Floral Design

Once a year, the American Institute of Floral Designers throws an amazing week long symposium showcasing beautiful designs and innovative ideas in floral art. This year, it was held in Kansas City and I had the great opportunity to not only be wowed by the amazing flowers and designs, but got to take the workshop taught by master Belgian florist, Tomas de Bruyne.

The workshop was entitled “Giving Soul to Nature” and featured many beautiful and creative ideas for decorating tables. Belgian floral design can be described as “emotional”, and together structure, movement, and color all contribute to the emotion one feels when seeing beautiful floral art. In the workshop Tomas chose interesting materials such as betula (or birch bark), various types of yarn (which he found at Home Depot of all places!), apples and avocados, driftwood, 1960s inspired wallpaper, and lots and lots of water tubes. At the end of the day, we all got to try our hand at creating a Tomas de Bruyne-inspired centerpiece.

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Like shop table or window displays, laying out multiples of the same item can be very eye catching and stunning, like a artistic installation. It is very common to see in magazines several iterations of the same or similar floral arrangement strategically placed down the length of a very long table, or clustered together in the center of a large, round table. Those 60-inch round tables are quite large and sometimes having just one centerpiece in the middle of the table can look a little lonely. Having multiple small arrangements of similar color scheme or container shape can make the table more dynamic – and also result in more guests getting to take a flower home!

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Like shop table or window displays, laying out multiples of the same item can be very eye catching and stunning, like a artistic installation. It is very common to see in magazines several iterations of the same or similar floral arrangement strategically placed down the length of a very long table, or clustered together in the center of a large, round table. Those 60-inch round tables are quite large and sometimes having just one centerpiece in the middle of the table can look a little lonely. Having multiple small arrangements of similar color scheme or container shape can make the table more dynamic – and also result in more guests getting to take a flower home!

from the book, To Have and To Hold by David Stark and Avi Adler

With the current state of the economy, many couples are trying to scale back on their weddings. In fact, spending on weddings for 2009 has decreased 6.5% compared to 2008 according to The Wedding Report, a wedding industry market research and statistics firm. So what’s a girl to do in this economy? How should a couple scale down their floral décor in the monetary department without the wedding looking altogether too cheap?

Outfitting the bridal party with flowers can really add up with each bouquet and boutonniere costing in the double, and most of the time, triple digits. Short of eloping or cutting the bridal party down to the bride and the groom, I would like to suggest a simple and elegant alternative to the hand-held bouquet. Holding a single stem of a gorgeous flower tied with satin ribbon is bold, elegant, and stunning. Think about how in many areas of design, less is more. How in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, minimalism is stressed and the emphasis placed on the shape, line, and form of the flower inclusive of the stem and leaves – not just the bloom of the flower.

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I was recently a guest at a wedding where one of the guests at my table called dibs on the centerpiece as soon as he sat down! Though it was in good fun, we all knew he was pretty serious as no one said anything when that centerpiece ended up next to him as soon as the coffee and tea was served!

To avoid potential stand-offs at your wedding and instead of asking the DJ to announce awkward games to determine who gets to take home the centerpiece, why not use a dual function centerpiece that serves as table decor as well as wedding favors for guests to take home? This way everyone gets a piece of the pie and not to mention, using favors as centerpieces is great for the budget conscious or DIY bride!

All images from marthastewart.com

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A simple DIY centerpiece

When you start to look at ideas for wedding flowers, it can be very tempting to consider making your own wedding flowers. After all, many of the floral designs showcased in wedding magazines feature all the same type of flower in a round mass. How difficult can that be? And it would save a fortune! The major drawback is whether you as the bride (or groom!) would have the time and wherewithal the couple of days before the wedding to undertake this challenge. There will be a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner to contend with, not to mention a possible bridal shower or manicure and pedicure! You might also just want to relax and spend the day before the big day gabbing it up with your best friends at a spa.

Here are some tips and ideas to think about when deciding whether or not to tackle your own wedding flowers.

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Many times my brides want simple and elegant flowers for their wedding – nothing with too many colors or with too many things going on.  For a summer or spring wedding, using green and white flowers is a great way to achieve that simple, elegant, and modern look.

green and white for a modern wedding

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Hand-tied bouquet of roses, ranunculus, mini callas, tulips, hypericum berry

Hand-tied bouquets were popularized by Martha Stewart – thank you Martha! Prior to the doyenne or all things domestic, hand-tied bouquets were used for casual affairs like garden weddings in the afternoon. Now you might never see a bouquet made with a bouquet holder – though you can indeed make beautiful bouquets with these holders that otherwise would not be possible with the hand-tie technique.

In many European countries – Belgium, England, Holland, France – most of what you buy from a florist is presented as a hand-tie bouquet, secured in plastic cello wrapped in a way to have the bottom of the stems resting in a reservoir of water made out of the plastic wrapping. It’s here in America where we want our flowers to come in a vase!

The hand-tie technique can come in handy! Not only are most, if not all, bridal bouquets made in a hand-tie, reception centerpieces can come out quite nicely as a hand-tie as well. In the hand-tie, each flower is introduced individually one-by-one and incorporated into the building bouquet held and rotated around in one hand. Once all the flowers are added, the stems are kept together by a rubber band or a twist of wire. The stems are then cut to the proper length and if it’s a centerpiece, the flowers placed in a container of water.

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