Yarrow, Scabiosa Pods, Dahlias...These are a few of my favorite things.

I love the Farmers Market.
Unfortunately due to most of my weddings always landing on Saturdays, I can't go. :(
But if you truly want to see what flowers are in season,
the true seasonal flowers are always showcased there.
Most flowers you can get year round...if you are willing to pay a price that is.
But at the farmers market you can get a reasonably priced flowers without a badge, super fresh, and from a local farm. All pluses in my book.

This bouquet reminds me of a farmers market...I actually wish I could do a photo shoot there and am working on making that happen in the next 6 weeks.
This bouquet has dahlias, scabiosa pods, bunny tails, tulips, and yarrow.
This reminds me of Country Time Lemonade for some reason,
but who names their flowers that...right?

I made a little boutonniere( still can't spell that right on the first try) made out of a scabiosa pod, a fuzzy bunny tail(that's what I call it) and the white and yellow yarrow that makes me want to scream, it's so damn cute. I finished off the wrap with a little gold bouillion.

Blue and yellow together ROCK.

The bouquet can later be dropped into a tall container
and in the words of a wise sage named Emeril:
BAM! its a friggin centerpiece.

This ceramic cream container I bought at Goodwill for $3.99. HOLLA!

I love a great deal almost as much as I love it when I get a bunch of roses and there are no duds....has this ever happened to you? You go home and open up the roses and 1 or 2 rose heads are broken...I hate that. So when nothing falls out I give my roses a pretend hi five for being good gals. : )

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...}

My favorite flower...the Sunflower.

My Sunflower Bride was the sweetest bride.ever.
She contacted me to help her out with her wedding and I knew I wanted to work with her right away because she was just so sweet and I love sunflowers.

Her bouquet was a compose of blue hydrangea and sunflowers.
You can't see the variegated lily grass loops but they are there as the collar to the bouquet.

I made her a hair piece to match her bouquet.
It was yellow chrysanthemums that look like mini sunflowers, blue hydrangea florets and lily grass loops all glued onto a salal leaf that was glued onto a clear comb.

I always make two so that the bride can freshen up her hair piece as the day goes on.
Especially if it's something as fickle as hydrangea.
She's so pretty!
Her bridesmaids were all so helpful and her groomsmen help set up the ceremony site like it was nobody's business.

Here is the grooms boutonniere.


They had so many cute details in her wedding it wasn't even funny.
I did not capture them all, but I made sure to capture my favs.
The couple had a tree on a piece of paper and this little note that read please leaf your thumbprint. The guests were to place their thumbprint on the trees to look like leaves.
SUPER CUTE!




After all the guests had checked in it looked like this.

They made 1000 cranes and they sprinkled a few here and there and a few of them made it on to the sweetheart table where they placed this lovely wooden block.

The rest of the cranes made it on to a family crest that Momma Sunflower made for the happy couple. How awesome is this?

The cookies with the stickers were killer.
Jealous much? Yes. I was.

This was an awesome couple and I wish the couple much love and happiness!

{And they lived happily ever after....}

Red, Black and White Damask

Classic red roses with a touch of that dark red, almost black, eucalyptus for a wedding at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco.

The bride wanted to keep it simple and so I used all red roses and spray roses, some red hypericum here and there, and touches of that eucalyptus. I love that the change in color and size of the roses gives it texture and depth, and that the eucalyptus gave it a feathery look.

These are the two roses I used throughout the wedding: Black Bacarra Red roses, and Freedom Red roses. This is the perfect example to me of how a color is subjective. When someone contacts me and says I want red roses, I say ummm....what shade? Lipstick, Ruby, dark red, wine, ect....

Here are the centerpiece lined up and ready to go.

Here is a shot of the centerpiece which are composed of the same bacarra and freedom roses, red hyperium, red peruvian lillies, red carnations, black eucalyptus, variagaited ivy, and some salal.

Cupcakes...my favorite!
The couple opted for a small cake on top of the cupcake tower so that they could cut into an actual cake to get that cake cutting shot. I just love the sugar flowers and the edible dragrees.

{And they lived happily ever after.....}

Soooo I'm patting myself ( just a little) for blogging my little heart out this week. :D

BTW~Does anyone know an app that updates your FB and Twitter from the blog? Thanks!

Orchid Wedding Bouquets

My goodness these were good enough to eat!

One of my instructors, who was a past AIFD president, once told me that when you pick out flowers, it's like picking out fruits and vegetables. They should be firm, green, fresh and good enough to eat. If the stems are brown, soggy or the petals were a bit limp~ pass on it.
Would you eat a salad that way?
Huh. Good point.
So since then I remember this jewel she dropped on me and these orchids were so bright and fresh I thought, I could eat this freaking bouquet! lol

This bouquet was a slightly forward cascade with the folded Ti leaves in the back to give it a nice shape. I normally don't do cascades, but this one begged for it and when the flowers speak,
I listen.

The grooms boutonniere was a simple loop of the ti leaf and a single cymbidium orchid with a matching chocolate brown ribbon.

The happy couple went off to get married at the San Francisco City Hall ( My 4th City hall wedding this month!) and she looked so gorgeous in her dress with these flowers in her hands. I just know the other brides were jealous! HAHAHA! no, seriously, they were.

Much love and happiness to the happy couple and I can't wait to work on the big wedding later this year!

Orange-a-glad glad?

As in " knock knock. Who's there? Orange/ Orange who? Orange-ga-glad I didn't say banana?"

My daughter tortured me with that knock knock joke after I taught it to her, lol. She couldn't get enough!

What does it have to do with this post?
Nothing!

But Orange-ga-glad this bouquet is a little different than most orange bouquets? eh? eh??
Don't mind me, I'm just giddy from the New Year. = )
Lots of trials and tribulations last year, but 2010 is going to be alright.
Calm, cool, collected. That's how I am going to tackle this year.

Here is a bouquet I forgot to share last month. I absolutely love euc pods, the kale, the milva roses, and the tulips.

The ribbon has a blue butterfly accent that played off nicely with the all orange and cream wedding with hints of that bright blue!

This is a simple boutonniere with a small orange tulip, some euc pods for accents and a ruffled galax leaf finished off with the orange and blue ribbon.

One of my resolutions is to learn how to spell boutonniere on the first try and to post more. : P

Green Dianthus Ball Bouquet

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!!

I'm excited and happy that I have a few things to do this week that give me creative freedom.

First up is a sample of what I consider green and white with a bit of gold.
I love this green dianthus ball{AKA green carnations!}
I refer to is as a Horton Hears A who flower ; )
This bouquet has light green hydrangea, green dianthus, gold cockscomb, and white avalanche roses.

.

Similar to the idea in my previous post I made this bouquet so that it would drop into a vase that has equisetum( horsetail) in it.

I think it allows it to double as a bar arrangement, check in table, escort card table, or bathroom arrangement.

This vignette is to show how we incorporate levels using simple white vases. The ones I used I bought at Ikea a while back to hold short stems on my counter.

Here is the unconventional masculine boutonniere.
banding the horsetail like in the vases earlier and just using a bit of the dianthus with the cockscomb for color.

Here's a quick table number idea for a bride who wants something a little different.

I'm proposing we do this on a HUGE level.
Carry the idea of banding horsetail together with gold flowers, in this case orchids, so just give it some color in small placements.

These are left over escort cards from my own wedding I had lying around.
They were simple Crane&Co. envelopes in a 2x2 with black embossed lettering in the back that says "TABLE" and the front that says the name of the guest,
who didn't ,ahem, show at my wedding : /
Then finally the insert is a Martha Stewart stamp that has the table number in it.