waning Means the Holidays are Near

Even though the cicadas are still in full-buzz right now, we all know the weather will soon turn cooler, and with it, thoughts of pumpkins, turkeys and gifts. Often times, our busy lives keep us from thinking much beyond the next week, let alone months ahead. However, for anyone considering a special gathering within the next few months, a little planning now can go a long way to preserving sanity down the road. With this in mind, here are a few "holiday party planning tips."

1. Think about the holiday(s) you'd like to celebrate with a group of family or friends. Once you've determined that, you can begin working backwards to set a time-line for keeping your plans on track.

2. Consider the formality you'd like: a cocktail evening or loose come-as-you-are? What will your guests enjoy? You may dream of champagne glasses and pearls, but if your friends are more of the beer and jeans set, that might be more fun for everyone in the end. Ultimately, it is up to you as the host to do your best to make sure everyone is comfortable and has a good time.

3. Think about the supplies you'll need: tableware, serviceware, beverages, food... depending on the formality and what you plan to offer, this can really add up. Start looking for the non-perishable supplies as soon as possible; this will give you time to determine what you really like and comparison shop for price, possibly finding some bargains in the process. Waiting until the last minute nearly ensures you'll end up with expensive paper plates that don't match your theme.

4. Give plenty of notice. People's calendars fill-up quickly, especially in the last two months of the year. If you want to avoid hosting a party for yourself alone, make sure you get those invitations out early, whether they be printed, handwritten, phoned, or emailed. And, if you need to have a count ahead, make sure you let folks know to reply, and give them a date to respond by!

5. Relax. Plan to enjoy your event, no matter what happens. Most of the time, people never notice all the things that go "wrong." Your guests will enjoy you and your company, regardless of how perfectly things go!

Now, go enjoy what remains of the summer!

Welcome!

We are very pleased to introduce you to our new joint endeavor: circle•the•date. Comprised of event planner Jennifer Farrell Wells, photographer Morgan Matters, floral designer Tiffany Mullen, and graphic designer Heather Lapham Kuhn, we are ready and able to help make your next event exactly what you imagined. circle•the•date was created as a partnership to allow us to better serve individuals and groups planning all types of events. By working together, we hope to create a single event planning source, making the entire process simpler, streamlined, and more enjoyable for everyone involved. We are located at 21 5th Street N.E., in the northeast quadrant of Carmel’s Arts & Design District, circle•the•date is easily reached from all areas of the Indianapolis Metro area. The district is conveniently situated in downtown Carmel, between Meridian St./U.S. 31 North and N Keystone Ave./431 North.

We look forward to meeting you and discussing your unique event plans!