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Floral Friday: Hydrangea

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Welcome to Floral Friday, today I am talking about the ever so beautiful and fluffy flower hydrangea.

Hydrangea is so wonderful to work with, it fills large spaces so beautifully and is always such a gorgeous addition to any arrangement. I often like to create a bridal bouquet with hydrangea as a base, then I pull all other flowers through the hydrangea. In this way the hydrangea is everywhere in the bouquet and the other flowers just pop with their colors.

One of my wholesalers pointed out something for me years ago- look at the prefix of the word hydrangea and you will find hydra (to hydrate). Boy is this ever true, hydrangea loves and needs to be in water to survive. When doing bouquets with hydrangea I often adivise the use of a bouquet holder, this simply allows the hydrangea to keep drinking throughout the day and evening so that it lasts much longer for you.

Hydrangea from the bucket…….

into the cake………well not really into, the pastry chef put extra frosting inside those layers to hold the hydrangea in place for me. This is a picture from a wedding I did last weekend, I will post the photographers photos soon, this was such a beautiful wedding to work on.

In this photo I used white hydrangea as a base, isn’t it so fluffy!

Hydrangea comes in white, green, blue, purple, pink and multi-colored. The multi-colored Hydrangea is seasonal and tends to be much more expensive because its’ production is low.

Have great weekend and I will see you back on Monday for all the latest wedding trends. P.S. My season is starting to come to an end here in Phoenix so join me as I travel to California at the end of May to do three fantastic weddings with my incredibly talented sister from Petals by Candy.

Warm regards,

Trendy Monday: Wheat Grass

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Hello and welcome to Trendy Monday or maybe I should call it Trendy Tuesday by now, I had such a fantastic Mothers Day weekend and consequently I’m running a little behind.

Anyway, I have been using wheat grass for parties and weddings for quite some time now and thought it should be recognized as a trend. It is so adorable and can be used in so many ways.

Here it is being used for the name cards at a recent wedding I did. Check out the cute gingham ribbon at the base.

I’ve found in working with the grass that it is best to put 1 inch styrofoam underneath to give it support otherwise it’s not as firm and harder to work with. Also, if your going to be putting water tubed flowers in it, it gives them the support they need- win win.

Here I used it for a centerpiece I did last year.

Warm regards,

Floral Friday: Phalaenopsis Orchids

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Welcome to Floral Friday! Today I’m talking about the oh so beautiful phalaenopsis orchid.

The phalaenopsis orchids I am talking about today are the common ones that we use in the fresh cut industry. Most of these orchids are available year round because they’re grown in greenhouses where the environment is ideal for them (around 65-70 degrees with a lot of humidity). So this is the reason that we associate Hawaii with orchids- they love the climate.

photo credit- Rebecca Bouck Photography Here is a boutonniere that I did for a wedding at the fabulous Royal Palms resort this past fall.

The phalaenopsis orchid comes in a wide variety of colors but the most common colors that we see at the wholesalers are white and a purplish pink. Orchids in general are so fantastic for me to work with here in Phoenix because they do so well in the heat. And with temperatures heating up over 100 degrees this weekend, I am always looking to work with flowers that will cooperate and be happy.

When using phalaenopsis orchids you can choose to individually wire them or use the entire stem (they come on a stalk with multiple blooms).

Check out this amazing centerpiece from Martha Stewart. How pretty would this be for a wedding…

Thanks for stopping by! See you Monday for the latest trends in the wedding industry.

Warm regards,

Trendy Monday: Hand-Tied Bouquets vs Cascade Bouquets

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Today on trendy Monday I am going to talk about an obvious trend (or maybe it’s just obvious to me), hand-tied bouquets.

photo credit- RebeccaBouckPhotography .Hand-tied bouquets are bouquets that are gathered to form a handle, wrapped at this gathering point with ribbon and the stems are commonly left exposed.

This picture is of a typical 80’s cascade bouquet. Long gone are the days of the cascade bouquet (well almost), I still do get asked to do them every once in a blue moon.

Cascade bouquets are commonly made in a plastic holder and in the 1980’s they often had a “lacey” collar as seen in this picture- yikes!

Now this bouquet from Martha Stewart would be a more modern version of a cascade bouquet. Because it is Martha Stewart, I’m sure this bouquet was probably individually wired, instead of being made in a holder, to achieve that cascade look. Wow, this bouquet is absolutely gorgeous! I wouldn’t mind trying to re-create this.

A more natural “hand-tied” look has been in style for quite some time now. I would say that in the 10 years that I’ve been doing wedding flowers I could count on 1 hand how many cascade bouquets I have done. When I do do them I usually charge much more for them as they are quite labor intensive. And thanks to my sister in California (who went to floral school when they were in style) I have been schooled on the correct way to make one.

Warm regards,

Floral Friday: Cymbidium Orchids

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Hello and welcome to Floral Friday, today I am talking about the tropical flower cymbidium orchid.

I would like to start by introducing you to my best kept secret, Mario Scalia (12 years in the biz).

Mario is my main man when it comes to buying and ordering wholesale flowers. He works at one of my favorite places to buy wholesale, Dougherties on 3rd Ave and Roosevelt here in Phoenix, Arizona. The quality of flowers that they carry are exceptional! And they are one of the very few that carries my all time favorites, Eufloria roses. Building a relationship with a wholesaler is SO important in my business. He is my life-line between grower and wholesaler. He keeps me posted on changes related to weather, season and just about anything else related to flowers around the entire world. Most important to me, he keeps me posted on the status of my orders- he alerts me of color issues, my flowers might be coming in a day earlier or later, the flowers might be smaller or larger because of the time of year, etc etc. Communication is so important, I believe, because honesty is really the best policy.

I’ve asked Mario to talk to me a little bit about cymbidium orchids and here is what he said “We have three main growers that we work with that are in New Zealand, Holland and domestically in California. We get flowers from New Zealand in our fall, from California in the spring and from Holland year round.”

Here is one of my beautiful brides Andrea from this spring with yellow cymbidium orchids in her bridal bouquet.

Mario also told me that cymbidium orchids come in white, pink, yellow, gold, chocolate, burgundy, orange and green. There are variations of grades, they either come 6-7 blooms on a stalk or 12-15 blooms on a stalk.

Here they are being individually wired for centerpieces and bouquets.

Also check out miniature cymbidium orchids, they are so cute and tiny. This bouquet has burgundy miniature cymbidiums and came from Lindsay Docherty Photography. She’s in Pennsylvania, check out her photographs and blog, they are both amazing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Warm regards,

Real Weddings: Andie and Marcus

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It was such a pleasure doing Andie and Marcus’s wedding this April at The Valley Ho resort in Phoenix. We spent a lot of time together talking about achieving just the right shade of pink and we did it. The pictures from Marcus Photography turned out beautiful, thank you to Marcus for these great photos.

In Andie’s bridal bouquet we used hot pink and medium pink hydrangea, pink miniature calla lilies, Aqua and Tenga Venga roses from Eufloria and rhinestone studded stephanotis. Don’t they look so happy?

Did we match the bridesmaids dresses or what?

For the bridesmaids we used a combination of pure white flat leaf hydrangea and those same stunning roses from Eufloria that I used in Andie’s bouquet.

What a great shot of the whole bridal party.

Here is a shot of me at work on the bridal bouquet.

And an in-studio shot of the centerpiece.

All of the centerpieces lined up like good little soldiers.

Thanks Andie and Marcus for letting me a part of your special day.

Warm regards,

Trendy Monday: Wax Vessels

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Hello and welcome to Trendy Monday. Today I’m talking about the trend of using wax vessels for ceremony or reception decor.

Look at these beautiful tall wax cylinders we used for a wedding last fall at The Royal Palms, they glow so nicely with a candle inside of them.

Here is a wider angle of them. You would definitely get a more dramatic effect at night but these were sure pretty, especially with the hot pink ribbon embellishment.

Here is an example of black wax vessels with flowers in them for a centerpiece. These are from a local company here in Arizona called Candles West, they have a great selection of shapes, sizes and colors.

Check out this gorgeous centerpiece (in a green wax vessel) offered by Camelback Flowershop, those girls really know how to do flowers.

Warm regards,

Floral Friday: Mokara Orchid

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Hello and welcome to my Floral Friday series. This week and several weeks to follow I will be talking about orchids. I am going to keep it simple and only talk about the common orchids that we use in the fresh cut floral industry because there are endless amounts of orchid species to talk about. Today I am focusing on one of my favorites- the Mokara orchid.

The Mokara orchid comes on a stalk about 12 inches long, it can be used as is or it’s flowers can be picked and individually wired for boutinneres or as an accent to an arrangement. I would say that the average size of an individual Mokara bloom is about 1 1/2 inches.

One of the best places for me to get my wholesale orchids are from a national company called Mayesh. It’s important in the business of flowers to build great relationships with your wholesalers and one great relationship I have built is with Sue Wood from their Phoenix, AZ location- talk about a wealth of knowledge! On all things floral, just ask Sue. So today I had a talk with Sue about Mokara orchids, here’s what she had to say about color variety, “mokara orchids come in orange, yellow, gold, purple, shades of red, white (has purple polka dots) and pink. But let me elaborate on pink, it’s not really a true pink, it has a strong purple hue to it so you almost have to call it lavender. The variety “Calipso” would be the closest thing to a hot pink you can find.” I have ordered Calipso as a hot pink before and Sue was right, it was more purple then pink. So this is when the handy dandy floral spray comes in- something I will talk about in another post.

This is an orchid field in Singapore. Sue says that “Mokara orchids are either grown in orchid fields or in hot houses were conditions are ideal. Inside these hot houses it’s the perfect setting for them to flourish, they have perfect venhilation and just the right amount of humidity.”

They are then graded by length and size.

Sue told me that the largest exporters of Mokara orchids are Thialand, Singapore and Thaiwan and two of her growers are Amy’s Orchids and Talk Taiwan Orchids. Talk Taiwan Orchids has some really interesting and unusual varieties that are bi-color.

Here is a true yellow variety that I used for a wedding at the beginning of April, it’s called “Full Moon”. One thing to mention also, these orchids were not put in the cooler and sat in my studio for 4 days at about 72 degrees and were so happy and looked great. The cold cold temperature of my cooler is just too much for them and they could possibly freeze if left in there too long.

Here they are in a beautiful mix of hydrangea, tulips, freesia, bluporum and cymbidium orchids.

Please join me next week when I will be talking about cymbidium orchids.

Warm regards,

Trendy Monday: Floral Spheres

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Welcome to Trendy Monday, today I am talking about the trend of using floral spheres in wedding floral decor.

I love the idea of using spheres in floral design! I think the look is so clean, modern and simple- like polka dots. Iv’e hung spheres from arbors, made sphere topiarys for centerpieces, created sphere topiary altar arrangements, made sphere kissing balls for flower girls, hung floral spheres from shepherd hooks down a ceremony isle and I’m about to make a kissing ball sphere on a stick for a flower girl (wedding coming up in two weeks). Here are some great examples of floral spheres, enjoy.

I love this rose ball for pew arrangements.

This is a great way to decorate an arbor for weddings.

Love the little girls and their kissing balls.

This is a fun idea for a centerpiece.

Warm regards,

Floral Friday: Lavender

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Hi and welcome to Floral Friday, today I am talking about the oh so french flower Lavender.

The smell is so wonderful and really does make me feel like I want to take a nap (so relaxing). The color is so soft and delicate- lavender with a blue hue to it.

The life of an event florist- it’s 11pm on a Friday night, the height of wedding season and what am I doing? flowers of course. I waited to blog for Floral Friday (it is still Friday for another hour) until I had my bridal bouquet done for tomorrow because it had lavender in it and I wanted to share a picture of it with you.

It has a combination of dried lavender

fresh lavender

and lavender foliage mixed with lavender roses and purple sweet peas.

I don’t get much call for fresh lavender for weddings and as I have been putting this wedding together I have wondered why. It is so beautiful! I will gather photos from the photographer and do a bragspot on this wedding for sure.

I found this great information on lavender from Wikipedia- “The most common “true” species in cultivation is the Common Lavender Lavandula angustifolia (formerly L. officinalis). A wide range of cultivars can be found. Other commonly grown ornamental species are L. stoechas, L. dentata, and L. multifida.

“Lavandula intermedia” or “Lavendin” is the most cultivated species for commercial use, since its flowers are bigger and the plants are easier to harvest, but Lavendin oil is regarded to be of a lower quality.

Lavenders are widely grown in gardens. Flower spikes are used for dried flower arrangements. The fragrant, pale purple flowers and flower buds are used in potpourris. Dried and sealed in pouches, they are placed among stored items of clothing to give a fresh fragrance and as a deterrent to moths. The plant is also grown commercially for extraction of lavender oil from the flowers. This oil is used as an antiseptic and for aromatherapy. Lavender is also used extensively as herbal filler inside Sachets used freshen linens and discourage moths from closets and drawers. Dried lavender flowers have also become recently popular used as confetti for tossing after a wedding.”

check out these natural lavender bouts, I can’t wait to see it altogether.

Warm regards,