An Anniversary Bouquet

I created a special 5 year wedding anniversary bouquet and bout for Jodi and Fraser.  They had traveled from Vegas to California to be photographed by one of my favorite photographers, Gabriel Ryan.

Jodi was having a hard time pinning down her bouquet.  Her only requirements were that it be really round and full (she said “like a basketball on a stick”), colorful but not TOO colorful.  Luckily, Jodi said I somehow read her mind and created something that she really loved!

I went searching for the perfect flowers in the pewter and mauve family.  I found multi-hued hydrangea, white ranuncula, faith and sahara roses,  slate blue privet berries, pink cockscomb, and two varieties of purple dahlias.  My favorite element was the gray brunia berries which perfectly matched the silver pearls in her necklace.

Check out more gorgeous images on Gabriel Ryan’s blog!

Check out those piercing baby blues!  Totally working it!

Congratulations on 5 very sweet years of marriage!

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?

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s in my cooler? Privet and smokebush!

A few centerpieces for two very dear clients of mine.  They happen to share very similar tastes in flowers:  feminine and whimsical, with unexpected elements.

A few favorite containers from my green recycled glass collection.  I especially love the little hobnailed one on the right.

Pewter berzillia berries and velvety dusty miller add an antique feel.  The palette is kind of open-ended and mysterious- grays, soft pinks, beiges, and silvery lavender.

And then we have  seashell pink florals in a footed urn…

With the stars of the show: navy blue privet berries and eggplant purple smokebush.  They help to bring an edginess to this otherwise girly centerpiece.

Let’s just say I’m super excited about what we have on our plate at T-Petal!

What’s in my cooler?

This weekend’s wedding was a dream.  It took place at Rancho Del Cielo, perched atop a hill in Malibu overlooking the ocean.  When I handed the bride her bouquet, I got to hear the words I love so dearly, “I’m gonna cry!!!”

If you stepped into my cooler last week, you would find:

local pink garden roses and plump tulips…

Perfectly petaled dahlias…

Green and white helleborus (such a rare treat!)…

And ivory chandaliers stuffed with florals.

That’s enough of my horrible photography- I can’t wait to show you the pro pics! This upcoming weekend’s wedding is equally pink, soft and feminine, and I couldn’t be more delighted!

“Black” Flowers

I have a few weddings coming up that will feature black florals, either in mass amounts or as striking accents against other colors. When I say “black” florals, I really mean dark dark burgundy, purple or brown. There are, to my knowledge, no truly black flowers. But here are some that give the impression of black and look so amazing and mysterious in arrangments:

My favorite, black dahlias:

Here I am putting the finishing touches on one of last weekend's casual and funky centerpieces featuring black dahlias. I did purposefully wear a green, black and white dress to match the wedding color palette. I look WAY too intense in this pic.

Scabiosa  (photo via Apartment Therapy):

Most brides are disgusted by the name SCABiosa. The flower does look very scab-like! But it looks awesome grouped together in bouquets.

Black callas (photos via Jessica Claire):

A couture bouquet I crafted for Trista Lerit awhile back.

Can you also spot the scabiosa in there?

Black baccara roses (photo by The Image is Found):

Dramatic pops of black baccaras amid vivid pink and lime florals.

Black iris:

Totally rare and totally pricey. But gorgeous nonetheless!

Landini lilies:

It's really difficult to track down asiatic lilies that are this dark. It's much easier to find "blackout" lilies, which are a bit more on the burgundy side. I bought buckets and buckets of blackout lilies for this weekend's wedding!

I’m a not a morbid person in the least, but black flowers really float my boat!  What’s your opinion on them?

The Bouquet: from inspiration to reality!

A few weeks ago I posted this photograph by Jacqueline Veissid as inspiration for a special bouquet I needed to make for a very special photographer- Jasmine Star. She would be capturing Natalie and Bill’s day after images and wanted the flowers to be dramatic and sexy!

I just loved the white, black, mustard and blood red together.

While I was running around the flower mart at 3:00 am (that’s right, folks!) on a mission to find fun, exotic flowers, I decided to nix the mustard yellow flowers, feeling like yellow and red might look a little McDonald’s-esque. I quickly grabbed bunches of red and black dahlias, red thistle, black callas, fluffy white lisianthus, fringed tulips and feathery red celosia to use as a collar around the bouquet. I also stopped by Target to grab a few chunky charm necklaces that I could take apart and rework into the bouquet wrap.

The result? A two-ton blinged out mass of textural blooms.

Natalie and Bill are such a gorgeous couple- they are fresh from their honeymoon and just glowing. And Jasmine’s photos are out of this world! Please stop by Jasmine’s blog and check out the entire slideshow!

I’ll leave you with my favorite image:

Off to Costco to purchase 250 lemons You’ll see why soon!

Bamboo Ladder Arch!

I mentioned in a previous post that I needed to create a simple arch out of bamboo for Sharon and Dean’s wedding which took place the last weekend in September.

I stumbled upon this blog, Ramblings of a Renovating Couple, and saw that they gave step by step instructions on how to create this arch out of bamboo ladders:

When I saw how easy it was to make, and when I found two 9 foot tall bamboo ladders for sale, I knew this could be gorgeous.

Here is Sharon and Dean’s simple and elegant wedding arch, stained a deep espresso brown, and strung with an assortment of mokara, dendrobium, and mini cymbidium orchids.  Notice the beautiful white cranes, hand-folded and strung by the wedding planner of all wedding planners, Angel Swanson.

I must give a shout out to my power tool yielding sisters-in-law, Teresa and Christine, for putting together this arch. To be honest, I am a total dummy with power tools. In fact, the noise scares me! But they came to my aid and created something truly beautiful. And I held the poles steady while they drilled the holes.  Yay for me!  Pics taken by my hubby Joe.

Plus, I can easily take the arch apart later and create the most bomb-diggity towel rack

… and keep one next to the bookshelves in our future library for easy top shelf access. We’re househunting, and hoping to set aside one room in our future home to be the reading and relaxation room. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Image above from In Style via Style Court.

Stay tuned for more pictures of Sharon and Dean’s incredible wedding!

Bouquet Inspiration…

One of my favorite photographers (I’ll spill all the details in a few weeks) asked me if I’d like to create a unique, over the top bouquet for a special day after shoot she’ll be photographing. She basically gave me free reign with this, and told me to create a work of art. Her one rule- must not be a perfect “roundy moundy” (as my old floral instructor called it) of flowers tied with a ribbon. Of course, I’m up for it! But, no rules? No predetermined color palette? No list of flower likes and dislikes to work from? Challenging, but sooo fun.

While reading my daily dose of wedding, style, and home decorating blogs, I came upon these images by Jacqueline Veissid via All Things Bright and Beautiful that just took my breath away.

The beautiful red, black and mustard florals against the thick white satin. The red-stained lips, and the golden bird perched on her finger. So beautiful!

I just adore that blood red color.

My word that is stunning! I love the big satin rosettes adorning her gown.

So, I’ve got my jumping off point for a dramatic, pretty, quirky and whimsical bouquet in white, black, blood red, and mustard. The colors somehow seem exotic and a bit oriental.. In addition to white “canvas” flowers like tibet roses, some funkier flowers that immediately came to mind were:

fuzzy white mink protea perhaps with a blood red rose emerging from the center…

black callas…

feathery red cockscomb (different variety than the “fuzzy brain flower” as many brides call it)…

and craspedia…

Not sure how to work this in, but I also saw branches of pomegranates at the flower mart that were slightly cracked open to expose the ruby red seeds. BUT I can imagine the damage these could do to a white wedding gown, so I think I’ll go without …

I want to wire black satin rosettes into the bouquet, and I want the stems wrapped with pleated black satin, dressed up with a locket like this on I found on Etsy by t8designs:

Now, I’ve got the ideas swirling around, all I need is to narrow the flower choices down (I can’t include EVERYTHING I love), and make it happen! Can’t wait to share the photos with you.

This weekend will be filled with house-hunting, wedding prop-making, and hopefully long naps with a pup tucked in each elbow. xoxo

Show and Tell: Stuff I like!

This just-for-fun post features some elements that I’m especially drawn to as a florist.

I like plexiglass!

A Beautiful ceremony setup from White Lilac Inc. I’ll be crafting some similar columns in the next few months.

I have always loved this plexiglass wish tree from our friends at Events of Love and Splendor. It’s truly a work of art. Angel and I have an incredible wedding coming up which will feature an amazing plexiglass cake stand. Can’t wait!

I like bamboo!

This asian inspired arrangement is from Botanicals Chicago, one of my alltime favorite florists.

I’ll be building a bamboo arch next week, similar to this one from the geniuses at Yvonne Floral Designs, for an upcoming wedding.

Nico Designs captures a similar look with bamboo, but uses deep brown stained poles. Which is your favorite, the green or the brown? The green is really fresh and striking, but the brown is less overtly tropical. I’m still torn on that one.

I like dahlias!

Black dahlias, fiery orange dahlias, petally pink dahlias, ball-shaped, mum-shaped, you name it! You can probably spot dahlias in almost every wedding I’ve done, because they add such a unique texture and geometric feel to arrangements. Definitely one of my favorite flowers.

Black dahlias- such stunners! (Photo by Trista Lerit.)

Funky light tangerine dahlias. (Photo by Michael Norwood.)

Vivid red dahlias (Photo by Jonilyn Photography.)

I love this pointy little cactus dahlia.

And freakishly huge “dinner plate dahlias”. Beware, dahlias of this size are super fragile and bruise easily, but boy are they gorgeous.

I like Fiddle Fern (what some call monkey tails)!

I can’t tell you how many brides I’ve consulted who thought that fiddle fern was made of wrought iron. No, it’s actually a real fern, and has a rubbery texture, like a pencil eraser! Some brides are creeped out by them, others love the playfulness they bring to bouquets and bouts. If a bride gives me the ok, I’m more than happy to use them if they suit the mood!

Kadidja and her man rocking the fiddle fern in the bouquet and bout. (Photos by Sarah K. Chen.)

Another of Botanicals’ amazing creations using fiddle fern as the heel of a shoe. Totally wish I had thought of that for my friend’s wedding (she has a degree in shoe design!)

Thanks friends for indulging me!  I can’t remember doing show and tell even once in elementary school, so this is my outlet for that sort of thing.  Happy Labor Day!!!