December 8, 2011
2012 Spring Colour Trends and Your Flowers
Hello everyone, on Tuesday I had another chance to write for WeddingObsession.com. In this week's post I discussed colour trends for Spring 2012 as set out by the colour experts, Pantone. I also discussed what flower choices are available to you in those colors! I hope you enjoy the post and find it a useful resource if you Re getting married next Spring.
October 8, 2011
A Great Experience | A Modern Proposal
Hello!
I wanted to share a few VERY pretty photos from a shoot that was done with A Modern Proposal. This tablescape was designed for a photography class that Ryan + Beth Photographers held to teach students how to take photos of a wedding day from start to finish. It was really interesting to see the results from several of the students. Everyone catches details in such different, but beautiful ways. The name of the class was The Full Circle || A Wedding Photography Workshop. I just loved that!
So, without further delay, here are the photos from that day.
I wanted to share a few VERY pretty photos from a shoot that was done with A Modern Proposal. This tablescape was designed for a photography class that Ryan + Beth Photographers held to teach students how to take photos of a wedding day from start to finish. It was really interesting to see the results from several of the students. Everyone catches details in such different, but beautiful ways. The name of the class was The Full Circle || A Wedding Photography Workshop. I just loved that!
So, without further delay, here are the photos from that day.
To see more AMAZING photos, make sure to go check out Ryan + Beth's blogsite here.
Photography: Julianne Cragg, Ryan + Beth Photographers, Eee + Bee Photographers
Table Design: A Modern Proposal
Floral: Akiko Floral Artistry
Thank you ALL for letting me be a part of this day.
October 7, 2011
Wedding Obsession | A New Opportunity
August 29, 2011
Weekly Wonder | Lady Slipper Orchid
This week I thought I'd bring something a little more 'uncommon' and exotic to the table - Lady Slipper Orchids (properly known as Paphiopedilum). The use of these orchids in wedding work can be soft and romantic to edgy and more couture.
Name: Lady Slipper Orchid or Paphiopedilum (pronounced PAFF-ee-oh PED-e-lum) of the Orchidaceae family consisting of 80 species and over 20,000 registered hybrid forms. Surprisingly, there are new varieties being stumbled upon in nature - although, not often.
General FYI: These orchids naturally occur in China, India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. They are mostly terrestrial; however, some varieties have been found to be growing in trees and on rocks. The name Lady Slipper came from the cup like appearance of the lower petal or lip. These occur in a multitude of colours and either have a spotted or striped pattern.
Availability: Paphiopedilum's (Lady Slipper Orchids) are available year-round. However, as these are not commonly carried by many local florists and their wholesalers, make sure to ask well in advance for special orders.
Longevity: As a plant, blooms can last a month or longer; however, as a cut flower, do not expect to have the bloom lasting any longer than a couple of days in dry Canadian climates. The bloom is not as delicate as one would expect; however, these flowers do love moisture, so don't expect one to look as vibrant at 10 pm as it did first thing in the morning after a long hot day in the summer sun.
Our Take: This orchid is amazing and can be used in conjunction with various palates and themes. Simply the look of this variety of orchid will have your wedding guests dropping their jaws. As they are not that delicate of a flower, their versatility in bouquets and body flowers is phenomenal. As this is a less commonly used flower, do expect retail prices per bloom to be anywhere from $10 - 30 per bloom depending on your locale.
We purchase all of our Lady Slippers from Green Point Nurseries in Hilo, Hawaii. They have never let us down!
Photo Credits:
Bouquet Wedding Flower.com
Rebecca's Silver Rose
Tropical Plants Flowers and Decor
Information credits:
All About Paphiopedilum Orchids and How to Grow Them
Wikipedia
 |
| Just a sample of the many available varieties of Lady Slipper Orchids |
Name: Lady Slipper Orchid or Paphiopedilum (pronounced PAFF-ee-oh PED-e-lum) of the Orchidaceae family consisting of 80 species and over 20,000 registered hybrid forms. Surprisingly, there are new varieties being stumbled upon in nature - although, not often.
General FYI: These orchids naturally occur in China, India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. They are mostly terrestrial; however, some varieties have been found to be growing in trees and on rocks. The name Lady Slipper came from the cup like appearance of the lower petal or lip. These occur in a multitude of colours and either have a spotted or striped pattern.
Availability: Paphiopedilum's (Lady Slipper Orchids) are available year-round. However, as these are not commonly carried by many local florists and their wholesalers, make sure to ask well in advance for special orders.
Longevity: As a plant, blooms can last a month or longer; however, as a cut flower, do not expect to have the bloom lasting any longer than a couple of days in dry Canadian climates. The bloom is not as delicate as one would expect; however, these flowers do love moisture, so don't expect one to look as vibrant at 10 pm as it did first thing in the morning after a long hot day in the summer sun.
Our Take: This orchid is amazing and can be used in conjunction with various palates and themes. Simply the look of this variety of orchid will have your wedding guests dropping their jaws. As they are not that delicate of a flower, their versatility in bouquets and body flowers is phenomenal. As this is a less commonly used flower, do expect retail prices per bloom to be anywhere from $10 - 30 per bloom depending on your locale.
We purchase all of our Lady Slippers from Green Point Nurseries in Hilo, Hawaii. They have never let us down!
Photo Credits:
Bouquet Wedding Flower.com
Rebecca's Silver Rose
Tropical Plants Flowers and Decor
Information credits:
All About Paphiopedilum Orchids and How to Grow Them
Wikipedia
August 17, 2011
Weekly Wonder | Garden Rose
Wow! Looking at this site, we see that the last blog post was on July 18th. Summer Holidays and weddings have gotten in the way of keeping up-to-date with our "Weekly Wonder" posts!
Well, seeing as we have had a few weddings since the last post that have used Garden Roses, we only found it fitting to showcase this GORGEOUS variety of roses.
Although we limit the use of this flower to bouquets and decor as it is too delicate for body flowers, it is one of our favourite flowers! It's depth and texture is unsurpassed. What we love about this flower is that it not only looks and actually smells like a sweet rose - scent which is hard to come by in farmed roses these days - it also has the combined look of a peony and ranunculus. This is advantageous, as both popular flowers are not available year round; however, the Garden Rose is!
Name: Garden Rose; there is no single system of classification for garden roses as they are mostly hybrid varieties grown in public or private gardens.
History: It is believed that all early civilizations from at least 5000 in temperate climates had grown roses. Evidence has been found to link them to growth in ancient Chinese and Greek gardens.
Modern cultivation started but where else, in Europe, from approximately the seventeenth century.
Availability: Garden Roses are available year round as an ever increasing popular flower among brides - as peonies fall in and out of season.
Longevity: This flower is extremely delicate as roses are water pigs. Garden Roses in general maintain a relatively short vase life of up to 5 days provided proper care and handling is followed. The longer these flowers are left out of water, the weaker they become. Therefore, it is best that your wedding flowers are provided with a simple vase filled with water. This way your flowers can get a drink between photos and the events of the day. Also, the vase provides a nice vessel to display your flowers in during your reception.
Our take: As previously mentioned, we feel that these flowers are AMAZING! Again, their depth and texture is unsurpassed. While other favourite event flowers such as peonies and ranunculus fall out of season, Garden Roses which look like the two combined, continue to be available. As these are a more exquisite variety of rose, expect to see the price per stem be anywhere from $1 - 3 more per stem than your regular variety of rose - but the value is worth it! Watching a tight bud open up in the bouquet throughout the day is spectacular - symbolic of a woman blooming into a bride!
We purchase all our Garden Roses from Alexandra Farms - we have never been disappointed!
Talk to your florist about Garden Roses in your bouquet!
Photo credits from top to bottom:
All single blooms: alexandrafarms.com
Bottom right: Akiko Floral Artistry Inc.
Information credits:
Wikipedia
Well, seeing as we have had a few weddings since the last post that have used Garden Roses, we only found it fitting to showcase this GORGEOUS variety of roses.
Although we limit the use of this flower to bouquets and decor as it is too delicate for body flowers, it is one of our favourite flowers! It's depth and texture is unsurpassed. What we love about this flower is that it not only looks and actually smells like a sweet rose - scent which is hard to come by in farmed roses these days - it also has the combined look of a peony and ranunculus. This is advantageous, as both popular flowers are not available year round; however, the Garden Rose is!
Name: Garden Rose; there is no single system of classification for garden roses as they are mostly hybrid varieties grown in public or private gardens.
History: It is believed that all early civilizations from at least 5000 in temperate climates had grown roses. Evidence has been found to link them to growth in ancient Chinese and Greek gardens.
Modern cultivation started but where else, in Europe, from approximately the seventeenth century.
Availability: Garden Roses are available year round as an ever increasing popular flower among brides - as peonies fall in and out of season.
Longevity: This flower is extremely delicate as roses are water pigs. Garden Roses in general maintain a relatively short vase life of up to 5 days provided proper care and handling is followed. The longer these flowers are left out of water, the weaker they become. Therefore, it is best that your wedding flowers are provided with a simple vase filled with water. This way your flowers can get a drink between photos and the events of the day. Also, the vase provides a nice vessel to display your flowers in during your reception.
Our take: As previously mentioned, we feel that these flowers are AMAZING! Again, their depth and texture is unsurpassed. While other favourite event flowers such as peonies and ranunculus fall out of season, Garden Roses which look like the two combined, continue to be available. As these are a more exquisite variety of rose, expect to see the price per stem be anywhere from $1 - 3 more per stem than your regular variety of rose - but the value is worth it! Watching a tight bud open up in the bouquet throughout the day is spectacular - symbolic of a woman blooming into a bride!
We purchase all our Garden Roses from Alexandra Farms - we have never been disappointed!
Talk to your florist about Garden Roses in your bouquet!
Photo credits from top to bottom:
All single blooms: alexandrafarms.com
Bottom right: Akiko Floral Artistry Inc.
Information credits:
Wikipedia
July 18, 2011
Weekly Wonder | Ornithogalum
Well, here is the second post to our Weekly Wonder segment on our blog. This week we are going to showcase the gorgeous and ever popular Ornithogalum (or Star of Bethlehem).
This flower is amazing for wedding bouquets. It adds so much texture and just explodes with blooms. It's wonderful to see such a small flower bud (well several small flower buds in one small area), turn into such a mass of flowers.
Name: Ornithogalum (in order from top to bottom O. thyrsoides, O. nutans, O. dubium, O. saunderasiae) - commonly known as Star of Bethlehem or Wonder-Flower
History: Ornithogalum is of the family Hyacinthacea - yup related to hyacinths - and is a perennial plant native to Southern Europe and Southern Africa. Because of it's star shaped flowers it is named for the biblical Star of Bethlehem. Although there are 150 species, the best known are O. arabicum, O. saunderasiae, O. dubium, and O. umbellatum.
Availability: Ornithogalum is becoming an increasingly popular flower in design work. The species is available throughout the year with O. dubium being available only from Dec - May.
Longevity: This flower, in our experience, has the potential to last several weeks, while continuously blooming.
Our take: We LOVE to work with ornithogalum; especially the variety of saunderasiae. It adds so much texture to any piece and just explodes in blooms. The price point is perfect to add some volume to a bouquet and give a bride a similar look to stephanotis without the associated price tag. A tight unopened sample is great in corsage and boutonniere work, while the more opened flower is perfect for bouquets. What's even more special is that blooms can be individually separated from the mass to create some couture designs.
We hope you consider using ornithogalum in your wedding work, if it fits into your 'look'. You will not be disappointed with the final product.
Photo credits from top to bottom:
O. thyrsoides: bidorbuy.co.za
O. nutans: missouriplants.com
O. dubium: bulbsociety.org
O. saunderasiae: visiflora.com
Bouquet: Akiko Floral Artistry (photo taken by Capture It! Photography)
This flower is amazing for wedding bouquets. It adds so much texture and just explodes with blooms. It's wonderful to see such a small flower bud (well several small flower buds in one small area), turn into such a mass of flowers.
History: Ornithogalum is of the family Hyacinthacea - yup related to hyacinths - and is a perennial plant native to Southern Europe and Southern Africa. Because of it's star shaped flowers it is named for the biblical Star of Bethlehem. Although there are 150 species, the best known are O. arabicum, O. saunderasiae, O. dubium, and O. umbellatum.
Availability: Ornithogalum is becoming an increasingly popular flower in design work. The species is available throughout the year with O. dubium being available only from Dec - May.
Longevity: This flower, in our experience, has the potential to last several weeks, while continuously blooming.
Our take: We LOVE to work with ornithogalum; especially the variety of saunderasiae. It adds so much texture to any piece and just explodes in blooms. The price point is perfect to add some volume to a bouquet and give a bride a similar look to stephanotis without the associated price tag. A tight unopened sample is great in corsage and boutonniere work, while the more opened flower is perfect for bouquets. What's even more special is that blooms can be individually separated from the mass to create some couture designs.
We hope you consider using ornithogalum in your wedding work, if it fits into your 'look'. You will not be disappointed with the final product.
Photo credits from top to bottom:
O. thyrsoides: bidorbuy.co.za
O. nutans: missouriplants.com
O. dubium: bulbsociety.org
O. saunderasiae: visiflora.com
Bouquet: Akiko Floral Artistry (photo taken by Capture It! Photography)
July 15, 2011
Inspiration Boards | A Great Way to Help Plan Your Look
Lately, when meeting with our brides, we've listened to what they have had to say about what is they want for their weddings. Colours, themes, accents - these all come into play when we start to come up with ideas in our studio. And for ideas, what better resource than the internet.
We look on great sites like Pinterest and Google to find Inspiration for creating our own ideas and suggestions for our brides. From the images found on associated sites through search queries, we create an inspiration board, or several, to show our brides and see if what we are thinking of is in alignment with what they have told us they want.
Here is a sample Inspiration Board we created for a "Secret Garden/Enchanted Garden" themed wedding. Such an exciting concept!
Although these creations are not ours, in several cases we use pictures from our inventory of previously made bouquets. In this case, we had the idea to use antique keys as accents to the wedding florals. A key as the base of a boutonniere over which the flowers have 'overgrown', a key as an accent to the bouquet handles, etc. The best part...we found an image online of a key based boutonniere. What a coincidence!!!
When planning your wedding, why not find inspiration on the internet, magazines and feature stories in local papers. If you don't have or know how to use photoshop - then cut and paste onto a larger board. Inspiration is everywhere around you.
Image Sources:
Antique Keys: kaboodle.com
Boutonniere & Bird Bath: studio-white.blogspot.com
Purple Bouquets (3): heraplanners.blogspot.com
Bottom Bouquet: thefrenchbouquettulsa.com
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