Rustic Themed Wedding....

During my first Etsy sale back during the holidays, a bride contacted me and asked if I could create her wedding flowers. She wanted my white and black anemones, white tulips, purple violets, lily of the valley, snowdrops, blue delphiniums, and forget me nots. She also wanted more of a rustic look so we went with a twine rope finish for the stems and boutonnieres.

I wasn't sure how the bouquet would turn out but I love the contrast between the otherwise monochromatic white flowers against the black in the anemones and the purple violets. I love the twine finish.

The boutonnieres were a bit different. She wanted more of a wildflower look so we went with the blue delphiniums, forget me nots, snowdrops and purple violets. 

The bride wanted the corsages to mirror her bouquet, but didn't want the twine finish but rather white ribbon so I added loops of twine to tie the twine look in which I thought was a nice touch.

Wishing Melissa and her fiance a wonderful wedding day!

Creamy Yellow, Single Bloom Peony Bouquets for a Destination Wedding

 A client contacted me last year to see if I could create single bloom peonies for her 8 bridesmaids for her 2013 destination wedding. Her colors are yellow and gray. After some discussion she had really wanted the stems to be longer, but it was discussed after the flowers were already created. So instead of trying to redo the stems, we agreed to add really long silvery/gray bow/ribbon to elongate the look.

 I am sure the single bloom peony bouquets will be stunning with the bridesmaids' yellow dresses. I am hoping the bride shares photos with me after her wedding!

 

1920s Vintage Glam Inspired Wedding Flowers

My client, Susan, contacted me to see if I could create her wedding flowers for her wedding later this month in beautiful Cambria. Her dress is breathtaking. A 1920s vintage inspired gown. She told me that the colors she wanted were a deep eggplant purple and a burgundy red. She wasn't really picky about the flowers, but had a few favorites. Since it was vintage/glam, we agreed to use feathers and crystals to accent the look. I used different crystal embellishments for her bridesmaids and groomsmen.

I was fortunate the day I went to the floral supply shop to get my hands on these new crystal embellishments and frilly/playful feathers. They really added to the look I was going for. The flowers I agreed upon with Susan were gerbera daisies, anemones, dahlias, calla lilies, lilacs, sweet peas, and roses. 

Just before I started working on the order, Susan asked if I could make each of the boutonnieres slightly different. So, I chose one of the flowers and paired it with another one in the bouquet. Since Susan asked for gerberas, I felt having a burgundy gerbera paired with purple sweet peas would be nice for the groom, while the groomsmen would have a main purple flower with an accent of red lilac. There were also 2 special boutonnieres she wanted so I used the red as the main flower and purple as the accent. 

 She requested a ring pillow as well. I just love the crystal in the center! I've got her corsages left to assemble and a last minute hair flower to make, but wanted to share these photos with all of you!

Vow Renewal Bouquets

I was recently contacted by my client who is having a vow renewal and going on a Disney cruise. She wanted to know if I could create a bridal bouquet for their vow renewal as well as two petite bouquets for her daughters to also carry down the aisle.

She asked me for white cymbidium orchids. Her original wedding bouquet contained these orchids as well as white dendrobium orchids, but she was having purple orchid leis so she wanted me to incorporate purple orchids to match. 

 I have heard from past clients who get married on cruises that it's very limiting as to what they can get in terms of fresh flowers and they are not allowed to take the flowers off the ship and preserve them when they disembark. It seems unfortunate that this isn't allowed, but it's a great market for clay flowers. This way the bride can keep her bouquet forever!

 I'm almost finished with a big wholesale order and I've got a bunch of invitation orders I'm working on. I also worked on some watercolor background designs for one of the companies I work with, which was a departure from what I normally do, but I have to admit I enjoyed it.

Lots of hard work and multiple tries....

 I am not sure if you recall my mentioning that I was working on an order of 10 bouquets, 11 boutonnieres and 3 corsages. Well, that order is finally all complete. Sometimes between what the bride wants and what I understand what her needs are might be two different things. I think the lesson learned is I need to ask my clients to be more specific about what they want. 

At any rate, lots of hours of adding additional flowers to make my client happy. Granted, in the end, they bouquets look so much better than the original ones. Just hoping the bride is happy with the end result. I know she was very happy with how her bouquet turned out after all the changes and additions and I'm happy and relieved about that. :)

Here are some photos of the boutonnieres...

And the wrist corsages...

I still have a lot of orders to fill and new orders coming in both for summer weddings and wholesale orders. Lots to do...

More Items for my retailer...

As my Australian retailer prepares for the upcoming bridal expo in Melbourne in January, I was feverishly trying to finish all the items for her order. I just wanted to share pictures of the other items. I created everything from centerpieces, bouquet/boutonniere/corsage sets, cake toppers, hair flowers and favors.

This is the cake topper she requested I make for her faux cake she is having made by a local cake artist.

These two images are of the spotted orchid bouquet, boutonniere and corsage set.

Lots of hair flowers from garden roses, peonies, gardenias and orchids.
This is the matching corsage to the white ranunculus bouquet.
Lots of favor and gift box designs to give brides ideas of what is possible.


These are the orchid hair flower sets, but they are not only great as hair flowers, but can also be made as cake flowers too!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. One more blog post to share and then it's off to spend some quality time with my son...

Products for my retailer in Australia

I've been pretty busy trying to work on an order for the Australian retailer I'm working with. She's participating in a popular bridal expo in January and wants items to showcase in her booth.

She asked for several things from bouquets, centerpieces, hair flowers and cake toppers. Lots more still to do, but I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the pieces she ordered.She really liked the arrangements I did for the 30 year project that I worked on several months ago, but wanted them in taller vases. She loved the white and green, yellow and ivory, and corals and peaches arrangements the best.
She also asked for some bouquets, here's just one of them.More to come....

Butter Yellow, Ivory and Blues...

My client, Kim contacted me a while back and asked if I could create her wedding flowers. She wanted to tie in the colors of her wedding and the inspiration was this wonderful oriental vase lid that tied in their blue color palette as well as their ethnic background of French and Vietnamese. They did these lovely wooden, Asian inspired wedding invitations which also highlighted the blues and yellows.

Kim chose butter yellow and ivory ranunculus, light blue forget me nots which I colored to match the light blue in this vase lid and royal blue African violets.The bridesmaid bouquets are smaller versions of the bride's bouquet but with more yellow than ivory.
The groom, man of honor and groomsmen boutonnieres mimic that of the bouquets. The father's also have the same boutonnieres as the groomsmen.Kim asked me last minute if I could also create 2 additional boutonnieres and a corsage for other family members or friends who she wanted to include. For these we decided on ivory ranunculus with forget me nots and light yellow hyacinth blossoms.
The groom asked that his mother's corsage match his dad's boutonniere. While Kim asked me to create something to match her mother's dress colors. So we opted for ivory ranunculus with lilac colored hyacinth and a violet on a wristlet. Kim's grandmother is wearing pink so we created the same flowers but in the pink and ivory color palette.This order took some time because every ranunculus had so many petals! I'm already working on the next special project that's due on Tuesday as well as a few more items I need to finish before I hop on the plane for my workshop classes at Icing Inspirations!