Fall Color

Tomorrow marks the end of the busy, busy wedding season!  (These are some of the flowers for this wedding.) This past summer (well fall too!) has been fantastic and a HUGE thank you to all the brides who let me design for them!  I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you, all your creativity, fun ideas, and new challenges.

My husband's taken a new job. No, we're not moving, but we're headed down to Portland, OR for a week of training.  It'll be work for him but it will be a lot of catching up with family and friends for me and the kids and I'm extremely excited for a little down time!  Not to mention a trip to IKEA, Powells, outlets, and hopefully some thrift stores. I may finally find the elusive side table I've been looking for to finish off Ida's nursery.  So, blog posts may or may not happen next week.
Thanks a ton and see you soon!

(btw: I've got a new blog and logo design in the works!)

Feature Flower: Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas are fantastic!  I meant to post this a couple months back when the sweet peas were actually blooming but... things get crazy and I forgot it was sitting here unpublished!  They come in all sorts of colors, are easy to grow from seed (make sure they have something to climb up), and look spectacular in arrangements or bouquets.  I just love the tendrils!  

(All these flowers came from our local cutting garden.  Mine got hit with the weed whacker. These were for a friend's baby shower.)

Wedding Details: Lawn Games

Lawn games are extremely popular wedding reception events right now. And with good reason! It's a fantastic way to keep your guests entertained and having a wonderful time while you finish pictures, everyone eats, etc.. These are especially great if kids are invited - a wonderful way to make sure everyone enjoys the party!

Here's a few ideas, and of course, these can be personalized to match your wedding scheme.

Cornhole, bocce, croquet, balloon darts, ladder ball, frisbee golf, and badminton (might get a little sweaty with this one).

Any more ideas out there!?

(pictures: cornhole, sign, collage, balloons, sign, bocce, badminton, silhouette cornhole, ladder ball, frisbee)

Sneak Peek: Christy's Bouquet

Christy was laid back, easy to work with and fun to design for!  She dyed her bridesmaids' dresses assorted shades of cornflower blue and wanted yellow, pink and orange flowers to match with some coming from the local cutting garden.

To go with her more casual bridesmaids dresses I wrapped the bouquets and boutonnieres in playful fabrics featuring blue for Christy and orange for the bridesmaids.  (This fabric is Blue Chrysanthemum from Rebekah Merkle's England Swings Collection.)

The profesional shots were done by Urban Rose Photography so they're bound to be good!  I'll show you them when I can!

Wedding Details: What to do for your exit?

Exits can make fantastic pictures!  There's a lot of different options for what you do when you exit from the ceremony, church or reception!  I had bubbles (yes that's me and Mike up there), my oldest sister did petals while leaving the church, my other sister passed out bells as they exited late at night. Here's some to get your creative juices flowing;
balloons, bubbles, petals, sparklers, rice, flying lanterns, cut up paper confetti cones, confetti poppers, ring bells, wave ribbon banners, etc..
Any more favorites out there?

Classic Bridal Bouquets

I've been working on completing my advanced certification with the Portland Floral Design Institute.  Here are some of the required bridal bouquets that I had to complete.  With these I had to follow specific design patterns and tie techniques.
They are all pretty classic looks. The one above is a hand wired bouquet featuring gardenias and stephanotis.  A petite bouquet and it smells spectacular!

Here's a dutch spiralled bouquet with free spirit roses.  This picture doesn't show it completely but the stems come around and form a spiral.  Neither of these are my favorite ribbon style, but it's great to work outside of your comfort zone.

And this is a faux-hand tied.  It's actually in a foam holder for extremely hot days, but with stems attached to conceal it.  These are eskimo roses.

I'm really curious to know what you think!!  Would you opt for any of these? Interested in what they cost?  What do you like or dislike about these classic versions?

Real Wedding: Ealy/Knight

Here's some of the professional shots from the LaMoreauxs! We've known them for years and I'm constantly amazed at how he can capture everyone's personality!

Lenora wanted all her flowers to come from our local cutting garden! She brought all her bridesmaids and we went out and cut and cut! Too fun! (There's eleven bridesmaids there in case you lose count! A party in itself!)

Congrats Ty and Lenora!

Inspiration Board: Winter Purple and Green

Sneak Peek: Rachel's Bouquet

Rachel's wedding was also this past weekend.  She was a lot of fun to design for!  She's a graphic designer and she loves orange.  She really wanted ranunculus, they're small this time of year but we were able to get them in!  I can't wait to show you her whole wedding party (of 12!)  in all orange!

Cecilia's Wedding Featured on Apple Brides

Cecilia's wedding was featured on Spokane's Apple Brides Blog yesterday!  Cecilia put a lot of thought and attention to detail in her wedding and the results are stunning. Take a look at Kena Helen's great shots!

(photos by Kena Helen Photography)

Fall Market Preview

This past Saturday was also the Logos Fall Market.  I teamed up with Vicktrola Prints and Urban Rose Photography to create a wedding inspiration table.  Vicky took more pictures so I'll share hers when she passes them on - but here's a few I grabbed of the flowers.  We went for a rustic vintage look with dusty pink, blue and gold accents.

My sister-in-law helped with our design and also penned a few signs for me.  

With two weddings, the market, some deliveries, and attending one of the weddings - this is what my kitchen and work area looked like when the day was over.  A small bomb exploded flowers and cake in our house!

Sneak Peek: Laura's Bouquet

Malibu Gerberas

I realize I didn't do a single post last week! With some sick kiddos and a few weddings, the blog got neglected. But here's a look at Laura's bouquet and her maid of honor. (The locket held a picture of her grandmother. And Laura gave me a charm to put on the bouts, corsages, and maid of honor bouquets.) I'll get you the professional shots in a bit! Meanwhile here's the inspiration board.

By the way,  I've been updating some of the vendors, so take a look there!

DIY: Scalloped Fabric Garland

My friend, Paige, and I threw a baby shower for our friend's new little girl.  Paige had a great turquoise tablecloth and she suggested we do orange accents.  We kept things really simple - various cobblers, orange sherbet punch, and coffee.  I made up the garland to match the colors - super fast, under $7, and you can reuse it!

Supplies: (this makes one 12 foot garland)

3 fat quarters (or any leftover scraps)

4 yds bias tape

Directions:

Create a template: Draw a 7.5in circle on paper.  Cut out and fold in half. 

Fold your fabric in half, right sides together. Using your template cut out 17 7.5in half circles. 

With right sides together sew all along the curve.  Do not sew on the straight edge.

Turn right side out and iron flat. 

Repeat with all your half circles.

Fold your bias tape over the straight edge of your first half circle and start sewing.  Add a new half circle every 1.5in (approximately).  

You could do smaller half circles or larger or use wider bias tape. *lots of ways to mix things up!*

Real Weddings: Robin and Lance

Here are some of the professional shots from Bryan Aulick of Robin and Lance!  Robin wanted a vintage feel of sage and white with a few hints of dusty pink.  Here's the inspiration board. Robin and her mom were such fun to work with!

I had Vicky Ryan help with the design of the signs.

Here we are setting up at the Banyans! Their wedding was at the end of May and it was still chilly out.  With that and the scattered showers we brought everything indoors.

Isn't this picture great!?  One of my favorites.

Robin used a dark purple for her bridesmaids which offset the pale pink in their bouquets.

These last two I snapped.  

These are the centerpieces waiting to get put out.