It's a long way from helping her sisters fill 4,000 chrysanthemum pots with soil to being one of the country's top floral designers, but success looks very good on Holly Heider Chapple.

One of the best-kept secrets in Loudoun County, Holly has been building an influential floral and event design business for 25 years, and it feels as if she's just getting started.

"It's a great time to revolutionize the floral and event design business," Holly says emphatically. "Technology today has made it possible for me to share my ideas and inspirations every day with designers around the world. These are amazingly talented designers… we just need to be connected so we can share our knowledge and help each other.

"My blog, 'The Full Bouquet,' allows anyone, anywhere to follow our studios look, whether I'm writing about the most astoundingly beautiful wedding or a magnificent special event we've just designed.

"What I didn't anticipate was the amazing response 'The Full Bouquet' generated. Fabulous designers from across the country and around the world contacted me with compliments and requests for help. It was in response to those requests that I organized my first classes, and it was the success of those classes that inspired me to create the 'Chapel Designers' network."

Today, Holly's trend-setting designs have an impact around the world and her 'Chapel Designers' are in almost as much demand as she.

"This morning I answered an email from a Chapel Designer in Michigan who needed the name of a very specific vine we use. She had attended our recent New York classes and was so grateful for my help.

"I thoroughly enjoy helping my Chapel Designers create spectacular work."

This beautiful young Loudoun County designer, who could easily double for the Swedish actress Liv Ullmann, grew up in Lovettsville and later moved to Leesburg where her father, Albert Heider, owned Heiders Nursery.

Although every year, Holly and her sisters dreaded their dad's annual mum-pot-filling assignment, they filled those pots happily.

"We were all expected to help with the nursery and when I was little, I thoroughly enjoyed 'designing' with my dad.

"My dad still runs Heider's Country Store in Lucketts. Years ago his parents were produce farmers, so he grew up in the business too."

Among many other clients, Holly's dad did landscaping for The Folger Library. His work was well known and highly regarded in Washington, D.C.

Holly's parents were also responsible for the décor and landscaping at the Washington International Horse Show. When Holly's dad was asked to do the fresh cut florals for the Horse Show he assigned the task to her. It was to be Holly's very first design job.

"Daddy took me to Florida Avenue to introduce me to the Wholesale Flower Market. It was my very first experience with cut flowers. I quickly learned what was possible and how much I could really do.

"It was a massive assignment," Holly remembered. "From hundreds of boutonnieres to Jump décor, party arrangements and more.

"I knew enough to get it all done and the client was very pleased, but the greatest lesson for me was simply learning how to manage the scale of the assignment.

"Today, one of my greatest pleasures is designing major events for demanding and creative clients."

After years as an influential local floral designer, Holly is now recognized as a major event designer. Her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Southern Living, The Knot, Bride's Magazine, The Editor's Pick for Washingtonian Magazine and Weddings Unveiled Magazine.

One of her wedding bouquets was featured on the cover of Southern Living.

Today, 'Chapel Designers' are taking Holly's ideas around the world.

"I've now trained Chapel Designers from 22 states and many countries. We're currently in negotiation to give classes in Europe, the Virgin Islands, Russia, Hawaii and Australia."

**Balancing Act**

How does Holly manage her busy business, balance 175 annual event orders, train hundreds of professionals and raise her seven children without a blinding overload?

"First, I have to thank my Dad. Working with him and growing up in his business taught me about professional responsibility at a very early age. I quickly learned how to scale, source and complete assignments.

"Secondly, I owe my husband, Evan, enormous gratitude for everything from asking me to bring his family my first bouquet to leaving his job as a telecommunications engineer to become the CEO of my company."

That first bouquet, collected from the fields along Loudoun County country roads, led Holly to create a highly evolved and complex design style that characterizes her intricate and luxurious florals to this day.

Evan is also the keystone of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers production and operations excellence.

"He is a superb manager," says Holly. "He's added a great deal of production to our property and we recently became an official agricultural business. We are documenting everything we cut from Evan's gardens and how they inspire my designs.

"I love what the land here produces. It's heaven to go out to Evan's gardens and find things that make my work unique."

In addition to managing the studio, Evan also manages the Lighting & Draping Design Team, a new service.

But Holly and Evan's life is not only about the business.

"Without Evan's help and commitment, our fabulous children would not have the support and balance they need. Whether its one of our Original Four: Alex who's 26, Abigail who's 20, Hannah who's 19 and Riley who's 15, or one of our Bottom Three: Elijah who's 7, Samuel who's 6 or Grace who's 4, Evan has made it possible for us to balance our life and for me to find space for my career.

"I do worry about the little ones because I work so hard. But now we're always here in our home studio and workshop when they arrive on the school bus, and we participate fully in their school activities.

Holly began her career at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Show assisting her father with his booth and bringing lilacs and spring flowers from her property in Lucketts to make bouquets. It was there that people first began to ask her to create their wedding and special event flowers.

"Those first requests were really the beginning of my wonderfully creative and satisfying career. I owe Loudoun County a great deal for having confidence in me and helping me meet the clients that became the foundation of my business."

Holly tries to respond, 'yes,' whenever she is asked for help because she is always excited to do 'more.'

"In fact, 'more' is truly characteristic of me," she explains. "My most beautiful creations benefit from my insistence on more flowers, more natural material, more beauty, more creativity."

She also understands the importance of stewardship.

"We try to help everyone we can in Loudoun County. From Interfaith Relief to the Garden Club, we want as many citizens as possible to enjoy beautiful flowers.

Holly is relentless about the promises she makes to her clients.

"When I set my sights on a certain element or blossom, we find them. And the growing network of 'Chapel Designers' allows me to provide the talented, dependable professionals every client needs to have beautiful events and environments. Whether you're in San Francisco, Paris, Middleburg, Manhattan, or the White House, if you're working with a 'Chapel Designer,' you'll be exceptionally pleased.

"The designers who train with me to become Chapel Designers understand my standards, my vocabulary, the quality we demand and the level of service our clients expect. Once they've completed their training, they and our clients benefit enormously from mutual synergies, creativity and access to ideas and to sources."

Without the technology revolution and the ease of communication between clients and professionals, Holly knows she would not have been able to create her growing global business.

"Today, it's not unusual to receive an early morning email from a new client thousands of miles away who has seen my work on the web and wants my assistance to design an event. They may wish to fly me in for a consultation, but, if I cannot make time, they will always take my recommendation of a Chapel Designer.

"That is radically different from years not so long ago when my clients couldn't see my work easily, and had to meet with me to have the confidence they needed to sign a contract and give me their deposit."

This past weekend, while Holly was once again creating bouquets at the Leesburg Garden Show, Chapel Designers were doing weddings in Barbados and at The Plaza in New York. At the same time, Holly's Lucketts Studio team was delivering two weddings in Loudoun County and one in Washington, D.C.

The studio was filled with thousands of Roses, Peonies, Tulips, Lilies, Larkspur, Stock, Asters, Verbena, Cherry and Apple Branches, Rice Flowers, leafy boughs, Charteuse Carolina Lupin and more, more, more.

"I see the floral business racing to catch up with what technology now offers designers. And I want to help designers everywhere win that race."

Holly's wedding rate requires a minimum commitment of $5,000. All event design deposits are predicated on custom contracts. For Holly's services and to view her design portfolios, please visit 703-777-8227 or www.hollychappleflowers.com