Spring in an American Garden

I am always so flattered when people see my portfolio and choose their wedding flowers based off of designs that I'm proud of and worked really hard on.  Chelsie was referred to me by a couple of other clients and as we talked, she said that she had enjoyed my 'English Garden" wedding and wanted something similar...but with brighter colors. Her color scheme was a pretty country green, so she wanted to add some springy colors like bright happy yellow, purple, pink, and white, with just a hint of a red tulip as her signature flower. That sounded like a wonderful American garden to me! Bright happy tulips, iris, and daffodils. (Don't they look happy?)

She wanted some natural looking planted pots, so I had some fun in the garden section at my Home Depot picking up pots and plates with ivy plants to re-pot. I used a small vase in each pot and then surrounded it with dirt and ivy roots. The fresh flowers were then added to the vase section and filled it all out beautifully. Arranging it that way also allowed every piece to be taken home and enjoyed for months to come because the wilting flowers could be replaced with fresh flowers, stones, succulents, or any sort of arrangement that the new owner had a feeling towards. The ivy would continue to grow if watered regularly, and the flowers were easy to trade out.

The twist for me was that she wanted topiary! How fun! Difficult to accomplish well, and I stewed long and hard over how to make them work. I finally had a light bulb moment and kept the same posts and plates idea as the smaller arrangements, but bought a bag of quick-dry cement and had quite a day mixing up batches, securing posts in the middle, ensuring that they were perfectly level, but still saving room for the vases and roots of the ivy. Once the day arrived, securing flowers and ivy to the wet foam spheres atop the topiary took quite a bit of work...working in 4-D to make sure every surface is covered and attractive...is difficult but I think it was well worth it. And don't get me started on delivery! I wish I'd gotten a picture of my 5 year old daughter holding two of the posts to either side of her car seat to keep them from tipping over for me.

Thanks again, Chelsie! What lovely fun and it's always entertaining to be asked to do something new!

The Beauty of Birds of Paradise

When Aleasha called, she was a little nervous...she wanted to use birds of paradise and ONLY birds of paradise...and she wasn't sure if it was even possible. She'd seen some pictures but didn't know if they were real, if they were rare, or if they were only possible for the rich and famous. I assured her that I'd used Birds before and could get her the bouquet she wanted. Surprisingly, she wanted a different bouquet for her bridal photo shoot than the bouquet she wanted for her wedding day, but didn't know how she wanted it to be different. We threw ideas back and forth and finally agreed to use fewer birds for the bridals, but add in another flower to add some interest and texture  For the bridals we included some beautiful purple freesia and she loved it! 

For the wedding day itself, she wanted to include some other flowers for the wedding party because no one else but the bride and groom were going to get the Birds of Paradise. She'd liked it so well in her other bouquet that we agreed to use freesia again, as well as some calla lilies, and all the flowers would be in white to set them off against the colored dresses of the bridesmaids and the suits of the groomsmen. She had some small vases for centerpieces, some for tall buds, and some sporting beta fishes in the colors of the birds of paradise and the white lilies. She wanted a floating flower in the vases with the fish and birds and lilies in the bud vases, and I think the fun simple lines made everything come together. All that was left was a smaller simple tossing bouquet that wouldn't poke an eye out, so the freesia came to the rescue once again.

Leasha told me later how much she'd loved seeing her vision come true when she hadn't been sure that even part of it were possible. Those are some of my favorite compliments!...that a bride can tell me the names of her favorite flowers and trusts me to be able to put them together in a way that will be beautiful for her day.

Congratulations, Leasha!

A Variation on the Classic 50's Wedding Bouquet

Damien and Krista were such a pleasure to work with! She knew that she wanted soft, summery colors of pinks, creams, purples, and blues...blue being her primary color (check out the gorgeous navy blue sapphire wedding ring), but after that, she really didn't know what else to add. We settled on a classic 50's tea flower theme that she'd seen on my website, with roses, freesia, princess lilies (aspadistra) and the deep blue delphiniums that tied in her signature color. 

The twist to Krista's event was that she wanted to marry in lovely Missoula, Montana, the town where she grew up, and there really weren't any flower options for a destination wedding florist in the area. Road trip it is! We ordered the flowers in Utah and drove the 8 hours to the site in Montana, flowers cooling in the trunk.

The gorgeous Gibson Mansion was home to the event, and the owners could not have been more kind or accommodating. We were able to distribute flowers quickly and easily. They even ended up pinning several of the party members while exterior centerpieces were being placed. (expert pinning too!)

 The beautiful dining room made for easy layout of the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages so that everyone could see their names easily and grab what was theirs.

The entire event took place in the gardens at the Gibson, which added dappled shade, more garden flowers, and a summery atmosphere that lasted all afternoon and into the evening.

Buying the flowers in Utah and packing them in ice in the trunk of my car for the long drive up to Montana was quite the adventure! Building centerpieces and bouquets in the limited space of a Super 8 was worth a lot of laughs too! It was all worth it though when such wonderful people enjoy what I do and we are able to create loveliness together...no matter where we need to go! Having a beautiful wedding is possible when everyone is willing to work together and think outside the box. Thanks again, Damien and Krista for the amazing Montana fun!

Feel free to visit my Florilista website for more examples of my work.

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!

Bright Yellow Loveliness

Spring hasn't quite sprung yet, though the sun is shining, so today I want to put some of my own sunshine on the screen. A lovely bride, Lauryn, chose classic flowers of hydrangeas, dahlias, freesia, ranunculus and Queen Anne's lace in lovely shades of butter yellow and cream, accented with ribbons in grey.

It was a rainy day at the intimate reception hall at the Kaysville ponds area, but yellow brightens any event!


The bouquet was obviously done in advance, as were the toppers to a selection of frosted glass and black iron hurricanes that she used in strategic spots in the room, but the flowers on the cake had to be done on location. It made for a dramatic day of delivery, design and eventual downpour!



Thanks again, Lauryn, for such a wonderful and beautiful collaboration!

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!

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!

CODE GREEN!!!

What a fun weekend! My husband had a wedding to photograph in Manti, Utah on Friday, and I was so pleased to get to go along for the ride. I thought it was going to be a work-free event for me, but as we were pulling out of the driveway, the bride, Betsy, called me with a flower emergency. Betsy and Garrett are from out of state, and had this first event in Manti on Friday and another event in Mapleton on Saturday. There had been some apparent miscommunications, and although the Mapleton event would have some lovely flowers ready to go through a local florist chosen by her mom, the Manti event had been forgotten! Betsy wanted flowers for her grand exit from the beautiful Manti Temple, and she wondered if I could help in any way. I grabbed a handful of fake flower bouquets that I have created over the last year for just such emergencies, but we also took a few minutes to stop at my wholesaler on the way out of town. I knew she wanted cream, pale pinks and sage greens, and I was able to find some roses, lilies, snap dragons, and freesia that fit the bill nicely. For the first hour of the drive, I arranged her bouquet. There were a handful of flowers left over though, so for the second hour I made a groom's boutonniere, two mother's corsages, and even a tossing bouquet.



Needless to say, she chose the fresh flowers over the stock bouquets I offered. Betsy and Garrett are also having a reception in Virginia, which we will be photographing in two weeks, and I smiled when Garrett's mother asked if I was going to be in town early enough to do those flowers as well. He he he. I'd love it!