The ceremony was held outdoors with a view of the water and downtown Long Beach. We decorated the chuppah with ivy, hydrangea, lisianthus, roses, and delphinium.

Angeles carried a bouquet of purple hydrangea, pink lisianthus, purple freesia, “polo” roses, and cafe au lait dahlia. The bridesmaids bouquets featured purple lisianthus, cool water roses, and pink cymbidium orchids.

The ring bearer carried a small pillow made of variegated ti leaves and decorated with white and pink cymbidium orchids and purple dendrobium orchids.

For the escort card table, we made a manzanita branch arrangement with sandblasted manzanita branches decorated with hanging pink crystals, orchids, and hydrangea. We covered the base with purple and lavender hydrangea and ivory roses. Pink crystals were draped throughout the branches and we glued white dendrobium orchids and pink cymbidium orchids to the branches.

The centerpieces were comprised of a grouping of three rectangular vases each with a layer of sand and white cymbidium orchids. The cymbidium orchids had purple on the lips – perfect for the purple and lavender themed wedding.

We decorated the cake with white and pink cymbidium orchids. A toss bouquet accented the table and we edged the cake table with orchids and lisiathus blossoms.

I like to use this style of arrangement in multiples for a long table. It’s especially fun to use 4 of them in a row along the escort card table.

The finished product close-up:

Each participant had a container ready for her to fill with floral foam and flowers:

Inserting the hydrangea into the floral foam:

The florists hard at work!

Almost done! The tall white sticks were actually from IKEA and we cut them in half. Any sort of stick or branch would work – I especially like using bleached cork screw willow.

There were too many to arrange them down the length of Stephani’s dining room table AND have room for food so we placed them outside ready to be taken home. Everyone did a wonderful job! Don’t they look professional? Beautiful and stunning!

Muchas gracias to Analyn who took the photos!

If you or anyone is interested in hosting a floral how-to for a fun craft party, The Flower Lab is ready to deliver!

I just wanted to share some gorgeous photographs of Karen and Jon’s wedding by Tauran Photography.

The flowers look amazing in these pictures. And Karen is beautiful as always (and smokin’!).

The Flower Lab recently helped set up another wedding at the extraordinary Saddle Rock Ranch. It was another perfect Saturday with clear blue skies. The horses were frolicking, the zebras were snoozing, and the llama didn’t spit at anyone.

In the Persian tradition, the bride and groom sat at a table laden with nuts and sweets during the ceremony. Here, we decorated the canopy with sheer organza draping and accented with white hydrangea and green cymbidium orchids. Centerpieces of white hydrangea lined the front of the table and two tall manzanita trees framed the bride and groom. The trees were decorated with puffs of hydrangea, cymbidium orchid blossoms, hanging crystals, and floral spheres comprised of green kermit poms.

Individual green cymbidium orchid blossoms accented with a crystal and tied with ivory satin ribbon adorned each aisle chair. I love how effectively simple (and economical) this method of decorating the aisle chairs is.

Marjan carried a gorgeous, large bouquet of all green cymbidium orchids. Triumphal!!

Petite poseys of soft white peonies were carried by the sisters.

Cute floral spheres made of kermit poms were topped with white cymbidium orchids for a couture look.

One of my favorite style of arrangement for a long, rectangular escort card table, this arrangement of bleached corkscrew willow branches, white hydrangea, dendrobium orchids, and cymbidiums is interesting and unique.

Fluffy, bulbous centerpieces of white hydrangea have an asymmetrical flair of green dendrobium orchid stems and curly willow branch accent. They look so haute couture to me that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump up and prance down the catwalk!

I love the flowers in Jennifer’s bouquet: white peonies, “polo” roses, and white cymbidium orchids with sweet little yellow marks in the lips. My new favorite ivory rose to use are “polo” roses because they open beautifully and look like vintage garden roses.

Jennifer and Jasen held their wedding reception at the Redondo Beach Historic Library – a very unique venue for a wedding (I am a big fan of libraries!). Their colors were ivory, green, and teal. For the green bridesmaid bouquets, we used baby green hydrangea, “super green” roses, and lime green cymbidium orchids.

Tall arrangements for the church altar were comprised of velvety green gladiolas and white fluffy hydrangea.

Tiffany (my assistant extraordinaire) took most of these pictures. I really like the composition of this picture of the wedding cake topper – so creative! The flowers we used include hydrangea, cymbidiums, and roses.

Corsages for the moms featured light green mini cymbidium orchids as well as white freesia.

I really like how the floating centerpieces turned out – not your typical arrangement with a few floating orchids in a lily bowl. The lily bowl has been around a long time, but here they look fresh and re-invented! I attribute it to the use of lush, leafy passion vines wrapped around the edge, some parts placed inside the bowl, and other parts above and outside of the bowl. Stems of white and green dendrobium orchids are not rigidly placed in the bowl, but rather allowed to breathe and angle over and around the lip of the bowl. Everything is kept tidy and within the glass bowl, but also looking loose and modern. So simple, yet looks elegant and new!

All the centerpieces lined up and ready to go!

Rileah and Adam were married at the beautiful and mystical Calamigos Ranch in Mailibu. A big fan of Star Wars, Rileah wanted something a little different for her wedding. It was a enchanted, Midsummer Night’s Dream wedding in shades of purple.

For the bridal bouquet, we made a loose and wild bouquet of seeded eucalyptus, dark purple limonium, sword fern, purple hydrangea, and magenta peonies.

The reception table centerpieces featured sandblasted manzanita branches secured in slate stone containers and dripping with pink crystal beads, purple “wisteria” beads, green amaranthus, purple dendrobium orchid blossoms, and lots of lovely moss.

There were also lower centerpieces of sandblasted grapewood branches on a bed of mood moss with accents of glittery butterflies, sword ferns, and fun little things you’d find on the forest floor.

The ceremony was held under an arch-like structure which we decorated with lots and lots of forest-like greenery and purple flowers: roses, hydrangea, and limonium. We also hung candles in mason jars strung with purple satin from the top.

Additional details included a garland atop a small wooden bridge that crossed a babbling little creek and cute forest landscapes on the cocktail tables.

The escort cards were placed on a bed of moss highlighted by branchy candelabras decorated with moss and purple dendrobium orchids.

Instead of carrying bouquets, each bridesmaid carried a lantern and wore a single blossom dahlia corsage pinned to her dress.

You wouldn’t expect a beach town like Malibu would have vineyards! But at Saddle Rock Ranch, there are acres and acres of grape vines growing on the hills. We recently provided the flowers for Alex and Jason’s beautiful vintage inspired wedding featuring found vases and containers Alex picked up at flea markets and variety shops.

Since the wedding was in June, peonies were out in full force and Alex’s bouquet had gorgeous white and light pink peonies as well as dark purple sweet peas, freesia, and white cymbidium orchids with touches of light pink on the lips.

We also used ivory “Polo” roses and accented the bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages with silvery green dusty miller leaves. I think the silver-tinted leaves exuded the perfect vintage feel to the flowers.

The sweetheart and reception tables held mis-matched vintage containers and vases, each with various different types of flowers in ivory, light pink, and purple. I loved the pink dahlias that were mostly pink at the outer edges and moved to ivory in the middle – I could just imagine finding these on Grandma’s farm (even if my grandmas lived in the tropics of Taiwan and the Phillipines, heh heh)!

I thought the most amazing piece was the window box Alex’s mom built! We decorated the window box space with soft spring flowers like white hydrangea, pink and white peonies, bicolor purple and white lisianthus, ivory roses, and boxwood foliage. This piece was created to display the escort cards – truly one-of-a-kind!

Anyway, after printing Christmas cards and making various invitations for any friend or acquaintance who I could persuade into wanting letterpressed cards, I have decided to offer letterpress wedding invitations in addition to wedding flowers! I initially thought I’d call this new venture The Flower Lab Press, but after Wren died, I decided to call it Tiny Wren Press (a cousin of The Flower Lab).

So if you are interested in “one stop shopping” for the overall look and theme of your wedding – what better way than to have your flowers coordinate with your invitations? Afterall, the invitations are what your guests will see first when it comes to the design of your wedding – the first impression. And then when they come to your wedding, the flowers will further dictate your wedding’s theme so it all comes together in a beautiful cohesive entity!

Unfortunately, tinywrenpress.com isn’t quite completed yet. However, I signed up for some featured advertising on Wedding Wire: www.weddingwire.com/biz/tiny-wren-press-santa-monica/d7595d0f53264397.html

I’ll post more designs as I complete them…

In the meantime, a general pricing guideline:
TinyWrenPress-pricing

Hooray!

I loved Aimee and Mike’s idea to use a different type of white flower for each table centerpiece. It really got me thinking about which flowers would be best to use? Though white isn’t rare to come by when it comes to flower color, I wanted them to have flowers their guests would talk about. Either because used all together they would be showy, or because they may not be a commonly used wedding flower. In the end I chose gladiolas (so beautiful when used just by themselves), gerbera daisies (with modern black centers), anthurium, amaryllis (with large amazing blooms not commonly found in weddings), star of Bethlehem, calla lilies, hydrangea, irises (a lovely white variety called “casablanca”), dendrobium orchids, and of course, roses (so romantic!).