03-10-2024 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 24
Amanda Lea Anderson launched her Etsy business in the fall of 2020, after making a bouquet
of red and black faux flowers and centerpieces with skulls for a friend’s Halloween-themed
October wedding. PHOTOS BY KARL MERTON FERRON
BY ABIGAIL GRUSKIN Capital Style
hen Heather and Carl Harrison
got married last year on April
Fools’ Day, a stormy one at
Riviera Beach in Anne Arundel County, she
wore a black dress and held a bouquet of
purple, orange and black faux flowers.
Her wedding theme was inspired by
the 1993 movie “The Nightmare Before
Christmas,” and her bouquet, in addition to
her wedding table decorations, was made
by the owner of an area Etsy shop called
Crafts2Much, specializing in bouquets and
decor for “Halloweddings.”
“It just felt more personal,” said Harrison,
42, who wore a white dress and had a purple,
gray and black bouquet at her first wedding.
The second time around, her unexpected
theme “felt like it fit.”
In Anne Arundel County, Harrison hasn’t
been alone in embracing out-of-the-box
bouquets and floral arrangements. Florists
and wedding planners are fielding requests
for bright and bold flowers — and Marylandbased Etsy artisans are taking it a step
further.
“Times are changing so much,” said
Amanda Lea Anderson, the Pasadena bank
W
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| CAPITAL STYLE | Spring 2024
manager behind Crafts2Much. “People don’t
want copy and paste. … Brides are craving
something different.”
Anderson, 43, launched her Etsy business
in the fall of 2020, after making a bouquet of
red and black faux flowers and centerpieces
with skulls for a friend’s Halloween-themed
October wedding.
“I never really saw myself doing
something like this,” she said. At her own
wedding almost two decades ago, Anderson
had more traditional white, purple and silver
flowers, but said she’d go with something
more in line with her current designs if she
were to do it over again.
Now, she’s shipped her creations — from
skull-shaped candle holders to cascading
bridal bouquets — to over 30 different states
and abroad, she said. Her centerpieces and
faux floral arrangements, made for weddings
and other occasions, are gothic; “Adding
a touch of elegance to the spooky” is her
tagline, she said.
“It’s not gory or anything,” she said clients
have told her. “You can look at it, and even if
you don’t appreciate Halloween, or gothic or
dark romance, you can find beauty in it.”
Today, Harrison said her “The Nightmare
Before Christmas”-themed bouquet, with a
large skull in the center and movie-inspired
embellishments, is on display in a vase in her
kitchen.
For others, jumping for a distinctive bridal
bouquet means incorporating dark-colored
flowers.
“It’s your wedding, so you can do whatever
you want,” said Martha D’Onofrio, who
owns two Anne Arundel County flower
shops, Little House of Flowers in Gambrills
and Always Blooming Florist & Boutique in
Pasadena.
“The most important part is your
bouquet,” she said she tells brides-to-be.
