Flower Factor: A Lifestyle Blog From Aboutflowers.com

April was all about WEDDINGS here at Flower Factor! In conjunction with our VaseOff! Challenge featuring Great Gatsby inspired wedding bouquets and our Twitter Party chatting about the latest wedding trends, we invited brides and wedding dreamers to share their Dream Wedding Pinterest boards. Thanks to all who participated!

We received nearly 50 entries and had such fun looking at the creative and interesting pins — it almost made us want to get married all over again. How lucky brides are these days to have a place to collect and share wedding inspiration.

Congratulations to Theresa Huse who wins a $100 American Express gift card for sharing her Wedding Inspiration Pinterest board. While there were lots of terrific boards, Theresa’s captures the creativity we were looking for with many different and interesting elements of a wedding – from the engagement announcement, the dress, the cake, invitations, and photography, to the guestbook, placeholders, favors, tasting forks, guest interaction ideas, and more fun ideas to give the wedding a unique personality. And then, of course, there are the flowers. As a bride to be, Theresa has been pinning for a while — finding inspiration from many different sources – and showcasing a variety of styles and colors of wedding bouquets (we especially loved the heart-shaped bouquet!), as well as uses of flowers throughout the day, from flowers in the hair, to the cake, to the tables and aisles, and in a birdcage for cards from guests. Read More

For the past two weeks, brides, consumers, bloggers, and florists alike have been casting their votes for their favorite 1920s inspired bridal bouquet. Thank you for voting!

Bridal Nouveau by Coby Neal

With the Artist winning the Oscar for Best Picture, and the new buzzed-about film adaptation of The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio, a 1920s cultural revival is well under way, and the Jazz Age is making its way into the wedding scene. So, the first VaseOff! Challenge was set forth to four extremely talented floral designers to bring back this “roaring” era and design a bridal bouquet worthy of Daisy Buchanan and inspired by the style and spirit of The Great Gatsby.

With many votes going to each of the four bouquets, the winning favorite was Bridal Nouveau by Coby Neal. Congratulations Coby! The Bridal Nouveau bouquet is described by Coby as “a juxtaposition of the opulence and influence of art nouveau along with the contemporary design elements seen today.”

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@mondayflowers: Have you seen this rose called Purple Haze? Perfect for weddings. http://tinyurl.com/cycfmq2 #cleverflowers

It’s time to toot our horn: Our Wedding Flowers Twitter Party, which used the #cleverflowers hashtag, was among the top four things being tweeted (aka “trending” in Twitter-speak) in the United States on April 10. More than 2,000 #cleverflowers tweets were made by about 250 participants. Thank you to those who joined in the party.

While the numbers are impressive, we are most excited the party inspired brides. One partygoer, @redinthecity, tweeted: “AHHHHHH!!!! I’m so excited! This will help with wedding planning! Thank you @FlowerFactor #cleverflowers.”

You’re welcome.

For those of you who missed it, or whose heads are still spinning from trying to keep up with the tweets yesterday, here are some of the floral trends florists mentioned during the party. They even shared links to amazing floral designs.

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Join our Wedding Flowers Twitter Party on Tuesday, April 10, at 3 p.m. ET (Noon PT). Simply log into Twitter and follow the hashtag #cleverflowers or use the TweetGrid at http://clvr.li/HRxeFl to get the inside scoop on the latest wedding floral trends.

As you know, our first VaseOff! Challenge is underway, and our expert florists are hard at work creating stunning bouquets for a Great Gatsby-themed wedding. In the meantime, spring is here, and wedding season is just getting started. Whether you’re getting hitched, celebrating friends, or simply a fan of weddings and floral design, you won’t want to miss casting your vote in the VaseOff! Challenge or joining us in our Wedding Flowers Twitter Party.

On Tuesday, April 10, at 3 p.m. ET (Noon PT), simply log into Twitter and follow the hashtag #cleverflowers or use the TweetGrid to join in the conversation and get the inside scoop on the latest wedding floral trends.

You’ll also have the chance to win 1 of 5 AmEx gift cards we’ll be giving away throughout the party, including one for the best “Dream Wedding” Pinterest board, so get your boards ready. If you’re looking for some floral images to add to your board, check out our newly launched Aboutflowers on Pinterest for some ideas. We can’t wait to see what inspires you.

Join the #cleverflowers conversation:

Who: You (and your friends, family, and colleagues)!

What: “Wedding Flowers” Twitter Party

When: Tuesday April 10, 3-4 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. PT)

Where: On Twitter! Follow #cleverflowers and @FlowerFactor or use the TweetGrid.

You can learn more about the party and RSVP at our Twitter party partner, Clever Girl Collective’s website.

The Bride’s Café inspired us to choose ‘Great Gatsby’ glamour as the theme for the first VaseOff! Challenge.

To help us create the first-ever VaseOff! Challenge, we asked our favorite wedding bloggers to join in on the fun. We’d like to extend a special thanks to The Bride’s Café founder Janie and her fabulous readers, who inspired us to choose ‘Great Gatsby’ glamour as the theme for the first competition. Our four award-winning floral designers are hard at work, creating stunning bridal bouquets that capture the elegance of the roaring ’20s. You’ll get to see and vote on their gorgeous bridal bouquets this Monday, right here on our blog.

Blogs like The Bride’s Café and ours are wonderful places to turn to for wedding ideas and inspiration. From photos of real weddings to floral designs, you’ll quickly learn what you like, what you love, and what you absolutely can’t live without on your big day. Print out your favorite blog posts and photos and bring them to your appointments with your wedding florist.  This will help them see your vision and bring it to life.

Thanks again to all who participated in sharing ideas for our first VaseOff! Challenge. Be sure to come back and vote for your favorite Great Gatsby bouquet on Monday, April 9, and join us on Tuesday, April 10 for our Wedding Flowers Twitter Party.