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