Nothing but Gardenias...

There's definitely a pattern going on with my flower making. I switched from making nothing but peonies to nothing but gardenias. My next order is all about plumerias. :)This particular client fell in love with an invitation I did for my client, Kristy way back but wanted a gardenia instead of a magnolia motif but loved the pink and brown combination. She ordered invitations, a guest book, favor boxes and hair flowers. I just finished her order yesterday and it's all packed and ready to ship.It just so happened yesterday, when I went to the floral supply store they had some extra FRESH gardenias they were giving away and I got to take home 2! They smell so delicate and sweet! I took a couple of photos. My goal is to one day master the gardenia so you really can't tell if it's real or fake. :)Seriously a lot of plumerias being made for my next client's wedding. Will post as soon as I'm done with that order.

What do you do when you can't get fresh gardenias?

So what do you do when you can't get fresh gardenias? Hmm. clay flowers is a good option! :) I have a client who lives on the East Coast but is getting married in Sweden in July. She really wanted gardenias but it's not possible for her bouquet or her hair in Sweden at the time of her wedding. So she asked if I could make gardenias for her and incorporate them into her fresh flower bouquet. I've only done this once before and it was when I first started doing clay flowers. I decided to use a matte varnish on the gardenias for the bouquet to help keep the moisture away from the clay flowers. The matte varnish ended up giving the flowers a much softer and more realistic feel than I had expected.I am looking forward to seeing how Alexandra's bouquet turns out with the combination of the clay flowers and fresh flowers.
Alexandra also fell in love with the hair flowers that I did for Kristy and Hector's Big Island wedding which was featured on The Bride's Cafe blog, and so I recreated those for her. This is my first client to get married in Sweden so now I can say my clay flowers will make it's way to Sweden!