10.18.2010

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?)

10.13.2010

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?

10.12.2010

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.






10.11.2010


(CLICK THE PHOTO TO READ!)

10.04.2010

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.

10.03.2010

Josh & Jeff 9.18.10

I wish I could just let these pictures speak for themselves, but alas I have WAY to much to say. First of all...I love that Josh and Jeff trusted me to make something fun, and totally original. Josh and Jeff were married on a HUGE piece of magically property, complete with a private lake, and a floating gazebo which became their ceremony area. Inside the gazebo I hung a giant orb of sunflowers which added a little pop of color midst all the wood.





We agreed to use the colors of the Jeff's family tartan as a jumping off point. Josh then told me his favorite flowers were sunflowers, so I decided to use sunflowers in different shades to be the one unifying element as each table was going to be TOTALLY different. The tables were all found and painted high gloss white, as were all of the containers. Different styles, shapes, heights added to the fun unexpected feeling of the wedding.







Note to future wedding clients....if you give me a golf cart or a gator to drive around in, I'll most likey be as happy as a pig in sh*t. SO for that I thank the most handsome, nicest, most trusting couple for making my gator dreams come true.

Lindley & Mike 9.18.10

In all seriousness, I've been totally slacking on the blogging. I have 10...yes 10 weddings to post since the last. So, maybe I shouldn't say a whole lot and just let the pictures do the talking. Lindley and Mike had some really special details...so all I'm going to say is: vintage felt birds, the most gorgeous vintage ribbon, feathers, and deep dark jewel tones. YUM.