Merry Christmas and a (Very) Overdue Update

Hello my friends! We wanted to drop back in and wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My sincere apologies that this is the first time we’ve posted anything since May of 2024. That was never our intention!

“Update Blog” has been on my To-Do list for many, many months. I have seen others say how hard it is to come back after a long absence—what can you even say at this point? And a sincere thank you to so many of you who reached out asking what happened to us. It matters to know we were missed!

Christy and I loved the time we had sharing on this platform. All the friends we made, the creative outlet of sharing our home projects and our lives, and the opportunities we had to work with brands (many wonderful home decor brands!) and collaborate with others in this space, it made the whole experience absolutely amazing. I promise that, when we last posted in May of 2024, we didn’t expect it would be the last time we’d show up for over a year. 

I always love to decorate for the holidays, so I snapped a few photos of our home this year to share today along with a life update. All I can tell is my side of the story, and what I have been up to but I can promise that Christy is doing well and working in hospice health. Her beautiful home is still very much my favorite place to visit, and I just returned from an amazing trip to see her family right before Thanksgiving. While I don’t want to speak for her, I can say we’re both feel as if different stages of life now than we were in the early days of “blogging” and we both have a desire to have more private, less online lives.

For several years, I had thought my calling was to be knee-deep in the health and wellness world, and so I started the 11MLWellness offshoot. It made sense…but actually, for many reasons it didn’t. I completed a year-long nutrition class, but once it was done I felt like I hadn’t learned enough. The course was full of politicized teaching that didn’t actually train me to coach in holistic health and if I was being honest, was a waste of my time and money. At the same time, so many of the flags I wanted to wave based on my personal experience with the health system have now gained major traction thanks to current, truth-tellers like Dr. Casey Means, RFK Jr. and Doctor Connelly, just to name a few. {My health story HERE, more HERE}.

I also found that I missed being creative! God designs each of us in certain ways, and it wasn’t until I got back to actually creating things that I can say I felt whole again. In Fall of 2019, I had come very close to opening a new business, one that integrated beautiful silk florals into event and home decor. I’d even researched opening a local storefront, and had hopes to wrap that location into the 11ML brand. For a number of reasons, including my health at that time, I didn’t move forward with it, and I now see God’s hand as Covid came and would have just ruined it all.  I guess I never fully gave up on the idea, and in the Spring of 2024, things just came together. Inspired, I launched a company called Bloom Couture Rentals, that provides extremely high-quality silk floral rentals in the wedding industry in Virginia, DC and Maryland. You can see my website here and my social media here if you are interested!

Starting a company is a wild ride but it has been an amazing 18+ months. So, my apologies for not sharing sooner—but honestly, I just haven’t had time. Initially I thought that this company would somehow be an off-shoot of 11ML, but Bloom Couture gained traction so fast and we’ve been doing so many weddings and events it quickly took over. I am so grateful for it, I have to say, I absolutely love it! What is funny is that 11ML started in some ways as a marketing site for the event work I was doing for my wedding invitation business back in 2011—and now I have gone full circle back into the wedding business all these years later!

photo credit: Susan Seidel Photography

Without getting too detailed, I source beautiful, ultra-realistic silk florals from around the world and create florals with them that are rented for events, such as you see above (those are all silk!). With fresh wedding floral prices being quite expensive, we offer a beautiful alternative, especially for large installations like arbors, arches and such in the DC area. My initial business plan was that I’d be able to share these same floral sources and products with you all to decorate your homes, or for your events, (and especially for holiday decor!) thus combining these two businesses.

So part of the long silence online is due to me trying to figure out how to move forward to integrate ALL OF THIS, but also to do it well. I learned the hard way, when I sold Christmas decor in 2020 as “11 Magnolia Lane Home”  that shipping can kill profits, so sadly a true online store isn’t an option right now. I also want to ensure that my couples get top priority, I love being part of such a special day, and again we’ve been quite busy. So I am not sure how to best do both, but hope to figure out a way over the coming months. We also are looking at several new locations to open rentals in other areas due to our success in the DC market, so keep an eye on our social media for announcements about those if you have a wedding in the works!

I would love to also add what I call “Bloom Couture Seasonal Decor” services next year too, providing beautiful, natural looking decor for the holiday season in the Washington, DC (and possibly other) areas on a limited basis. I always love decorating for the holidays, below is an example of how I mixed fresh greenery, dried hydrangea and a high-quality wreath to create a welcoming entrance.

I also spent some time sourcing garlands and beautiful faux magnolia, along with lovely wide blue velvet ribbon and used them in my foyer as you see below. I always love using blue for Christmas! I linked some options, very similar or in the case of the garland, the same one, in our Amazon store and in the shop the post widget down below.

I also included some images of our main tree and this garland I put together for my home this year. I have had my eye on this beautiful mirror for years, and treated myself to it to celebrate a successful business year! Mirror garlands are kind of a popular thing this year, and while my decor integrates some florals I have collected over the years, along with dried hydrangeas from my yard, I have tried to link some options to recreate it, as well as some of my favorite holiday finds this year below. You can also see what I used in our Amazon Holiday Store HERE.

With all that is going on, I don’t expect to be sharing long blog posts unless they are about events I am working on, but will try to share on social media as I can. You can follow my business for all things events and florals on Instagram HERE, and of course, we have 11Magnolialane on Instagram HERE too, which I hope to get back to sharing fun finds on.

So, with that I will wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We thank you for all the years of supporting us, leaving comments, reading our posts and being along for the ride! Best wishes for 2026!

XO,

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