Bringing your floral visions to life:

Dennis Kelley brings a unique blend of business expertise and floral artistry to every consultation. After spending more than a decade in account and program management within healthcare marketing, he followed his passion for flowers and has dedicated the last five years to floral design. Throughout his career, Dennis has designed hundreds of weddings and events through his own business, freelance work with luxury floral studios, and collaborations on regional flower shows. Based in the Greater Philadelphia area, he is passionate about helping couples transform their vision into a beautiful, achievable floral reality while providing expert guidance every step of the way.

What you'll gain in a consultation:

• Professional guidance that blends design creativity with practical planning.
• Expert recommendations tailored to your venue, style, and floral priorities.
• Advice on flower varieties that offer the best beauty, performance, and value.
• Tips for processing, hydrating, transporting, and designing with flowers successfully.
• Creative solutions to help bring inspiration photos into realistic, achievable designs.
• Confidence and clarity throughout the DIY floral journey.

What is the best advice for floral success:

"However many buckets you think you need, get a couple more."

Dennis believes successful wedding flowers start with proper preparation. When certain flowers hydrate, they need some room to breathe. Try to let everything drink for a day to fully hydrate before designing (and for roses, keep the cardboard box on for at least 2 hours after processing, their necks may be weak from their journey). Keep as much greenery/leaves out of the bucket water as possible to avoid bacterial growth (adding some flower food will help with this too).

Most common DIY challenges and solutions:

Trying to recreate an inspiration photo exactly?

One of the biggest mistakes DIY couples make is attempting to replicate images found online. With heavily edited photography and AI-generated inspiration becoming increasingly common, not every design is realistic or achievable. Dennis helps couples understand what will work best within their space, flower availability, and overall vision while still creating a stunning result.

Having trouble timing peonies and lilies for your wedding day?

“Boy, are they beautiful”

Peonies and lilies are among Dennis's favorite flowers, but they do require a bit of extra planning. They are cut and shipped before they fully open. To get them to open he says it just takes an extra step of planning and care to ensure they are at their peak beauty for your event. He suggests that for lilies, you should remove the pollinators from any open flowers. This prevents them from staining anything they touch and addresses the fact that they are toxic to most pets.

Concerned about working with snapdragons?

Snapdragons are a wonderful way to add height and movement to floral designs, but they can be a bit temperamental after shipping. Dennis recommends processing them immediately to help them recover from their journey. While they often bounce back beautifully, they don't always regain their full structure. For couples looking for a similar look with more reliability, Dennis often recommends stock or delphinium, which provide the same vertical impact while being a bit more forgiving.

Are Bells of Ireland right for your design?

Though these flowers (and yes, they’re flowers even though they’re all green and leafy), are hardier than snapdragons, Dennis says they can be pretty unpredictable when it comes to design. They are highly geotropic, meaning they will always be fighting gravity. What you design one day could look completely different the next day. Sometimes, that may be the style you’re going for. but if you want picture perfect predictability, best go with something less chaotic.

Favorite themes, blooms, and tips:

Favorite wedding theme

Bohemian and Garden Party weddings are Dennis's favorites. Their whimsical, natural style allows flowers to shine while blending effortlessly into both casual and formal settings. When designed thoughtfully, these themes feel organic, elegant, and timeless.

Favorite flower combo

Roses, stock, Italian ruscus, and tulips create one of his favorite bouquet combinations. This blend offers beautiful texture, movement, and versatility while working across a variety of wedding styles.

Favorite tip or trick

“Spinning a rose upside down (as if you were using a stick to start a fire) can help blow them open to give a more voluminous appearance”

Fun Fact:

My exploration into flowers started when I was selling my house. I loved putting flowers out for the open house which I bought from the local market. And when I moved into my new space, I wanted to bring that energy, but the designs…needed some work, to say the least. I began taking classes through a local program and after some confidence building in that space, left my career in account/client services and haven’t looked back!

Most unique wedding experience:

As a freelancer, I was part of a team that got to work on the wedding sets for Netflix’s “Love is Blind”. This required intense setup for a ceremony and reception with a very tight timeline, all to be flipped and turned over for the next weddings set-up occurring later that day

Why Dennis loves helping DIY brides:

"I could go on and on about flowers, and I love sharing all the knowledge I've learned through my varied experiences with others."

Everything from the initial vision planning stage (aligning what his clients love most about flowers with their venue) to the design aspects and transport/set-up. There are so many aspects to consider in the world of flowers and Dennis loves being that guide, opening the door for curious newcomers.