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Jenny and Kevin were married on a Saturday in May at the Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach. Their colors were peach, blush pink, ivory, and accents of lime green. Because the ceremony and reception both occurred in the afternoon, Jenny wanted a fun look that still spoke “wedding”. To make things more fun and interesting, we incorporated bright green Fuji mums and peachy-pink hypericum berry mixed in with the roses and hydrangea. The different textures from the Fuji mums and hypericum berry broke things up a little in the centerpieces so they didn’t look too soft.

The girls carried all rose bouquets in ivory and peachy-pink. Jenny’s bouquet also featured blush pink peonies and peach French tulips mixed in with the ivory roses. We accented the bouquet with loops of blush satin ribbon.

The flower girl carried a petite pomander made of lime green kermit poms.

And the groom and groomsmen boutonnieres were made from peachy-pink French tulips.

The bride and groom honored their close family and relatives with boutonniere style personal flowers made from pink cymbidium orchids.

The ceremony was held in a lovely garden setting at the hotel. We decorated the gazebo simply with vines and greenery. The tall centerpieces were repurposed as ceremony decor, placed on white pedestals along the aisle.

Naomi and Brian were recently married at the Sherwood Country Club in Westlake Village. Sherwood is a gorgeous location to be married, but what Una and I liked best were the humongous wrought iron gates that opened and closed as we drove into the location – after getting the okay from the security guard! It was like James Bond!

Naomi wanted a lot of fuchsia in her flowers so we used fuchsia “wild thing” roses, hot pink peonies, hot pink dendrobium orchids, dark pink mini callas, fuchsia tulips, and pink garden spray roses.

Here are some lovely images from photographer Chris Schmitt:

Look at the background! What, are we in Tuscany??

And here are some flower pictures taken by The Flower Lab:

The bridal bouquet:

Some boutonnieres:

The chuppah!

We used an 8 ft. x 8 ft. x 8 ft. chuppah and decorated it with white drapery, like a window curtain. The bottoms of the drapery had fuchsia silk rose petals attached. The top and sides were accented with bouquets of fuchsia peonies, roses, and spray roses with accents of lemon leaf.

Flowers decorating the aisle chairs:

Centerpieces:

Each reception table held a trio of clear glass vases with immersed fuchsia flowers. The tallest one held a sandblasted manzanita branch with attached dendrobium orchids. The medium cylinder held several stems of hot pink tulips topped with a floating candle. And the lowest cylinder had hot pink pink mini calla lilies wrapped and twisted around within the water, also topped with a floating candle.

Anne and Tommie were recently married at the Marvimon, a fabulously cool and utterly hip loft/garage-like venue in LA. Anne is a DIY bride and made her own centerpieces! Lucky her, peony season was in full force and she was able to get tons of lovely peonies from the flower market.

The Flower Lab was hired to provide the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages, which we delivered to the Marvimon (and my assistant Una got to check it out after setting up at their sister venue, Smog Shoppe, in Culver City the day before). I forgot to take pictures of the bridal bouquet which featured all ivory peonies and the bridesmaid bouquets which was all blush pink peonies. Oops! But how about some boutonnieres and corsages?

I’ve posted personal flowers with succulents before, but these are slightly different because they have a very high succulent to flower ratio. I really like how they turned out:

The groom’s boutonniere is on the left which with highlighted with white waxflower.

Some of the women requested a pin-on corsage (right) and some requested a wristlet (left). Mixed in with the succulents are green hypericum berry and ivory freesia.

Kaite and Dave were recently married at the lovely La Chiquita Ranch in Malibu canyon country. Tiffany and I got a good work out setting up their wedding with lots of walks up and down steep hills – whew! The views and the fresh air made it seem like we were on a mini holiday getaway (on a fat farm?)!

We used a lot of fun and interesting botanicals for Katie and Dave’s wedding featuring lime green and purple. In particular, succulents, craspedia, aka “billy balls”, artichokes, protea, and umbrella ferns.

The groom wore a small peony bud accented with craspedia and a succulent. The groomsmen wore boutonnieres of lime green Fuji mums with a fun accent of craspedia.

Katie carried a lovely bouquet of all white peonies. When I saw the couple for the sample centerpiece showing, Katie brought with her some family heirlooms from her grandmothers. Here we attached her grandmother’s locket and her other grandmother’s rosary to the handle of the bouquet. I love how it turned out!

For the parents, we made boutonnieres and corsages of white spider mums accented with a succulent.

The ring bearer carried a little floral pillow made of green kermit poms. And the flower girls wore little barrets with green mini cymbidium orchids.

We had a lot of fun with the centerpieces! There were two designs which we placed on the 17 tables. One used a low, dark slate, square container that we filled with deep purple hydrangea, all sorts of interesting succulents, Fuji mums, lisianthus, and mini purple artichokes.

The other centerpiece design was a grouping of four glass bubble bowls of two different sizes. Each of these held an interesting flower or botanical, such as a king protea, a Fuji mum, several stems of green molucella, and purple hydrangea. Wispy stems of umbrella ferns completed the look – either arranged so the ferns stick out of the bowl, or are viewed through the walls of the glass bowls, like specimens in a terrarium.

They call him MISTER King Protea!

Stephanie and Dave were recently married on the beach front venue, The Malibu West Beach Club, on a sunny Saturday in May. They worked with Theresa Shlimanoff, of Hustle and Bustle Events. It was so good seeing Theresa again and I look forward to working with her again in the future!

Stephanie and Dave’s colors were pink, ivory, navy, and silver. With flowers, it was easy to bring in the pink and ivory using roses, peonies, ranunculus, hydrangea, and cymbidium orchids. For silver, we used touches of dusty miller (so beautiful!) and wrapped the centerpiece glass containers with a band of silver ribbon. The tables were covered with a lovely navy linen.

Stephanie’s bouquet was all white and ivory with “Polo” roses, cymbidium orchids, and lovely ivory peonies. Her bridesmaids carried bouquets of all pink flowers – peonies and roses.

Boutonnieres for Dave and his groomsmen were a single “polo” rose with Dave’s subtly extra special with a couple of leaves of the silver leaf, dusty miller.

I love the arch we used for the ceremony. Stephanie wanted something simple and natural, made out of branches. Here we used three thin birch logs and secured them in white pots. Some simple, gauzy, organza draping blew gracefully in the breeze. And we finished off the look by attaching flowers to the top and sides: pink roses, white hydrangea, and dusty miller leaves.

Perfect for a beachside wedding ceremony!

The Malibu West Beach Club has a fabulous dining room for the reception. The ceilings are decorated with lots of lit paper lanterns. In addition, the cocktail area has a curtain of Christmas lights and lots of pillar candles set in glass hurricanes. The walls are white making the space light and airy. In addition there are plantation shutters on the windows and what looked to me like matching white wood wainscoting on the walls. Very Cape Cod, kind of Martha Stewart, tres chic! These tasteful, decorative touches really make the place stand out beautifully!

Navy linens really make the pink, ivory, and silvery centerpieces pop!

Stephani and Kyle have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary, but when I was cleaning up files on my computer, I realized I forgot to post these beautiful images taken by Michael Seagel Photography! The (now pregnant!) couple was married at the impeccable Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on a sunny Sunday in May of last year.

It was a purple and ivory and lavender wedding – Stephani loves purple!

A small line of five different Mother’s Day cards, hand printed by yours truly.

They can be purchased on Etsy and theflowerlab.bigcartel.com.

Or stop by the studio in Santa Monica!

Or if you are in the Washington DC area, go to Lulu’s Hallmark Shop where my dear mom is selling them in her shop! Thanks, Mom!

1. A word cloud of words that make us think of Mom

2. Word to the… Mom!

3. This little piggy

4. Somebunny loves Mom

5. MOM is WOW flippin’ awesome

Mr. and Mrs. Jacinto were recently married at St. Lorenzo Ruiz Catholic Church in Walnut and then held their reception at the famous Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I was very excited to get to visit the aquarium again because it had been a while since I last been!

Gloria couldn’t have picked a more fitting color scheme for her wedding – orange and blue. I love this color combination and don’t get to work with it that often when it comes to weddings. Although blue can be a very difficult color to use when it comes to flowers, there is a very stunning dark blue hydrangea I love. Here are the bridesmaids bouquets in deep blue hydrangea, orange “circus” roses, gold cymbidium orchids, and orange freesia.

Gloria’s bridal bouquet was mostly white for that bridal look, with orange flowers to go with the overall theme. We used white mini calla lilies, ranunculus, and ivory “polo” roses.

The ceremony altar flowers were also white and orange: Casablanca lilies, hydrangea, “circus” roses, orange mokara orchids, white gladiolas, and curly willow branches.

And finally the reception! Gloria loved the look of deco beads, which are these cool re-hydrated beads that come in all sorts of colors. For the centerpieces we used two cylinders, a 4″ cylinder within a 6″ cylinder, and poured the deco beads into the space between the vases. Then we submerged blue LED lights into the inner vase within the stems so that the vases glowed and blue light emanated through the beads when the ambient lights dim. Something about the round shapes of the deco beads mimicking bubbles and the blue lights reflecting the blueness of the aquarium exhibits – it was simply perfect for the aquarium!

“Collaboration”, the 2008 AIFD (American Institute of Floral Designers) symposium just took place July 5-7 at the Chicago Hilton in beautiful downtown Chicago.  It was my first time attending a flower meeting, and boy was it different from all the scientific meetings I attended as a graduate student!  It felt like I had walked into one big happy family reunion, and despite me being a first-timer, I received a warm reception and everyone I met was friendly and lovely to talk to.  The number one goal for these symposiums is education and I was floored by the creativity and incredible openess of how each world class designer presenter revealed how he or she made a particular arrangement or installation.  There were demonstrations and after each program, attendees are able to photograph and visually inspect each work closely.  There were no unplublished data to protect and no competitors to dispute.  I could ask anyone any question about his or her business, designs, or methods, and he or she would answer truthfully granting me incredible advice.  It was perfect for a newbie like me and I learned so much!  Everyone was there to help each other out, to network, learn, and further advance the floral industry.

Here are some pictures from two of the fancy dinners – the inaugural dinner for the new AIFD inductees and the final night’s dinner:

A couple of weeks ago I checked out the Living Flowers Ikebana and Contemporary Art exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. This special exhibit started June 15 and will continue until September 7, 2008 and showcases the different ikebana styles of the Ikenobo, Ohara, and Sogetsu schools. The ikebana will continue to change throughout the exhibition, so you should go back periodically to see the new works of art! I was particularly floored by the more modern works presented in the Sogetsu style. Since photography was not allowed, I had to sneakily take these pictures using my phone (sorry for the quality!)

I loved the clean and modern look of the arrangements. Going through the exhibit inspired me to learn and practice ikebana – which roughly means to “bring life to flowers”. Flowers are dead when they are cut and are given new life when they are arranged. Interesting, neh?

Anyway, so I really liked the modern and gutsy ikebana arrangements from the Sogetsu school of thought and looked online for classes and workshops offered by Sogetsu. Not too much in the way of online information for the Los Angeles branch (like a website) but there’s a list of all the local branches of Sogetsu listed on the Japanese website. For learning for the first time and practicing, I think I would like to take a class offered by UCLA extension taught by Kyoko Kassarjian, who holds the highest teaching rank of riji by the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in Japan. They are offering the intermediate level course for summer 2008, so hopefully they will offer beginner again in the fall! In the meantime, I plan to go back to the museum to see different Living Flowers ikebana!!