Silver+ White+Yellow

Bride: Do you do "Handpicked" looks?
Moi: Why, yes I do. Step into my garden.....
I do it with a twist. I hope you like it ; )

Mock up for a silver, white, and yellow wedding.

These white and silver floral arrangements will be the bouquets/re-purposed centerpiece.
Feverfew flowers, lambs ear, scabiosa, dahlias, and sweetpeas.

The Bridal Bouquet will have the blue and the centerpiece will be a multi vase flowers that I will post Sunday. Happy Friday the 13th!

Green Dianthus Ball Bouquet

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!!

I'm excited and happy that I have a few things to do this week that give me creative freedom.

First up is a sample of what I consider green and white with a bit of gold.
I love this green dianthus ball{AKA green carnations!}
I refer to is as a Horton Hears A who flower ; )
This bouquet has light green hydrangea, green dianthus, gold cockscomb, and white avalanche roses.

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Similar to the idea in my previous post I made this bouquet so that it would drop into a vase that has equisetum( horsetail) in it.

I think it allows it to double as a bar arrangement, check in table, escort card table, or bathroom arrangement.

This vignette is to show how we incorporate levels using simple white vases. The ones I used I bought at Ikea a while back to hold short stems on my counter.

Here is the unconventional masculine boutonniere.
banding the horsetail like in the vases earlier and just using a bit of the dianthus with the cockscomb for color.

Here's a quick table number idea for a bride who wants something a little different.

I'm proposing we do this on a HUGE level.
Carry the idea of banding horsetail together with gold flowers, in this case orchids, so just give it some color in small placements.

These are left over escort cards from my own wedding I had lying around.
They were simple Crane&Co. envelopes in a 2x2 with black embossed lettering in the back that says "TABLE" and the front that says the name of the guest,
who didn't ,ahem, show at my wedding : /
Then finally the insert is a Martha Stewart stamp that has the table number in it.

AIFD Symposium{the show flowers}

You guys must be tired of seeing AIFD posts, but guess what? I have one, more!

Well, aside from this one. I just couldn't fit them all in. I still get excited about flowers and take a gazillion pictures:)

Enjoy!

All fresh fruit. I get "fancy" with melon balls once in a while but this is madness!
They actually carved a rose out of melons.

Fruit, but in a different way. This is part of Lisa and Jenny's, one of my instructors at school, presentation on being Green. They used this paper product from home depot that looks like burlap or something and fresh apples, succulents and moss. Total organic, green feel.

If this looks familiar, it's because Jenny made the urn in March for Bouquet to Arts and it has been living as a succulent urn at school since then.

You know I *love* this structure of PVC pipes and flowers, right?

This floral door looked big on stage but in real life the bird they made out of Flowers was enormous! The birds(swan/goose?) beak was made out hypericum berries, its feathers were made out lily petals, and the head out of white button mums.

This was a pillar of calla lillies and anthurium.
The structure was quite fascinating and made me think of Daniel Ost.

Holy Epergne!

Lime and Lavender flowers looks so wonderful and unexpected to me for the holidays and I love the Holiday decor for the door. An updated take on the wreath.

What can I say, I love pave?
This was a huge floral arrangement made out of Phalaenopsis orchids, super green roses, jade roses, and green dianthus. Loved it and can totally see it being used at a wedding ceremony.
The little pink and coral number next to it is pretty hot too.

This is the one that took my heart.
It was a wall piece that was made with folded ti leaves
(everyone who has been around me when I get ti leaves knows I love to twirl then and fold them to different shapes, so this made my heart smile).
They used the bunched ti leaves to hide the water tubes that held up the orchids.
GORGEOUS!

AIFD Symposium{Floral Vendors and Displays}

Why go to symposium when you have me to share all my pictures you are wondering? Hehe.

Although I have about 500 pictures, I only took pictures of stuff that really got ideas in my head going or that I thought were super inspiring. The other stuff, I had seen before or maybe I didn't get, so really don't trust my judgement 100%. You gotta get to a floral show, convention, symposium, competition - whenever you get a chance. it's pretty awesome.

So before I share the Euro designers I would like to share with you some great shots I got of the meet and greet mixer with sponsors and vendors that happened on day one of the AIFD symposium.

This vendor was selling glass containers and I fell in love with how simple the arrangements were but how much of an impact they made.
I think Anthuriums are so beautifully elegant.
Damn near handsome they are.

I needed to buy some of these but sadly, they weren't for sale.
They did have a catalog that I perused and they have interesting containers.

This vendor had the brightest exotic flowers EVER!
I needed to take a shot of these babies.

I especially took note at this table because the multi-colored blooms are the theme of a wedding I have in two weeks!
I had to invoke the God of self control so that I wouldn't remove the stamen of the lilies and risk offending the vendor.

I heart sunflowers in my personal life.

In my floral life, I don't really like to use them unless it's the day after Halloween and they are gone by Thanksgiving. It's just not natural to me.....
So when I saw this I was conflicted:
One the one hand" Hello! look at how great this huge piece is" WOW.
Fall Wedding or what??Hi, Indian summer Autumn in San Francisco wedding!
( ya gotta be a local to know what I'm talking about)
Then they coupled it with submerged succulents in a tall Pilsner vase? Be still my beating heart.
*love it*
On the other hand it wasn't Thanksgiving.....
In the end, beauty was the victor and I snapped a few shots :)

I adore Manzanita trees, and this huge mammoth of a floral installation took my breath away. I was all up in their mechanics trying to figure out how they suspended the floral disk in between all the branches.

Sacrilegious.
I could never cut down a lily this low, but isn't this kinda cool looking?

This Modern Purple Ikebana inspired table killed me. I wanted to scream with delight but was scared to upset the vendor.They wouldn't understand that I am unable to express happiness in words so I have to be violent and primal about it...yes. issues.

This last one caught my eye because it was a silk...oh sorry...PERMANENT BOTANICAL....(ooh I'm snarky today!)...and normally I will walk past it but I had to touch them to make sure they were fake, and then I had to confirm it in a hush hush whisper to my friend" is this...fake?" She nodded knowingly.
So a picture I took to remind myself not to be a floral snob.

Love the apothecary jars with the Flowers inside.

AIFD Symposium{Day One}

The AIFD symposium was a first for me.

I wasn't too sure about how everything worked or what the student competition was about but there I was, walking around a hotel gazing out out flowers everywhere.

As soon as we arrived we went to a meeting about the competition that would be taking place the following morning at 7am. They gave us a list of rules and times, and a list of the flowers we would be using.
Everyone gets the same flowers and the same supplies.
Fresh flowers and foliage, dried accessories, boullion wire, decorative wire, colored rocks, foam, pins, glass containers, bouquet holders, led lights and martini glasses.
Once they assigned us the number we would be competing with we were free to go to the AES exhibition.
AES is the Accreditation Evaluation Session that AIFD(American Institute of Floral Designers) gives so that florist can become AIFD accredited. They have four hours to make five designs using the flowers and accessories given to them. They are then evaluated in 10 points: Balance, color, line, focal point, creativity, suitability, mechanics, scale , and unity.
Some people pass, others don't. :(

Here are some of the deigns we saw that night.

It always amazes me that although everyone has access to the same exact flowers, everything looks so different.

Wedding Bouquets

I love flower tricks!
These cute little butterflies made out of decorative wire.

Here are some of my highlights:
Pic 1
The ever popular braiding.
Pic 2
I have seen this before and always forget to try it!
Trimming the gerbera daisies into squares that is.
Pic 3
A Phil Rulloda Bird!
I can make a nautical shell and a pineapple out of a palm but not a bird.....

Kind of cool right?
It was great inspiration to prepare for the competition on Saturday.

Next up is the competition pictures.

AIFD Symposium

I'm baaaaaaccccckkk!

I just love San Francisco. Love love love my city. :)
I went to the American Institute of Floral Designers Annual Symposium in Kansas City Missouri.
I competed in the Student Competition and I attended flower shows that ranged from nice Christmas trends and ideas to ridiculously inspirational European Style design that left me a puddle in my seat.
The flowers, oh the flowers, were gorgeous. Tomas De Bruyne was fabulous as were all the European designers. I have made it my new goal to go to Belgium and study with:
Marc Derudder, Geert Pattyn, Moniek Vanden Berghe, Tomas De Bruyne.

There are too many pictures for me to attempt just one post so I will do a series of post on my trip, the shows, and my competition.