Floral Expressions for your Wedding

Whether you choose to use trendy combinations of eye-popping, brightly colored flowers or opt for the natural look of grasses and wildflowers, your flowers communicate as much about your personality as your wedding dress will.  Consider these tips when hiring a floral designer. 

* Does the florist’s style fit with your own ideas?  If you view photgraphed samples, verify that they are of the florist’s actual work rather than just samples the florist says he or she can do.

* If you’re working with a smaller budget, ask how you can maximize your floral options.

*What flowers will be in season when your wedding takes place?

*Collect clippings of bouquets or arrangements from magazines that you find appealing.  This will help you and your floral designer determine your style.

* Has the florist done weddings at your ceremony and/or reception sites?  If so, he or she may have photographs of arrangements done at your site and will be knowledgeable about what sizes, shapes and colors work best in the space.

* What kind of time will the florist spend at your wedding site?  Will they simply deliver flowers for your wedding or will they spend time at the site setting up and making sure everything is in order?

* Are there other weddings the florist will be handling on the same day or weekend as yours?  Get definite answers on how much time will be spent on your wedding.

* Does the florist offer rental items such as vases, potted plants, arches, trellises, candelabras, or urns?

*Does the florist offer bouquet preservations?  If interested, make arrangements for your bouquet to be preserved after the wedding.

Article courtesy of Triad Weddings magazine – Spring/Summer 09

A Lakeside Summer Birthday Party

Summer is always a festive time to throw a party.  Add a beautiful lake in the mountains plus a treasured personality turning 70 it becomes impossible not to feel good already.  Enhancing this already special occasion becomes a matter of stepping back and pulling from what exists within the context of the summer lake resort of Roaring Gap.  Checkered table cloths, boats, swimming, docks, blues, greens all come to mind.  This is what inspired Randy McManus to create these simple, yet, elegant arrangements that both compliment and tell the story of this special place on this special occasion.  Randy uses a mixture of blue and green hydrangea, white roses and lisianthus and fiddle fern fronds.  

A Wedding – Maggie & Chris

December 31, Wintson-Salem

The first time Martha Anna (Maggie) went out with Chris was on a weekend visit to NC State while he was still in big Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.  Chris was “little brother” to Maggie’s (real) older brother.  That weekend, the two attended a college football game together, accompanied by her brother and her parents, and it was here that she developed a crush.  That crush turned into love as she arrived at the university for her freshman year, and it wasn’t long before Chris asked her to dinner at Southend Brewery–along this time!  After college, Maggie was preparing her classroom for her first year of teaching when she found Chris hiding behind a bookshelf.  ”He stood up and scared me so badly!: she remembers–but he also got down on one knee and proposed.

Event Ingredients: Photography by Missy McLamb.  Wedding at Centenary United  Methodist Church and Old Town Club.  Flowers by Randy McManus Designs.  Cake by Ketchie Creek Bakery in Mocksville. 

Blandwood Ball 2008

Natural Preservation

Biennial Blandwood Ball Goes Green at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro

The 2008  biennial Blandwood Ball adopted the green theme for its setting at the Proximity Hotel and for the Ball’s cause: preservation.  The fundraising gala benefits Preservation Greensboro, the non profit organization that has saved Blandwood Mansion.  

Nearly 300 guests dined on delicacies such as free-range brased breast of veal and glazed root vegetables, then danced to a swing band.  They partied against a backdrop of dazzling decor, which floral designer Randy McManus created with organic and reclaimed materials.

McManus decorated tables with orange and coral flowers, dried mushrooms, reclaimed chandelier crystals and even LED-illuminated water bottles.  

“We are preserving natural resources and historic resources,” said Mary Hagan, who was co-chairwoman of the ball with McManus.

Article by Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane of Greensboro News and Record

A Wedding – Adelaide & Mark

June 24th, 2007

Mary “Adelaide” ( a 25-year-old education teacher) and Mark (also 25 and a mortgage banker) met when Mark Introduced himself at a mutual friend’s party.  The couple hit it off immediately and danced and talked all night — and since it was Valentine’s Day the following Monday, the couple made that night their first date.  Mark cooked Adelaide dinner at his apartment.  ”It was obvious to us both within weeks of meeting that we were in love and would get married at some point,” Adelaide says.  Ten months later, Mark popped the question at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta.  After drinks and dinner at the hotel, Mark left and the hostess brought Adelaide a room key.  She opened the door to a room filled with roses and candles.  Adelaide says she doesn’t remember what Mark said, but either way she shouted “of course!” 

by Kate Wood for the 07 Fall Issue of The Knot Magazine

EVENT INGREDIENTS – Photography by Natalie Carter Hyde and Cyana Brilles/Aesthetic Images, Photography at the bride’s parents’ home; flowers by Randy McManus Designs, Inc.; cake by Julie Buchanan Wedding Cakes