11.10.08
Posted in Weddings at 2:57 pm by tweeny
The Flower Lab recently provided the flowers for a wedding at the beautfiul Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey. The venue was tops - not only was it the fabulous Ritz, but the valet manager let us park our big ol’ mama cargo van for free AND I had my first watermelon infused water - very refeshing!
It was another perfect day with clear blue skies and a cool seaside breeze. The outdoor ceremony was held in the Gardens where we decorated the gazebo with flowers in shades of pink: Asiatic lilies, hydrangea, roses, stock, and ivy vine. The aisle was trimmed with light pink organza fabric draping.
In the Marina Vista Room, the reception was decked out in all white flowers. Half the tables featured a tall centerpiece of all white dendrobium orchids surrounded by little bowls of white flowers: stock, roses, and china mums. The low centerpieces were comprised of roses, hydrangea, stock, and waxflower, also surrounded by a trio of white flowers.
Here are some pictures of the flowers - the good pictures are courtesy of Christine Chang Photography!
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ceremony gazebo
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Christine Chang Photography
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pink flowers
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Christine Chang Photography
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tall centerpiece
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Christine Chang Photography
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trio of white flowers
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low centerpiece
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10.23.08
Posted in Special Events at 12:21 pm by tweeny
We’re having a booth at the upcoming Great Bridal Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, November 2, 2008!
For 2 free tickets to the show and to say HI, just use the special promo code “FLFT” when you order tickets online HERE.
Enter our booth sweepstakes for a chance to win a free bridal bouquet!
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10.22.08
Posted in Special Events at 3:36 pm by tweeny
Precise Plans and The Flower Lab recently shared a booth at the Marriage Fair at this year’s LA/Valley Pride Festival in Studio City, Los Angeles.
Here are some images from our booth! Marsha brought some cute escort cards, menus, table numbers, programs and ideas for wedding favors. Flowers were by yours truly! The reception table centerpiece featured a landscape design with green molucella, white anthuriums, green fuji mums, white china mums, chocolate cosmos, and green fuzzy balls - which are actually dianthus, a cousin of the humble carnation!
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Centerpiece and place setting
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Place setting with a white china mum and menu card
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Table centerpiece
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Coffee beans for favors!
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Escort card ideas
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Heeeere's Marsha!
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Business card, anyone?
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I'm trying to pose like Marsha
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10.02.08
Posted in Weddings at 1:53 pm by tweeny
The next stop on The Flower Lab’s mini tour of the east coast was the wedding of Jenny and Greg at St. John Neumann Catholic Church and reception at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia. Jenny wanted a timeless, elegant, and classy wedding reception with tall centerpieces featuring all white flowers. We used hydrangea, ‘Siberia’ lilies, lisianthus, and larkspur on 24-inch clear glass pilsner vases. The vases were half filled with water and a layer of ivory rose petals floated on the water’s surface.
the reception in the grand ballroom
tall, classic centerpiece
all white flowers: hydrangea, lilies, lisianthus, and larkspur
pilsner vase with floating rose petals
arrangement of lilies for the escort card table
Jenny wore a romantic wedding gown with lace, hand-made silk flowers, and Swarovski crystals. To complement her dress, she wanted a textured, romantic bouquet in ivory and gold with roses and flowers with delicate blossoms. We made her a hand-tied bouquet with creamy ‘Vendela’ roses, freesia, mini calla lilies, ‘white princess’ spray roases, ‘medeo’ sweet heart roses, gold asclepia, and gold/peach ranunculus. The bouquet was wrapped with beaded lace trim and tiny rhinestones were glued onto the tips of the roses and callas.
bridal bouquet
lace trim for the bridal boquet
bridesmaid bouquets
The DC metro area was the second and final stop of our brief tour of out-of-town special events. Because of the large scale of this event (6 bridesmaids, 3 flower girls, and 18 centerpieces!), I decided to order the flowers from a local wholesaler and what a great decision it was! The flowers were provided by Potomac Floral Wholesale, Inc. in Silver Spring, MD. They have a very convenient online ordering system and my sales representative, Iba Diop, was extremely helpful getting all the flowers and materials I needed. The warehouse is extremely well stocked with cut flowers as well as plants and supplies, and everything was of high quality. It was interesting to see that some of the flowers, like the ranunculus, were from suppliers I frequented at the Los Angeles Flower Market! Prices for some cut flowers can be much higher out here in the east, but quality is just as good and service is stellar.
This concludes my working vacation out east! It will be good to be back home and see our old dog Salt again!
enjoying the cool Santa Monica breezes
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09.30.08
Posted in Weddings at 2:49 pm by tweeny
(all photos courtesy of Jenny Tam)
ceremony site overlooking the Atlantic
It was a perfect fall day in New England when Wenli and Patrick were married at the Ocean View Inn in Gloucester, MA. It isn’t too common for The Flower Lab to do events outside of California, but I am definitely up for the challenge and ready for any chance to travel! Not only is it fun to showcase some west coast style and design, but I love checking out markets, wholesalers, and design trends all over the country (and world)!
Wenli loves loves loves orchids! So we showcased cymbidium, James Story, and mokara orchids for her fall palette wedding in reds and oranges. To offset the price of orchids and to keep within budget, we also featured beautiful deep red ‘freedom’ roses and orange, fragrant ‘milva’ roses. Orange freesia and brown hypericum berries were added for additional texture. Bouquets and personal flowers were comprised of mostly cymbidium orchids with accents of roses, freesia, and hypericum.
bridal bouquet
bridesmaid bouquet
mother’s corsage
The view for the ceremony was simply stunning - gorgeous blue Atlantic ocean water with gently peeling waves, a bed of garden flowers, and soft green grass. There wasn’t much more the place needed - just some small poseys attached to the aisle chairs to bring it all together!
ceremony chairs
chair posey
Sometimes my brides have asked to have additional bouquets of flowers available at the ceremony as special gifts to parents as a way to honor and thank them. For these thank you bouquets, we accented the red and orange roses with James Story orchids, black ti leaves, and wrapped the flowers in chocolate brown abaca mesh.
thank you parents!
Inside, the reception tables were long and rectangular, so the centerpieces featured red containers of similar shape and were anchored by two floating candle arrangements with immersed mokara orchids. For a natural “drift wood” New England beach feel as well as Asian inspiration, we used sand-blasted manzanita branches for the main centerpieces with pink mini cymbidium orchids glued to the branches. Red and orange roses and hypericum berries anchored the centerpieces to the fall theme.
reception tables
floating candle arrangement
branch centerpiece
another branch centerepice
wedding cake
Overall, it was a great trip out to Boston and Gloucester!
bye-bye Beantown!
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09.28.08
Posted in Weddings at 7:38 am by tweeny
Jenkis and Nathan planned a beautiful wedding bridging Western and Eastern traditions. The ceremony was held at the Hilton Pasadena followed by a banquet reception at Empress Harbor Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park. The chose to feature burgundy as their main color – reminiscent of lucky Chinese red – while also mixing in shades of purple and fuchsia.
At the Hilton, we draped sheer burgundy fabric along the sides of the aisle and hung pomanders made from carnations with burgundy tips. The arch was decorated with burgundy dahlia, purple hydrangea, pink lilies, and purple alstroemeria.
the arch, aisle, and pomanders
pomanders close up
guestbook table with floating flowers in a lily bowl
bridesmaids and bridal bouquets
bridal bouquet with ribbon detail
The reception centerpieces were in luminescent fuchsia cubes – small enough to accommodate the many dishes soon to be served on the lazy susans. They featured ‘red magic’ roses, fuchsia gerbera daisies, purple hydrangea, and large burgundy dahlias.
reception table flowers
head table flowers in a silver luminescent container
toss bouquet
wedding cake
We made a European-inspired arrangement for the sign-in table of steel grass, china berries, and burgundy chrysanthemums.
sign-in table
It was pretty busy at the Empress Harbor Seafood Restaurant that evening with two wedding banquets that took out the entire restaurant! Regular patrons had to sit and eat al fresco (something I don’t think Chinese people in the SGV like to do in the LA heat!)
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09.24.08
Posted in Weddings at 6:09 pm by tweeny
Team Flower Lab recently provided flowers for a wedding at The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The very hip couple getting married were Amber and Patrick – who wanted something a little different and unconventional for their wedding. How cool is it that you can have weddings and special events at The Natural History Museum in the presence of dinosaur bones and elephants?
There are dinosaurs back there!
The ceremony was held in the main rotunda as you enter the museum alongside a snarling triceratops and tyrannous saurus rex. After which the reception commenced in the great hall of African mammals where tables were labeled according to their proximity to various exhibition cases – think table “hyena”, table “gorilla”, and table “chimpanzee”.
rhinos sit here!
Amber loves calla lilies so we used tall white callas mixed with curly willow and seeded eucalyptus in the ceremony altar pieces. The cocktail tables were decorated with a small pot covered in moss topped with a large burgundy dahlia.
lovely white callas
dahlia in a moss covered pot
I don’t think there is a more perfect venue to have mosses and manzanita branches in the floral décor than the Natural History Museum. And apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought so according to the special events coordinator! For the reception, we featured approximately 2-ft. tall natural manzanita branches secured in black pots with plaster of paris and decorated with flowers in shades of burgundy: dahlia, hydrangea, ‘black magic’ roses, hypericum berry, as well as seeded eucalyptus and lemon leaf. In addition to attaching burgundy dendrobium orchids to the branches, we hung red votive holders and some Spanish moss.
manzanita branches
dendrobiums and hanging votives
the great hall of African mammals
Amber’s bouquet was a simple and elegant bouquet of all burgundy calla lilies wrapped in sheer organza ribbon and accented with black beaded trim. The escort card table and sign-in tables featured tall arrangements of ginger in black glass trumpet vases.
burgundy bouquets and flower girl basket
ginger escort card table
The Flower Lab in action!
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09.23.08
Posted in Special Events at 7:34 am by tweeny
The Flower Lab was approached by Kitten Rescue of LA to donate centerpieces for their fundraising dinner event – Fur Ball at the Skirball! Hubby and I rescued our 15 year-young Samoyed 5 years ago from the Massachusetts SPCA, so I thought, yes! We should help the kitties too! And what better way to do a little marketing and advertising as well?
The invitations for the Fur Ball had a very swanky and elegant feel featuring red and black as their main color scheme. To match this, we made centerpieces with gorgeous red ‘freedom’ roses, mostly burgundy carnations and some red carnations, and burgundy dahlias. Keeping with the theme of swanky elegance and simplicity, we did a grouping arrangement of three glass cylinders of varying heights, each accented with thick black satin ribbon. Each vase was monobotanical – a hand-tie of all roses in the tallest vase, all carnations in the middle vase, and a single burgundy dahlia inside the lowest vase. With a sprinkling of red rose petals around the grouping on the table.
There were two other florists who donated arrangements – Mericle’s Flowers of Torrance and Maggie Jensen Designs. Go us! Afterwards, The Flower Lab as well as Maricle’s could not resist having our pictures taken on the red carpet!
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09.02.08
Posted in Weddings at 2:07 pm by tweeny
Calamigos Ranch is a beautiful and popular venue to have a wedding. Located in the hills and canyons of Malibu, it’s a magical location with large trees adorned with twinkling lights. It’s hard to believe you are still in Los Angeles!
Corrin and Marcus had their wedding at The Oaks at Calamigos Ranch, with an outdoor ceremony on a deck among the woods and trees followed by an indoor reception in the building attached to the deck. In keeping with the outdoor and natural feel of The Oaks, Corrin wanted her flowers to have a wildflower look with mostly small, delicate blooms. Their colors were lavender and purple with highlights of pink and ivory.
For the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, Corrin wanted sweet peas and hydrangea. We also added deep purple lisianthus and ivory spray roses.
The centerpieces were kept low and simple, but wildflower in feel with lavender hydrangea, purple lisianthus, pink wax flower, blue delphinium, and ivory spray roses.
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08.29.08
Posted in Special Events at 7:40 am by tweeny
The Flower Lab recently provided the flowers for a gala at Big League Dreams for the sister cities of West Covina and Ohtawara, Japan, organized by the East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center, Inc. “Kakehashi” roughly translates into “building bridges of understanding and friendship”. No awe-inspiring views of the Pacific Ocean at Big League Dreams, but this venue is an amazing location for large outdoor events with plenty of parking and multiple swanky baseball fields!
The evening was marked by taiko drumming, musical performances, and a silent auction (of which I tried unsuccesfully to win the UCLA vs. USC football game in December - waah!). Here are some pictures of the florals and decor:
And here’s the full color advertisement for The Flower Lab in the Kakehashi Gala program book!
Thank you East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center!
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