Yarrow, Scabiosa Pods, Dahlias...These are a few of my favorite things.

I love the Farmers Market.
Unfortunately due to most of my weddings always landing on Saturdays, I can't go. :(
But if you truly want to see what flowers are in season,
the true seasonal flowers are always showcased there.
Most flowers you can get year round...if you are willing to pay a price that is.
But at the farmers market you can get a reasonably priced flowers without a badge, super fresh, and from a local farm. All pluses in my book.

This bouquet reminds me of a farmers market...I actually wish I could do a photo shoot there and am working on making that happen in the next 6 weeks.
This bouquet has dahlias, scabiosa pods, bunny tails, tulips, and yarrow.
This reminds me of Country Time Lemonade for some reason,
but who names their flowers that...right?

I made a little boutonniere( still can't spell that right on the first try) made out of a scabiosa pod, a fuzzy bunny tail(that's what I call it) and the white and yellow yarrow that makes me want to scream, it's so damn cute. I finished off the wrap with a little gold bouillion.

Blue and yellow together ROCK.

The bouquet can later be dropped into a tall container
and in the words of a wise sage named Emeril:
BAM! its a friggin centerpiece.

This ceramic cream container I bought at Goodwill for $3.99. HOLLA!

I love a great deal almost as much as I love it when I get a bunch of roses and there are no duds....has this ever happened to you? You go home and open up the roses and 1 or 2 rose heads are broken...I hate that. So when nothing falls out I give my roses a pretend hi five for being good gals. : )

Something Blue...

Something Old

Something New

Something Borrowed,

Something Blue.

This one started with Mrs. M emailing me to see if I could help with flowers for her son and DIL (Daughter in Law...
I have a friend who reads my blog and always asks me what the heck MIL or FH mean exactly? )
Anyhow, she was going to host the wedding at her house and it was going to be blues whites and silver. The happy couple live out of state so the planning was a little tricky because of the time difference and we were swamped with events, weddings, the dress for the museum, ect. But we finally found something that worked.
Her bridal bouquet was a compose of dahlias, white lisianthus, roses and spray roses, lime cymbidiums, green and white hydrangea, snow on the mountain, and blue tweedia for that something blue accent.

The matching boutonniere( you know I always have to spell check boutonniere?)
was a single white avalanche rose with blue tweedia accent wrapped in white satin.

The bridesmaids bouquets pictured here are unwrapped since I was going to use some fabric from the dress that the bride provided for me once I got to the house.
The bridesmaids bouquets were white, blue, and green hydrangea, white roses, white lisianthus, lime cymbidiums, blue delphinium, and white spray roses.

When I arrived to the house Mrs. M had set up shop in her garage with the flowers for the tables, so I made self a little station. My portable workstation consisted of hasami's(Japanese shears) newspaper, and a towel.


Here they are with the fabric from the dress on the handles of the bouquet. The color is what I would call "Lake".

Mrs M decided she would make the reception flowers herself.

Now that's love right there because it's A LOT of work.
I mean the processing, the vases, the cutting, the foam, the cleaning, the design, the set up, ect.....and then you have to get dressed and get your nails/hands decent to shake hands and take pictures for the wedding that you are hosting in your house???

She's a rock star.

Check it out...she made blue hydrangea terrariums. A woman after my own heart.
Doctor by day; Florist by night.

She found a local grower to get her blue and white hydrangeas and she then picked out some amaranthus and kangaroo paws along with some phalaenopsis orchids.

Look at these colors! My camera could not capture the shocking blue of these gorgeous hydrangea heads.

Blue popcorn hydrangea in all its glory.

Look at the backyard...I only wish I could see it lit up at night.
The tent had hanging lanterns of all sizes that would make it look like mars at night under the moon. The weather was at 82 when I left so the night would be perfect for them.

Thanks for letting me be a part of your big day!
I wish you much love and success. : )
Mrs. M...if you ever want to make floral arrangements...you know who to call! ; P

{And they lived happily ever after...}

BLOGARDEN { Peony Edition}

Plucked from a home garden for me with LOVE....: )

I promise I won't act crazy like in my last post where I actually illustrate how flowers talk to each other in a street fight or catty gossip girl episode...I will just present my info! ; )



You will see a whole catalog of peonies in pink.
What makes them different is the the size and fluffiness factor
{an official term I'm sure}
There are:

single, semi double, double, japanese and anemone peonies and the Bomb double peony.
So you see, they don't just come in pink or fluffy. ; )

These beauties are the Coral Charm double salmon peonies and Old Faithful double peonies.

The big fluffy pink ones are Mrs. Franklin D Roosevelts

The hot pink peonies that I love are the Double Pink Ellen Cowley and the yellow ones are Bartzellas I believe.

They range anywhere from $4 to $9{wholesale} per stem when they are in season. The cheaper ones I find are the bomb peonies that have a single layer of petals on the outside then a fluffy ball on the inside. They sell those at Trader Joes for like $10-$15 for 5 stems in the peak of the season. The ones that brides like are the full double peonies that are what my vendors call the premium peonies. The big mommas a la Martha Stewart.

Note to self~ The Shades of Seasonal Pinks

Type? I'm everyone's type.

This is what I imagine Peonies say to other flowers as they stun them with their beauty.

Back up Bi#$@!*, I rule May and part of June.
{and some of November and December when I'm imported from the netherlands}

And then Godetias roll their eyes and say What? I can last three weeks without my water being changed and I come in crazy colors that REEK of spring.And guess what? If you bunch me up with all my girls, we look like Peonies so there.

Then the tulips get all uppity and say Yeah well, I am in season too, and I am super cheap right now and I'm crazy! I come in all shapes and sizes, parrot, field, double, frayed edges-you name it, I got what you need, baby.

Sweet Williams - says FOOLS! People love me and they don't even know I'm a carnation so HA! They claim they love us only in mass, but they are looking- oh yeah, they are looking.

This is about the time that I truly believe I will lose all my followers because they think I'm nuts.
My husband just shakes his head and refuses to read one word.
My teenage daughter approves so I know I'm close to the edge.

This rare glimpse into my {crazy} flower world yield me no credibility and I should just take my peonies and call it a day. I can't help it.

But look at these colors and flowers?! Aren't they GORGEOUS! ugh. they make me sick.

They are also in season and I needed to post this so that I remember next year what I have in store for May and June. Godetias, that last only FOREVER. Sweet Williams that come in bi colors and anywhere from garnet red to deep velvet purple to light blush. Field tulips that I can get practically anywhere in all colors. The peonies, in coral and hot pink have been really good to me, but this is their last week.

PS. all the crazy blues are here for hydrangeas, yarrow is off the chain right now, the blue tweedia is growing like weeds, and there are absolutely no rununcuals anywhere in the market right now. ; (

My favorite flower...the Sunflower.

My Sunflower Bride was the sweetest bride.ever.
She contacted me to help her out with her wedding and I knew I wanted to work with her right away because she was just so sweet and I love sunflowers.

Her bouquet was a compose of blue hydrangea and sunflowers.
You can't see the variegated lily grass loops but they are there as the collar to the bouquet.

I made her a hair piece to match her bouquet.
It was yellow chrysanthemums that look like mini sunflowers, blue hydrangea florets and lily grass loops all glued onto a salal leaf that was glued onto a clear comb.

I always make two so that the bride can freshen up her hair piece as the day goes on.
Especially if it's something as fickle as hydrangea.
She's so pretty!
Her bridesmaids were all so helpful and her groomsmen help set up the ceremony site like it was nobody's business.

Here is the grooms boutonniere.


They had so many cute details in her wedding it wasn't even funny.
I did not capture them all, but I made sure to capture my favs.
The couple had a tree on a piece of paper and this little note that read please leaf your thumbprint. The guests were to place their thumbprint on the trees to look like leaves.
SUPER CUTE!




After all the guests had checked in it looked like this.

They made 1000 cranes and they sprinkled a few here and there and a few of them made it on to the sweetheart table where they placed this lovely wooden block.

The rest of the cranes made it on to a family crest that Momma Sunflower made for the happy couple. How awesome is this?

The cookies with the stickers were killer.
Jealous much? Yes. I was.

This was an awesome couple and I wish the couple much love and happiness!

{And they lived happily ever after....}

Red, Black and White Damask

Classic red roses with a touch of that dark red, almost black, eucalyptus for a wedding at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco.

The bride wanted to keep it simple and so I used all red roses and spray roses, some red hypericum here and there, and touches of that eucalyptus. I love that the change in color and size of the roses gives it texture and depth, and that the eucalyptus gave it a feathery look.

These are the two roses I used throughout the wedding: Black Bacarra Red roses, and Freedom Red roses. This is the perfect example to me of how a color is subjective. When someone contacts me and says I want red roses, I say ummm....what shade? Lipstick, Ruby, dark red, wine, ect....

Here are the centerpiece lined up and ready to go.

Here is a shot of the centerpiece which are composed of the same bacarra and freedom roses, red hyperium, red peruvian lillies, red carnations, black eucalyptus, variagaited ivy, and some salal.

Cupcakes...my favorite!
The couple opted for a small cake on top of the cupcake tower so that they could cut into an actual cake to get that cake cutting shot. I just love the sugar flowers and the edible dragrees.

{And they lived happily ever after.....}

Soooo I'm patting myself ( just a little) for blogging my little heart out this week. :D

BTW~Does anyone know an app that updates your FB and Twitter from the blog? Thanks!

Citron + Cream = Chic

I just love it when people ask me for white and green flowers. They are so crisp and clean together...that and they were my wedding colors! lol, I guess I am a little biased but can you blame me?

This was a baptism we worked for a blessed little boy a while back.
I am catching up so as you might now, my posts are a bit out of order,
but better late than never right?
We set up at Intramuros which is truly a hidden gem out in South San Francisco.
It was big and spacious and I loved the indoor garden feel of the veranda where this family had the reception.
I just adore the napkins hanging off the table like that.
The tables were set up with small cube centerpiece like the ones out in Berkeley we did last year.
check it out here: Lavender Wedding

They were all just a little bit different in placements to make them interesting from table to table, and we surrounded the cube with rose petals.

These are my favorite green roses. The Super Green rose is just a ruffly, true green flower.

The cupcake tower was too cute! I loved the iridescent sprinkles on them that I could not capture with my camera. mmmmm...red velvet.....

The favors were caramel apples and these super cute lucky bamboo favors in a vase.

*PERFECT* for the venue. Bravo J, that gal has great taste! ; P