Wedding Ideas & Resources Abound

Since I only have a wedding on Sunday this week, I had an extra day to meander around on the web finding some really incredible blogs by incredible people and thought I would share with you my favorites.

In addition to some really fabulous flower, bouquets and decor ideas - the photography on these sites is really breath taking. Even if these photographers are not in your area - taking these pictures to a photographer that you are interviewing would really give them a good indication of what you are looking for.

Several of these blogs have just broken ground in the last week - so there is some wonderfully fresh perspective here and a whole lot of inspiration. Enjoy!

One of my favorite San Fran designers - nancy liu chen design provides wonderful inspiration and information on her Brown Bag Blog - addressing in particular what goes into the cost of wedding flowers.

Daily Candy - just launched this week, Daily Candy Weddings! Now you can have wedding candy everyday too.


My favorite find of the day: The Bride's Cafe or TBC - amazing photography here of stunning brides and beautiful ideas - I had to go through all 37 pages before going to bed last night.

Launched just the other day: San Francisco Style Unveiled. And, in a fantastic follow up to our Earth Day entry - check out 101 ways to be eco-chic.




And last but far from least - my steady go to: Style Me Pretty.

Gorgeous Green Weddings - The Ultimate Demonstration of Love

In honor of the best Mother of all - Nature, I have compiled some great little tid bits on creating beautiful weddings while consciously making earth friendly choices. In an effort to live more consciously myself, I have started noticing everyday little practices, that make a big difference, and have started adapting them to our weddings in an effort to help brides feel great about their wedding day and the impact it will have on our environment.

These are a few of my favorite things that we are currently doing to honor the environment:

• composting all green waste - stems, leaves and all the extras that don't wind up in your bouquets get composted on our production property
• recycle containers - constantly. we have a vast selection of containers including glass ware, iron urns, wood boxes, silk boxes and candelabras. we repeatedly use these containers, saving each of our brides the expense of purchasing these items, but in effect sharing them.
• spread the love - in an effort to share the beauty we have a program where we will pick up any left over flowers from your wedding at the end of your celebration and deliver them to be enjoyed by others either at a retirement / rehabilitation center or at the local women's shelter.
• buy local - as much as possible we work with local growers to cut down on our carbon impact in shipping flowers in. though availability is our guide, we are always happy to provide brides with a list of locally grown and readily available choices for their blooms.
• in cases when we do import blooms from out of the area, all cardboard and packing materials are recycled.

A few other fabulous ideas that I've come across include purchasing and personalizing napkins and linens for your wedding - and then you have wonderful linens for your home following the wedding. This also provides a beautiful style statement for your guests as they enjoy your celebration. Personalizing shopping bags that can be reused over and over by your guests are great favors. I love the gift of tree seedlings, seed packets or bulbs as a favor as well.


Resources: Green World Project, Earthly Goods, Plant a Memory, The Knot.com,

Happy Easter - Blooms

Though I have a hard time getting excited about a visit from the Easter Bunny - I do get completely crazy excited about all that blooms at this time of the year. The possibilities influence our design approach with everything - the emergence of color after a dull winter - the spring green of tiny sprigs. There is no other season that touches spring. Some of my favorite spring delicacies are the periwinkle grape hyacinths, double Angelique tulips paired with bright green Bells of Ireland. Rananculus is especially robust at this time of year too - amazing.

Bill over at the SLO Country Club asked us to "spring up" his Easter Brunch this year - and with hundreds of new ideas swirling in my brain - I settled on a fantastic idea that I gathered from renowned Belgian designer Nico de Swert. The brilliance - taking an idea or element that is old and gathering creative dust - and refurbish it - into something new and wonderful. In this case - the dreaded grapevine wreath. By mussing it up, adding some moss and some "egg shell" vases - it is a whole new fabulous thing... a nest - or in this case the base for a profusion of some glorious spring blooms.

Inspiration Abounds

Last week, I had the great delight to spend some time in San Francisco with another great designer and friend Camilla Svensson Burns meandering through the displays of art and flowers at the de Young for the 25th anniversary of Bouquets to Art. In the mix, we attended some incredible design symposiums given by some of the worlds most celebrated floral designers. Mark Held from Mark's Garden (has done incredible weddings for Britney, Gwen, Jennifer, Charlie...the Oscars) was completely phenomenal, Paula Pryke from the UK shared her spin on design, Nico de Swert also had some great ideas about unique arrangements for Easter and Paige Dixon (Floral Director for Wynn Resorts Las Vegas) shared some truly inspirational color ideas and grand scale strategies for dynamic visual impact.
I definitely came back to my work with inspiration and awesome food for creative adventures.

Au Natural

We are in the fabulous midst of planning season with our lovely brides and along the way we get to create so fun ideas that serve as the criteria for the whole event. It often starts with us asking some strange questions like "what's in your closet?", or "what kind of furniture do you like". The answers to these questions are critical in helping us understand a brides personal style and it is part of what keeps us motivated and completely in love with what we do.

This particular bride came to us with the words "unarranged, natural and non traditional". The venue for her April wedding is a wonderful winery in Paso Robles - Robert Hall Winery. Spectacularly traditional and classic winery. The combination of the bride's style and the surroundings create a wonderful design dichotomy that we love to play with.




What resulted was an aged iron urn (classic and traditional), with a robust combination of green and white blooms, interesting foliage, honey suckle vine, moss, fern curls AND my favorite - green pears and artichokes all interwoven into a spring burst of nature.

Can I just say have awesome it is to do what we do!! So fun and this pared with a some great linen in taupe, chartreuse and eggplant. Seriously happy.

My Favorite Flower Story

I am often asked by clients and friends if I have a favorite flower story - I think they are mostly looking for me to recount a story about a bride that came unglued on the day of her wedding (I keep those locked in a vault and NO one has the key). I do have many funny bloom escapades from over the years but I certainly have a favorite and as I approach the anniversary of the happening itself, I shall share with you.

For the last 6 years Mark Padgett of Mark Padgett Event Design and I have styled and "flowered" an amazing annual fundraiser for Hospice Partners of the Central Coast. It has been an international extravaganza with the destination kept top secret until the doors to the ballroom open following cocktails. We have gone from Paris, Russia and Thailand to last years' phenomenal Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan (note the name of the event!).



Last year I ordered a bazillion cherry branches from Oregon - their bloom season is a bit later than ours in California and had the timing of getting them open down to what I thought was the exact second of perfection for our event. They arrived 10 days prior to the event and we proceeded to bath them each day in warm water to coax the desired pink blooms to abound. As the days wore on, the shy blooms kept me awake at night with thoughts of how I could rename our event to reflect the lack of cherry blossoms as they stubbornly stayed bundled in their little green bud cocoons (bare branch fiesta, dreary winter along the Potomac, Gorki Park were a few re-names that came to mind).

Smashing the branches at the base for maximum water uptake proceeded - no sleep or blooms followed. Can I just say that we are talking many hundreds of dollars invested here!!

As I was driving into my office two days before our fabulous Cherry Blossom Festival - completely sick with agitation and the sad recognition that I simply cannot control EVERYTHING (tears, whimper), I noticed an apple orchard in profuse pink bloom, with pruning in process. In my way-too-small Beamer, I 4 wheeled through muck and pulled up into the grassy field to have many Mexican workers stare at me in wonder. There before my eyes where the desired pink blossoms - already cut, laying on the ground - ready for my taking!!!

What followed was my pathetic attempt to communicate that I in fact NEEDED these branches and would be taking them (huge hand motions - but not a stitch of Spanish from me). After "talking" to several men, the senior staff member was summoned - a gentleman of about 70, rugged and weathered. My grand explanation again - met with a very simple "No". And then a big gasp from me.

I called Mark on my cell phone in exasperation - knowing that he too knew no Spanish (we are both in mad pursuit of French for our next trip to Paris). Mark called his assistant Hannah who was somewhere else in the county. Hannah called me in the field and I handed the phone to the old gentleman. He listened intently (finally relieved to have an explanation for what the crazy lady in the little blue car was trying to do). He handed the phone back to me with a very simple "si". He proceeded to tell his crew to help me pile the branches into piles so that we could load them into the truck that was on it's way.

That night - I slept, knowing that at last I had my "cherry" blossoms, and since then have had great fun recounting the story to all that ask. You gotta love Mother Nature and all that she brings to the table of the best laid out plans! Only one "avid gardener" at our event checked in, to let us know that our blooms were in fact apple blossoms.

This year due to the economic situation, the Dazzeling Diamond Ball will be happening sans Ball. This remarkable organization still needs the community's support though. Their compassionate care and training are invaluable and we have been so proud to be a small part of their efforts. Please feel free to get in touch with them to receive your own personal tax deduction in exchange for your monetary good will at Hospice Partners of the Central Coast.

PS - the Dazzeling Diamond Ball shall return in 2010 - but you won't know where it will be, until the doors open!

Play Date with Jennie and the Gordo

So yesterday afternoon I spent sharing a bottle of Sangiovese while being a supportive friend to my "creative soul sista" Jennie Sturgeon from Trumpet Vine Catering - she was cooking for the Gordo (aka Gordon Ramsay) and crew of Hell's Kitchen. Though totally "over the moon" honored she was understandably a smidgen nervous (only noticeable to the trained eye).

The group was up from the big city, filming a wine blending excursion for the show at Meridian Vineyards and Winery. I volunteered to "style" the buffet table (red velvety kangaroo paw imported from the south... river rocks, moss runners, burlap) for her while keeping her company and helping her chill (ok - there was a significant amount of spying from behind the barrels involved too).

When Gordon came back to the prep station and asked what we were having - Jennie's ultra calm and collected response (while whipping up the Florentine sauce over the hot range) was to rattle off the specific ingredients contained in each dish and be friendly and warm (impressive!). We all did the happy dance as soon as he was out of sight and had another glass of wine. After the meal, he took time to kiss all the girls and shake hands - pretty nice guy. Did I happen to mention yet, that he's waaaaayyy hotter in person than on the tube?! Meooooww!

You too can have the "Gordo Pleasing Menu" at your next event or Wedding:

Mixed salad with feta, blood orange and braised fennel
Green Beans with grape tomatoes and garlic
Chicken Florentine
Flat Iron Steak with Romesco and Cilantro-avocado Pesto sauces
Manchego & Green chili polenta cakes
Pumpkin Chocolate Bread Pudding

Cheers to another great play date! We're planning more.

Photo credit: Me!