Sharon and Dean, Part 1

Sharon and Dean are so thoughtful, intelligent, and laid back- they were total dream clients! I was uber-impressed to learn that both have MAs in Asian American Studies and PhDs in American Culture. Their love for culture, tradition, and family totally set the tone for their wedding day. I had so much fun designing this “Hawaii-and-Asian-inspired-but-not-overkill-tropical” wedding. The groom, having grown up in Hawaii, appreciates structured, tropical flowers like orchids, curcuma, ginger, jasmine and tuberrose. They wanted to make sure no kitschy, stereotypical Hawaii icons were used. Thus, no Hawaiian shirts, drink umbrellas, or coconut bras were in sight at Sharon and Dean’s wedding Just the essence of Hawaii, tied in with subtle Asian details, gave this wedding a bit of unique flavor. Sharon, who is bubbly and fun, gravitated toward a bold and energetic palette of fuchsia, burgundy and chartreuse.

The amazing Angel of Love and Splendor planned and executed almost every detail of this intricate wedding. I remember having many phone conversations with her about Sharon and Dean’s wedding where we bounced off ideas like wildfire. The Image Is Found captured the wedding (and the slammin’ afterparty) just beautifully. Their work is always inspiring and incredible! Thanks to Nate and Jaclyn for sending me these lovely images in the mail.

Meet the bride, looking naturally radiant on her wedding day!

Sharon's bouquet was simple and chic- just black and pink callas.

Building and staining this bamboo arch was a bit of a project, but it was the perfect backdrop for the ceremony.

They had- get this- 3 flower girls and SIX ring boys. It was a gang of kids walking down that aisle! The flower girls carried river cane baskets and wore delicate wreaths of orchids and rolled rose petals. Another cute detail: The 6 ring bearers carried baskets of roses and handed them out to guests along the aisle. Sharon wanted guests to know how incredibly special they were to the couple!

The violet and aqua bridesmaids dresses just popped. 10 bridesmaids!

Their bouquets were just bursting with orchids, roses, gloriosa lilies, and more.

I LOVE this image of Sharon and Dean kissing beneath a shower of orchids and white paper cranes (hand-folded by Angel herself!)

These white cranes were scattered in nooks and crannies throughout the reception. Angel had heard about the Japanese wedding tradition of folding 1000 cranes as a gift to the groom to wish him 1000 years of happiness and prosperity. She thought this would be a delightful addition to Sharon and Dean's decor.

Check back for Part II of Sharon and Dean’s lively wedding! Lots of colorful reception details. Ciao!

Gettin’ Cozy!

Please hop on over to the Weddingbee PRO site and check out some cozy holiday florals I created for my home!

Here’s a little sneak peak:

Merry Christmas! Warmest wishes to you all!

22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[d]—which means, “God with us.” MATTHEW 1:22-23

lush and “crunchy” bouquets!

Today I received a disc of images (courtesy of Derek Photo) from a sweet couple I worked with back in July, Kristi and Lou. Knowing their colors were chartreuse and fuchsia (MY wedding colors!), I brought my handy-dandy green and magenta flower fan decks with me to our initial consultation.

A note about the fandecks: I have a fandeck in every color of the rainbow. Each fandeck has a card for every cut flower imaginable, along with helpful info about its seasonal availability, how to care for and store the flower, other colors the flower comes in, and what the flower symbolizes. These booklets are absolute essentials for consultations, especially for visual brides who aren’t quite sure what flowers they like right off the bat. If I were stranded on a desert island, I just might have to bring these with me.

As Kristi poured over the fandecks, she ooed and ahhed over almost every flower.  Her one flower dislike was roses.  I noticed that Kristi tended to lean toward what I call “crunchy” flowers, like crisp orchids, lilies, and spider mums.

antique hydrangea, spider mums, green dendrobium orchids, cymbidium orchids, and hanging amaranthus. I love the tone on tone greens. I also love the crunchiness of green flowers!

How beautiful is green against fuchsia?

Oriental lilies, bouvardia, orchids, hypericum, lisianthus, and more wrapped up with a ti leaf. FYI, hanging amaranthus looks so lovely dangling from bouquets, but can sometimes cause itchy rashes on delicate wrists. Make sure to experiment first!

Lou's bout was also wrapped with greenery. I've found that men tend to like orchids b/c they are manly and look like a little creature!

Kristi has the most beautiful smile!

I love pictures of grooms holding the bouquet- it reminds me of when I make Joe hold my purse in public.

Rusty wrought iron stands were adorned with tiers of draping florals.

Flower tip: To wrap Kristi's bouquet, I used my florist knife to carefully pare down the thick center vein of the ti leaf. This made it flexible enough to wrap around the bouquet without snapping.

I’m currently working on floral decorations for our home involving textiles, scarves, bowties, burlap, and my sewing machine. Curious? I’ll be posting pics this weekend so check back for some cozy winter arrangements!

The buzzzzz!

Firstly, I am happy to announce that the fun and fabulous Bee of Weddingbee has asked me to join the Weddingbee PRO team! Please check the Weddingbee PRO blog for T-Petal posts (like Bee’s welcome post and T-Petal’s intro post), along with posts from some of my favorite vendors ever who give the inside scoop on life in this crazy but awesome industry.

Secondly, The Treasured Petal has been named one of the “Best of Project Wedding 2008.” This means that we are in good company with the top 5% of wedding pros in O.C. Project Wedding is a fabulous site, and has connected me with some of the coolest clients ever (shout out to all my PW brides Thank you for this honor!

Thirdly, there are two grumpy fuzzikins who wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas!!!  xoxo

Last Wedding of 2008!

I am officially on vacation now! I have a few sweet months to recuperate from a very busy and exciting year. During this time I plan to a) enjoy the holidays! b) move into my NEW HOUSE! more to come on that! and c) take a two week trip to Thailand. Then it’s full-force back into wedding flower mode!

I couldn’t think of a better way to end the year than with Tran and Peter! Tran and Peter’s wedding was a happy, colorful affair. They wanted the flowers to be lush, modern and to pop in the photos. They also wanted to add natural, “eco” elements. This was accomplished with lots of cardboard, wood, branches, handmade rice and batik papers, and recycled glass vases. I loved the contrast of the bright, almost florescent colors against all the earthy elements. So striking!

Angel Swanson was the fabulous coordinator. I am always amazed with how much love and care Angel puts into her weddings. She is so hands-on with every project, and even went to Trans house to help her wrap dozens and dozens of candy apple favors days before the wedding. The Image is Found shot this wedding, and I cannot wait to see the magic they worked behind the lens!

Until I can show you the pro pics, here are some gorgeous teaser shots taken by my hubby Joe!

A trail of paper wrapped candles lined the "stream" fountain at the Diamond Bar Community Center. When the sun began to set during the ceremony, it was a truly magical scene.

Gerbera daisies are such a happy flower!

Wooden boxes filled with moss and manzanita branches framed the couple during the ceremony. Recylcled glass vases, orchids, and candles hung from the branches.

I loved the way the candles reflected off the plexiglass columns. Me and my plexiglass again!

Angel brought some of her ball jars.

And I brought some of mine!

A wild and playful escort card table arrangement, with dangling orchids and a collection of vases.

Using cylinders and bubble bowls in new ways. Look at those escort cards made of corrugated cardboard, created by the groom himself! I told him he should definitely go into the wedding business.

A sweet bouquet for the sweethearts!

A clean white cake placed on a bed of roses and orchids. How sweet!

The last 3 pictures are from the Crazy Booth series over at The Blog is Found. The Image is Found knows how to bring out the crazy in anybody, including grandmas and wedding coordinators (and their assistants)! hehe. Check it out here!

And there she is, the gorgeous bride herself! Peter is protecting his woman from the beasts. Her bouquet featured fuchsia peonies, ranunculus, bouvardia, roses, and lots and lots of orchids.

The bridal party- each bridesmaid carried a different bright bloom to stand out against their gorgeous steel grey dresses. The gentlemen wore clusters of mokara orchids on their lapels.

My bouquet is soaring!

Thank you Tran and Peter for being so wonderful, creative, and trusting! It took us a little while to really pin down the vision for your wedding, but once we did, it all came into place beautifully. Enjoy your first Christmas together as man and wife!

Kristeen and Josh: Organic Glam!

I had been anticipating Kristeen and Josh’s wedding for months and months. At our Coffee Bean consultation, we excitedly threw out ideas that included smooth white river stones, sandblasted manzanita, crystals galore, papery white phaleonopsis offset by waxy green cymbidiums-by the end of the meeting we were both gushing over our plans. Their Marvimon wedding was shot by my talented wedding photographer and good friend, Trista Lerit. Trista’s work is always creative, moody, and just plain beautiful. She always gets fantistic pics of all the floral details, which I of course appreciate- thanks Trista! See her blog for the rest of the images.  Kelly Demaray orchestrated this detailed wedding beautifully, and couldn’t have been sweeter during the whole process.

Many props to my wonderful day-of assistants, Marci and Ako, for hauling box after box of rocks, climbing that 10 foot ladder when I was too afraid (I have a fear of heights!), and just hustling nonstop for 4 hours straight to make sure everything looked picture perfect. They work so hard, and always have smiles on their faces!

Without further ado, Kristeen and Josh’s wedding, as captured by Trista Lerit Photography:

Kristeen was ecstatic when she saw everything set up. I hope it was just like she imagined!

The bridal bouquet was an ethereal “two hander” filled with roses, ranunculus, tulips, stephanotis, phaleonopsis, and soft white feathers. The bridesmaids carried white and green blooms with black feather accents. Their dresses were so elegant!

What a sassy shot! She is a stunning girl, with southern charm to boot! Such a sweetheart too.

A crystal curtain with cymbidium orchids was the background for the ceremony.

A closer look at the curtain.

Simple yet striking altar decor atop plexiglass columns.

The river rock aisle.

Marvimon is so rad.

We tried to mix natural, zen elements like rocks and branches with glammed out cyrstals and orchids.

Kristeen and Josh- you are a beautiful couple and I loved working with you! Have a blessed marriage!

More From One Love Photo!

Heather from One Love Photography was so sweet to send me some more beautiful images from Heather and Barry’s lemon yellow wedding. After teasing you with a few images last month, here is some more!

A beautiful bridal portrait- Heather was radiant on her wedding day!

Yum yum yum- Her dress detailing is so delicate and fluffy! Her bouquet was designed with that same feel in mind. I gathered butter yellow peony tulips and freesia, huge white cattleya orchids, bouvardia and lisianthus into a nosegay wrapped in robin’s egg satin.

The ladies wore happy yellow dresses with flowers to match.

Piles of lemons on damask patterned plates adorned the cocktail tables.

This charming and funky table setup greeted guests at the reception.

The short centerpieces were packed with the bride’s favorite flowers- snapdragons, tulips, dahlias, china mums, hydrangea, and arabicum to name a few. Heather is also a graphic designer, and designed the ADORABLE placecards and favor tags. I believe she also sewed her own runners. One of the coolest details of all was the old family wedding portraits in mismatching tiffany blue frames on every table.

Soft, textural arrangements were placed on curvy wooden pedestals. Note: To make these pedestals, I simply glued together two wooden candle holders (you can find similar ones at Target or Homegoods) and painted it black! I nestled the pedestals in bowls of lemons for extra support.

Heather and Barry, I hope your first few months of marriage have been pure bliss! Enjoy your first married Christmas