Heather and David

The story of how Heather and David met is like something out of a movie. Here's the plot - boy needs hiking shoes and visits local REI, girl helps him find what he's looking for. They enjoy some conversation - then girl rings him up and boy gets up to leave. Boy walks towards the exit door, stops, turns around and goes back up the stairs. He asks her out. They hike, date, fall in love and get married.

Heather and David were married in the Redwood Grove at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkley. It was magical watching the redwood needles fall during the ceremony. Heather wanted her flowers to match the surroundings. Her hand-tied bouquet included white and green roses encircled with mixed ferns.
Photography by Scott Pereira

Being a pastry chef, Heather wanted to arrange the cake flowers herself. Unfortunately time got short, so I did the cake design. Just a few clusters here and there. The miniature gardenias from her Aunt's garden looked stunning along side the green button mums and white hydrangeas. I love these cake pictures Scott shot.

Jeannette and Jon

Jeannette and Jon were married yesterday in the Oakland California LDS Temple. It was a beautiful, clear, hot day! Jon and Jeannette braved the heat and were rewarded with some fabulous photos.
Photography by Scott Pereira


Jeannette's round bouquet contained a mixture of roses, dahlias, lisianthus, scabiosa and stock. Her flowers were encircled with a collar of pittosporum leaves, and the stems were wrapped in lavender satin. Jeannette wanted to keep the ribbon from her bouquet, so I crafted a monogrammed ribbon from satin fabric. She removed the keepsake ribbon from the bouquet just before tossing it at the reception.


The wedding cake looked amazing and tasted delicious too. Keeping with the rounded theme, I clustered a large grouping of flowers in the bottom corner and elevated the porcelain cake topper on a bed of flowers.


Jeannette wanted lots of flowers at their reception. In addition to the table centerpieces, she requested an arch for the cake table, cascading flowers on a colonnade, and arrangements at the food and sign-in tables.


Congratulations Jon and Jeannette!

Southern California School of Floral Design

I improved my technique this week by attending the Advanced Wedding Seminar at Phil Rulloda's Southern California School of Floral Design. Phil is an award winning designer, and it was great learning new tips and tricks under his guidance. Here I am with Phil on the last day of class.

Here are the bouquets I made in class.

Duchess Rose


Although the Duchess Rose looks like one single flower, it is composed of the petals of several roses. For this bouquet, I used 3 Cherry Brandy Ecuadorian roses. I love the color of these roses!


Wired Armature


Decorative wire accents are a hot trend for weddings right now. Florists are using wire in bridal bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and table arrangements. This bouquet's handle is made of coiled blue wire. The wire blends into the blue hydrangea and really makes the white gardenias and stephanotis stand out.


Handtied


This colorful handtied contains a mixture of roses, alstromeria, sweet william, bupleurum and hypericum berries. Although not visible in this picture, the bouquet is nested in a ring of curly willow and ivy sprigs.


Monochromatic cascade


This bouquet is a small cascade of white roses, stephanotis, gardena, phalaenopsis and dendrobium orchids. Cascades are elegant and timeless.

rounded centerpiece

Last month, I met with Jeannette to finalize the details of her upcoming wedding. She came prepared to her consultation with photos of the bouquets, centerpieces and flowers she preferred. Jeannette's wedding will have round centerpieces and bouquets featuring a variety of flowers including garden roses, hydrangeas, stock and lisianthus. And although the bridesmaids will be wearing lavender, Jeannette wants her flowers to be a mixture of colors. She put together a beautiful color palette including pinks, peaches and mauves with touches of lavender and burgundy. I made up this sample centerpiece for Jeannette's final consultation. She loved the arrangement and even used it at her bridal shower.

Kiersten and Eric

This weekend, I had the pleasure of arranging flowers for Kiersten and Eric's wedding. Kiersten knew exactly what she wanted - and it was tulips! Because tulips are spring flowers, we discussed a few alternatives in case they became unavailable. However luck was on our side - Kiersten was thrilled when I delivered to her a bouquet of tulips. Photography by Scott Pereira


Kiersten's bouquet was a hand-tied mix of red and yellow tulips. The stems were wrapped with red satin and accented with pearl pins. Kiersten hardly set her bouquet down during the reception. She loved the flowers so much, she even refused to toss her bouquet at the end of the night.


Although their wedding reception was small, Kiersten wanted a large wedding cake with lots of flowers. The cake was decorated with 10 different flowers including tulips, roses, gerbera daisies, dahlias, and mini calla lilies.


The arrangements looked great with bright red and yellow mixed flowers. What a great color combo Kiersten and Eric chose for this outdoor celebration.


Congratulations Kiersten and Eric!