Why I Want to Marry the IRS

Why I want to Marry the IRS

April 15th came so quickly this year. It just seems like yesterday I was standing in line at the post office after spending a week sorting through a mountain of receipts for my 2009 taxes. As the 2010 tax deadline looms, look for the newscasters to be standing out in front of the local post office doing a live report for the 6 o'clock news. In their yearly news report about the tax filing deadline the news stations always have that stern warning: "It may look clam right now but as the tax deadline approaches expect long lines and delays at your local post office." Hello, talking heads, it's a deadline, not a natural disaster. And of course there is a line with delays - if there was a line that was moving without the delays then  it would be called a parade.

Some people get all funky about the IRS. I love them. If I was an available Greek girl, and if I could marry a Governmental Agency I would marry the IRS. Why not? Talk about marrying up! They sure have buckets more money in their bank account than in this Greek girl's bank account. I would imagine, that the IRS' parents, the Department of the Treasury, are good parents and would spare no expense on the wedding, reception and on the honeymoon...just as long as they could get the receipts. Hmmm, maybe it could even be a destination wedding in Greece. Wow, maybe they would even give me my own sneaker store as a wedding present.

Yes, I expect the IRS would want me to sign a prenuptial agreement, although they would not call it that. They would want to call it by a form name and number - and then whisper in my ear something romantic like,  "Ava I need you to sign a Form 1010EZ."  -- Chills just thinking about it!

eHarmony or match.com couldn't make a better match than the Greek girl and the IRS. I am a list person and so is the IRS. I balance my check book every day, so do they. I don't like dishonesty or cheaters, neither do they. We are actually very compatible on many levels. I have read about the tax collector in the bible so I also know that we share the same religious faith. That's nice because I would insist on having a church wedding. Oh, and we both agree that we would get married on April 15th...it's such a special day for the IRS.

Another really cool thing about marrying the IRS is they would be able to track down any friends or acquaintances that I have lost touch with over the years, but that I would want to invite to the wedding. How cool is that?

We do differ on one thing though, I like a little color and they are more traditional, liking everything to be just black and white. I would just have to keep telling myself, compromise Ava, compromise. Every good relationship is made up of compromises.

I know after the honeymoon it would not be a total bed of roses. I mean, just like any married couple we would still have to divide our time between the two families for birthdays and holidays. I don't mind, in fact I like most of IRS' family, even their weird uncle, the Department of Corrections. They call them DOC. Doc is the family's dirty little secret that they don't really talk about. At the last family gathering DOC showed up and they had to sit in the basement, at the kid's table. I hate it down there, it seems like a prison, but Doc didn't mind. Over the years I have also had disagreements with their relatives in Washington, DC., but it's all family and we all have to get along, right?

So sigh, I am just a simple Greek girl in love with a Governmental Agency. Did I ever mention that I fell out of a tree onto my noggin when I was a little greek girl?  Maybe the effects are now finally showing up.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Pink City Hall Wedding {the Reception}

Long overdue but life and wedding season has been crazy busy. Kids are back in school, I'm back in school this week, I still have about 12 more big weddings to get through before finals and the Holidays and then I'm off for a month between mid December and January..it's going to be awesome. This summer went by super fast.

Here is the final post on the Pink City Hall Wedding In San Francisco.

Part 3 Let Them Eat Cake
Part 2 The Set up
Part 1 The Bouquets

Here is one of the two centerpiece we used for the tables. The centerpiece was an all orchid arrangement of a combination of light pink to fuchsia Phalaenopsis orchids surrounded by clear cylinder vases with floating candles in them.

The table linens and gold accents on the napkin ring holders and the plates were so pretty.


Here is centerpiece two, a rose pave in a clear cube vase. On top of the flowers sit three vases in varying heights with water and floating candles.



These pave centerpiece took me about an hour each.
Here's the design I played with to start. I took a picture with my camera phone when I realized I would be sitting there for the next 8 hours or so pave-ing my little heart out.

Here is a last minute Buffet piece we made for the Antipasto table.

The Dessert buffet looked delectable once it was set up! Wish I had taken a picture of it afterward.

The Ice Bar was sweet. I think I need one of these at my next wedding. :)

A few random pics of the room and details.

The staircase to the upper level in City hall was lit with Bao and Crystals name :)

The ceremony pieces had to be taken down from the staircase and re-purposed around the room in various areas. The room was filled with flowers and orchids everywhere.

This is a mini version of the bridal bouquet to place on the head table for the bride to toss and it just glowed in the lighting there.

So all in all, it was very successful and beautiful event. I am very lucky that Crystal is just the sweetest person, she made it really easy to work with and she was just gorgeous on the day of! All of her gowns were beautiful and she looked stunning in them. Bao hi five'd me like 4 times at the end of the night, lol, the only thing I wish I could have shared with you was the crazy grooms cake of him sitting at his computer with 9 screens!
So I thank C&B for allowing me to share in your special day.
I wish you much love and success in your marriage! : )

{And they lived happily ever after...}

Silver+ White+Yellow

Bride: Do you do "Handpicked" looks?
Moi: Why, yes I do. Step into my garden.....
I do it with a twist. I hope you like it ; )

Mock up for a silver, white, and yellow wedding.

These white and silver floral arrangements will be the bouquets/re-purposed centerpiece.
Feverfew flowers, lambs ear, scabiosa, dahlias, and sweetpeas.

The Bridal Bouquet will have the blue and the centerpiece will be a multi vase flowers that I will post Sunday. Happy Friday the 13th!

My Pink City Hall Bride{the Bouquets}

I was such a blogging roll till July came and it was all about these crazy big weddings that nearly gave me ulcers. Seriously, all I could do was focus on flowers, vases, fire permits, ribbons, colors swatches, and such. I went to NYC for the 4th of July again and when I got back it was on!!!
I did manage to lose one of my memory cards that contain a beautiful white wedding, a garden style wedding, and some simple mock ups that I planned to share but what-evs...what can I do?

I can share with you my biggest wedding to date, that's what! : )
I ordered 2000 roses, 250 phalaenopsis, 200 hydrangeas, 300 spray roses, and almost $1400 worth of vases. DEAR GOD. It was humongous but I now have the experience to run a big production like that.

I will start with a few pictures of the personal flowers for now. I wish I had taken pics of the 44 sets of corsages and bouts but there was no time. I worked 70 hours in 4 days. 19 on the day of...it was madness. Pink madness.


The Bridal Bouquet smelled *HEAVENLY*. Garden roses smell the best! Like real roses are supposed to smell like. They engineered thorns out of the commercial roses we all use, but along with getting rid of the thorns, they also got rid of that delicious scent. The only true rose that smells divine outside of garden roses are the Sterling rose, well, any purple rose really. Try it next time you go by a shop; smell a purple rose in comparison to the other ones and you will smell the difference.


The compose of this bouquet was Patience Garden Roses, cream garden roses, Pink Sweet Akito Roses, and Bridal Akito Roses.

The Maid of Honor Bouquet was a mixture of hot pink and blush pink to match the gorgeous dresses they wore.
In this bouquet I used Pavoratti roses, Rosita Vendellas, hot pink spray rose, and Lydia spray roses.

This is a shot of the Bridesmaids bouquet, the Bridal bouquet, and the Maid of honor bouquet.

This is a top shot of the pink and cream bouquet for the MOH and the Bride.

The bouquets were all tied off with pink satin and ivory satin and pinned with some clear crystal.

I just received some pics in the mail so I will be posting the crazy(19 hour) set up and reception pictures in the next two days. Thanks for taking a look!

Something Blue...

Something Old

Something New

Something Borrowed,

Something Blue.

This one started with Mrs. M emailing me to see if I could help with flowers for her son and DIL (Daughter in Law...
I have a friend who reads my blog and always asks me what the heck MIL or FH mean exactly? )
Anyhow, she was going to host the wedding at her house and it was going to be blues whites and silver. The happy couple live out of state so the planning was a little tricky because of the time difference and we were swamped with events, weddings, the dress for the museum, ect. But we finally found something that worked.
Her bridal bouquet was a compose of dahlias, white lisianthus, roses and spray roses, lime cymbidiums, green and white hydrangea, snow on the mountain, and blue tweedia for that something blue accent.

The matching boutonniere( you know I always have to spell check boutonniere?)
was a single white avalanche rose with blue tweedia accent wrapped in white satin.

The bridesmaids bouquets pictured here are unwrapped since I was going to use some fabric from the dress that the bride provided for me once I got to the house.
The bridesmaids bouquets were white, blue, and green hydrangea, white roses, white lisianthus, lime cymbidiums, blue delphinium, and white spray roses.

When I arrived to the house Mrs. M had set up shop in her garage with the flowers for the tables, so I made self a little station. My portable workstation consisted of hasami's(Japanese shears) newspaper, and a towel.


Here they are with the fabric from the dress on the handles of the bouquet. The color is what I would call "Lake".

Mrs M decided she would make the reception flowers herself.

Now that's love right there because it's A LOT of work.
I mean the processing, the vases, the cutting, the foam, the cleaning, the design, the set up, ect.....and then you have to get dressed and get your nails/hands decent to shake hands and take pictures for the wedding that you are hosting in your house???

She's a rock star.

Check it out...she made blue hydrangea terrariums. A woman after my own heart.
Doctor by day; Florist by night.

She found a local grower to get her blue and white hydrangeas and she then picked out some amaranthus and kangaroo paws along with some phalaenopsis orchids.

Look at these colors! My camera could not capture the shocking blue of these gorgeous hydrangea heads.

Blue popcorn hydrangea in all its glory.

Look at the backyard...I only wish I could see it lit up at night.
The tent had hanging lanterns of all sizes that would make it look like mars at night under the moon. The weather was at 82 when I left so the night would be perfect for them.

Thanks for letting me be a part of your big day!
I wish you much love and success. : )
Mrs. M...if you ever want to make floral arrangements...you know who to call! ; P

{And they lived happily ever after...}

For Elizabeth....

who guilted, er, encouraged me to start posting again. : P

I have had the craziest 6 months and I am finally in the clear. WHEW!
I have no excuse not to go back to posting and taking pictures and visiting other blogs so here I am. Thank you Elizabeth for the reminder that someone reads my blog! and misses it ; )

This bouquet was a mock up for a bride who is kicking around the colors yellow, red and touches of white. I told her it would totally work, and to let me show her. I used yellow and red tulips, white and red tulips, red roses, jade roses, and yellow cymbidium orchids with red throats.


I 'm diggin it...I have another mock up I'm making tomorrow to show red, yellow with pops of orange....that should be interesting.

Thanks for reading!

Cherry Brandy Roses

"I want Cherry Brandy roses,the orange ones with the gold center? I like the round look, not a perfect ball though , with lots of different flowers; like magenta and yellow...
oh~ and the blue Iris."

That was the direction I was given and because it was one of my best friends I just nodded my head and smiled. But inside I was thinking about all the different colors she wanted to use and a little part of me cringed because I hate using so many colors together.
I prefer to stick to the storyline and call it a day.
But it being one of my best friends on her special day and my offering her anything her little heart desired, I had no choice but to oblige. I also ended up being her photog so I got to flex my creative eye a bit. : ) Lucky for her I am addicted to photography blogs too!

I figured the blue iris would photograpa bit purple so I added in some purple anemones that she *loved* I just wish that I could have caught the colors better, the day was bright and the flowers just jumped out and slapped ya right in the face!

Candied apple favors! My sister has been perfecting her homemade candied apples and of course jumped at the chance to contribute to the wedding.


Lucky girl with a beautiful ring!

LOVE San Francisco City Hall. The dress she wore went well with the color and architecture.


The happy family.

The couple got a beautiful day in San Francisco, everything worked out as planned, the flowers were to her liking and that made me happy beyond words, and my best friend married the love of her life. He's a good, calm, strong man that can handle my strong big hearted passionate friend; they've got a good Yin and Yang thing going: my friends and I are happy for them and subsequently will let him live, lol.
I don't have to wish them anything else because
they are living happily ever after now .....

Succulent Bride {Part One: the Bouquet}

My succulent Bride and Groom contacted me about 7 weeks before their wedding with a fabulous request; Can you make a bouquet with succulents? YEP!

So we met one Sunday after noon and sketched out a bouquet and after the easiest hour of my life, we came up with a gorgeous bouquet and centerpiece we were all excited about. :)

The bridal bouquet was composed of three types of succulents, lotus pods, cream spray roses, Blizzard roses, china berries, yellow oncidium orchids finished off with an ivory satin ribbon.

I have a lot of pictures to share but I will be MIA this weekend with an event that requires almost 100 different pieces!!!

Have a great weekend!