Succulent Bride {Part Two: The Centerpiece}

Succulent Bride Part 1

My lovely bride wanted her bridal bouquet to have green succulents, greens and pops of yellow.
So we built up form the green succulents and used cream roses and spray roses, yellow oncidiums orchids, lotus pods and china berries.


For the reception we went back to Marin and Arts Garden in Ross, CA. The couple knew they wanted to incorporate the succulents again and liked the idea of fruit in centerpeice. So when we got together to discuss the colors which were burgundy and gold, immediately I knew we would have to go for those dark succulents, some magnolia leaves, the rust colored pompoms that the bride liked and then I suggested pomegranates and she loved the idea, so we were set.

When we got to the rose color I assumed she would have picked a dark burgundy or a cream and so when I asked her to picture what we had sketched in her mind and then to tell me what color she envisioned in the roses,
she said Peach. It was quite unexpected. But it worked! :)
So here is what we came up with.

For the check in table we had a simple arrangement set up of the nice big burgundy succulent, the caramel roses, magnolia, mums and china berries.

We also had one sitting on the bar that fit perfectly in a little tiny platform.

This has been my favorite wedding combo yet!
I loved working with the succulents and I was happy with the result. It was super important to the bride that she be able to replant her flowers in her garden and I hope that she does. :)

The groom's mother met me in the parking lot and she looked at the centerpiece and then said Oh my God, give me a hug!

haha! I loved it and she totally made my day! :)

Thanks Y&T! You two are the best and I wish you much love and success!

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

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!

Industrial Chic

I love it when couples are willing to try something new.
I love that someone wants to see what copper mesh and succulents would look like and mostly, I love creative freedom. :D

A while back I made a napkin ring holder that was a lotus pod made out of copper mesh and decorative wire. I liked it but I didn't have a place where I could show it off. I also wanted something to mix it with something sustainable and so I found the perfect union. I have a bunch of horsetail and succulents growing outside, and left over copper mesh and copper wire, so I suggested to a bride that was looking for something in green to consider the addition of copper.

Here is what I call Industrial Chic.

This is a corsage with a matching boutonniere.

Here's a close up of the boutonniere, it's made out of equisetum and a small succulent with a copper mesh wound around it.

Hope you like!

AIFD Symposium{Floral Vendors and Displays}

Why go to symposium when you have me to share all my pictures you are wondering? Hehe.

Although I have about 500 pictures, I only took pictures of stuff that really got ideas in my head going or that I thought were super inspiring. The other stuff, I had seen before or maybe I didn't get, so really don't trust my judgement 100%. You gotta get to a floral show, convention, symposium, competition - whenever you get a chance. it's pretty awesome.

So before I share the Euro designers I would like to share with you some great shots I got of the meet and greet mixer with sponsors and vendors that happened on day one of the AIFD symposium.

This vendor was selling glass containers and I fell in love with how simple the arrangements were but how much of an impact they made.
I think Anthuriums are so beautifully elegant.
Damn near handsome they are.

I needed to buy some of these but sadly, they weren't for sale.
They did have a catalog that I perused and they have interesting containers.

This vendor had the brightest exotic flowers EVER!
I needed to take a shot of these babies.

I especially took note at this table because the multi-colored blooms are the theme of a wedding I have in two weeks!
I had to invoke the God of self control so that I wouldn't remove the stamen of the lilies and risk offending the vendor.

I heart sunflowers in my personal life.

In my floral life, I don't really like to use them unless it's the day after Halloween and they are gone by Thanksgiving. It's just not natural to me.....
So when I saw this I was conflicted:
One the one hand" Hello! look at how great this huge piece is" WOW.
Fall Wedding or what??Hi, Indian summer Autumn in San Francisco wedding!
( ya gotta be a local to know what I'm talking about)
Then they coupled it with submerged succulents in a tall Pilsner vase? Be still my beating heart.
*love it*
On the other hand it wasn't Thanksgiving.....
In the end, beauty was the victor and I snapped a few shots :)

I adore Manzanita trees, and this huge mammoth of a floral installation took my breath away. I was all up in their mechanics trying to figure out how they suspended the floral disk in between all the branches.

Sacrilegious.
I could never cut down a lily this low, but isn't this kinda cool looking?

This Modern Purple Ikebana inspired table killed me. I wanted to scream with delight but was scared to upset the vendor.They wouldn't understand that I am unable to express happiness in words so I have to be violent and primal about it...yes. issues.

This last one caught my eye because it was a silk...oh sorry...PERMANENT BOTANICAL....(ooh I'm snarky today!)...and normally I will walk past it but I had to touch them to make sure they were fake, and then I had to confirm it in a hush hush whisper to my friend" is this...fake?" She nodded knowingly.
So a picture I took to remind myself not to be a floral snob.

Love the apothecary jars with the Flowers inside.

Blue and Green Succulent wedding

Holy Moly my YouTube bride has excellent taste in flowers and details.
I loved her wedding and I am so happy to be a part of it!
She was the CALMEST bride I have had to date.
My assistant, Deb, commented all day how calm and zen like this bride was and she hit it on the nose when she told me she could work weddings with me every day if we had weddings like this one. True that.

{So let me share with you my YouTube Wedding}

"Rain Rain , go away , come again some other day"

That was my mantra for the week. I was stalking the weather channel.
Guess what? It worked. I'm magic, no rain.

Our day started after I went to go to Emeryville to drop off flowers for my Wild Child Bride.
We made a stop to pick up dry ice and then on to Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco.
They were not going to have a cake, instead they would treat their guests to ice cream sandwiches. Check out the flavors that Bi-Rite offers:

ICE CREAM SANDWICHES
• Coconut macaroons with chocolate ice cream
• Chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream
• Dark chocolate cookies with mint chip ice cream
• Lemon gingersnap cookie with pumpkin ice cream

OMG. drooooool.

I also picked up some Mexican cookies for their pre-ceremony snack. The brides !sister kept askingus if we had tried to cookies, and I balked and said, no, of course not, I would be too embarrassed, I'm working. She laughed and said -no listen, these cookies are good, they are cookies on crack. I laughed and she said, ok this is ridiculous, I'm going to get you some. So we ended up tasting these cookies and they were freaking good!

You saw the venue the first time around when I went out to meet with my bride and the wonderful Andrea from Pelican Inn, in Sausalito right?

Side note:
These beautiful Pink Dahlias grow outside the Inn and they are HUGE!

I was greeted to these delightful out of town bags that the bride made.
From this little number, I knew the details would all be fabulous.

So we got there pretty early and had to kill time because the Inn is actually open to the public for lunch and from the food I tasted, I would highly recommend you go out there and have some food and a pint of something. The food is Zagat rated and lives up to it.
So I went over the timeline and phone numbers of vendors to make sure I was ultra prepared to start dialing if they didn't show up as scheduled.
Well, once we got started the set up started rolling pretty fast.

The florist showed up first. They were wonderful ladies that came out to deliver for a studio out of SF. They were made by Patrick and I promise once I get the full name I will update because I think it's fair to make sure I get all the vendors on here when I can. The flowers were beautiful!
I must admit, I had flower envy. I have always wanted to do a succulent wedding so any brides out there, email me and I will take care of you!
So we helped unload the flowers to get the ball rolling because the chairs didn't arrive at 2pm like they were scheduled. It was more like 3:15-3:30.
This bad boy was placed right outside the window in front of where they would be married.
This beautiful floral wreath had blue hydrangeas, maple, lemon leaf, seeded eucalpytus and these green berry things that I can't remember what they are called. :(

Got swag?
Over two of the the fire places, floral swags were hung.

A closer look at the centerpeice.
Green dendrobium, green and blue hydrangea, succulent, and purple thistle.

This was the indoor set up.

This was the outdoor setup.

So right about now, I'm thinking:
"where the hell are the chairs?"
What, I'm gonna roll out a new trend where everyone stands around the bride and groom as they are married in a hug of life???
Hmm....
Part oft he problem is that there is no cell coverage down there. By down there I mean Muir woods, Stinson Beach area where we are. I know crazy right? Everyone is so addicted to their phones. So thank goodness that Andrea let us use their land lines because the phone is the friend of a DOC wondering where the hell people are!
So I ask Deb to please call the chair people while I track down the sand for the place cards.
She leaves a message and here they come rolling up, you order chairs???
UH. Yeah!?!?!?
So they started settin gup and at first they set up in straight rows and then I hear the bride call down, wait, I want a semi circle! So cute, she was like snow white up there in one of the windows, so we quickly changed the front row and we were in full semi circle mode.

Look at the pew florals? GORGEOUS!
So right about this time is when the bride and groom are scheduled to leave to take pictures with the wedding party, Deb and the photographer and leave me to finish the final details.
I got my hands on the sand finally and then started to set up the guest escort cards, wish jar, and card box. Originally we were set to put this outside but of course with any deal you make with mother nature, i.e. if it doesn't rain today I promise to be super nice with all my vendors and wedding couples from now on, some concessions have to be made. So we got the sun which was great, because it was raining early that morning and it was slowly brightening up, but then we started to get this wind...but trust me I will take wind over rain any day.
It was too windy out side to set this stuff up.
We set up shop just inside the Inn doorway. It was the first thing you saw as a guest and I think it worked well. I started the party off inside the jar with a "wish" for couple so that other people would get what to do. You would be surprised. You could have, oh I don't know, a framed list of instructions on what to do sitting next to blank papers and pens, and they will still ask what to do. My favorite is the buffet candy that has bags, scoops and an invitation to eat and people ask me, "Hey. What's all this?"lol!

The seashells were in alphabetical order, weren't they just adorable?
Every one loved them including a couple who were walking into look at the venue really quick during set up. The bride was like....ooooohhh, what a great idea! I was all:
Yes, it is isn't it? My bride has impeccable taste:)

shameless.

So guests start arriving, I wait till a little over a third of the people are there and then go upstairs to get the couple to bring them down to mingle with the guests pre-ceremony. I love, love, love this because it goes against the grain in a good way, ya know? They didn't have a grand entrance and a big reveal to their guests. They were totally laid back and got a chance to greet and thank folk for coming out.
In fact, they walked down the aisle together which was very cool and unconventional for a wedding.

So here we are, ready to walk down the aisle and we all line up right on schedule, 5:50pm.
Get everyone ready, have ten minutes to cue the musician, ask guests to sit, walk through to make sure everything is good, and then walk back and wait for the musician to start the processionals music. 6 pm hits and the pooch, Ravioli goes first, then the parents are walking, then the party, then the kids. The little cutest angel, the flower girl, starts her walk, STEPS completely out of her Mary Jane shoes and turns around, starts to cry and looks at me
and holds out her hand.
Break my heart why dontcha?
So I met her halfway down the aisle, have her do an about face, her mom who was in the wedding party is signaling for her to go and I whisper in her ear" Go to Momma baby, it's ok"
and she walks down the aisle.
WHEW.

Then I as we wait for the ring bearers to go, I reach over to my couple, hand them a mint for a minty kiss, then send them down the aisle about two minutes later.

OMG. Look at this face. It's love I tell you, it's calm beautiful love.

I almost needed one of these!

15 minutes later, they are married!
My record was broken!

It's off to the reception and cocktail hour for the transition to switch lead roles with Andrea: I set up and manned the ceremony and cocktail hour, she took over at 7:30 for dinner and dancing.

I placed the bridal bouquet and pomanders on the head table.

Bridal bouquet was stephanotis, succulents, hydrangea, thistle, and dendrobiums
with a lace handle.
I also inverted the pomanders on the vase so that the ribbon hung down just for an added detail.

Look at how beautiful the night turned out to be...

I condensed the table down and kept running gifts and envelopes up to the room so that they would have an easier time at the end of the night.

The whole Inn at this point is dark and romantic with candle light.
Even in the daytime, it's dark in there and I joked with the gal up at the reservation desk that I felt like I should have a tan and black in my hand to which she replied "Me too!!"

We waited for the photo booth, Fotomio, to come and set up. He was the nicest guy, I saw some of his work from the wedding yesterday and I can fully recommend him to you. If you are looking for a photo booth in the Bay Area you must contact Moses at Fotomio.

I took a picture of him after he took a test shot of himself.
Kinda cool huh?

Then it was time to go, I couldn't resist one last picture. Doesn't this look so homey and intimate?

I felt a little CHRISTMAS CAROL-y but it was cute. I loved working this wedding and I thank the bride and groom for letting me a part of their day. I wish you both much love and success in your marriage, and I can dog-sit Ravioli anytime! :)

{And they lived happily ever after}

Two weddings and a Midterm

I had two weddings today. I'm pooped. Happy, but tired. I loved working on both, each was different, both were awesome, and the brides? They rock.

My Wild Child Bride and my YouTube bride got married!
Check it out. LOVE THEM!!!
I will have to blog about these later this week, like Tuesday or so.
I have midterms this week and a research paper due and now I am signing off to drink my coffee and start studying-Modern History-here I come! :(