Ashlee and Brenton’s Homespun Wedding

Ashlee and Brenton’s sweet June wedding was the embodiment of casual, effortless elegance. Actually, these adjectives just as well describe Ashlee, our lovely bride. At our first meeting Ashlee struck me as gentle, happy, and natural. Her wedding style just flowed forth from her personality, and we put together a design scheme centered around playful birds, feathers, nests, twigs, and lots of fun gardeny flowers. This wedding was not showy or glitzy, but intimate and full of rustic charm- perfect for her venue, the Talega Golf Club in San Clemente.

Their coordinator, Kerrie Underhill, is one of the hardest working gals in the biz. She orchestrated all the details of the day perfectly. She also makes a great vase commando when I come to pick up my rentals at the end of the night. Very rarely does a vase escape her watch. Thanks!

The talented Sarah K. Chen worked her magic once again. She has such a creative mind! The following images are from her newly designed blog.

Ashlee’s dog gave me big smooches when I arrived. Such a cutie pie!

Soft and dreamy, with pops of bright yellow and lime.

Happy flowers delivered in mason jars. Those ruffled tulips opened up beautifully just in time.

Brenton and the boys…

The ceremony took place in a quaint Spanish courtyard.

I am quite fond of this arch- tangled branches dripping in florals with pint sized mason jar vases hanging from the top. Mason jars filled with snapdragons, lilies, hydrangea and craspedia accented the aisle.

After the reception, the couple found some time to frolic in the grass as Sarah snapped some pics.

The bunnies also found some time to frolic in the grass.

I love how it looks like a bird was inside the cage and escaped, leaving some feathers behind.

There were actually 3 different centerpieces. The round tables had clusters of vases holding a particular flower (left: white oriental lilies, supergreen roses, and yellow china mums; right: white hydrangea, buttery yellow stock, and lime spider mums). The look was unifed by a fiddle fern heart in each vase. The longer banquet tables held oblong mixed arrangements and hurricanes containing coffee bean and pillars. The burlap runners added some texture and earthy color to the tables.

My assistants topped this elegant cake with spray roses, freesia, scabiosa pods, tulips, fiddle fern, and a little nest they whipped up out of curly willow.

Those upside down vases in the background would later be platforms to display some of the aisle arrangements. Yay for double duty!

The arch flowers were dismantled and placed on the sweetheart table.

Talk about instant gratification! Guests could take their photobooth pictures with them as mementos of the evening.

Thank you Ashlee and Brenton for letting The Treasured Petal run with your vision! May your married life be just as sweet and cozy as your wedding!

Thanks again to Sarah K. Chen for this sneak peek! I’m excited to see the rest!

Ever Wonder How…? Part 2

Ever wonder how… to keep fully wrapped bouquet stems hydrated?

*Disclaimer: Sorry if this post seems a little risque! I’m trying to be technical.  Thank you to my assistant Shana for sharing this amazing little trick with me!

I’m about to share with you all a little florist secret- shh! Don’t tell anyone I told you this!

Take for example this stunning bouquet by Karen Tran via Away Soiree:

Notice that the satin ribbon wrap fully covers the stems, even at the bottom of the bouquet, allowing for a luxe, tailored look.

Since the bridal bouquet is the star of all wedding flowers, it’s crucial that the flowers have a supply of water until the last possible second to keep blooms fresh. I usually don’t do full bouquet wraps for this reason. I feel more secure when I deliver the bouquets in a vase with water so I know the thirsty stems are drinking and are ready for a full day of wedding action. But there IS a way to keep fully covered stems hydrated. Don’t giggle please. Condoms.

Here’s how:

1. Simply create your hand-tied bouquet and leave it unwrapped in a vase of water until the day before the wedding.

2. Drench some paper towel in water. I mean DRENCH.

3. Wrap the drenched paper towel nicely around the bottom of the stems. Bunch a little bit around the bottom, but you don’t want it to look bulgy.

4. Fill the tip of a condom with water and roll the condom over the stems, essentially creating a sleeve. Not too much water- you don’t want any leakage!

5. Voila! If the rubber apparatus does what it’s supposed to do, you’ve got a sturdy, sealed reservoir of water for your stems. Simply wrap with ribbon and go!

Another plus about this method is that it prevents the green stems from staining white ribbon, which can be a big problem.

Does anyone have any other nifty ideas for wrapping bouquets? Let me know!

Featured: The Bride’s Cafe

Today, my dear blog friend Janie from The Bride’s Cafe featured the Sex in the City inspired bouquet I created for Jasmine Star.  Stop by the cafe and say hello!

Thanks Jasmine for giving me another fun project to work on!  It was a blast!

I have some gorgeous weddings to share with you coming up, so stay tuned.

A Breezy Blue Wedding

When I met Melissa at our first consultation, I immediately noticed her bright blue-green eyes. They are a brilliant aqua color and they just sparkle. I associate that color with peace, contentment, and refreshment, maybe because it reminds me of splashing in the tropical waters of Thailand. Sighhh. I was delighted to find out that turquoise was the color of choice for Melissa and Andrew’s wedding decor. Amazingly, I’ve never done a pure aqua wedding! I’ve done aqua and orange, aqua and red, aqua and yellow, but not plain aqua.

Melissa and Andrew tied the knot at the Loew’s Hotel in Santa Monica- a sleek, modern boutique hotel with the most amazing view of the ocean. We were going for decor that would compliment the trendy look of the hotel and capture the laid back, breezy feel of Santa Monica.

I can’t help but rave rave rave about the amazing planner, Christina from Simply Modern Weddings. She was always so thorough, punctual, professional, and sweet at the same time. When I arrived, her husband/assistant was hand-ironing all the napkins into perfect folds After the wedding when my sister arrived to pick up the rentals, Christina stayed with her late into the night and helped until the last vase was accounted for. Above and beyond I tell you!

The following pictures are from Trista Lerit’s blog. Trista did an amazing job, as always. Her cool, modern style was a perfect fit for this wedding. She was MY awesome wedding photographer, and now I’m blessed to call her a dear friend.

Melissa always imagined she would carry a bouquet of white and pink roses, but she felt a little pressure to stick to her blue and white palette. She decided to go with her gut. We used esperance roses and tied the bouquet into the rest of the decor with blue crystals.  Vivian Tran of All Made Up did such an amazing job on makeup.  Melissa looks like a princess!

Here’s the groom, wearing a single phaleonopsis orchid with blue crystal beads. Love the tie and pocket square.

Her bridesmaids carried white bouquets that popped against their aqua dresses. I got to use one of my favorite flowers, fringed tulips, in the bouquets. They look like frayed fabric flowers.

Definitely the cutest flower girl dress I’ve ever seen.

The ceremony took place on a deck overlooking the Santa Monica Pier. We draped an arch in delicate white fabric, swagged it with aqua crystals, and tucked in some fluffy white and blue florals. It was the perfect ceremony centerpiece. Chic silk wrapped floral boxes lined the aisle and doubled as fun cocktail centerpieces.

The reception was just magical! The aqua lighting (via Rainbow Lighting and Sound) was superb, and the gorgeous blue chargers, linens, and blue tinted goblets were so fresh.

The massive centerpieces. I loved how the pink centers of the submerged cymbidium orchids tied in with Melissa’s pink bouquet.

A little note about blue flowers: there aren’t many. If you’re planning on using blue flowers, you’ve got to be open to a range of tones and textures. Most light blue flowers aren’t pure blue but have a lavender/periwinkle hue to them, and most are wildflower-esque. We used hydrangea, delphinium, and tweedia in this wedding. Other blue-ish flowers are muscari (grape hyacinth), irises, cornflower, and berries like blue viburnum and privet.

Tweedia is an adorable flower that does actually have a real aqua tone to it. But its stem oozes out a white milky substance that can get all over the place, so beware. We used clusters of tweedia blossoms to accent each napkin, and used floral tape to plug the milky stems.

Picture from wikipedia.org.

Vanilla Bakeshop put together a stunning mini cupcake display. The cupcakes were delish- I got to try one (or two…)

Thank you Melissa and Andrew for choosing TPetal to beautify your wedding. It was a true joy to work with you! Cheers to your brand new life together!

Now enjoy your honeymoon, you love bugs!

Happy Day, Happy Florals

My church friends John and Jenn were recently married, and boy was there a lot of rejoicing that day! They had already weathered some trials during their engagement, and we all watched as their love matured during those hard times. I so admire these two and their love and commitment to each other. Their wedding was a true labor of love- lots of helping hands from the church and their families chipped in to make it the sweet, intimate event that it was. It was my honor to create the springy and feminine florals for their wedding.

Thank you to Marlin Munoz for capturing all the joy and smiles so beautifully. You guys are truly talented and I always love working with you!

Playful and pretty. Peonies, gerberas, mini button mums, freesia, roses, viburnum, ranuncula, sweet peas.

These colors just make me happy! Love how they pop against the black gowns. Sweet peas, roses, viburnum, ranuncula, hydrangea.

I've never seen Jenn so happy and radiant.

Or John so calm and contented.

Here's where we all started crying.

Sweet little arrangements of hydrangea, lilacs, and other treasures of spring overflowing from silver urns.

This is my favorite image of the bunch. The pose is so classic, like an old Victorian portrait, but I feel like they are looking eagerly ahead to their future through that window.

Cheers to you, Jenn and John! You are such a beautiful couple with such a strong faith. I hope to see you both soon! Double date at Felix’s again?

Featured: Snippet and Ink and Southern Weddings

It’s a delightful Wednesday morning in the blog world.  Just a quick note to let you know that two of our weddings have been featured on two of our favorite blogs!

Check out Nichole and Mike’s wedding on Southern Weddings Mag!

Photo by Amy Squires.

Then, head over to Snippet and Ink for some more Heather and Barry goodness!

Photo by One Love Photography.

Have a great day!

Ever Wonder How…?

As a floral designer, I’ve vowed to never stop learning. I still like to attend design seminars when I can, and I’m always asking other florists and my super savvy assistants if they think I could do something faster, prettier, or smarter. I might even go back to flower school to take some classes (and hopefully TEACH some classes someday.) In my new “Ever Wonder How…?” series, I’ll be posting some neat florist tricks of the trade addressing some questions that I certainly had before becoming a florist. And please, if you have an even better technique than what I am showcasing, leave me a comment!

Ever Wonder How… to decorate a cake with fresh flowers? That’s one thing I didn’t learn in floral school, surprisingly. I’ve seen and tried many different techniques.

• Some florists just stick the stems directly into the cake (after rinsing the flowers of course! A gentle fruit and vegetable wash works well for this.)
• Some actually wire and tape each flower, essentially creating a ton of little boutonnieres to stick into the cake. Some wire and tape the flowers onto picks, and insert them into the cake. Can you say time consuming?
• Some use tiny floral foam cages, fill them with flowers, and lay them on the cake (with cellophane in between, to protect the cake).

Now, all those ways are fine and dandy. They work. I’ve tried them all. But something always weirded me out about sticking an ordinary flower stem into a gorgeous, priceless confection. First off, no matter how well you rinse, are you really getting off all the pesticides and preservatives? And I doubt that florist tape and wires are much cleaner. My issue with the floral foam is that sometimes the cages leak out water and tiny green foam particles, which could be toxic. And the foam is heavy- I do NOT want to see a cake collapse because I’ve just topped it with a 5 pound arrangement. A collapsing cake is one of my recurring nightmares. I’m serious, I can barely breathe when I put flowers on a cake.

The best and easiest solution I’ve found came from my assistant Montita, who spent most of her life in Thailand. She is full of snazzy ideas that she picked up from her home country. Basically, she’s the bomb.

• Step 1: Select the flowers you’d like to use. Now this is kind of a bummer- most flowers are indeed toxic to some extent. I think the only common wedding flower I DIDN’T see on the on that list was roses. Hmm. That doesn’t leave us with much, right? Keep in mind that there are some flowers that are considered more toxic than others, including ivy, delphinium and kangaroo paws, so try to avoid those. Thankfully, this method really reduces the flower-to-cake contact, so you don’t have to lose sleep over this.
  

  Some white roses from my garden.

• Step 2: Cut off the stems completely, leaving just the flower head.
• Step 3: Take a clean toothpick and poke it into the bottom of the flower.
• Step 4: If you’re really concerned about your flowers making any contact with the cake, you can cut a small circle of celophane, a little smaller than the flower head. Then pierce it with the toothpick and shimmy it up to the flower head so it acts as a barrier between the cake and the flower.
• Step 5: Simply insert the toothpicks into the cake and voila! Couldn’t be easier! The best part- it doesn’t leave a huge gaping hole in the cake like a flower stem would.

Thanks for joining me for my first “Ever Wonder How…?” I’ll see ya next time!

And now, I’ll leave you with some pretty pictures of florified cakes

Photo by Sarah K. Chen

photo by Christine Marie Photography.

photo by Jasmine Star Photography.

photo by Jason Q. Tran

photo by Jessica Claire

Leah and David’s Coral and Aqua Wedding

I am totally wild for this summery color combo- spicy oranges and corals against cool aqua. Leah and David wanted hip, artistic, modern decor for their beachside wedding at the beautiful Bel Air Bay Club. Bless Leah’s heart, she was open to a huge range of funky, happy flowers, including cockscomb (the one that looks like a fuzzy orange brain) and pincushion proteas. These quirky flowers really gave the arrangements more texture and drama. I love a girl who can see the beauty in cockscomb.

Leah wanted a luxe tropical feel, but she wanted to do it without the typical beachy elements like sand and shells. We brought in lots of elegant white coral, beautiful candlelight, fabric wrapped vases, and orange sea fans.

Thank you to the fabulous planner Kelly Demaray for being so much fun during the planning and execution of this very detailed wedding. You are so sweet!

To the staff at Bel Air Bay Club- I’ve never been treated so kindly at a wedding before. You were so cheerful and helpful. A+!

A big thanks to Sae Lee Photography for sending over these gorgeous images so quickly. I’m so excited to share them!

Meet the gorgeous bride!

The ceremony took place on a grassy lawn overlooking Pacific Palisades. Needless to say, it didn’t need much beautifying!

Two honored guests carried petite bouquets of happy orange flowers. That blue looks stunning against the orange, doesn’t it?

I loved that each bridesmaid carried unique bouquets and wore unique dresses. Such a well-dressed bridal party!

I love the anticipation in this picture!

coral peonies, voodoo movie star roses, mokara orchids, callas, tulips, and more.

And now for the ravishing reception details!

There were two table setups, both using a variety of vases and candles. I am quite surprised I found fabric for the vases that matched the napkins to a T.

Tons of texture in these lush arrangements.

Geberas, roses, mokara orchids, ranunuculus, pincushions, cockscomb and more.

I found these delicate hanging candles and though they’d work beautifully for this wedding.

The elegant cake was propped up on glass cubes filled with orchids and coral.

I see an orange cat, popcorn, pizza boxes and beer. A man's dream come true? I'm a little confused, but I love it!

Can’t forget those little extra touches!

Leah and David, may your wedding be abundantly blessed! I had such a blast working with you and seeing it all come together. Enjoy wedded bliss!!!

Ode To Trader Joe’s

Warning: Random post ahead. Check back soon for a picture-filled  post from Leah and David’s spicy beach wedding!

Today at Trader Joe’s I bought a whole week’s groceries for 43.00, and it only took me 20 minutes to get in and out.  How can anyone NOT afford to shop there?  I pretty much buy my same favorite items each week, but today I splurged and bought some Beef Pizzle Sticks (you don’t EVEN want to know what they’re made of!!!) for my dogs, and some more Lara Bars (healthy and delicious- can’t get enough!)

Maybe I’m totally out of the loop and everyone has already seen this cute video, but it just cracks me up every time! I recognize almost every product mentioned (yes, even the Beef Pizzle Sticks). I too have noticed the yoga moms, 5 flavors of lemonade, and the overcrowded parking lots. I too have mourned discontinued items. Actually, my friend Rachel at Heart of Light has written a few posts about this phenomenon.

Enjoy!