Warm and Lovely

Kristi and Nathan are lovely people and were married today at Semple Mansion. I have had the honor of being their floral designer and seated next to them at a friend's party. I was very excited to create these very soft designs for them. These bouquets do have a secret, if you turn them around you will find a mini purple artichoke in the maids bouquet and two dark purple lady slipper orchids in the bride's bouquet! (I will show you that in another blog later.) I loved using the mini purple artichokes in the maids bouquets, which the bride, her maid and I chose out of the wholesaler cooler as a joke and then said, "Wait, these are perfect!"
Many thanks to Studio Laguna for the first 5 images shown! Katrina, you rock my floral world :)

I heart traditions

Kari and Joey got married today! The Mother of the Bride's friends have a tradition; when one of their children gets married the other friends will bring food to eat. It is always the same type of sustaining food needed during a busy day: water, rolls with turkey or ham, grapes, and Twizzlers. I thought it was a great tradition, one I may want to start someday.

The inspiration for the flowers is always the bride's dress, but never so much as it was today. Kari's dress was so romantic, full of texture and elegance. She wanted blues and purples and she said she "loves roses". A clean, luxurious look is what I envisioned for her with lots of big pops of color and LOTS of roses. 48 dozen, to be exact, throughout the wedding party and reception arrangements. The bouquets had really open vandella roses, calla lilies, purple hyacinth, light purple dahlia, dark blue delphinium, blue hydrangea, purple stock, and navy blue viburnum berries to bring the bouquets into the late summer.

Fresh From the Garden

I decided last minute that my most recent bride, Laura and her husband Dustin, should not have rose corsages as planned for their special women attending. While I was walking around my garden earlier this week, I noticed the begonias near the chicken coop looked very similar in color to the two tone, leonidas roses Laura was going to carry in her bouquet. Leonidas roses are a very creamy yellow with a nice soft rust color on the edge/insides. The little begonias were perfect. They were yellow with the red rust color on the edges! I had the corsage flowers pinned down ...so to speak. The leaf behind the begonias comes from my Caramel Coral Bells plant, also growing in the garden. Laura's bouquet did not come from my garden, but it was really fresh and smelled like a dream.

I made the cover!

Lake Minnetonka Metro Magazine printed a nice article about me and they also put my bouquet on the cover! My first magazine shoot and cover. Thank you, Tate, for taking great pictures of my flowers!

I love the sun

Normally, I avoid the sun. I wear sunscreen all the time and big hats when I garden. But when I saw how the 7:45 am sunrise hit my soft pink bouquet, I just had to love the sun at that moment. This bouquet was created for the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of MN Bride Magazine. The photo shoot was this morning. I had to show you all a peek. I am really happy how my two bouquets turned out. I did a bright yellow one as well, but you will have to look for its picture in the magazine next January to see that one. A girl has to have a little mystery...