After leaving all the eye candy at the Philadelphia Flower Show we made our way to New York City to meet up with the Chapel Designers for the 2012 conference. Our first night we met everyone at the beautiful Matthew Robbins Design Studio in the Chelsea neighborhood where Matthew and his gracious staff hosted our opening night event. We were met at the front door by our great friend Holly Chapple who was the organizer of the trip. Holly presented us with a copy of Matthew Robbins recently published book, “Inspired Weddings” (you can read our interview Matthew about his book here) 
We then had the opportunity to meet the other 40 designers attending the conference and to have our book signed by Matthew as well. With our signed books in arm, a gourmet sandwich on our plate and a glass of wine in front of us we all found a seat around Matthew’s beautiful studio. Everywhere you fixed your eyes in the studio there were objects of inspiration from the collection of antiques that lined one full wall to the eclectic furniture graced by stunning flowers filling the space.
All the flowers were generously provided by our new friend Joost of Florabundance (We will tell you more about Joost and his flowers tomorrow). At this point we had the amazing honor of having Matthew speak to us about his rise to his current success, business and design philosophies and then he designed an inspiring arrangement for us with the stunning blooms from Florabundance.
Meeting Matthew was truly a treat because not only did he take the time out of his busy schedule to meet and host with us on a Sunday night but Matthew took his time to thoughtfully answer all of our questions, sign our books and pose for pictures. Thank you Matthew and Holly for a great opening event! This was an amazing beginning to a fantastic 5 days in NYC.
