Trendy Monday: Casual Weddings

I thought I would talk a little about one of the trends I am seeing in the wedding world- really casual weddings. Here are some great pictures I have found to show you a little bit of what I mean.

Let’s start with one of my favorites- casual shoes.

Look at these converse cuties for the bride from photographer Carrie Davenport.

Or how about this one of the groom and all of his groomsmen in converse from Geoff White.

Casual settings- I just love the look of this barn! And how it’s so dressed up with gorgeous fabric, who wouldn’t want to spend some time at this wedding?

Casual food- Miniature grilled cheese sandwiches and miniature hamburgers? What’s not to love? This makes me want to get married all over again. I just love the idea of serving casual food at an extraordinary event. Photo credit- Martha Stewart Weddings.

Casual cakes- All I have to say about this one is HOW ADORABLE. This makes my inner seamstress smile (wish my inner seamstress actually knew how to sew). Photo credit- Wedding Dresses Magazine.

Casual dresses- Not only do I love how informal these dresses are………I love that they don’t exactly match. I also love the fact that the colors are all so subtle. Photo credit- Aubergine Ink.

Thanks for joining me for this Trendy Monday.

Warm regards lovelies,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Sweet Peas

Lathyrus Odoratus

*Availability- March, April, May, June, July and the first part of August.

*Colors- white, lavender, purple, pink and magenta

photo credit- Country Living Magazine

I love the delicate flower called sweet pea. It has a really short season and you sort of have to grab it while you can when it comes to using it for an event. When it comes to weddings, I try not to promise a flower to a bride if it has a short season as it might go away just as fast as it came. It’s not so sexy but I think it’s so important to always have a Plan B (that goes for many aspects of a wedding). What I mean by a Plan B for flowers (this only applies to flowers that have a short season or are difficult to find) is that I like to put together an “ideal” bouquet with the brides’ dream flowers. Then come up with a bouquet that will hopefully make her just as happy with flowers that give her the “look” she is wanting.

This makes me think that I should do a post dedicated to those seasonal/difficult to find flowers. I will put it on my list of things to do.

Warm regards my lovelies,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Bragspot: What we’ve been up to lately

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Look at these cuties! This was a super fun retro wedding I did at the Valley Ho here in Phoenix.

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I have been so busy with wedding season lately that I haven’t had much time to do anything but work. I thought I would post some great pictures of weddings White Poppy has been up to this season. I’ll be doing a Real Weddings post on them when things slow down and I get pictures from each photographer (they do a much better job than I do).

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More from the Valley Ho, she loved spheres- can you tell?

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This gorgeous bride got married at the Arizona Historical Society. Her bouquet was made of roses, cymbidium orchids and miniature calla lilies.

Off to go get ready for a “green” baby shower this weekend with lots of herbs and unusual flowers.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Dahlia

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Dahlia Hybrids

*Also known as Georginas

*Availability- June, July, August, September, October

*Colors- white, lavender, purple, pink, magenta, red, burgundy, peach, orange, yellow, bi-color

The dahlia is a beautiful flower and has such a range in size. I have seen some as small as a golf ball and as large as a dinner plate.

picture-29I found this cutie on a great blog about gardening. This little girl reminds me of myself when I was younger but I would have been holding a rose from my mothers garden.

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Here they are in white in a yummy bouquet I did at The Royal Palms this October. I mixed them with purple hydrangea, deep plum miniature calla lilies and rhinestone-studded stephanotis.

The dahlia is named after Swedish (go Swedes) 18th century botanist Anders Dahl. They are native to Mexico, Central America and Columbia and have 36 different species.

Thanks for checkin in on my Floral Friday.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Bells of Ireland

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Moluccella Laevis

Also known as Shell Flowers

*Availablility- all year round

*Colors- green only

Oh the bells of Ireland, this is a favorite flower of my mother-in-law as she is married to an Irishmen. She gets so excited when she sees these and usually breaks out into some Irish song or other.

These beauties are the brightest green flower and are such a great addition to so many kinds of arrangements. I find that bright green really brings out the other colors that it is placed next to- a complimentary duo.

picture-47photo credit- http://www.shannonallenphotography.com This picture is from a wedding a did a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned for a Real Weddings blog post on it.

Ironically Bells of Ireland are not from Ireland at all, they get their name because of their fantastic green color. They are grown for the fresh cut industry in Columbia and California.

picture-48photo credit- http://www.thebridescafe.com

These girls look so cute in their black and white dresses and all Bells of Ireland bouquets.

Thanks for stopping by.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Bragspot: White Poppy featured in Arizona Bride magazine

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One of the fun things about being in the wedding flower biz is being recognized in publications.

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White Poppy has been featured in the latest issue of Arizona Bride magazine. This wedding was an absolute blast to do! It was at one of my favorite locations- The Royal Palms Resort here in Phoenix. I collaborated with the ever-so-fun and fabulous wedding coordinator Cicely of Life Design Event Planning. The brides color scheme was hot pink and bright green, her flowers were a mixture of orchids, miniature calla lilies, hydrangea and roses.

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We chose to put cut limes inside her glass centerpieces.

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The fabulous photographer that worked on this wedding was Rebecca of Rebecca Bouck Photography. She was so professional and the pictures turned out amazing.

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Check out this beautiful monogram custom designed for them by Wonderful Graffiti.

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Thanks for stopping by and listening to me brag!

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Just a bit personal: Flagstaff

This past weekend I went to Flagstaff with my son, husband and another family that we love to spend time with. Just thought I would share with you how much fun we had. The weather was so wonderful- a cool 70 degrees which is a nice break from our 100 degree weather here in Phoenix.

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We grilled, slept in, went fishing, hiked and tried to do a whole lot of nothing. God has truly blessed me with great family and friends.

I’m am now officially ready for wedding season here in Phoenix.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Real Weddings: Andrea and Joe

It was such a joy to work with Andrea on her and Joe’s big day this past spring. I just got these fantastic pictures from an awesome photographer here in Arizona, Harold of To Have and To Hold Photography, what a great job he did capturing the wonderful spirit of that day.

It all took place at The Princess Hotel here in Scottsdale. Their ceremony was overlooking a lagoon and boy was it a romantic atmosphere.

We did a ring of petals in cream and yellow for the bride and groom to stand in. This is becoming quite popular for outdoor weddings here in Arizona; people do not want to do too much to take away from the beautiful surroundings.

These arrangements were made on dark chocolate bamboo sticks and made a beautiful frame for the bride and groom.

The floral recipe that Andrea and I came up with turned out pretty stunning. We chose miniature calla lilies, gardenias (my favorite flower), yellow cymbidium orchids, yellow oncidium orchids, yellow mokara orchids, tulips, freesia and bright white hydrangea. This wedding was a lot of fun to do, thanks Andrea, my staff and I had a great time.

Warm regards,

 

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Sunflower

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Helianthus Annuus

*Availability- All year round

*Colors- Yellow, Brown, Bicolor and Dyed

*Meaning- Haughtiness; Power; Adoration; Devotion

Today I thought I would talk about the super cheerful sunflower. One reason it seems appropriate to talk about the sunflower is because I live in a city where the sun never sleeps. We are almost into September and there are still plenty of days over 100Ëšahead of us. By this time we Phoenicians are DONE with the heat!

Sunflowers are so bright and cheerful, check out this beautiful sunflower wedding picture-18from The Brides Cafe. I love the look of this wedding because she used only sunflowers- no filler, no other flowers. Using sunflowers alone is my favorite way to use them because they make SUCH a big statement, adding anything else can cheapen the look.

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This inspiration board came from Snippet & Ink, she does inspiration boards to perfection. Check out her website, it’s just a little bit addicting.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Chinese Lantern

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Abutilon

Also known as Paper Lantern Plant, Winter Cherry, Bladder Cherry

*Availability- July, August, September, October, November and phasing out into December.

*Colors- orange only

*Meaning- enlightenment

Welcome back to my series on Floral Fridays, I thought I would jump in with a flower that I find so unique and interesting- Chinese Lanterns. My son is back in school and I thought I saw football on the tele a couple of days ago (this is my husbands’ favorite time of year). All of this makes me so excited for fall and two of my favorite holidays- Halloween and Thanksgiving.

How fantastic this flower is! Either alone or in an arrangement, they are simply a show stopper. Whenever I use them people always ask me “are those real?” They just look too unusual to be from nature. But after watching (hopefully all of you did) the Planet Earth series on television, we know that many things from nature are as beautiful and perfect as an artists painting.

Start looking for these in your local market as fall arrives. I have seen them many times at Trader Joes, buy a bunch and put them in a simple tall glass vase on your kitchen counter and wait for the comments.

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This gorgeous arrangement came from Yukiko Neibert Studio in Marin.

Thanks so much for stopping by, it’s great to be back in the swing of things.

Warm Regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white