Must-have Monochromatics

I've mentioned Jeff Leatham before...he's an innovative florist with millions of dollars to spend every year on displays for the George V Hotel in Paris. He travels the world to create amazing floral installations or to decorate for Hollywood parties, Celebrity weddings, and he's a staple for rock-n-roll lounges and fashion launches.

His biggest signature is the off-set balancing of bouquets as you can see here. Angles that make the flowers float or even just balanced atop a vase instead of IN it...if you see these kinds of looks, they're happily copying the best floral designer in the world right now. Kudos.

Another of his signature designs is being a minimalist in one aspect or another. He understands the three elements of design so well! Flower type, Color, and Size. Every arrangement is created by choices in these three areas, and most people think that they need large amounts of all three to have their wedding look rich and lush. Jeff proves that SO wrong. By pairing things down to only three, two, or even ONE single flower, you can play with the other elements and still have a gorgeous event. You can bring that single flower togther in all it's color options (roses may have been done to death, but imagine thousands of roses in every color of the rainbow!), or you can make gigantic arrangements of that single bloom and it speaks volumes. You can also choose a wide variety of flowers, but by making them all the same color, you can unify the entire look and create quite a statement...Don't you think it says that you are rich or important when you can get all of your flowers in just the same shade of pink? Jeff rarely ever does anything small, but if you make the other two statements you really don't have to make huge arrangements. Still it says something too when you make a gigantic centerpiece out of the cheapest possible flower.

After doing a wedding in all baby's breath, I smiled really big to see this all white event using only baby's breath, hydrangea, and orchids. Fabulous, as always, Jeff! Monochromatic was never so bold, sexy, and simply stunning!

Yellow Rose of Texas?

You would think that the state flower would be the Yellow Rose, right? At least, they should make it the yellow rose after the fame of the song, but no. The State Flower of Texas is actually the Bluebell! Who knew? Well, I'm headed to Texas tomorrow for a wedding over the weekend and thought I'd post some recent work in honor of the Lone Star State.

Brian and Amy decided to use the colors of the college where they met and fell in love...bright sunny yellow and deep navy blue. Amy was so fun to accomodate with requests like, Daisies, but not Gerber daisies, and even with a math degree she wanted it messy without being too messy...not uniform and straight but not droopy either. She had the specific color requests and if the blue wasn't a real honest deep navy blue we needed to try something else, but otherwise, she was so willing to hear ideas for alternate flowers and arrangements. The blue Delphiniums that we used are a cousin to the Texas Bluebell, and ironically enough, there are yellow roses there too! with the greenery and a couple of spots of white to add interest, it was a lovely collection of flowers.

The fun part came when the groom offered some assistance. The groom?? Yes, the groom! Brian had been an avid lover of Oragami for years and wanted to include at least one blue paper flower for his bride. The idea sparked and we all loved it! In the end, Brian made more than 20 flowers for us to use in ALL the arrangements, and they were a huge hit!

What a bright, beautiful, cheerful collection of fun! Thanks, Brian and Amy for allowing me to bring such loveliness to light!

Simplicity On Location

Erin and Nick planned and planned their Minnesota wedding for months, wanting it to be enjoyable for a wide variety of family and friends while keeping things intimate. Once they had hammered out all the details, they sprung their date on the family with a quick trip request for everyone. Amazingly, it worked out perfectly! They had family fly in from Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho. And between horseback riding excursions for the women, driving a tank for the men (yes, a real army tank) and babysitting coverage for those with children, The four day destination event was a well-oiled machine. And, even when a couple of small things went awry, everyone was calm and willing to shift. (I think celebratory vacations have that affect on people.)

In an effort to simplify her life, and keep her budget reasonable, Erin chose flowers for only herself, Nick, both mothers, and the tables...and all of them out of Baby's breath! The orders were placed, the wholesaler visited, and the construction began.

At the last minute, and while grocery shopping for the entire crew, Erin stumbled upon some tulips and princess lilies (alstromeria) at Costco and couldn't resist. Her bouquet was swapped, and the pinks played beautifully against her vintage tea length 50's find.

Erin chose a few sprigs of baby's breath for her hair and the rest graced the candlelit tables for dinner.

Erin and Nick had some fun in their formal shoot embracing the traditional mansion where the wedding was held and played at 'house' from the turn of the century...very Norman Rockwell!

It was such a great event to be a part of and I'm so glad to have more good vendors in far away places that make destination weddings possible, even for a florist!

Congratulations to Erin and Nick...Play on!