American Grown Picnic Elopement Photoshoot at Dulany's Overlook

American Grown Picnic Elopement Photoshoot at Dulany’s Overlook | Frederick, MD

August 13, 2018

Wanna know a secret? This American Grown Picnic Elopement was supposed to be based around the Lily of the Valley that grow at my home studio in Frederick, MD. These flowers are usually cost prohibitive to use, unless you can get them locally, which happens for about 1 week in May. My planner, Brielle, and I worked so hard to plan this shoot around these sweet little flowers and guess what? They didn’t bloom in time!! Plans were totally foiled….. BUT I had so much beautiful, Maryland grown product that we did not hesitate to move forward without them!

While showing off the Lily of the Valley would’ve been wonderful, Brielle and I really wanted to showcase the beautiful flowers that we can get from local flower farms right here in Maryland. As anyone who has been following me for the last few years knows, buying local and American grown flowers has been a huge priority for me. Not only does it ensure that the product is super fresh, but you are helping to support local small businesses and families, which in turn supports local infrastructure and economy. Buying locally or regionally also helps reduce the carbon footprint of your designs by using less energy and resources to get the flowers to you! Every single stem used in this photoshoot was purchased from a flower farm within 25 miles of my studio.

This bouquet has tulips, ranunculus, lilac, viburnum, dogwood cuttings, narcissus, allium, euonymous, and deutzia. You’ll notice a wide range of colors here. Several of the flowers are bi-colored, and we have every color in here from peach/salmon bordering on orange, to buttery yellow, to lilac, to several shades of pink, plus green and white–not a common list of colors to put together.and I bet you didn’t even recognize the names of the greenery (that was the two at the end of the list whose names you aren’t sure how to say!) I’m not saying these things to tease or make fun. I’m saying this to illustrate an important point.

Sometimes a client can be really stuck on a specific set of colors, or flowers that they’ve read about online. This can sometimes be quite limiting, and can lead to a lot of beautiful flowers/vines/branches being left out of a design. When you are picking your florist, you should be picking someone whose work you LOVE! Someone whose style you find perfect…. someone who always picks out the right complimentary ribbons, or always has great vases….it can be anything, but you should pick a florist who you TRUST. Give them room to design, and branch out, and to make suggestions about what would be perfect for your designs. Giving your florist a bit of artistic license can be what makes your decor SPECTACULAR and UNIQUE instead of just fine and nice.

**SIGH** Just look at that gorgeous orange and yellow tulip in the middle of that bowl…..heavenly…. I’m also particularly proud of this arrangement because there is no floral foam in the bowl (if you’re not following the #nofloralfoam movement online, you should! The green foam used in the floral industry is not very environmentally friendly-it doesn’t biodegrade well, is made of microplastics and formaldehyde, and not much is known about the effects of handling it on the human body). Enough about the bad stuff…. This beauty was created with a flower frog (Thank you Floral Genius) and a clear tape grid across the top of the vessel.

Three major Maryland flower farms helped make these designs possible. Plant Masters provided all the greenery, lilac, muscari and dogwood branches. Petal Patch Flower Farm provided muscari, narcissus, and allium. Tierra Blooms provided all the ranunculus and tulips. I am so lucky to have these and other flower farms in such close proximity to me. I am often able to source product for my entire weddings just from Maryland flower farms!

One of my favorite elements of this shoot was the flower crown! I used dogwood blooms, tulips, ranunculus, muscari and narcissus to create this lush collection of blooms! One of the benefits of using fresh-from-the-farm blooms is that they last longer out of water, which is exactly what we need for crowns!

What does a couple need besides a stunning bouquet? A stylish boutonniere, of course! These manflowers include muscari and ranunculus.

These adorable cupcakes with lace detail were created by Voula, at Blue Lace Cakes. This was not my first time working with her, so I knew I was getting perfection when we contacted her for this little project. Everything she does is creative and visually stunning!

The gown was generously provided by Posh Bridal (designer Lillian West). This dress had such a pretty long train with lace detailing.

This shoot couldn’t have happened without Kirsten Smith who was the perfect person to capture all this love and goodness! Are you asking yourself how two models could look so happy and in love? Sydney and Cy are a couple in real life who agreed to come pose for pictures! Their love shines through in all of the images, making the pictures even more amazing!

I was thrilled with the way this shoot turned out and I hope that you’ve been inspired too. Here are some more of my favorite images. Scroll to the bottom for a complete list of vendors.