Masquerade Masks

I like working with fabric, sequins and feathers *almost* as much as I love working with fresh flowers.  My ideal evening is crafting in front of old Party of Five reruns.

This was my little project last week:  Two outrageous  masks I made for myself and my best bud, Angel Swanson, to wear to a masquerade ball hosted by The Bridal Bar.

I used a luxe brocade fabric for the mask form, black and purple dyed ostrich feathers, peacock feathers, and black tulle accented with swarovski crystal beads.  The finishing touch: flirty feather eyelashes!

Angel wanted a black and white vintage glam look for her mask.

It  features silk dupioni,  faux anenomes (her fav flower!), white ostrich feathers, black marabou feathers, and sequins galore.  Her finishing touch was the swarovski crystal tear drops on the inner eye.

The best part of the evening: watching Angel drive through Beverly Hills wearing her crazy mask, with the feathers flapping in the wind (as other drivers stared in confusion).  Priceless!  That girl has no shame.

These masks would be the PERFECT quirky prop for wedding pictures.  Almost as awesome as those mustaches on sticks that people seem to be rocking lately   I can also imagine donning one of these at a New Year’s Eve or bachelorette party.  Could you pull off one of these flambouyantly fabulous masks?

A Perfect Pair!

This bouquet…

Garden roses, rose hips, scabiosa, gardenias, ranuncula, eucalyptus, and more.

was created to match this bout…

Single mini cymbidium nestled with rose hips eucalyptus leaves and seeds.

Kind of like how Hanna was created to match Richard!  The perfect pair!  Aren’t they cute?

Michael Chan from The Image Is Found was there to capture all the beauty of Hanna and Richard’s Rancho Capistrano wedding.  I knew Hanna and Richard from my church in Berkeley, and was honored when they asked me to florify their wedding.  I will show you more pictures as soon as I get my eager little paws on them!  You will love the charm and grace of their wedding- promise!

Birch Pole Chuppah

I love this chuppah. It was lovingly built by my two nephews from Yosemite.  It’s very simple- constructed of 8 natural birch poles, some metal rods and carpenter screws. It’s insanely heavy. But it’s a gorgeous ceremony backdrop and so versatile.  I can see it draped with khaki linen and strung with orchids and coral. I can see it covered with succulents and  moss.  I can see it accented with curly willow branches with hanging lanterns…

This is how I saw it last month at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point- swagged in red and wine chiffon, and subtly accented with lush clusters of flowers.  Can’t wait to see how many ways I can dress this baby!

The ceremony spot  was perfectly framed by this beautiful old tree, on which we showcased our paper parasols dripping with orchids! Many more fun surprises from this wedding to show you in due time.  The vendor team was out of this world!

Off to Costco to start my holiday shopping! Cuz Fly Lady told me to

Barbara and Aaron’s Sultry Spanish Wedding

I just love Barbara and Aaron!  Last night we had a triple date at Lola Gaspar’s (quickly becoming my new favorite restaurant) along with Christina and James, who I also adore.  We talked for over 3 hours as we devoured honey butter drenched tortillas and sangrias.  Such an awesome night!  They were such sweet, gracious clients and now friends.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, see their feature in Utterly Engaged, with images by the incredible Gabriel Ryan!

I want to share some pictures of their Casa Romantica wedding captured by another photographer friend of theirs, Jeffrey Neal.  He used film to document their wedding story as a gift, and I just love the texture and richness of the images.  Please check out his blog for more pics (especially the slideshow of details at the end!)  I couldn’t resist posting a few here.

The most beautiful smile award goes to…

Aaron is a talented photographer whose work I admire.  Check out the de-petaled chocolate cosmos on his bout- a funky touch!

Each bridesmaid carried their own unique bouquet.

Sheer bliss!!!

A performance by Barbara’s flamenco teacher.  Barb’s been taking lessons for 5 years now.

More of this spicy wedding to come!

Featured: Utterly Engaged

Our vivacious bride Barbara and her talented husband Aaron were married at Casa Romantica in September.  See their flamenco inspired wedding in the latest issue of Utterly Engaged and read about how they met in Spain, spoke briefly, and then happened to meet again at a coffee shop in California!  Too crazy!

See lots of lace, sexy red flowers, coffee beans, and flamenco dancing here!

(Photo from Gabriel Ryan’s Blog)

BTW, lots of birthday hugs to Christina of Simply Modern Weddings, who also coordinated this lovely wedding!

Ever Wonder How…? Part 4

Ever wonder how… to make a floating floral raft?

The first floral raft I ever saw was this R. Jack creation on the Love and Splendor Blog.

(Photo by The Image Is Found).

There are also some amazing Japanese flower rafts on the net, like this one:

(photo from here)

Piggybacking off my last post, I thought I’d share how I created the floral rafts in this picture.  I’m often asked to create things that I’ve never done or even seen before.  This was one of them!  I’m sure there are many ways to do this, so let me know if you have another method that works.

1.  Purchase styrafoam sheets, at least 2 inches thick.  Mine came from a floral supply store.

2.  I wrapped satin ribbon around the foam and secured it with pearl pins for a nice, tailored look in the water.

3.  I gathered different height candle holders and positioned them on the styrofoam.  I took wooden picks (aka hyacinth sticks) and stuck them around the candles like a little fence.  They keep the candles in place.  I was worried that the weight of these candles would be too much for the foam. Surprisingly, the foam is very bouyant and I could have probably loaded the rafts with even more.

4.  Next, I took 3″ round caged foams (see picture below, from the fss website) and spaced them evenly on the styrafoam.  It took about 10-12 cages per raft.  Note:  If you’re using sturdy flowers like mums and carnations which do ok without a water source, you can insert these flowers directly into the styrafoam sheets using toothpicks or pins.

5.  I wanted the rafts to look like fluffy beds of flowers, so I chose flowers that would give me a lot of coverage (hydrangea, stock, open roses, and ivy).  I inserted the flowers into the foam cages and tried to keep the arrangement low, so as to not block the view of the candles.

6.  We used LED pillars for one reason- if the wind blew these suckers out, who was going to jump in and relight them?  Real wax LED’s look realistic from a distance.

7.  Oh yes, remember to LIGHT THEM/TURN THEM ON FIRST before you dive in to set them up!

8.  We created hooks on the bottom of our rafts with ribbon, and attached fishing weights to the hooks with fishing line.  You can spray paint the weights light blue to blend in with the bottom of the pool.

9.  Hindsight is 20/20, and I realize now that we could have attached the  fishing line to opposite sides of the rafts, and then tied them to waterproof suction cups on the walls of the pool. You would need to  test it out ahead of time to make sure they would be secure enough.

These are incredibly labor intensive, which can make them very pricey.  I think a simple raft with votive candles on a bed of petals or greenery would be just as gorgeous (and a little more budget friendly).

 

 

 

Oh husband of mine!

Last month, Joe came to do a job that none of us gals wanted to do.  I felt like this was a man’s job, so I called on the best guy I know.

Here he is in action, placing three floating floral rafts in their designated spots.

The shallow end was no biggie…

But the deep end is where it got a little exhausting for him.

He had to dive to the bottom of this ten foot deep pool over and over to set the weights in the perfect place so the rafts wouldn’t budge.  A fountain spills into the pool, creating some turbulence which would have otherwise pushed these rafts to the edge of the pool and out of the center of attention.  He spent about an hour in there!  Thanks for being such a trooper, Joe!

These rafts are tricky to build and tricky to set up, but they are showstoppers!  So worth the effort, don’t you think?

*A floral raft how-to is coming!*

Happy Halloween to all!  The Brancaleone’s will be keeping it chill- watching scary movies and passing out candy to kids.  Pesto will be dressing up as Pocahontas (for the 3rd year straight), and Basil will be a candy corn.

A little break!

This was a crazy but wonderful month!  I had 5 beautiful weddings in 3 short weeks.  Lots of running around and early morning trips to  L.A.  As wedding season calms down and I have a chance to breathe, I am making it a priority to fit in some extracurriculars.

• I am now enrolled in a dance school, taking adult hip hop and ballet classes
• In an attempt to declutter and spiff up my home, I’ll be signing up for emails from Fly Lady (thanks Angel for the tip!).
• Oh yeah, after much resistance, I finally joined facebook!  Guess what, it’s fun!  Don’t know why I held out so long!
• I’m also making more lunch and dinner dates with my best buddies.

This afternoon I spent some quality time with  my girls Angel Swanson and Trista Lerit at the incredible Vietnamese restaurant Brodard Chateau.  You MUST try their Vietnamese Crepe (crispity, crunchity, savory and sweet) and their famous spring rolls.  Angel nailed it when she said, “Why does any other restaurant even attempt to make spring rolls?”

Thanks girls for being such sweet friends!  I always look forward to our chats where I know I’ll get a good dose of belly laughs, encouragement and total craziness.

 

We're all rocking the boots- must be Fall!

A Farmhouse Wedding

I’m still invigorated by last weekend’s wedding.  After we had all the decor set in place, I actually had time to walk around the site and just gush at the simple beauty of it all.   Our couple, Meg and Shawn, longed for a laid back country feel with tons of mason jar candles, paisley fabric, and simple florals.  I got to use buckets and buckets of pure white snowberries. They just spilled from the vases and were as plump as grapes.  Love them so much!

I hope to share the professional pictures soon, but Joe was able to snap pics of a few details.  By the way, he hung all those mason jars from the magnolia tree.  It was his project, and he took it very seriously!   Thank you Joe!

Sweet nosegays beckon guests to enter the historic property.

I really love this ceremony space at the Newland Barn, and the wild curly willow we used to highlight it.

The cocktail hour took place next to this amazing home. Green engraved goblets filled with flowers were perfect for the cocktail tables.

A last minute burst of inspiration- the old rickety tractor needed some sprucing up, so my assistant whipped up a bouquet for it.  We at T-Petal are all about the last minute flourishes.

These centerpieces were full of textures layered atop of textures.  Wax flower, cheerful yellow spray roses, sahara roses, apple green hydrangea, snowberries, and pale yellow stock.  And the flowers were at the peak of freshness.  Love my flower vendors!

There is SO much more to share- Courtney Toney from Joyful Weddings and Events whipped up countless details, from the paisley wrapped napkins to the ball jar candles to the darling lemonade station.  She is one of the most creative gals in the biz, and is a treasured friend as well.  We’ll be joining forces this weekend for Melissa and Bryan’s wedding!

Ever Wonder How… Part 3

Ever wonder how... to prevent “sweaty vase syndrome”?

I like the look of stacked vases.  The picture below features bubble bowls stacked on top of cylinders of submerged orchids.

Photo by The Image is Found.

I also love creating floral cake stands with glass vases and plexiglass.

Photo by Trista Lerit Photography.

I’m also loving enclosed terrariums, like the one below via Grey Likes Weddings.

Lidded apothecary vases filled with flowers are also sweet.

Here’s the potential problem:  flowers and plants sweat, and if the evaporated water can’t escape, it causes fogginess inside the glass.  This is not such a cute look.  I’m embarrassed to point this out, but you can even see my vase is sweating a little in the picture above!

I learned a cool tip passed on to me by my head assistant, Shana.  She is full of wisdom and I’m blessed to have her on my team.

Step 1.  Find a stick of clear glue for a glue gun.

Step 2.  Use sharp scissors to cut it it up  into little pieces, the thickness of a pencil eraser.

Step 3.  Use a glue gun to glue the pieces to the rim of your vase or jar.

Step 4.  Place your plexiglass sheet/vase/lid on top.  The little  glue gun pieces prop up the cover just enough to allow air circulation, and help to prevent your vase from fogging up.

What makes this so handy is that the glue pieces are hardly noticeable, they come off really easily when you’re done, and every florist has glue sticks in her/his toolbox somewhere.  I have yet to try this trick on a super hot day, when sweat of all kinds is all too abundant.  Can anyone vouch for this, or have another solution?