Lauren & Yves 10.10.10

Because the world just decided that dumping two feet of snow overnight on New England was a good idea, and because there is NO sunlight to be found I thought that posting some photos from a wedding we did in October might make us all happy. Ok, who am I trying to kid...it makes ME happy, so deal with it. Lauren and Yves are self-proclaimed nerds, actually our first conversation started like this..."Hi, would you be interested in talking to me about doing our nerd wedding?" So, when Lauren showed me a copy their invite I was so in. Binary and romance novels....come on people, this is funny stuff.

So, without putting graphing calculators and Fabio in the middle of their arrangements I made them classic fall arrangements and let their DIY details really shine.

There...after seeing all that green grass I feel so much better.

Things are getting crazy around these parts....help

ho, ho, ho...

When it actually snows enough to stick to the ground and cause me to dig through my car in search of my ice scraper only to find out it's missing, causing me to use a expired credit card to rid my car of the coat of ice on the windshield, only to have my fingers freeze because I forgot to put on gloves while doing so, I know it's time to talk about Christmas. (How was that for a run on sentence!?)

Order something pretty for Santa...he's on a diet (he has hypertension) and would much prefer to bring flowers home to the Mrs. Oh, and Santa would like you to know he's kinda sick of the whole red/green/white thing...and thinks you should throw in another color just to mix it up a bit.

To you, and you, and you...ohhhh and you!

Really BIG thanks to all my 2010 couples for making this year so fantastic....but I do apologize for the crap music with this, I had NO choice. BAH!

This digital collage customized with Smilebox

Kaylin & Allen 10.10.10

I promised myself I wouldn't show ALL of my weddings right up front...I mean after all we need something pretty to look at when its freezing cold, and gray right? Kaylin and Allen were married at a summer camp (as you know I adore everything about summer camp weddings..and camp in general). The weather was PERFECT and summer camp charm ooooozed out of every single corner. The names of thousands of girls who had spent their childhood summers lined the walls...and ceilings, and I clearly remember spending a good 10 minutes in the kitchen swooning over the heavy teal melamine plates and bowls that so reminded me of being 12. It just so happens that Kaylin got her pro shots back yesterday, so enjoy some of the super pretty. The somewhat attractive pictures...taken by me of course. Oh, I would like to thank both Kaylin and Allen for being so easy to work with..we're talking SUPER laid back here folks, and Kaylin's mom for making me feel like such a genius. (which is a HUGE stretch...but thanks anyway) <3

(Just felt the need to show you the most gloriously amazing ranunculus...yup its that spazzy green thing...it still makes me a little mushy inside)

(Geez...stop being so damn attractive you two!)

Feeling Blue?

This week in the shop (November 29th-December 4th) everything BLUE is 20% off! Make sure to mention this post in order to get the discount...also feel free to tell your friends about this too. We would love to meet some new folks, and share our fun goodies with you all! xo

rain.

HBD yo.

HBD...for those that don't speak florist card message taking shorthand...HBD stands for Happy Birthday. It's the shops 5th, yup....5th (holy crapsticks!) birthday!! If you decide to drop by the shop this week, I'll give YOU a birthday present. I know, seems a little backwards, but hey...I love to give gifts and getting them always made me feel like crawling under a table and hiding from embarrassment (totally a story for another time...and yes, I did this in a public place). SO, I hope to see some of you, and to ALL of you...thank you so much for making my first 5 years so stinkin' awesome.

Hey you!

Psssssttttt...I'm talking to you! You know, the newly engaged, those having dinner parties, birthdays, general festivities, 2011 is right around the corner and I'm already sending out bids left and right. Lets talk!

(click the image to make it full size)

Eloping is awesome....

...because it's this simple.

Excuse me for a moment...

I usually don't deviate from flower land very often, but when I find something that I just have to share, you might just have to come along for the journey. You may or may not know that I was once a graphic designer in another life. To this very day I lust over type, write the alphabet over and over...oh and over again, bore people with graphic design jargon, and walk around day after day with a dorky graphic design image branded onto my body. So when I come across beautiful books I feel the need to share...I came across SEASONS by Blexboblex (um, yes you read that correctly), in my little local bookstore. Its practically perfect cover might as well slapped me in the face, because I bought it without even caring about what the pages wrapped in cellophane might look like. Come to find out it's one of the most beautiful children's books I've come across in a long time...100+ pages of the most beautifully simple woodblock prints, illustrating the feelings, moments, and strange happenings of the seasons. If you're looking for the perfect gift for a baby shower, please put down the played out ducky embroidered onesie and purchase this instead. Oh, and because you can find ANYTHING on youtube....enjoy.

suz & drew 10.10.10

Currently in my top 5 bouquets of all time. That is all.

Ok, maybe that's not all...usually when you come in telling me you have eight bridesmaids I shutter a little, but Suz let me play. The thought of making 8 of the exact same bouquet made me want to drink, heavily. So instead each girl held a posy of a single type of flower in super bright hot pink. Left to right we have: Narine Lily, Mokara Orchid, Wax Flower, Garden Roses, Heather, Beauty Aster, Ranunculus and Stock...smash (yes, its a technical term) those all together and voila! A magical electric pink bouquet fit for a super cool chick!

(I think she's happy...no?)

Meadow Surprise may not be all that it's hopped up to be...

For the life of me I can not figure out why people still use wire services. (True, I have one at the shop as a service to my customers, but I am VERY specific about what I send out and even what I'll accept as far as what I'm willing to put my name on) The big companies...you know the ones (I don't want to say their names for fear of being struck dead in my sleep by the flower shop Gods) which claim to delivery fresh flowers straight to your door, are not only lying to you, but are also taking your money. It seems like all I ever hear from customers are horror stories of non-delivery, dead flowers, and unfriendly customer service representatives. Once and for all let me break it down for you....

1. When you call up and order flowers through any of those companies...the flowers which you order won't be magically coming from a warehouse, where they produce 5,000 "Meadow Surprises" a day. In fact they will be coming from your local flower shop. Yup, the one in your local yellow pages listed under FLOWER SHOP.

2. The lovely human on the other line at said big name wire service, most likely doesn't know the difference between a rose and a lily, let alone what's in season in every climate at every second of the day. So when you place an order for #45668 Lovely Lilies there is always a note that comes to me at the bottom of the order which states. "It is ok to sub. with other flowers of similar color"....is it really though? The customer orders lilies, and it's ok for me to send a vase full of roses just because they're pink? Um, yeah I don't think so. THIS is why you get something which never looks anything like the picture you saw on the website. Another reason it never looks the same?.....keep reading.

3. You spend $75.00 on "Awesome Autumn", a big showy arrangement filled with large blooms, only to hear that a vase of 5 flowers was delivered to your wonderful grandmother who surely deserves more then the $39.99 arrangement which came through the computer system. Truth of the matter is, not only does the wire service take almost 30% of what you spend to cover "fees" but they neglect to tell you that a delivery fee is also going to come out of what you spend, as well as the cost of the vase...so after all is said and done, and everything has come through the system almost half of your money has gone down the tubes.

4. You come across "Bitchin' Birthday" on the site, its cool, and filled with tropical blooms, unusual greenery, some modern touches and is tucked inside a sleek modern vase...only to find out that "Bitchin' Birthday" turned into "Birthday Bummer" and was a typical urn shapes vase filled with some mums and a piece of grass here and there...you know for the touch of "funk". Sad to say that a lot of florist who receive the orders have never even handled some of the flowers in the pictures...orchids are totally a no-no at their shop, they've never really used anything other than a fern because thats what they were taught with, and well....they're old school. Listen, I'm not getting down on a classic old school florist, they've been open for 20+ years, they're obviously doing something right, but they may not know the techniques or carry the flowers needed to really fulfill your order.

Ordering online is easy as pie. I get that....you can eat your lunch and click away without ever having to talk to anybody, but why risk your money? Why send something to a loved one which says "You're the best, so I sent you this AWESOME arrangement!" Only to find out that the awesome arrangement SUCKS? It takes three seconds to google search a florist in the area you're trying to send something to; so why not call up a local shop, ask what they have in stock, have a friendly conversation with somebody who most likely really wants to make you something beautiful and support a hard working local florist?

Lori & Mark 10.2.10

Surrounded by leaf peepers (yes it's a term for all of you who have never seen a red leaf in person...who drive 5mph waiting for the leaf to change colors in front of your eyes...) we finally started to make fall weddings. Dark rich tones of rust and burgundy....chocolate browns, and golden yellows. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside...wait, that might be the sweater I FINALLY get to wear, oh and the chai tea I'm happily sipping!

Lori and Mark's wedding was the first true autumn wedding of the season, and it was a pretty good start to the season if I do say so myself....more to come, much, much more.

(CLICK THE PHOTO TO READ!)

Luned & Brett 9.25.10

I have always loved fabric produced by the Marimekko company, so when Luned and Brett came to me telling me that not only their bridesmaids would be dressed in 50's style apple green and white Marimekko dresses with orange petticoats (ummmmm yes you read that correctly, and I'm waiting on pins and needles to see pictures) but random green and white Marimekko patterns would be turned into runners and napkins for their dining tables I became SUPER DUPER excited. Orange and green, and super graphic floral patterns!? Sign me up! The two thing both Luned and Brett really wanted, that all of their flowers were heavy on Dahlias and that their centerpieces were something that was not "disposable". So off I ran with dahlias everywhere, and planters in bright white boxes on the tables.










Brett really went for it with the dahlia theme, making upwards of 30 ceramic water pitchers with hand stamped dahlias, silkscreening the dahlia prints which I turned into the table numbers, designing a dahlia motif for all the invites, as well as making the amazing vase above. All in all, it was a pretty dahlia-rific time.