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4-25-09 Kara's Wedding in West Virginia! 2 Years, 7 Months ago
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Karma: 0
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Kara’s Story:
One day I got an e-mail from a bride, asking me if I would travel to West Virginia for a wedding. Sure I said....Why not, it sounds like an adventure! Kara had been to a wedding here in Pittsburgh and saw these amazing flowers that I had done for a special bride in 2008, and nearly hired me on the spot!
I met with Kara and her parents and she told me of her love of roses and hydrangea and all of her visions. She expressed her hydrangea concerns that they are a fragile flower, they love lots of water, they hate the heat and she wanted lots of them. I have always had very good luck with them, I know how to take the best care of them to keep them happy and my wholesaler always gives me the very best quality, so I assured her that there wouldn’t be any problems.
After doing my planning, organizing and ordering, I realized we would need over 300 hydrangea and over 2000 roses! What a task in design work! If you haven’t seen that amount of flowers in one place before, it’s hard to imagine, it was quite a sight! It took an entire day and almost every bucket I own just to process them and get them all in water! On a given week here at Dee’s Florals, I do most of the design work myself, but I do have 2 design assistants who help with busy weeks. Most weekends there are 2 events, with extra delivery drivers. On the weekend of Kara’s wedding, we ended up with 3 total events! (Which I never told Kara or her family!)
We had Kara’s huge ‘Platinum wedding’, a charity luncheon event which I like to help with here in Shaler and a small wedding of a special customer whose daughters wedding I also designed flowers for in 2008. I just couldn’t say no to former customers.
So... every one I knew was working here to help! We started the Sunday before, some days I worked 20 hours a day to stay on schedule! It was unbelievable. One of biggest challenges, surely my biggest accomplishments and the most fun I’ve ever had ‘working’.
I have to thank all of my awesome, wonderful, helpful, creative employees! I thank God for giving us wonderful weather that week and keeping it cool for the ‘hydrangeas trip to W.V’ -I was a ‘basket case’ looking over all of the hydrangea and we only had to replace about 8 casualties! Which is great statistics!!
We had 3 vans packed full to the ceilings heading for Weirton and 5 people to set it all up. And let me say, there were so many details and set up. Flowers were everywhere! The hanging crystals and candlelight was just so breathtaking. Everyone who walked into that room kept saying they had never seen anything like it. It really was a very fun adventure and I enjoyed working with Kara and her family so much. They are the sweetest, most sincere people, and after many planning phone calls and e-mails, we had become friends and they made me feel more than ‘just their florist’ and I was tearing up all day! Giggle! My eyes got all watery when I first saw her in her most beautiful dress and I was crying when she walked down the isle (as I always do with all of my brides!) and I was crying when I saw her reaction when she saw her beautiful ballroom for the first time.
And I also have to say that Mr. & Mrs. Guida treated me and my crew to a wonderful relaxing dinner at the restaurant that they own ‘Dee Jay’s –a Rib-Roaring Restaurant on Three Springs Drive in Weirton. They make some really delicious ribs there! If you are ever in the neighborhood on your way to play poker at Mountaineer, stop there first and try them! It was so fun to get to relax and enjoy that meal with my friends after putting in such an intense week.
It was worth every minute! Kara wrote to me 3 times and thanked me! It was truly a pleasure and such an honor to be a part of her most special day!
Hi Dee!
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for EVERYTHING you did to make my wedding the day of my dreams! It was so gorgeous and exactly what I had in my mind and you were able to make it happen! The flowers were big, healthy, and gorgeous and I loved the crystals (it felt like a Platinum wedding!).
I know you, your mom, and all else involved in helping you put so much work into this wedding and I can never thank you enough or tell you how happy Jeremy, me, and my parents were with the results! We got SO many compliments about your work and seeing the pictures you sent made my day today! It was all such a blur, so it was nice to see the pictures you sent. Thanks again for everything and I'm sure you will not want to go near a flower for a least a few weeks (ha ha!), but you did the most amazing job I've ever seen and I mean that with all my heart! I hope to stay in touch because you are also such a wonderful person and so easy to work with. Thanks again for putting my vision to life and creating the wedding of my dreams!
Love,
Kara and Jeremy Knaebel (ha ha...almost wrote Kara Guida, so hard to get use to)
Hi Dee,
How are you? I hope you got plenty of rest after the wedding...ha ha! You must have been exhausted! You did so much to make my day a dream come true! I still can't believe how perfect the flowers were and how you had my vision down perfectly and made my wedding day exactly what I always imagined! I can't begin to tell you how many compliments I have received about the flowers! So many people have already asked for your information and want you to do their flowers! Everyone thought they were gorgeous and I just wanted you to know 
Thanks,
Kara Knaebel (aka Guida..ha ha!)
Hi Denise!
I was just thinking of you because we just got our wedding video and I still can't believe what an AMAZING job you did on the flowers! You completely brought my vision of my "dream wedding flowers" to life! Everyone said the flowers made the wedding look like a "platinum wedding" and I agree! Also, you saved my cake! We had told the baker to not put the doilies and large boards under the cake layers and they did not listen....if you didn't do such a beautiful job on the flowers in between, it would have been straight out of the 80's!
Lastly, I wanted to also thank you for fluffing my dress before I walked down the aisle I saw you on the video and it's so funny how many things I didn't know or forgot about until I saw it on the video! Thanks so much! I was so glad you did that and was so upset because I told my mom "Who is going to fluff my dress before I walk down the aisle???!!! Ha ha...
my mom loved working with you and LOVED your work (as well as Jeremy, me, and everyone else)! Anyway, I'm so glad you liked the photos! Thanks so much for all your kind words about them! (by the way, SOOOO happy you put your photos up on your website -that made my day when I saw that. It was also so wonderful to work with you! You and the photographers definitely were my favorites to work with out of everyone we dealt with throughout the wedding! You were so much fun, so talented, and you went out of your way to make my day special and I truly appreciate it! Take care and have a great week!
Kara Knaebel (aka Guida...ha ha)
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