Lavender Ikebana Bride

Sneak Peak Part 1

This wedding had me stalking 511.org(traffic information website in California)
for traffic conditions for a week before the wedding. Why you ask? They decided to close the Bay Bridge on labor Day weekend so they could tear down one part of the bridge and rebuild another section. What a nightmare....
My normal 20 minute trip to U.C. Berkeley turned into a potentially 2 hour trip according to the news. I had to be there by 9:30 am so it was way early when I started loading the flowers.

{Lavender Ikebana Bride}

How early was it?

BUTT CRACK OF DAWN early.
The sun was literally rising as I was packing up to get all the flowers across the Bay in time as evidenced by the shadows. :)

I like it when the ivy bush had the flowering "jacks" on them.

These were a few of the centerpiece that were pre-made that morning. They had lily grass loops, variegated ivy bush, white wax flowers, white lilies, and lavender roses.

Our destination was the U.C. Botanical Garden in Berkeley CA.

We waited outside and took some pictures of the bridal bouquets as the bride was just getting into her GORGEOUS dress.

The bridal bouquet was an all calla lily bouquet made out of green goddess callas, white mini callas, lavender calla lilies and a green ivy collar tied off with a white satin corset ribbon.

Her bridal hair flowers were a compose of lavender and white spray roses with touches of green.


The Redwood Grove is where the ceremony was taking place.

I mean look at the view, beautiful tall trees covered the ceremony area.....I almost expected bambi to come out. Oh wait, it did. Just as we were walking into the ceremony location a deer came prancing out of no where to say hello! I was scared for my assistant Mary since it was between us, except she was outside 15 feet form it and I was safe in my SUV. : P

I love the theater style seating.*swoon* It was just perfect.

The flowers out there were a simple arrangement of scabiosa, green goddess callas, white callas, curly willow, lily grass and some ivy bush.

Next it was onto the reception.
Here we made two different types of centerpiece.
The first was a simple off center arrangement. The ikebana label for it is simply
"To be viewed from all around". yep. short and sweet.
The second one was two tsutsu's joined by willow.

Finally, my favorite part, the escort card table.


I fenced together equisetum(horsetail) to make a structure that I really liked.

I sliced the equisetum to hold up the place cards and elevated the whole thing by making a mat that sat on top of three vases that were also lined with horsetail.

Kinda cool huh? toot toot, I know. I'm horrible...

The day was perfect, there was ZERO traffic, the bride was gorgeous...what else could I ask for?

{They lived happily ever after....}

Stargazer Wedding {Part three}

I can't believe I forgot about the rest of my pictures from the Stargazer Wedding at St. Ignatius!

I Dropped off the florals at her Hotel room and was greeted by her beautiful Bridesmaids.
Had to take the bathroom bouquet shot!

That room was packed by the time I got there. I couldn't even fit in the room but I had to get a few shots where I could! Building a portfolio is no easy task :)
I made her a last minute Orchid Hair piece but I couldn't get past the stylist and florist and parents and 5 bridesmaids to take a picture :(
So I jumped on this bouquet/shoe shot.

Then luckily I was able to get one of her facing forward with her bouquet


I had to take a picture of the boutonnières in the hallway, too.
I feel really bad because she ordered 14 boutonnières and I thought she just had a big party plus ushers. She was a pretty laid back bride so I didn't question it. But when I got to the church all the men AND women were wearing them! I was horrified that instead of wearing corsages, the mothers and sponsors were wearing boutonnières! WAH! I will never take for granted that a bride and groom may not know the difference again.

The center Orchid bout was for the groom to match her bouquet and her hair piece.

The it was off to sit in traffic to make it to the church across town.
St. Ignatius is BEAUTIFUL!

Her lovely ladies waiting to be cued down the aisle with the bride looking on.

Now its her turn, see the hair piece? Yeah I can't either...pfft :P

She was so cute and nervous, I could hear saying to the coordinator
"OMG, I'm getting married, OMG,OMG,OMG!"

Then we were off to the Hyatt in Union Square.
Again in traffic because not only was it the sweetest day{according to the calendar}
But it was also the famous Nike Women's Marathon in SF.

My lovely friends came to help out, one because she wanted to help me out, the other because she's considering going into the event business and was curious to see how much work is really done on the day of. I hope I didn't scare her because as usual the day was hectic
BUT!
We made it everywhere we had to be and everything looked good :)
The funny thing is they have the same name so every time I called one they would both answer and or come over to me, hehe.

Here they are working on the centerpieces.

Simple Ikebana inspired glass cubes filled with three stargazer flowers, buds, and curly willow.

Decorating the cake was left to me.
I was especially nervous because you can't mess up buttercream.
That's why usually the cake person insists on adding flowers and I always leave the flowers for them.

Also, the bride is a cake decorator.

Yep. That's her day job. A cake decorator.

You can imagine the pressure I'm feeling right???

But in the end, I did ok.
Here was the toss bouquet, I didn't want them to be completely broken when she threw the bouquet across the room by using only stargazers, so I used roses and lilies.

Then it was time to go....

{And they lived happily ever after}

Pink Stargazer Ikebana Wedding

I am going to finally get my pink wedding. I have been looking to complete my portfolio with a pink wedding and it has eluded me......but! Noe I get a chance to have a pink AND an Ikebana style wedding. Yessssss! I of course had to mock up a few arrangements to show my wonderful clients and took the opportunity to show my sensei, Soho, the arrangements so she could give me some feedback.

Here are two samples of the brides maids bouquets placed together.

One is mixed with pink and a deeper shade of pink for more depth.

This one is the same all around for a monotone massed look.
{look at the flowers/color minus the buds, I couldn't bring myself to cut them off just yet.}

EEK! I like them both, what do you think???

Here is the first centerpeice idea for a pink Ikebana inspired wedding.
Very simple arrangement of pink stargazer lilies and a touch of curly willow.

I didn't have a clear glass vase and I'm afraid to fall in love with this perfect green vase, but it was the perfect size.

Here is the one in a black container.
It has a small Kenzan and after talking with Soho about it, it actually is better off in foam for a day of event. It has Pink stargazer lilies, a bit of pink larkspur, and horsetail.


Here they are side by side for comparison!