Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday...!

Sympathy Flowers

We've been doing quite a bit of sympathy flowers as of late. There's something very touching about having the opportunity to design for people who are being honored and those that are grieving their passing. I realize the majority of our readers are brides, but for those that may be anticipating the need for sympathy flowers in the near future, may I suggest seeking out a florist who is willing to go the extra mile and incorporate meaning and/or symbolism into these special arrangements. For those that may be in the position to make requests based on the deceased individual's life or family circumstances, don't be afraid to do so. I've found that a sympathy arrangement means so much more and is infinitely more appreciated when designed to pay specific tribute to the deceased.

A few examples:


This tribute wreath was ordered by a group of grandchildren for their late grandmother. The floral medallion contained nine yellow roses to signify the nine grandsons, eight pink sweetheart roses to signify eight granddaughters, and fifteen white spray roses to signify fifteen great-grandchildren. As you can imagine, their grandfather was very touched.


This grand arrangement was an interesting one because it was sent to the funeral services being held for a local florist. In this kind of instance, a traditional piece simply will not do! She was a regal, stately woman who also had quite the colorful streak. I think she would have enjoyed this piece immensely.


The vessel for this tribute arrangement was provided by the daughter-in-law of the woman being honored. Apparently it was used (and saved) at the mother-of-the-deceased's funeral many, many years prior. I decided not to touch-up the vessel at all, but rather to leave it in its original condition so that it could be recognized by the woman's siblings during her service. Because she enjoyed gardening, I designed this piece to look like a lush flower bed.


It's very hard to get a good shot of a casket spray, but this particular spray was designed for a baby girl. Her mother wanted something very pink with touches of green to signify her birth month. She also did not want something excessively juvenile (infant caskets often are covered in white daisies, etc.), but rather elegant, much like the flowers she would have had at her daughter's wedding. In fact, the pink roses found in the spray were the same variety found in the mother's bridal bouquet years before.


I'll be posting sympathy work from time to time on the blog simply because I'm learning to find a lot of beauty in these pieces. They don't carry the same bravado as event work, but I feel they shine all the same.

Utah Bride Blog Post

Head on over to Utah Bride Blog to read my post titled "Anatomy of a {petite} Floral Budget." In today's "Flower Tip Friday" I provide a breakdown of the adjustments we were able to make to conform to one client's petite budget while still maintaining the quantities and quality she desired. Happy Reading!

"Leap Year" advance screening passes

Hello readers!

A Fedex envelope showed up on my doorstep this afternoon containing a stack of passes for a special advance screening of Universal Pictures' new film "Leap Year," starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. The screening will be held Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 PM at Jordan Commons in Sandy. I looked up the trailer -- it looks darling! If you're interested in attending this screening for FREE (and a month before the film even opens!), send me an email ASAP with your name, mailing address, and the number passes you'd like, and I'll send them off to you.

Write up of the film:
"When their four-year anniversary passes without a marriage proposal, Anna (Amy Adams) decides to take matters into her own hands. Investing in an Irish tradition that allows women to propose to men on February 29th, Anna decides to follow her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) to Dublin and get down on one knee herself. But airplanes, weather and fate leave Anna stranded on the other side of Ireland, and she must enlist the help of handsome and surly Declan (Matthew Goode) to get her across the country. As Anna and Declan bicker across the Emerald Isle, they discover that the road to love can take you to very unexpected places."

For more film info, visit the official website.

Maybe I'll see you there?

A time of thanks!

Happy day-after Thanksgiving! I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again -- I am so grateful for both my clients and the vendors we work with regularly. You make us great by challenging our creativity and allowing us to challenge yours. Thank you for making us a part of your lives and your events!

Little Lovelies...

I received the most wonderful package in the mail a week or so back! These little lovelies were sent over by one of my favorite photographers -- OpieFoto. (Thank you!!!) They were individual mini albums of two weddings we collaborated on this past summer. What a treat!

I've always thought of Opie as being the album queen. She's on top of every stylish option out there. Nothing like this was available back when I got married, but what a value-add! I married before the dawn of digital photography, so all my wedding photos ended up in a shoebox. These days, I wonder how many wedding photos even make it off the disc you purchase from your photographer? I say, don't let those photos go to waste! What better way to display your most memorable day than in a professionally designed and printed album? These mini albums in particular would make fantastic gifts too (for your mother-in-law, perhaps?) and are of incredible quality. Interested? Give Opie a call.

Happy Halloween!!!

For those of you that missed this yesterday's fall floral post on Utah Bride Blog, read it here. Serious autumn-inspired eye-candy!

Miscellaneousness!

Whimsy update? Well, we're making a final push to complete our renovation and be moved by the end of the year. I'll be relieved when Tyler and I can stop playing the part of General Contractor and can resume the role of Florist full-time again! Goodbye Holladay, hello Sugarhouse! We've been booking weddings for 2010 spring and summer dates, all the while finishing out our 2009 seasons and gearing up for holiday orders. Since time continues to be short, my posts will have to be as well. Here's a few miscellaneous pics of some of our more recent events. Have a great night!

Dhari's delicious bouquet

The blog is still the last to get my attention these days. I'm going to give it an "oh well" and leave it at that.
I did want to post these photos of Dhari's bridal bouquet. I fell so deeply in love with this bouquet, it was hard to hand over! Cream and flame mini callas, green cymbidium orchids, lily grass, variegated aspidistra leaves, and the slightest little peekaboo of black feathers...simple, yet textured. If I never get around to posting the rest of her flowers, so be it. This bouquet is gorgeous enough on its own! What a perfect end-of-summer/glimmer of fall color combo and design!

photos by Michelle.

Britteny at Log Haven

I've mentioned before that blue weddings are a tricky thing. I find quite often that people who choose blue as one of their wedding colors almost always want blue flowers. Honestly, there aren't many good options out there for a bride that wants blue flowers. Your most common true-blue choices are going to be delphinium, hydrangea, thistle, tweedia, and cornflower. Other varieties like blue lace, agapanthus, hyacinth and irises may be called blue, but trust me, those suckers are purple! The fact that there are so many different shades of blue doesn't help the situation, but it does open the door for possibilities. While I'm absolutely dead-set against stem-dying flowers (not my style), airbrushing is okay when done appropriately and with a variety that takes paint well, as in the case of the hydrangea we used for this wedding. Still, because I'm somewhat of a purist, that's the extent of any color alterations we did for this wedding, and I opted to focus most of our blue on the delphinium instead.

Britteny wisely chose to keep the bulk of her flowers cream, with accents of blue and green to pull from the peacock feathers she used throughout. The eating tables contained a variety of cubes featuring either mixed arrangements or wheat grass, and following the ceremony the lanterns were removed from the shepherds hooks and placed on the tables inside used for overflow seating. Thanks to OpieFoto for the images! To see more of this wedding, visit Opie's blogpost here.

***Site and email down***

FYI, our site and email have been down all day. Our hosting company is switching servers so it will likely continue to be down for the remainder of the day. If you've sent(send) an email anytime between Saturday morning and Monday morning, please be patient as we wait to be able to access our account, and if you don't receive a reply by Monday afternoon, go ahead and resend it for good measure. Thanks!

Color!

Do under $30 centerpieces exist? You bet they do!

I've never been a huge fan of the floating gerbera daisy -- sure, its as inexpensive as they come and there are definitely situations where price has to take precedence over design, so I suppose my beef with them is simply that they often look insignificant on a table. Not enough color, not enough mass to keep things looking proportionate...At least that's how I felt before we came up with this centerpiece for Vicki. Let's call it "the floating gerbera on steroids"! We took a cylinder 8" tall, 12" in diameter, filled the bottom with river rock, and then floated an assortment of sizes, colors, and blooms. The result was a fun explosion of color on each table. The very, very wide cylinder was a perfect fit for a standard 60" round table used in conjunction with an Open House style event (meaning there were no place settings, breadbaskets, salt and pepper shakers, etc. to compete with for space), and best of all, that design was under $30 each! Its mixed-arrangement counterpart was under $50.00, and the buffet piece under $175. Inexpensive, spunky, and perfect for a late summer wedding!

So fun...

I first saw this on Anna's personal blog and had to post it here.


What's the most original/fun/memorable thing you've seen at a wedding?


--If you're this cool, I want to work with you!!! Email me, we'll talk, and if I love your ideas, I'll comp your buffet table arrangement!

Erika at The Point

I adore green weddings! (I'm talking color, here -- not eco-trend) When I think of green weddings, I think clean, streamlined, and oftentimes contemporary or organic. You rarely see green as the focal color in froofy, ornate events, and I'm not a froofy gal, so it makes sense that I love the crisp, cool feeling that the color green imparts. This simplistic wedding did not disappoint! The color combo of green, white and black is most definitely my current favorite. The bridal bouquet was made up of vendela roses, spray roses, mini callas, hypericum berries, freesia, and black-eye star-of-Bethlehem. The centerpieces were masses of green gladiolus and white oriental lilies with floating glad blooms at the base. The bridesmaids carried tiny clutches of roses, and...well, you can see the rest. Another big thanks to Michelle for her impeccable eye and beautiful photography.

Erika was a lovely bride. Simply lovely! So glad we were able to be a part of her day!