Every Last Detail

Every bride wants to focus on the details, and each of them deserves their dreams realzied on their wedding day. Budgets can cut a lot out of those dreams sometimes. That is why so many services, websites and blogs have cropped up lately, giving tips and connecting brides to vendors that do things differently or less expensively.

In the midst of cutbacks and concerns, the Every Last Detail blog has been a great resource for inspiration and style, while not sacrificing what is most important to you. Remember to focus your budget on the things that will make you the most happy, and then get help finding ways to get the other wedding fun in different and less expensive ways. The Every Last Detail blog specifically mentions not sacrificing your photography, but gives ideas on alternating centerpieces to save money. What great advice! Feel free to check it out and get some great ideas on how to make your wedding as beautiful as you want it to be while keeping closer to the budget your dad wants it to be.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Purple Posies

Several of the brides that I've worked with lately have chosen to use dramatic deep purple/black lilies or soft purple antique hydrangea or both! What a beautiful combination!



For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Dave and Lori's College Class

When Dave and Lori came to me with a fairly simple flower request, orange roses, white freesia and carnations with silver accents, I thought it was going to be a pretty easy gig. The fun came when Dave called me back and asked me to turn the carnations a good deep blue as a suprise for his fiance! He he he. The color combo had to do with their school history, and he assured me that it was going to be something that Lori would LOVE, and since he was paying for it, I went along with the present. Apparently, she hadn't thought that the blue was even possible, and she had settled on the idea of only getting orange and white flowers for her wedding. Dave wanted to show her that blue flowers were possible, and I had a blast dip-dying the carnations into a lovely navy color. The combination of colors turned out to be really fun, and Lori was thrilled when I delivered what she hadn't known could be created.



After delivering the flowers, some drama came up when the cake didn't show. I happened to still be around when the baker finally came along (following some stern phone calls from the bride's sister) and they asked me to take a few of the extra blooms and help the cake when it wasn't quite what had been ordered. At the end of the night, the lights, colors, and suprises made for a great event. Thanks again to Dave and Lori for including me in their fun.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

It's good to be married to a photographer!

The flowers from one of the weddings I did on Saturday made it onto the One a Day Blog that my husband has been doing for 2010. It's a great project, and I'm flattered to be featured. Jon is such a talented photographer, and I loved these flowers, so the combination coming together on his blog is awesome! Enjoy not only my fame, but feel free to follow the blog and enjoy the daily photos that can come from an artist even on something as simple as a cell phone camera!

For more flowr fun, feel free to visit my website!

The Bane Of My Existence!

Ever wondered how long it takes to prep roses for a wedding bouquet? It is directly proportional to how many thorns are on that type of rose! Welcome to a look at how most of muy evenings go when I'm not actually building arrangements.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

LDS Bride Blog

One of our absolute favorite weddings of all time was featured this week on the LDS Bride Blog!



Thanks again to my fantatstic hubby, Jon Woodbury, for the phenomenal photos, Spencer Hale at Giant Brothers for the awesome video, and yours truly for the flowers. Kylee and Jason brought together such a great co-op of vendors and family and friends, and all the fun we had together has kept us tight! Love you all, and conggrats again on the notice on the LDS Bride Blog.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Flowers, more than the language of love....Language. Period.

As summer is in full bloom, with flowers popping up all around you, I thought it would be a good time of year to tell you a little history about the flowers that you may be considering for your wedding.

Did you know that there is an entire language to flowers? This language started in Constantinople in the 1600s, and was brought to England in 1716 by Lady Mary Wortley Montague who had spent time in Turkey with her husband. The interest in flowers and their meanings then moved to France where there was even a book printed called "Le Language des Fleurs" which was basically a catalog of over 800 floral signs. Many of the floral phonics were toned down in the English translation at the time of Queen Victoria because they were quite lusty and risque, shocking the delicate court. But, nearly every flower known to man earned a meaning, and suitors soon had quite a time expressing themselves with a simple trip to the florist. Not only did every bloom mean something on its own, but, a group of flowers together could also mean something entirely different than the individual blooms did by themselves...and the placement of those flowers could change the meaning again! The color, size, number of leaves, with or without thorns, everything about a flower as well as how it was placed took on a sentiment that, if a woman could interpret it, enabled her to find out what her lover wanted to tell her. (And I thought men were confusing on their own! Guys with flowers are mind-boggling!)

If you are planning on some exotic blooms for your wedding, or simply want a lovely garden rose, consider the meanings of each of your flowers before finalizing that order with your florist. You may want to take a minute to delete a noxious weed, or, if there's a special feeling you'd like to express, find it in the list and see if your florist can add the extra sentiment to your bouquet. Below is a short list of what only roses in different colors say to the one you love, but you can also link to a complete list of posies and their old Constantinople-ite meanings here as well as at one of my favorite resources lately, Wikipedia to assure that your flowers are saying everything that you want them to!

Red roses of any hue = "I love you"
Deep red = Unconscious beauty
White = Spiritual love and purity
Bridal white = Happy love
Yellow today = Joy and gladness; (historically they meant a decrease of love and infidelity)
Coral = Desire
Orange = "I am fascinated and enthusiastic"
Lavender = Love at first sight
Light pink = Grace, gentility and admiration
Dark pink = "Thank you"
General, pale-colored = Friendship
A single rose = Simplicity
Two roses joined together = Engagement
A dozen roses = The ultimate declaration of love
White and Red = Unity
Red and yellow = "Congratulations!"
Yellow and orange = Passionate thoughts

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Ever wonder what I do when no one is looking?

As a florist...a WEDDING florist no less...most of my daily work is actually figuring out what brides want. I coordinate designs according to their wishes...even drawing out ideas sometimes to make sure that we are all on the same page and so that the flowers I deliver on the big day are exactly what every bride has asked for. (Or more than what she asked for if I can help it.)

Once in a while though, for gifts, personal events, and for trade shows, I get to play and create entirely out of my own brain. I've even been lucky enough to have clients give me a couple of small instructions and then let me have free reign and a great time doing what I wanted to do as a surprise to them.

If you're prepared to enter my brain for a moment, here are some fun examples of projects I have done when no one is instructing me!



For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Lavender Love

Jordan works as a regional rep for the Young Lavender Living Farm in Mona, Utah, and chose to hold her wedding on their beautiful grounds. Unseasonably awful torrential downpours added some crazy coordinating of umbrellas, and the patio luncheon was moved inside, but the skies lifted now and then and made for some fantastic pictures. I also loved that they gave me permission to cross the road to the fields and harvest a few bushels of fresh lavender to add to the centerpieces! What a beautiful event!



Thanks again to Jordan and Zac for the awesome fun of such a beautiful wedding!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Where are your flowers from, and when are they cut?

Have you ever stopped to think about the timeline that your wedding flowers face before they end up in your manicured hands on your wedding day? It’s really quite an interesting ride!...and it might explain why so many florists do business the way that they do. Care to take a ride?


Whether you choose roses grown in Mexico, tulips out of Amsterdam, daisies from Washington, or lilies from the coast of California, all your flowers follow a certain route. Growers use regular growing seasons as well as greenhouses to harvest flowers at their best. Most growers at this point are so familiar with their flowers that they’ve cheated Mother Nature and can grow their stock in waves that can be had no matter what time of year you want them. Those flowers are the readily available, standard flowers that you see everywhere…as mentioned…roses, lilies, daisies and more. More unique flowers that may not be used as often, such as lily of the valley, peonies, amaryllis, and hyacinth, don’t have the same year-round schedule. If the flowers you want are rare, you’ll be subject to their regular growing seasons as well as higher prices for their rarity.


Once a flower is cut on the farm, it is taken to the processing plant, gets inspected, is bunched, and is packaged for shipping. Shipping can take a few days depending on the buyers who paid the most to get that wave of flowers…prices at the grower varies too depending on how many wholesalers are buying big numbers of product before it dies in the fields. Delivery also depends on schedules, distances, and truck availability.


Once they arrive at their destination city, the flowers are hauled in to wholesale locations. I personally use two wholesalers local to Salt Lake City, but also know of half a dozen more just in the valley. All of these locations have standing orders of regular flowers that are sold to retail locations and florists on a pretty predictable schedule. The flowers are bought in bulk to keep their prices low and margins high. Some wholesalers also sell to the public, and so have to stock extra flowers for walk-in traffic…the generic as well as some more rare varieties. A good percentage of these products wilt while waiting, hiking prices.


Once the flowers are received in bulk bunches at the retail locations, designers create arrangements that will optimize their use of the flowers they’ve received. Creating about three or four arrangements over and over again also cuts down on work time…which is why you see so many repeats on their shelves. Faster, cheaper, and easier…with a good margin? Now you know how retailers stay in business when they have to pay for coolers, store space, and advertising!


Interesting, right? It's quite a road between the place where they sprout and the bouquet you sniff lovingly on your wedding day. Flowers travel the world, and I love being a step in the voyage.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Time Lapse Flower Wedding?

There are a lot of advantages to having a photographer for a husband...amazing portraits of our family, LOTS of job options in different avenues of photos, as well as the fact that he possesses a great eye for color and design which means that his opinion always brings some weight to what I do too. The down side?...millions of pictures of me in the most inopportune moments. I can't count how many pictures I've seen of myself asleep on the couch or that were just supposed to be test shots for his lighting set-up on a fashion shoot, but that he keeps for his own amusement.

Well...a new option on his camera has created an interesting education for both of our jobs...time lapse. I did a wedding a couple of weeks ago, and Jon set up his camera on a 30-second timer and cranked out a time-lapse look at how I work. As you watch, understand that I work into the wee-small hours of the morning making sure that the flowers will be at their peak for delivery times...which means, yes, I'm in my sweats and my hair is pulled up so that I can tumble into bed once everything is in the cooler. Yes, he also shifted the location of the camera at one point, so I apologize for the shots of my behind, and thank you for assuming that, yes, I'm starting to look pregnant...that explains the belly.



Jessica's cute pink and green daisy, rose, and ranunculus wedding was a treat, and there were a couple of highlights! While waiting for the bride at the Salt Lake LDS Temple, some other patron stood looking at the flowers we had brought and asked how we got them green. My husband knows quite a bit about flowers at this point, and started to answer that there actually are a few varieties of flowers that grow naturally green...when I had to stop him and inform them both that those green ranunculus they were discussing were spray painted. Many compliments about how clean and natural they looked followed the disbelief, and that is always great! Also, the bride in front of Jessica carried a similarly sized bouquet, although the stems on her flowers massed together, and I will refer you back to my previous discussions on 'claw hand'. Her colors were similar, although more pale than bright, and she even had similar flower choices to Jessica's bouquet, so it was a great boost to the ego for both of us when the bride in front looked back a little wistfully at Jessica's bouquet and said that she wished her bouquet looked like THAT one. Excellent fun!

I hope you enjoy a little look, not only into the final product on the day of delivery, but at the process of time it takes to repetitively create a cohesive wedding floral spread like Jessica's. A little more understanding about why you hire pro for this part too, eh?...no bride wants to cut into her beauty sleep if she can help it.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

I love getting to share this!

I've said it before, and I'll happily say it again and again...My husband is a fantastic photographer! This morning he posted a new video he's created about his top ten reasons why everyone should consider photography to capture not only major events in their lives like a wedding, but for EVERY reason that changes them. We've had amazing clients ask for photos for all kinds of reasons...to document their classic car passion, the birth of a child, Senior pictures and Quincinieras, even to capturing how beautifully someone stands in the sun before begining chemotherapy treatments for a tumor.

Share the beautiful images with me, and just a tip...grab a tissue first! I have watched it so many times, and still cry through every one.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website and for more from my hubby see more at www.jonwoodbury.com

Attack of the Three Foot Tulips!

I am well known for being a loyal and consistent person. When I found my favorite wholesaler years ago, I honestly stopped looking for any competing information and just purchased everything I needed through them. As far as I was concerned, if they didn't have it, it wasn't to be had. Their prices are quite fair. Their staff, phenomenal. Why WOULD I look elsewhere?

Answer: A bride.

Amy wanted tulips. Easy enough. I get tulips all the time and they're lovely. But, no. Amy wanted LONG tulips. She had a grand vision of three foot long stems supporting lovely bulbs of white all throughout her reception. It was her only request. I called my wholesaler, and for the first time in about five years, they had to tell me, "No." Tulips they could get, but the longest stems they could promise were 12 inches, and they just had no other alternative to that. I was stumped. It was my brilliant husband who looked at my confused face and asked if I couldn't just call around to some other wholesalers and see what they might be able to do for me. Huh? Call someone else? That's crazy, right?

Well, for the most part, every other wholesaler I called either tried to tell me that tulips didn't exist at lengths of three feet, or that, more honestly, they just couldn't get them in that length. I did finally find one wholesaler who took a pause. She asked if she could call her grower directly and get back to me. Sure. When Nikole called me back, she said that that they still couldn't PROMISE three foot stems, but she had secured a section of the garden for me, had the farmer put my name on that square of tulips, and that he had promised not to cut them when they would normally be cut...he'd just let them keep growing for another few weeks to the date that I would need them, and then at least I could have them be as long as his corner square would allow. SOLD!



I'm still a loyal person...I just happen to be loyal to two wholesalers now. They both have limitations, and they both have amazing strengths...which usually overlap so that my needs are met by visiting both of them consistently. Amy's wedding was the first of many combinations of supplies from both wholesalers to my own little neck of the industry, and it was a smashingly beautiful start to a polygamous relationship. Thank you, Amy for expanding my horizons, abilities, and connections. Your beautiful tulips stand for so much to me. And we both enjoyed being told that your wedding made the top five of favorites for the staff at the Old Meeting House!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Sonia and Anthony - Rock on Rockabilly!

Sonia and Anthony moved back to Utah from Washington, and spent months looking for a photographer and florist that they liked. My hubby and I were lucky enough to win the place of honor for this totally unique wedding! Between the antique cars, costume changes, and touches Americana, it was way too much fun. I hear that the band (flown in from California to perform at the reception) even lit their instruments on fire! Yeehaw, baby!

The flowers included gerbera daisies, freesia, hypericum berries, all in bold red and white with a bit of greenery from seeded eucalyptus. The challenge was balancing the iconic Coke bottles in the center of the folded paper classic cars without anything falling over and without getting anything wet. All 30 centerpieces ended up being so fun, and the daisy bouquets and boutonnieres simple and fresh! Thanks again to Sonia and Anthony for the unique fun and style!



For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Proud, Proud!

I know what an amazing photographer my husband is, and I tell people all the time about how much talent he has, but it's still great to see professionals agree with me!



Jon Woodbury Photography is being featured today on the Utah Bride Blog! Two of his favorite weddings from last year (or ever) are front and center on one of Utah's premiere bridal blogs. Jon's also started a giveaway...Leave a comment (preferably about how much you love it;) on their blog after the post and he will review them and pick a random comment out of a hat (...I know, pretty low-tech.) and give that person a $50 Jon Woodbury Photography gift certificate to be used towards a photo session, prints, or even a fine art print from my soon-to-launch Fine Art Photography Gallery!

Thanks so much to the great people at Utah Bride Blog as well as to Brittnie, Alex, Blayr, and Brock for the amazing fun with the Holmgren family for including us in their amazing weddings!



ALSO!

Another favorite wedding of Jon's is being featured in the Utah Valley Bride Magazine for 2010, and they just posted info on that feature on their blog! Colleen and Derek had one of the most stylish events of our year, and the custom gown and top hats created some awesome opportunities for Jon to get some stellar photos throughout the entire event. Thanks to Utah Valley Bride and Colleen and Derek for all the fun!



That's my honey! Congrats for the praise, babe! I knew it...but it's still a kick to see you getting noticed! Love you!

Katie and William

Heaven knows that I love it when a bride makes choices that are different from the norm. So when Katie approached me with a couple of REALLY different ideas, I was hooked. Katie had very little flower knowledge, but she knew that she wanted something that had never been done before, her colors were bright and vivid, and she had some stone and wood accents created by her father that she wanted to incorporate into the centerpieces. I can work with that! The only other restriction that she had was a hard-rocking fiance named William who was sporting waist-length hair, multiple piercings and tats including sleeves, and a very small desire to deal with flowers even on his wedding day. Hmm. So we need to 'man up' the flowers, so to speak? Challange accepted!

We used bright red and yellow sunflowers, violet orchids, blue thistle, spiney protea pins, and celocia...it's the one that looks like brains! I even included a small yellow sphere called a billy ball in honor of the groom. Weeds, tropicals, brains and balls?...add in some silver metal wrapping around the flower fun, and we ended up with some truly different, unique and incredibly cool arrangements! Thanks again, Katie for the awesome experience, and you too, William, for enjoying the manliness with us!



For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Credit where due...

My husband was the initial photographer on the Vegas shoot, but was really magnanimus enough to share the time with a couple of other photographers attending the same convention who had a workshop that they needed to fill. Julie Parker and her cute crew joined along for a couple of our first locations and then got Andrea and John to go back out later on (John had ditched the suit by then, but Andrea took every opportunity to flash the eyes, hair, shoes and glam!) and they got some more great photos. Julie is so great in her fashion focus photography, and I'm so flattered that she mentioned my flowers in her blog of the fun.

More of my hubby's great photos to come, but enjoy a different look at the fashion side of Vegas Bling!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Peacock Bling in Vegas

John and Andrea were married in a quick Vegas ceremony 14 years ago. This weekend found them in Vegas again, but this time they had a designer dress, custom suit, fashionable flowers, and a fantastic photographer!

I was lucky enough to get to put together the flowers for the shoots, and the only requests Andrea gave me were peacock feathers and bling! YAY! I couldn't narrow down the design ideas, so I built one bouquet of simple dark purple lilies and aspadistra leaves, with golden brown trailing beads and feathers tied in purple and green ribbons. The other bouquet utilized a silver holder and had cybidium orchids, cream lilies tinged in purple/pink, orange spray roses, plum freesia, and antique green hydrangea. There were silver and clear beaded leaves, more peacock feathers, and tiny diamond butterflies that I made to hover over some of the roses. I had way too much fun!

You know it's good when the bride can't decide which one to carry and so shoots with both bouquets! Great fun!

Thanks so much to John and Andrea for all of the Vegas fun, and for being such great fun to shoot!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

I Scoured The Valley!

My wholesaler is awesome. Anytime I order flowers, and run the six blocks over to their location to pick them up, I can rest assured that anything else I may possibly need will also be there waiting for me. Ribbons, pins, floral tape, vases, foam...ANYTHING. They have a perfectly appointed and fully stocked bunch of shelves that carry everything from fake flowers to feathers, and baubles to butterflies. Well, for the first time in four years, today they didn't have what I needed. Ack! Apparently, the feather supplier had come in that week at a crazy busy moment for the shop, and in the press, the peacock feathers were forgotten. Not a single turqouise eye peering at me from any corner of the store. Curses!!! What to do?

I'm heading to Las Vegas tomorrow for a fashion shoot on Saturday, followed by a bridal shoot on Monday. My bride for Monday had only two requests...Peacock Feathers and Sparkles! I have several options on the sparkles, but I only had four peacock feathers in hand, so the search began. Even if my wholesaler didn't have them this time, I had to find them somewhere.

Several stores that I tried had no feathers, and the ones that did carry them were hugely overpriced. I finally found exactly what I needed at a Michael's craft store of all places, out in the midst of West Valley, Utah. (West Side...Represent!) Now my bags are packed, my floral sheers are sharpened, and I'm confident that this new wholesaler (recommended for freshness by my current wholesaler) in Vegas will have lovely flowers for me bright at early on Monday morning. Ahh. My drive tomorrow will be so much more enjoyable now, and I can't wait to post the pics of the peacock fun!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Name That Flower

For those of you still pondering, the answers about the flower names are below!



Upper left is Hyacinth, upper right is a Dahlia, lower left is a freesia, and lower right is Agapanthus. Aren't they lovely?! Such fun flowers to work with too. Enjoy knowing the names of a few more flowers that you can ask your florist about!


For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

What Flowers Come In My Color?

Every bride considers flowers for her wedding day...who doesn't want to have some gorgeous flower confection in her hand for all of those photos?! Bouquets are great for so may reasons...it gives such a great color splash, it nods to the style of the rest of your event, and, in the end, it's just something for you to do with your hands! But, what flowers to use?

Can you name any of these?


Most people can pick out a rose, a lily, a tulip and a daisy when you ask them, but there are hundreds of flowers out there and thousands of combinations that you can choose for a simple bouquet, and that can get overwhelming! Google Images is a great way to look up flowers...but you have to already know a name that you can type in before a picture will pop up. So, how does a normal person find fun flowers for their wedding?

Flowers.Org, of course! Flowers.Org is a British site dedicated to everything flowers! Link to their page and you can look up flowers by season, style, and even by color. As you're looking at a list of names that fall within the purple category, you can even click on the name and take a look at a picture of that flower! It's a fantastic site to help the flower fundamentals in putting together some ideas for a unique and beautiful bouquet using more than just roses and daisies.

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Wrapping Up Imagination

So many of my brides order a bouquet with wrapped stems and think nothing more of it. I smile every time that I surprise girls by asking them what KIND of wrap they may prefer. Huh? How many different ways can a bunch of stems BE wrapped, you ask? I haven't stopped counting! To get these girls started thinking about the kinds of twists, bows, pins and colors they can use in wrapping their bouquets, my fantastic husband helped me put together a brochure to demonstrate a few of the more common wraps I've used over my career. We didn't want to stiffle any imaginitive new options, but feel free to use these as a springboard to more fun that is entirely your own!


Click on the image to view an enlarged view!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Calle and Dustin

Yes, I am asked to use daisies often. I'll admit that they didn't use to be a favorite for me, and I would groan inwardly when I got requests about the blooms. When Calle came along, I thought it would be more of the same...oh, how wrong I was!

Not only did Calle have a very specific idea of what she wanted her wedding to be, and what she wanted it to look like ten months in advance of the date when we met with her, but she stuck to those ideas right to the very end! Choosing daisies in a citrus combination of a melon pink, orangie-orange, lemon yellow, and her signature lime green, the combinations were so fun to see! She wore a single orange daisy in her hair at her engagement session on the Heber Creeper Railroad. At her bridal session at Lagoon she made sure to wear her green-bottomed shoes, carried a lime green umbrella (which came in handy through the small showers we experienced), but she also got her choice of cars and seats throughout the park, and every time she chose the green car closest to her! She was always aware and prepared!

For her wedding, each of the bridesmaids wore coordinating tracksuits and flip-flops during the decorating hours and then put on their gowns which had been tailored specifically to coordinate those colors again...matching their flowers to their dresses. If the maid wore a green dress, her accent colors of ribbon, heels, and flowers were white. If she were in pink, the yellow accents showed up through every detail. It was planned down to the last tiny thing, and I was thrilled to be included in something so well designed!

A couple of other sweet touches to the day were a tiny green boutonniere for her four year old son as well as small photo frames attached to her bouquet of her mother and brother who had both passed away, but who were loved and remembered. Thanks so much again to Calle for all the amazing fun, fantastic design, and the beginnings of daisy love!

For more flower fun visit my Florilista website!

Weddings and Women's Basketball?

Forget that most atttendees at a University of Utah vs. Brigham Young University Women's Baseketball game are parents of the team or 10 year old girls of school alumni...the U of U combined forces with our friends at Bride Access to throw a really fun wedding show! We were invited by Bride Access to present a booth on the concourse of the Huntsman Centr during the game, and we had a nice afternoon rubbing elbows with other vendors and handing out treats to the attendees of the game. Today, we got video footage of the half-time fashion show courtesy of The Perfect Dress...models escorted by Swoop. Fun stuff!

Summer and JD

What a great summer for our fantastic Yellow Rose of Texas, Summer! It takes a special girl to choose bright sunny yellow as her wedding colors, but Summer was certainly up to the challenge! (She did one-handed cartwheels in her wedding dress...both at the bridal shoot as well as on her wedding day, and check out the sassy yellow cowgirl boots!) The amazing group of people in her wedding party were also a huge amount of fun, and seeing every one of them in dresses, tuxes, and holding flowers at the Salt Lake LDS Temple was amazing! The rain threatened, and Summer teared up herself to think that her fantastic outdoor reception could be ruined on account of the weather. But, the sun shone down at just the right time, and the entire event, from the candles floating in the pool to the paper lanterns hanging from the trees, was beautiful...with Sunmer as the perfect smiling centerpiece, and a smiling JD at her side.

Simple yellow roses combined with hydrangea, gerbera daisies, and tulips for a beautiful set of arrangements, but the bride kept the monkey's tails for herself and the groom...a fun way to set their flowers apart from the rest. Summer made the vases for the centerpieces herself, scrapbooking pictures, phrases, and fun from her courship with JD, and adding flowers to it all brought the whole look together. Thanks, you two, for allowing me to be part of such an amazing and completely fun event!!!

See more great flower photos at my Florilista website!

Silk Flower Fun!

Most artificial flowers aren't necessarily silk anymore, simply for the fact that there are so many shapes and colors that can be created with so many other substances, but I still love the sound of "Silk Flowers." It brings to mind beautiful memories of luxurious dresses from the 40’s and French couture from any era.

It's come up several times of late...brides that have multiple events who don't want to pay for two separate fresh flower weddings...or brides that just love their flowers and want to keep them for more than a day or two...what if you want fake flowers?

Over the last couple of years, I've actually made several fake flower bouquets, just for the fun of making them. A good number of them have ended up in bridal photos shoots done by my husband when one of our clients were so focused on hair and makeup or the wrinkles in the dress that they just happened to forget the flowers for the bridal session. Most people are surprised at how realistic some of these arrangements can look on film, and I really enjoy that surprise! Here are a few examples of how fake flowers can be fun, pretty, and pretty realistic.

Orchids, Callas, Berries, and Grass

Melanie emailed me from New Jersey with a half-inch jpeg of a bouquet and asked if it was something I could recreate for her Salt Lake City wedding. With the help of a zoom, magnifying glass, and some insightful guessing, I was happy to recreate this beautiful assymetrical bouquet using phalenopsis and dendrobium orchids, 3-foot calla lilies as well as mini calls, hypericum berries, and bear grass. I was also able to create some boutonnieres and bouquets of the mini callas for the bridesmaids and gromsmen with an orchid boutonniere for the groom. Using the nearly 4-foot callas in the centerpieces added a great connection through the event with orchids and bear grass on the cake. It was such a beautiful wedding, a beautiful party, and such beautiful flowers to work with! This "Orchid Wedding" is a consistent favorite with all my clients and is definitely worth a mention in my review of my best and favorite work. Thanks again, Melanie for all of the fun!

Thanks for all the fun!

We had such a great time at the Grand America Bridal Extravaganza last week! We know it was tough to try and pull yourselves out of the house on a cold Saturday morning...much less so when that morning was the day after the new year...but it was great to get to meet so many of you and talk flowers and photography, so thanks for taking the time!

It's difficult to go wrong in such a gorgeous venue, and we loved filling our booth with the photos and flower accents that we hoped set us apart from our neighbors.


One of my favorite things when it comes to trade shows is to play with the flowers that strike my fancy. For a show like this, I have no customer with specific requests...it's just me. Things were made a little bit difficult because of the holiday. My wholesalers were closed for the weekend starting on Thursday, so I had to be very careful which flowers I chose...I needed flowers that would be hearty and would last the weekend, and I wanted some colors and styles that would appeal to brides with various tastes.

My first choice was Stargazer Lilies. Not only do they take about four days to bloom (I still have a lovely arrangement on my coffee table that is continuing to bloom), but they are strong and striking! I added some soft pink roses and some draping seeded eucalyptus accents to make a fairly formal bridal bouquet. To add to the fun, I used a floral shaped gold bouquet holder and sparkling brown bling to bring out a new look to the classic pink and brown that we all love.


Next, I decided on something to the far end of the spectrum from formal...baby's breath! Gypsophila is a sweet, fun, and simple flower that most people remember from their parent's wedding photos from the 70's or 80's. Baby's breath got a bad rap after being over-used and abused in the floral industry during those decades, but I wanted to show that any flower can look different when you have some imagination! Instead of using it as an accent or a filler the way that makes everyone I know roll their eyes, I chose to make it the main flower in a solo-flower bouquet. All Gypso...all the time! By trimming some of the branches to keep the flowers into a textured pom, I had so much fun taking this cute little flower to a new level. The shape took on a tree-like quality to me, so I chose some green and brown ribbons to wrap the stems in my pinned ballet technique for the ground effect, and then added some blue butterflies in the "sky". It's just such a happy spring bouquet that I still smile every time I look at it.


To bring in more color and some styles to the middle of the road between formal and casual, I chose some vibrant orange calla lilies, spray roses, and alstromeria (princess lilies). A classic shape of bouquet was offset by using a little bit of bear grass springing out as well as caging the blooms. I was particularly proud of the stem wrap on this one, simply for the fact that there is only ONE PIN in the entire thing. The stems were wrapped in two large aspadistra leaves and then were wrapped in more bear grass to hold it all in place. Lots of wrapping, overlapping, and twisting, ending in a single pin at the top, and you have a great looking, clean-green grouping of stems!


My final bouquet was a cross between the classic and the sweet. Another single bloom bouquet in white, but this time made up entirely of stephanotis blooms. My silver bouquet holder looked great, but I knew there would be a bit of space showing between the blossoms, so I wrapped the head of floral foam in an extra aspadistra leaf and pinned it in place. Each stephanotis bloom was also pinned in place with sterling pins right through the center, creating a great effect of metal in the petal. I had brought some sleek silk grey and black ribbons, but a single bow just didn't seem like enough...so I kept going! I added loop after loop of the layered ribbons to back the stephanotis flowers and pinned the loops in place with more of the sterling pins. The final bouquet turned out better than I'd hoped. One more reason why a little bit of imagination and simplicity can be totally new and different! Also another reason why following a feeling with flowers is what turns fun into fashion!


Thanks so much again to all of you that stopped to chat or if you even just picked up a card to view at home...I had a great day and hope that you did too! I'm already starting to consider my options for the next show. Hmm...blue and purple next time? Daisies and hydrangea? I'll ponder!