Mallory and Jamie's wedding September 2010

Mallory chose purple and orange for her special day. This was a vibrant color scheme for her wedding at the Woodmark Hotel in Kirkland. Paul Sanders was the photographer and captured the day for the happy couple.

Mallory and Jamie spending a few moments together before their formal photos began.

Orange linens were a beautiful backdrop to this colorful front arrangement. This bouquet uses roses, calla lilies, hydrangeas and purple anenomes.

The centerpieces doubled as the aisle decor. The arrangements were on glass stands, then for the reception tables the flowers were taken off of the stand and used as low arrangements.

This shows the flowers down the aisle.

Mallory and Jamie on the Woodmark boat.

This is a beautiful way to have your guest sign in and share some words of wisdom to the happy couple.

The orange curtain panels framed the crystals and flowers for the ceremony site.

Laura and Owen's wedding January 29th

These photos are of a wedding I delivered yesterday. I love the white and green with just a hint of blue.

This bridal bouquet started with a base of white hydrangeas, then we added roses, green ball carnations, delphinium, freesia,gardenias and orchids.

Boutonniere using white freesia and galax leaves.

Simple rose wrist corsages with ribbon and greens.

This corsage has roses, freesia, green ball carnations and ribbon.

Today's Corsages

This week I have been playing in the studio looking for some new ideas for wedding flowers. We have gone away from prom type flowers that are too big and dripping with "stuff". I like to give beautiful corsages with details but that are a little different to make them extra special. In these photographs I have put together a few examples of personal flowers that can make your wedding more unique.

This pin on corsage has velvet leaves, rhinestone ring and a single cymbidium orchid. Very simple but beautiful and elegant at the same time. This is light weight as well so it doesn't damage lighter weight clothing.

In this Photo I have shown that the typical wristlets from days gone by have gone bye bye. This is a wide silver tone cuff bracelet that I have wired ribbon, velvet leaves, feathers and orchids to.

This is just another angle of this cuff bracelet corsage.

This beautiful and yet simple necklace shows that you can adorn your neck as well as your wrist. This necklace is nice for younger people that may not necessarily like other types of corsages.

This necklace has velvet leaves, mokara orchids, rhinestones and a decorative button.

Touches of Honeysuckle

Here are some examples of different bouquets that have varying amounts of the color of the year "honeysuckle". Many of the brides that I have been meeting with have had a hard time imagining how that color would look in their bouquets. I decided to look through my photos and show examples of differing amounts of pinks to help them visualize. These are very different in style and they also have very different textures too.

Here is my right hand gal while working in my studio. This is my four legged friend Izzy. She is half basset and half yellow lab. She is gentle and sweet as well as good company. Once when she was a puppy, she was down in the studio with me while I was processing the flowers. I turned around and she had gotten a red gerber daisy out of the box, running around the corner trying to keep me away from the flower. She was so cute. If it had been a rose, she could have done the tango! Dogs truly are a gift.

Seattle Wedding Show

As we enter into the new year, it is time to start thinking about the different wedding shows that are going on. These photos are from a previous Seattle Wedding show. I was working with Melissa Bryan from Lush Parties and Events on her booth. We went with all white to make sure her sign stood out. The impact of her booth won her "Best Small Booth" award. The feather trees are especially cool. I lit them from underneath so the light was soft like the feathers. We also hung light spheres along the white curtain for extra light(not pictured).

The Color of 2011

Each year color specialist study color trends and helps guide and direct the colors of each year. This year the color specialist have determined the color of 2011 is Honeysuckle. The pantone number is 18-2120. This fresh color is a welcome addition to any wedding bouquet. There are not a great number of flower choices in this color, but to list a few would be, peonies, gerber daisies, roses, lilies, alstromeria, carnations, gladiolas, orchids and dahlias. This color can also be incorporated into the wedding attire, jewelry, ribbon, nail colors and linen choices for the reception. Your wedding can have a gentle touch of this pinky color using a splash in the bouquets or honeysuckle can play center stage to your color scheme. Either way, this color can make your wedding day memorable and special.

Christmas Party at Portland Art Museum

Most people don't think of tropical flowers for a Christmas party, IDI Distributors in Portland wanted something less traditional for their holiday party. Melissa Bryan from Lush Parties and Events came up with the colors and together we collaborated on the design and feel for this party.

Up lighting can make a big difference to a large space.

Rich browns, reds and burgundy made for a rich color pallet. Along with the warm uplighting, this event was one to remember.

We used ginger, anthiriums, orchids, tropical leaves, roses and Christmas ornaments for a touch of the holidays.

This is a touch of floral design meets museum piece. In this arrangement we framed a hand painted image of an urn then added fresh flowers to make a unique display that was the focal point above the bar as well as another one that was displayed in the entryway.

How to trim your tree

The tree is freshly cut and securely in the tree stand. Be sure to give the tree water everyday to make sure it stays fresh.

Once your tree is stable and in place it is time for the lights! This is where many people get frustrated and lose interest in decorating the tree. Here are some tips for a more simple light experience. The first thing is that you need more then one strand of lights for the tree. This tree is only 6 1/2 feet tall and we used 1,200 lights on it. The goal is to not be able to track the light trail. Start at the top with the female end of the lights and twist the lights around the top branch and then bunch up the light cord and push it into the tree in clumps. You can spread them around and even out the lights once you have the general placement of the strands. Continue around the tree placing sections of about 2 feet at a time into the tree and to the outer branches. Once you have gone all around the tree, it is time to even out the lights. Because you have sections of lights to work with, you can fill holes and gaps more easily due to the clumps of light strand you left to work with. Having lights in toward the center of the tree helps illuminate the ornaments as well as the tree.

The second layer for the tree is the ribbon or garland. You can loosely wind the ribbon around the tree or you can take 5 or 6 lengths of ribbon about 1.5 times the height of your tree, gather them together and make a knot at one end. Nestle that end at the top of the tree hiding the knot down into the branches. Wind and trail the ribbon making it look natural twisting and tucking as you go.

Now the fun really begins. On this tree we used crystal garland to add sparkle, texture and interest. We also bought sparkly leaves and branches at the craft store to tuck into the tree. It always takes more supplies then you think so buy extra and take back what you don't use. My general rule of thumb is that I don't buy less then 12 of anything for the tree and usually I work towards 24 as my magic number to purchase. There are many things that you can use and find at the craft stores. Don't limit yourself to the Christmas aisles. Go to the floral section and see what is pretty to you. I look for glittered things and things that will catch the light.

Once you have the under structure done, it is time to add the color and more interesting ornaments. We used dark red feathers on a stick that we found at the craft store, dark red feather balls with a hanging crystal, dark red matte finished balls as well as crystalized red balls. We finished off with white and silver balls, and glass icicles. This tree took us about 2 hours to complete.

Seattle Pacific "Sounds of Christmas" concert at Benaroya Hall

This is one side of the stage at Benaroya Hall. This was for a Seattle Pacific University concert. They put on a concert called "The Sounds of Christmas" to ring in the holiday season. It is an amazing experience to be there to get in the holiday spirit.

Don Yanik from SPU and myself working to help all to be in the holiday spirit. Don and I have worked together for 9 years on this event as well as commencement in June. We have a great time working together as you can see.

This was a Bouquet created for the Fellows reception on the Founders tier at Benaroya Hall. The reception is held before the concert. This bouquet uses, "Charlie Brown" orchids, quicksand roses, dark red anthiriums, agonis and assorted colors of Christmas balls.

This was an accent piece for the cocktail tables. Same flowers as the larger arrangement but more petite for the tables.

July 4, 2010

This was not your typical 4th of July red, white and blue event. Young Yea planned her wedding on one of our nation's most important and memorable days, but she didn't feel it necessary to use our nation's colors for her nuptials. She chose a sleek steel gray, white along with an accent of goldenrod. Her wedding was at Januik winery in Woodinville Washington. Many of the walls at the winery are concrete which brought in the gray of her wedding so nicely. Young's wedding was lush and modern using yellow pin cushion proteas, crespedia, peonies, calla lilies, hydrangeas, oncidium orchids and succulents.