Sending Smiles ~

Show me the .... I'll bet you thought I was going to say money, right? Actually, I'm talking about what I ask my brides to show me when they come in to the wedding consultations. I ask them to show me: A picture that shows me what color they want their wedding flowers to be. A picture that shows me what texture they want their wedding flower to have. A picture that show me how big they want their bouquets to be. I've been known to give my brides homework if they come unpreppared with the following but truly, it's time well spent. A picture is worth a 1,000 words (or so they say) and the above three pictures really say it all to me when trying to create wedding bouquets. What color do you want your flowers to be? You'd think that would be a simple question but some brides really struggle with this. I try to advise but truthfully, I want the color to not only match dresses and overall theme but also be a color that makes the bride (and groom) happy. Pick colors th

Ava's garden wedding bridal bouquet , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . Well, it's been almost a year since we created this cascade bouquet for our bride Ava and it's been a very popular style indeed! What I loved about this bouquet is how much it complimented not only her gown but her natural coloring. Red roses and orange alstroemeria were Ava's favorite flowers and were the perfect choices to bring out the red tones of her hair. Soft but simple, cascade bouquets don't have to be overly big or fussy!

I know, you read that title and said "Of course I care" and you don't even know what I'm about to write, do you?? hehehehe. Too funny but I'll bet that's what you are thinking. This blog is about wedding flowers. And it's about brides. Wedding flowers and brides. Two of my favorite things, most of the time. So back to the title - Do you care? Do you care about your wedding flowers? Are they important to you? I often ask brides during my consultations to tell me how important their flowers are to their overall wedding. I use a basic scale from 1 - 10. One being "I could care less if there was even one single flower at my wedding". Ten being "I must have flowers everywhere" and five being "I'm an average bride, they are important but I don't want to break the bank". First off, I have to tell you right now that I don't care if you are my bride and you tell me you are a 3, a 5 or a 10, as long as I can make you happy.

When you were a little girl and dreamed of your wedding day, there's a good chance that you dreamed of wearing a long white gown while you carried a gorgeous bridal bouquet of white flowers Classic and elegant, creams and white flowers complement your gown without competing. Worried that a white bouquet is boring? Never! Create texture and drama by using flowers in various shades of white and cream. Flowers of different shapes and sizes also add dimensions. The bouquet to the left is lightly accented with pearl studded stephanotis and lisianthus buds give this bouquet softness. What about the simple bouquet to the right? The bouquet was the perfect complement to bride Jennifer's gorgeous gown. Tiny rhinestones along her bodice were the perfect inspiration for her pretty bracelet and rhinestone studded stephanotis. Cream colored roses created depth and a light collar of white ostrich feathers soften and the bouquet and looked fantastic against her soft tulle skirt. The

That almost sounds like a song but it's what I tell my brides when they are having trouble deciding on their wedding flowers. Those of us that love flowers might find it hard to believe that others don't share our enthusiasm but if the truth was told, some brides find choosing their wedding flowers to be stressful. That's when I tell them, don't think with your head, think with your heart!! When you look at a flower or color and it makes you all giddy, that's a good thing. Look for flowers that make you get butterflies. The ones that make you smile. Whenever I'm showing brides pictures of our work and they say "Well, that would be ok", I'm quick to say "I don't want you say it's ok, I want you to say you love it"! Sometimes we get caught up in trying to please those around us or we feel pressure to do whatever is expected, so much so that we loose touch with our creative side. We loose touch with our own feelings and if we can&#

It's that time of year again where brides call and come in to talk about their wedding flowers. I thought I'd post a quick guideline of items to bring to your floral appointment. An organized bride who has given some thought to her floral desires before coming in will have a much more productive meeting than one who has not taken the time to give it some thought! Item #1 - Bring a list of the florals that you will need. Nothing is worse than a bride who answers the question "how many brides maids do you have?" by counting them on her fingers! Item #2 - Pictures of both bridal gown and brides maids dresses. The more we can get a feel for your style, the better. Items #3 - Floral inspiration pictures. This is really a must. Collect pictures of flowers that show your style. A picture is truly worth a thousand words and most brides do not know the name of many flowers. What better way to show the texture, color, style and size of each flower element than

People often ask me what is the right way to hold a bridal bouquet. I know some ladies think it's going to be hard but truthfully, even a cascade is very easy to carry. As in the example to the right, that's me holding a very sweet tear drop shaped bouquet (compliments of our bride Coleen). As you can see, I'm able to hold the bouquet with one hand and it's not uncomfortable for me in anyway. The key to holding a cascade is to drop it down to the waist  level. I've seen many pictures of girls holding their bouquets too high, which is a very uncomfortable way to hold these. Second, holding it too high, especially in the case of the bride, blocks all the beautiful detail of their dresses. Remember, when you are walking down the aisle you want to appear relaxed and natural! Another issue I've seen is to point the bottom of the bouquet outwards. Make sure that the bouquets sits nice and flush against your body. This will give you the best possible view in the p

Recently I wrote a blog singing the praises of the color Pink for wedding flowers. Now it's time talk about yellow. In the past 2 months alone, we have done 6 weddings (including one that we are doing this coming weekend) with yellow as the predominant color theme. For our bride Jihan we mixed lavenders, creams and buttery yellows using a mixture of hydrangea, tulips and roses for an elegant spring mixture and an accent of lime green foliage softened the look. Another dramatic combination has been yellow and steel grey. Our bride Jen used a mixture of forsythia branches, roses and orchids in shades of yellow to create her beach themed wedding. Accents of platinum along with soft yellows were an unexpected but gorgeous combination. Even her bouquet carried the theme using fragrant yellow freesia. A very convenient aspect of using this color theme is that there are so many gorgeous flowers that come in various shades of yellow. Orchids, roses, freesia, tulips, dahlias, mum, carnati