Real Weddings: Wedding of the Year #1

Ok fans - Could this beautiful wedding in Fairfax at the Meadow Club, photographed by Cliff Brunk by the wedding of this year. This is Wedding #1 - In the Meadow. Featuring green orchids, hydrangea, mini callas, fiddlehead, dahlias, 'super green' roses, pom pom mums, and dark foliage. Details included birds, bird nest ring bearer pillow, haystacks, a vintage car, and floral motif. Invitations by Hello! Lucky. Rentals and lighting by Hartmann Studios. Photography by Brunk Photography. Floral and Event Design by Nancy Liu Chin Designs.

A few of the standout images below by a very talented Cliff Brunk. You the man!

I love this photo of our bride, Kristin with her prince, Peter! She looks so at peace. You know that they are going to be happy.


Red Rover, Red Rover - send Nancy right over!


As a floral designer, usually I'm in the background working on the setup but we finished on time and I got a chance to watch from the sidelines. When I saw that no one was helping Kristin with her train, I jumped in to fix it right before you took her father's arm. I love this image which was captured a few minutes after I helped her with her dress. How can forget -
"The Wind! The Wind! The Wind! "

While Peter and the grooms were posing, I was off to the side waiting with boutonnieres. Of course, I have this nasty habit of always being the background. Cliff the photographer was quite patient and waved me off so that I would not be in the car's reflection. Note to self, do not stand in the photographer's light.

How cool is the groom?

Who knew? Seriously, Peter is a clown. He is funny without trying to be.

Thank you Kristin for being a most gracious bride. We all wish you the best!!! Here's looking at you.

Ask Nancy: Sad and Drooping

Hi Nancy,
I follow your blog and just admire your work so much. I have a question for you regarding hydrangea. I love love this flower but ran into quite a few incidences where it drooped on me if left out water. I see on magazines all the time where brides hold a beautiful white hydrangea or even mixed with hydrangea or hydrangea pomander and wonder how long does that bouquet last?

Such as this wedding featured on Southern Wedding of Christi and Chris' wedding photographed by Studio A Photography.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Ms. Le(I left out her first name)

_____________________________________

Dear M. Le
This is good question and one that I faced as well. In the beginning of my career, I did do one of these hydrangea bridal bouquet and it turned out fine. Then a couple months later, I did another one that it "pooped" out. After that, I decided not to do this type of bouquet until I figured out what I did wrong and the truth of it is this.

When it comes to hydrangea, if it is a new cut or still growing stem that is not properly hydrated, it will "wilt". In intense and direct light, if it is doesn't get enough water, it will wilt. It's very heat sensitive. The ones that we have done with success are hydrated, more mature blooms and we "collar" them so that if they "droop" slitly, they have wired foliage that will support it.

In addition, I use very specific hydrangeas and make sure that they are surrounded with supporting flowers that are not heat sensitive. I enjoy and highly recommend the mix of hydrangeas with strong stemmed roses, mini callas, orchids - always with foliage and wired large leaves for support.

I also, keep them in water until the bride is ready for her photo shoot and yes, when my lovely bride, Chenin ordered blue hydrangeas for all her bridesmaid, I made her 2 extra. A quality floral designer has to be prepared! That's my advice.

Bottom line: When in doubt, make a spare! Leave it in the cooler.

Real Weddings: Year in Review

The peak of the wedding season is almost over. With another two months to go, we are finally slowing down a bit. As photographers return to their production studio, we will be featuring more and more of their beautiful images. Here's a few of the highlights from the Weddings of this Year.

This image is from Lilia Photography who captured the seaside flair of Nick and Chenin's wedding wonderfully.

Love this image of our bride, Sharon. The dress, the bouquet, the perfect smile. Uniquely captured by Augie Chang.

A moment alone to reflect, to laugh, to love. Intimately documented by Tara Arrowood of Arrowood Photography.

The bright sun didn't bother lovebirds, Carmen and Vincent. Their Calistoga affair was sheer modern glam. Well done by Ellen Hong.

You can always lean on your man, especially if he is 6' 5". Peter and Kristin - delightful, charming, warm. Lovely image by Cliff Brunk.

Happiness does come from within. You can't contain the love, the laughter, the joy reflected on the bride's face. Chenin Boutwell Studio documented this wedding to near perfect. Our bride Lindsey is just too adorable.

Which Couple will be the Couple of the Year? What wedding will be make our list of the Weddings of the Year? Which bouquet will be on my Favorite List?

Stay Tuned.

Let us know your thoughts.

W. I. L. L. #4: This is Work?

W. I .L .L. (Why I Love Life as a Floral Designer?) Part #4

I can't believe that part of my job includes researching what's hot, what's not and what's the current news. During each month, I set aside a few hours to catch up and to read wedding blogs. Of course I glance at Snippet & Ink, Ritzy Bride, SMP all the time but I also spend a few hours looking at what's new outside of weddings. I'm looking for trends(eBay does not count!), design inspirations and flower news.

However, looking for ideas and inspiration from Snippet, Ritzy, SMP is not really doing research on what is happening in the Bay Area wedding market. For that, I have to read Bay Area vendor blogs. Today, I forced myself to read a few that have been on my short list of blogs to read. (poor me - NOT!).

The entire time I was doing this, I kept thinking - I can't believe this is work!!!

Reading vendor blogs is not only entertaining but also informative. It also makes me smile. This is about one of my favorite things to do and it doesn't feel like work.

If you are curious, I like reading the blogs of

Jubilee Lau Events

MB's Celebrating Life Blog

Evonne Wong's Away Soiree Blog(though this isn't in the Bay Area, I find it so well written)

Michelle Chen Miyari's Bliss'd blog

Tara Arrowood's Blog

Of course these are just a few that I read on a continuous basis. Today, I caught up on two of my other favorites, Augie Chang and Cliff Brunk's blog. The personality of these two talented photographers come up through their beautiful images but what I love about their blogs is their writing. They each possess a wicked sense of humor. Kudos to Augie and Cliff for being sharp shooters and funny dudes(thanks for also featuring two of my fav weddings from 2009). Boy, I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.

Enjoy!

Ask Nancy: BYOS

Nancy, recently you wrote on your blog that one way to trim your budget is to provide your own candles, vases, props but you personally didn't endorse it. Is there a reason why?

Curious Elizabeth

_________________________________

Dear Elizabeth

Thank you for your keen observation. I didn't mean to sound wishy washy. I advised in my previous article that some brides/grooms might want to provide their own vases, props, candles but for my own business, we do not encourage this practice and many business including several very reputable caterers that I've spoken with frown upon it. Every business practice has their own rules and reasons and consumers have to respect that.

When it comes to my various experience with weddings, I find that the few times I've allowed my client to provide their own candles, vases, and props that the weddings didn't always work out well thus we no longer encourage it.

I'll give you several examples why.

Smoke Gets in Your Eye

One of my first weddings manyyears ago, my client wanted to save on money. So she asked if she could purchase her own candles. Trying to be accommodating, I let my client provide candles after giving her the sizes and amount of candles needed. I set up the candles in glass hurricanes and let the candles. It was so beautiful with all the candles.

However, at the end of the evening when I came back to clean up the wedding, the minute I walked into the ballroom I knew something was very wrong. The entire ballroom(which held 200 guests) had a layer of smoke. It was distinctively cloudy and when I spoke with the wait staff, they told me that the pillar candles started to smoke during the dinner and as the evening progressed they had to be "blow" out all the candles because of the smoke the candles were creating.

To this day, I will never forget how black and smoky the room was and how all the glass had a layer of black film. The time it took to clean the glass didn't make it worthwhile for my bride in the end who saved just a few dollars but ended up having to pay for cleanup. Of course that was secondary to the healthy of guests. A few guests left the wedding because the smoke was irritating their eyes. Bad news and certainly not worthy the few dollars saved.

Get Shorty

A few years back I did this beautiful wedding at a grand luxurious venue near the San Francisco financial district. The bride worked for a wonderful retail store and decided to order her own linens and chargers from India. Because the bride was in charge of her own linens and chargers, the linens were sent to her so the caterer didn't have time to open the boxes. I had given her the measurements so that the linens would fit proper on the tables that we used. In addition, I told her that it was important to overorder so that there was some room for last minute changes and additions. For the chargers, I felt that it was important to order 10% more because you never know what happens during shipping.

Well, a few hours before the wedding as the caterer and I were setting up the ballroom, we opened all the boxes to discover that we were not just one linen short, we were several table linens short. In addition, for each box that contained a total of 10 charges, there was 1 to 2 plates that were broken. In short, we were almost one whole table short of chargers. The tables were long tables so that fit around 20 to 24 guests. At the last minute, one entire long table had to go without chargers.

As for the shortage of linens, in the end, we had to use round linens that were ordered for cocktail round tables to cover long tables. The caterer sent for black basic linens to cover the cocktail tables. The ceremony table was also suppose to have a custom linen but since we were so short, the ceremony linen was replaced with a basic poly cotton instead of the fancy ones.

Once again, if the linens were ordered properly from a local rental company, we could have avoided two costly mistakes. Though all things were done to avoid these mistakes, when you as a vendor allow your client to take the responsibility of ordering linens and chargers away from you, you can't control the situation.

Sure, the bride might have saved some money but in the end the caterer had to order additional linens and charge the bride for them.

As an event designer, I know that this isn't life or death but for someone who strives for quality work, it's hard for me to ignore the imperfection. Most importantly, I just didn't want a group of guests to feel that they were treated differently. Who wants to be short on an important day?

All about the Fit

Though I don't encourage my clients to provide their own vases, I have made allowances as recent as this year and I've always come to regret those decisions. This year one of my brides wanted to provide her own glass. Originally a friend was going to do the centerpiece flowers so the bride went ahead and bought her own vase. Her friend wanted to do a very simple design featuring a ball of flowers in a vintage glass. What a beautiful idea. A few months prior to the wedding, it turns out the friend wasn't sure she could attend the wedding because she lived quite far away so we ended up being asked to do the centerpiece.

When the bride bought the vase to me, I nearly cringed because the vase was so small. It was bare 3 inches across. Now, that might sound good to some of you but the bride was envisioning a ball of flowers that would be suitable for a table that would sit 10 people. When I did the sample, the ball of flowers was so large it completely covered this tiny little glass vase. I was so worried that the weight of the flowers would "crack" the glass. After that experience, I vowed that I would never let another bride provide a glass for an arrangement that we had to put together.

Of course, a few weeks later, like Britney, I did it again. I allowed another bride to provide some cut glass for her centerpieces. The design was very simple and called for multiple large headed flowers to fill an assortment of vintage etched glass. When I got on site to fill the glass, I noticed that the glass and bowls were each very unique and different. Usually I love that. But unfortunateloy half the glasses were too small to fill with large blooms while others were so deep and intricate that you couldn't see the floating flowers. Needless to say, I did figure out what to do but once again, to save a few bucks, we didn't get the right look and when I heard how much the bride had spent on locating what she felt was "inexpensive" glass, I wanted to say that I could have found something just as unique for less.

BYOS

I promise this is the last story. And it's about my own wedding. When I got married I wanted to cut corners. And one way was for me to purchase my own wine and bring my own soda. I'm a huge lover of sodas. I like the fancy and interesting kind and I wanted something unique for my bar. We had the basic wines, champagnes and beers and I put my good friend in charge of the sodas. I gave her a very small budget and trusted her to buy some cool sodas. I told her that I liked fruity flavors and wanted unique citrus ones to fit our Sunday dinner. Of course, I also said that we had 180 guests so we needed at least 200 sodas and told her that we had a pear theme so if she could find something pear like that would be awesome.

I was incredibly busy with details and so relieved to have a good friend help me with this one detail. And since I didn't want to be a pain I didn't want to give her the exact soda names. I told her to surprise me.

The day of the wedding came and during the cocktail hour, I noticed that the sodas were all cans. Of course that wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. It's normal to have cans of Coke, 7 Up, etc. Not exactly the vision I had since I was thinking more bottles like Jone's or Stewart's sodas. When I finally got to the bar to ask for a soda, I was mortified that the soda was not just cans of sodas but the cans were all generic brand sodas from a chain grocery store. Ok, so this is nothing to be upset over but I was so mortified that I served my guests generic sodas. So, in the end, I saved a few dollars but when I had 10 cases of soda left over, it was apparent that even my kind friends weren't into drinking generic sodas. In the end, I saved a couple dollars but if only 20 cans were opened, how was that a benefit?

Bottom line: These stories are here to warn people that sometimes short cuts aren't really short cuts. Of course, for every one of these horror stories there are also positive stories. If a vendor chooses to allow a client to provide their own vases, props, glass, candles, etc, it's fine but it's not a requirement for all businesses nor should it be the law.

Floral Tips: Costing saving tips

Recently our poll showed that the Budget is the #1 stress for couples. Though many of you might recognize a few of my wedding tips, it's always a good idea to revisit them. Here's a few tips on how to save and still have a great event.

Modest Flowers in Abundance
This is nothing novel but I'm a firm believer that a good floral designer can make any flower (well - almost any flower) look beautiful, elegant, and timeless when you give them a chance.

One of my favorite recent designs is using a beautiful container filled with 40 stems of Peruvian Lilies which are one of the most readily available and underused flower. People can't stand them because like the other modest flower(carnations) they have been treated so unfairly. Give this flower a chance.

Another great flower is the bright and sunny sunflower.

Remember also, that a few bunches of flowers here and there won't give your florist a position to negotiate price with their wholesaler however, if you do flowers in abundance in one particular hues of colors, that means that a florist can order in bulk quantities. In the wholesale world, 5 bunches of flowers is not very much but 30 to 60 bunches of something has impact.

Play Nice. Be Fair. Help Vendors, Help You.
What do I mean by that. This isn't a new revelation of any kind. Remember the saying, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." Well, it's so true. You treat your vendors with professional respect. Whenever possible, try to soften your "negotiations". Diffuse potential awkwardness with sincerity, honesty, diplomacy.

Most especially in this economy, do not feel compelled to add that "you are strapped financially" in your conversations unless you mean it because many professional vendors already know that a 'budget is necessary and value is important'. Vendors know that they have to be competitively priced. They know that they have to work hard to get your business. If you want to work with someone, then I think you should "hint" to them that you would like to move forward and mean it. If they want your business bad enough, they will make the effort. If you don't want to work a vendor, tell them that you are not interested and move on. Don't drag them along if you really don't plan on working with them. Write a simple note of thanks and find someone you do want to work with.

Be Within Reason.
If you can't afford a vendor because they are out of the range but you really like their style and work, ask the vendor if they can come up with some alternative solutions but it has to be within reason. If you want a $10k wedding for $2k, that's really going to be difficult. However, if your ideas are $5K and your budget is $4k, that's close enough where each party might make it work.

If it's a photographer, ask them if you cutting down on the # of hours will reduce costs.

Ask a floral designer, if buying your own props, containers, candles, will that help with the invoice. (Although, I don't recommend this for many many reasons.)

When talking with a cake maker, ask them what designs are less labor intensive and will that help decrease costs?

Ask a venue if you can bring in your own wine, will that help costs? Ask them what tips do they have to make the process easier and how would that benefit in the costs.

Recently, I had to throw an event for my husband and I. Instead of dictating what I wanted, I asked La Mar Restaurant in SF, how many people I could invite based on my budget. Having determined what the max guest count could be, I further asked the catering manager what menu I could do to get the most variety for my 32 guests. I also inquired about the difference in price between dinner and lunch service. It turned out that brunch was 20% less than dinner so I opted for a Sunday brunch on their outdoor patio which saved a lot in terms of the wine bill and was the perfect solution for a large group.

All these things happened because I let the venue help determine what date worked best for them, what time was beneficial for them, and what types of dishes worked best with a limited budget.

Bottom line: Realistic budget, flexibility, and requests within reason helped to make an event smooth and easy on both sides. It's a Win Win!

Downsize and Value Size
Every wedding has opportunities to downsize. There's nothing wrong with it.

For example, you have 10 bridesmaids. If an average bouquet is $100 per bouquet, that's $1000. Maybe, you ask your floral designer to make a smaller bouquet. Make sure the bouquets aren't labor intensive. Or more importantly, how about limiting your bridal party. And doing away with traditional floral bouquets for something else(though I hope you don't!). There are so many ways and things that you can do. The less you order, the less you spend.

Guest list - means less tables potentially and a few less centerpieces perhaps?

Avoid pricey shipping
Shipping some flowers from Mexico, South America is cheaper than local flowers - believe it or not. However, getting peonies from Holland's wholesale market in the winter is going to cost you some money. If you handcuff your designer with your need to have only anemones in white with black centers, you are going to have a difficult time if the flowers aren't readily available. If you only like mini callas in the shade of deep burgundy that are shipped from Holland or New Zealand, then it's unlikely that there may be wiggle room for errors, late shipments, breakage or other substitutions. (These dark New Zealand mini callas can cost as much as $6.00 to $9.00 per stem)

Make sure that you give your floral designers enough floral choices so that they can make a better decision. Or even better, leave it to their discretion.

Hope these tips help.

Enjoy!

Ask Nancy: Instead of...

A few weeks ago, I received a question regarding what are good substitutes for Peonies and Ranunculus when they are out of season.

This is a really good questions.

For Peonies, other great alternatives include

English Garden Roses - some have that cabbage style opening
Fancy Carnations - some carnations look like the center of peonies
Telopia - this flower has that same head size and large bloom
Water Lilies - it's very unique and also have a wonderful grand showiness
Large Dahlias Heads - some like the cafe au lait are so large in size that they remind me of peonies
'Polo' roses - these large headed roses can sometimes open with a cabbage like center




English Roses(left) Carnations(right)

'Polo' rose(left) Poppies(right)



Garden Rose(left) Cosmo(right)



Telopia(left) Zinnia(right)

For Ranunculus, other great alternatives include
Spray roses - in size, they are very similar
Garden Roses - once again they have that wonderful multi petal feature that makes them a great substitute for Ranunculus
Anemones - though not as multi petaled, they are a great substitute
Zinnias - Another great flower that has very similar characteristics
Cosmos - Equally as fragile and beautiful
Poppies - a little different but also very darling
Chocolate Cosmos - if you can't find the dark Ranunculus, these are great instead

Always remember that you should consult a floral designer who has specific knowledge about what is available. I find that there are many possibilities but it's important to see what's available in the wholesale arena. And though these are just a few ideas, there are countless other possibilities. The key is to trust your event professional with these decisions.

Enjoy!

About Nancy: Love does Happen

I'm so excited that floral design is becoming mainstream. How do I know that? Well, Jennifer Aniston's new film, Love Happens is coming out next week and guess what, Jen plays a floral designer!!! Yeah.

The movie is a bit special to me because a few weeks ago I was able to help Universal Studios' marketing team with the upcoming premiere in SF. In exchange for my contribution, I got a few movie passes ---- though Laura(my intern) wanted me to ask for Jennifer's autograph...like, right? She's probably too too busy. Anyway, I doubt that Jennifer and Aaron(Eckhart) will make an appearance but if they do, I'll be at the special screening next week.

In the meantime, I hope all of you movie fans and floral enthusiast will give the movie a chance. Can't wait to see Jen design an arrangement.

Enjoy!

Brown Bag: Poll Results

We asked last month what is the most stressful part of wedding planning and the #1 answer for more than half of our voters was no surprise ---- The Budget!(selecting a vendor was not even checked, yeah!)

I'm seriously not even surprised by it. Weddings are a huge investment and in the Bay Area, the national average of $20,000 seems barely to cover the venue, cake, planner and dress let alone the food, flowers, transportation, photography, entertainment, videography and much more. So what's a stylish bride and savvy groom going to do? Though I can't offer tips in all categories but in terms of flowers and decor here's just a few suggestions

Go for a Signature Look
Many floral and event designers charge for originality and customization. I'm all for it and I love it. Nothing as great as doing a one of a kind design for the very first time! However, the first time a designer creates a new look or procure new props, a majority of the cost is passed on to the couple. If you really want to save money, make sure to limit what needs to be customized. What do I mean by this?

If you are looking for invitations, a custom invitation design can be quite expensive however if you find an invitation suite that you like, you might save money in the design costs because the design has already been done. That doesn't mean that you won't pay for change of colors, font corrections, etc but there's a chance that the overall design of the invitation may be reduced.

This goes for flowers as well. If you like a floral design by a certain florist or floral studio, the likelihood of them reproducing a similar design might save you money.

For example, we do this signature design with acrylic tubes. It's something we did for a bride last year. The initial investment to get all the tubes was outside the norm for a typical wedding. The first client's proposal included the cost of acquiring all the tubes. However, the 2nd time we did this design(though we changed the look a little bit) it was more cost effective for the client because we already owned the tubes so we didn't have to purchase new tubes for them. We were able to also perfect our technique and thus our labor costs went down for the 2nd wedding.

I'm sure you've seen beautiful branch style centerpiece with orchids and hanging votives. If a design studio has done this and still has the inventory then you might be able to get better costs. I know that many of my floral buddies have wonderful branches in their stock. Ask your floral designer, is a design that they like something that they have in their inventory. Same goes for glass. Sure, who doesn't want a unique and different glass however if it is something that your florist/floral designer has in their inventory, why not rent it from them? right?

This past year, we were able to find a wonderful, modern, simple invitation design for our client, Molly from Hello! Lucky's wedding line. Because Molly had very few changes to the design, her invitations were quite affordable though they looked very customized. Changing the colors to match her decor was an easy change for Hello! Lucky who were so accommodating. This gave the invitation its own unique feel. The client saved quite a bit because we didn't have to start from scratch.

Once again, falling in love with a design that was already part of an invitation designer's collection really helped Molly's overall budget.

This goes the same for linens and rentals. If you select a linen that is part of a rental company's inventory instead of making a custom linen from scratch, you will save tons!

Prioritize
When it comes to flowers, I think prioritizing what is really important is key. If you love pricey blooms like peonies but can't afford them for all your arrangements, then opt to put them in a focal piece like your bouquet. Don't compromise.

If you can't afford expensive large arrangements for the ceremony, try to fore go large pieces for aisle or pew chair decor that can be reused for the reception. What ever you decide, just make sure it mirrors what is important to you.

When it comes to invitations, do you really have to have everything letterpressed? If you love it, then letterpress the invitations because that is the first thing your guests will see. Let it be a lasting memory of your style and sensibilities. However, do you have to letterpress the program? menu? escort cards? etc. If staying on budget is important, you have to prioritize what you can live with and without.

Sometimes linen rentals can unexpectedly add to your decor budget. Whatever you do, try to get something floor length because it does make a difference. Nothing is as horrible as linens that don't touch the ground where you can see the legs. It hurts when I see this. If you can't afford those wonderful customized and elaborate linens, get a floor length linen in two of my favorite fabrications that are more than a poly/cotton but less than a specialty linen called L'Amour and Bengaline. These are solid fabrics that are available in many wonderful colors and have a nice handle.

Half and Half
When it comes to centerpieces, I am encouraging more couples to do half and half. What does that mean? If you want all tall pieces to give your wedding a grand look, try doing half the ballroom or venue with tall pieces and doing a lower(less expensive) piece on the others. It does save money.

Same holds true for the ceremony, do pew or chair decors on every other pew/row.

When it comes to escort cards, instead of doing one for every guests, why not do a card for each couple. Single folks will still need their own cards but you can save a lot when you double up! Though some things you can do half and half, others aren't as good doing half and half. For example, I wouldn't give one mother a corsage and not the other. Am I making sense? Sometimes you can apply this but don't take it too far so that people's feelings can get hurt.

Bottom Line: Good luck with your budget and remember, nothing is worth hurting the ones you care about. It's a celebration of love, family, and friendship.

Floral Tips: September Flowers

It's that time again. What is available in September?

Many of August's flowers are still here. Wonders never cease to amaze me as flowers that are not usually common in September are appearing. As if all our dreams, wishes, and hopes are to editors, brides, and floral enthusiasts who have been pushing for better assortments. See what's here.

Antique Hydrangea: These antique fall hydrangeas are already coming in. I appreciate their complexity. It's hard to describe the color of these blooms as some are green/pink others are purple,taupe, blue, and some are red, brown, green. Oh My!

Garden Roses: You will continue to see these into September depending on the heat. This may be your last chance for local varieties or non-hothouse garden roses. I'm especially in love with the wonderful butter yellow ones. Do they smell good or what! For the most part, garden roses are organic and locally grown so it's hard to find them without bruised edges. It's just the way they are. Usually we try to remove the outer edges but when you start removing the outer petals, the hallmark of the garden rose's shape is lost. So, if you can live without perfection, these are one of nature's most beautiful flowers.

Gloriosa: To me it looks like a beautiful spider. You can find this bloom in hot pink with a streak of yellow. Since single vase arrangements are so popular, this has to be one of the best flowers that can stand alone.

Large dahlias: I'm seeing an abundance of large headed blooms this week but nothing surpasses the amazing bright orange/tangerine large dahlias called Clyde's choice. This is a super big orange dahlia that's stunning!

Nerine: To me they look like a cross between lilies and irises. Very spikey and unusual. My favorite way to present them is in a bud vase or a massed in a modern container.

Ming Fern: You can find this fern most of the year. It's sort of interesting. Spikey. Full of Texture. Unusual. With multiple round, spikey ends. Medium green. Inexpensive. A lot of people stay away from Ferns but I think there's potential in these lovely foliage. When they are displayed by themselves, they look like bonsai trees. Ok....maybe not but I still like them.

Peonies: Surprise! There's a very limited amount of pink peonies. The price is steep. I saw about twenty stems this week They are starting to farm them off crop thus the limited quantities. The buds are tight. Just thought I would share with everyone that they look to be single not doubles. Remember, I found only 20 stems this week in light pink. In case you are wondering, they would retail for%15.00 to $20.00 a stem. Sold on a per stem basis because they are so expensive. These are not the ones from fiftyflowers.com. Once again, if you are a bride who was able to get peonies this week from fiftyflowers.com, do let us know!

Ranunculus: For the first time, I'm seeing Ranunculus in September but in limited quantities. Some are from San Diego, others are from Santa Barbara. So far the ranunculus are incredibly small with soft stems. Have a hard time drinking which could mean many things. I'll continue to investigate. They came in two colors: bright canary and red(see above). I've not seen any white yet. No orange and one stem of peach. YES, I said one stem of PEACH. And a few bunches in pink. When I mean limited, it's very limited. As I mentioned in other articles, with time, you will see more. Price is not bad. A bunch could retail for $13.00 to $15.00 that's not bad. But they are as I said, very small headed.

Stock: I haven't written about stock. You can find it almost year round. I'm really liking the deep purple stock. One thing that I do with stock is cut the yellow tip. Just a suggestion. They are coming out with some really interesting new colors in stock. Some growers are bringing in a new dusty mauve. And this cocoa. HMMM? Not sure about that.

Snow berries: I love them to death. Sweet, delicate. Comes in white and light pink. Great for bouquets, centerpieces, and detail work. LOVE! Be warned, they have spots. If you ever see a snow berry with some tiny bite size marks, that's very common. In a large bunch, I usually find only a handful of perfect white berries.

Enjoy!

Real Weddings: Weddingbells

It's always exciting to get your wedding featured on a blog or publication but to get one featured internationally is extra meaningful.

Thanks to Ellen Ho of Hong Photography, the talented Vancouver photographer for capturing this beautiful Solage Resort wedding for our clients, Carmen and Vincent. Carmen and Vincent were wonderful to work with. From the very beginning, they treated me as their wedding guru as well as the visual artist for their event. Often it's hard to believe that I am an artist but lately, I'm feeling that designing a complete wedding is indeed wedding artistry.

From start to finish, wedding design is a journey that evolves. Here's a snippet of what their wedding was like. You can read more on Weddingbells Canada.

Thanks again to Ellen Ho of Hong Photography!

My Wedding Heroes #3: Kathy so Very

Last weekend, we did a destination wedding in Lake Tahoe for our clients, Jenny and Kevin. To say that it was a success was an understatement. It was magical. Nothing overly fancy. Nothing over the top. Just genuine people who love, who laugh, who live. Great design. Simple yet perfectly sweet. I'll never forget the week!

Destination weddings are fun because you really get to know the couple and the vendors you work with. There's a lot of stress because you are in a new environment. This destination weddings had very few hiccups - one small refrigeration issue and some last minute rental changes. As a floral and event design team, we tend to buy just the right amount so we had enough to cover any "frozen" flower issue. We also bring extra little "props" and supplies because you never know when you will have an opportunity to use it on a table design. The hardest part of moving your operation to a different environment is that you can't magically call in more helpers.

Our angel this weekend was Kathy Newby of Classic Party Rentals. She saved us in so many ways. Beyond what Classic promised to do for us, Kathy, my sales rep came up to supervise the event which is very rare in this industry. Kathy not only came for the day of, she came one day early and when she saw what we had to do, she immediately jumped in. We had napkins to fold and trim with ribbon, lanterns to expand/wire, and many things to organize for the big day.

The morning of the wedding, the bride had a last minute sign on a large wooden board to hang. Kathy and her team jumped at the chance to help us put it up. Kathy herself ran to the hardware store for extra supplies like tacks to name one. When we decided to create a "clothesline" place card display, Kathy offered to help us get it right(it took 4 people to make sure that the detailed design was perfect).

Beyond that at the end of the night, Kathy offered to help us strike when it wasn't even about her rental props and items. Now that's going the extra mile. And that's what makes someone my hero and also a legend in this industry.

Thanks, Kathy!