Hi Flower Friends!

About a week and a half ago I taught a Chuppah and Arch decorating class here at my home & property in northern Washington State. The girls and I had a fabulous time together, we spent 8 hours out in the yard flowering up 2 Chuppahs and 2 Arches!
Thought I’d share some of the images with all of you..

First, the Rustic Chuppah! This one was gorgeous, we used a variety of foliages – Begonia, Ninebark, Sweetpea Vines, Feather Acacia, Ferns, Salmon Berry, Beech and Cotinus. We added in only two flowers! White Astilbe and Panda Anemones. The final Chuppah design was just gorgeous –

Working on the Rustic Chuppah. The setting in my backyard is just perfect for this chuppah style!

Shawn working with nine bark foliage

Jen adding in Astilbe

Keita adding in anemones

Next we moved onto the WildRose Chuppah; it was a little bit rustic, a little touch modern, very gardeny. We used just a few elements in this design – Italian Ruscus, Olive Foliage, long branches of wild roses and peonies-

Keita accenting the WildRose Chuppah with Rose Petals

I spiced it up with the next floral arch I had planned for the workshop – with this one we went modern & bright! Apple green hydrangeas and roses with pops of coral peonies, coral poppies, and coral godetia with salmonberry foliage and ferns. We finished it off with bright coral fabric draping. Becca of B Jones Photography stopped by while we were working on this arch and she took a few photos for us –

www.bjonesphotos.com

www.bjonesphotos.com

www.bjonesphotos.com

www.bjonesphotos.com

www.bjonesphotos.com

www.bjonesphotos.com

I snapped this photo of our finished floral arch design.

I didn’t get any photos of the fourth arch, by then the girls and I were working hard to get our last project done and there was no time for photos.
I’ve had a few people ask if I’ll be teaching another Chuppah & Floral Arch Workshop and the answer is YES! I just scheduled a Fall workshop date, check it out & register here – {Design Workshops}
It’s going to be a good one — all fall inspired with lots of dahlias!! Hope you can join us!
Email Me with any questions.

Interesting Links I’ve come across this week while surfing the good ‘ole World Wide Web ..

How-to: Understand Facebook Insights by Wedding Wire

I really appreciated Saipua’s latest blog post about life and how it goes up and down, and the story of the sweet little sheep named Vitamin B.

In other news …

My friend, Janet of Floral Verde, was in town. Janet is one of my favorite floral designers and has been for many years. Her style is garden, intricate, clean, yet textured – it’s just a perfect mix. We had a great time together visiting nurseries, visiting Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, making bouquets and photographing them. We have the same camera so it’s good to work together on settings and experimenting with light. Here’s a bit of our fun –

A bouquet I designed and Janet is holding, it was fun to design this big, bodacious bouquet!

This is the bouquet that Janet designed. I love the little blackberry blossoms!

One of my arrangements, you can see I was playing with the background lighting on this one.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend! See you back here on Monday!

Hello Flower Friends,
I have a special treat for y’all today! Corinne of Sebesta Designs is sharing her creative process on designing a photoshoot with us today! Wait until you see this images of her floral designs – jaw dropping gorgeous!
Enjoy

Designing for a photo shoot is my absolute favorite thing to do as a designer. The sky is the limit creatively and being able to take an idea, that I’ve often been thinking about for a very long time, and see it brought to life is so gratifying. There’s a certain energy to the whole process that is extremely intoxicating and addictive.

When starting the concept for the shoot I always try to come up with something I’ve never seen before and something I’ve always wanted to try. I’ll draw up ideas, scour the internet (to make sure it really hasn’t been done) and search for unexpected touches to bring it all together. I often gravitate towards the juxtaposition of opposite design elements like, hard edges and soft flowers, modern lines in organic spaces or ornate designs in rough and raw spaces. I see them as two opposites on a scale, balancing each other out. It gives the photos depth and makes for something really interesting to examine.

For the copper shoot, Marisa from Redfield Photography had asked me if I wanted to participate in Maggpie Vintage Rentals’ “14 Days of Sweetheart Tables” competition. Because it revolved around their inventory of sweetheart tables, I picked the best one to fit the look, which happened to be a very clean lined industrial table. When I looked at it, I saw a frame. My original idea was to create a modern flower wall front for the table, but I really wanted to get some depth to the piece and allow it have a three dimensional quality. Because copper is so bright I felt like it needed to recede into the background in order to be less intense and so the shelf idea was born.

I think it’s so important to design in a way that causes a person’s eye in and out, up and down. The shelf design was to fill the entire front and have varying compartments to showcase flowers, candles and copper. Each individual nook was it’s own little design that played together to create a whole picture. I wanted the person looking at it to continually look through the piece and find something new, like viewing a miniature gallery.

By the way, I should probably mention, I had never made anything like this before. Marisa was a little shocked (and I’m pretty sure, very worried) that until that very moment we were assembling the shelf I had never even used a drill. I had a very elaborate drawing, that I wasn’t even sure had the right dimensions (it didn’t) and an overly positive attitude. There were some mistakes, but after about 3 days of work it all came together. I guess why I’m telling you this is don’t be afraid to try something you’ve never done before. The opportunity to think out of the box is what makes our work so much fun.

The process of the designing is always so interesting to me, but honestly I have to say the MOST important thing in a shoot or a wedding or any project are your floral sources. Without amazing product, you can’t take your project to the next level. I am so lucky to have DV Flora right here in my back yard. My sales rep, Aaron, goes above and beyond and is always telling me about new product – because he knows I’m a flower addict – and I know he always has my back. The flowers and foliage I get from DV Flora is phenomenal. I hear horror stories from my flower friends across the country encounter with their wholesalers and I’m grateful for the hard work the DV team puts in so I don’t have to deal with major issues. For those outside of their Mid-Atlantic/NYC/Boston delivery area, they have a new national shipping program and I encourage anyone looking for fantastic product to check them out!

Contact Information:
Corinne of Sebesta Design – http://www.sebestadesign.com
Wholesale Flowers by DV Flora – http://www.dvflora.com
Marisa of Redfield Photography – http://www.redfieldphoto.com

Today we hand the blog reins over to Bloompop who is interviewing NYC based [fLo rE sta]–

[fLo rE sta]
New York City
Check out the [fLo rE sta] page on Bloompop

When did you start your business and where are you based?
March 2014 – New York City!

Carlo Bermudez & Ana

Can you tell us what prompted you to partner with Bloompop?
We wanted to make a leap into the online retail world and needed an established and high-quality platform to do so.

What (in your mind) is the biggest challenge facing the floral industry today?
Flowers are seen as an expendable commodity in an economy still recovering from a recession. There is a need to cultivate a floral culture in which flowers are go-to items to enhance one’s everyday life.

Where & how do you find inspiration for your floral designs?
Our designs evoke the natural environments where the flowers are found. Our designs are also inspired by the spaces that they will adorn and by the clients that will enjoy them.

Bloompop partners with florists by invitation only, hand selecting the top luxury florists–did this play a factor in your joining Bloompop?
Yes. We wanted a site that highlighted the artisanal nature of our floral arrangements and one that would set us apart from the conventional and often uninspired designs offered by other online outlets.

What would you say to a florist who is interested in Bloompop?
Try it out!

[sponsored post]

Interesting Links I’ve come across this week while surfing the good ‘ole World Wide Web ..

Check out the flower wall at the wedding of Swedish Royalty, talk about a lot of Coral Charm Peonies!

Behind the scenes at Cori Cook Floral Design, lot’s of pretty pictures in this post!

Iron Florist 2015 Recap! by Bloompop – fun post about a recent floral competition.

Five Email Marketing Best Practices – interesting read if you send out newsletters.

In other news..

Last week I made two bouquets for a photoshoot and just got back the photos, gorgeous shots by B Jones Photography –

Gown: MeaMarie Bridal Atelier
Jewelry: Heidi Hull Designs
Headpiece: belaire bridal
Suit: The Formal House
Bouquet: Bella Fiori
Coordination & Rentals: Snohomish Rental Co.
Hair/Makeup: Kathy Evans Beauty Studio

Hello!
Well, flower friends, this has been quite the week, let’s just say — Technology 1 & Alicia 0!
Technology definitely was in charge this week! As you may have noticed over the past few months there were a lot of times where the blog would go down, we had run out of room on the server and no matter what we tried it just wouldn’t work. So my programmer setup to move the blog to a new company with more server space. The move should have occurred in two days last weekend, instead it took 7 days! I just had to ‘let it go’, it was out of my hands and I had to walk away from the computer and not worry about it! Finally it looks like we are back to stable ground — YEA!!!!
I’ll be back to blogging next week and have two good treats for you to make up for this past week of no posts — hint: Alison & Roses.

Thankfully my garden was kinder to me this week than technology-

Koko Loko Rose, dahlia, peony poppy and a peony

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here next week!

As a small business owner you can sometimes feel bogged down by all the details that require your personal attention. We always want things to be “just right” before we feel the project is ready.
In an effort to perfect a project, however, we can actually procrastinate. Today’s video is about moving past perfecting and putting your plan into action!

Contact Information:
Alison Ellis
Floral Artistry
Vermont
http://floralartvt.com/

Let’s take a closer look at these roses~

Green Tea
Vase Life: 15+ Days, very long lasting rose
Bunch Size: 25 stems
Origin: South America, GreenRose by Productnorte
Details:
The palest green of the group, on the white to green spectrum. Very large head on this rose and will take up a nice amount of room in an arrangement. While in the pictures it looks to be the same size as the Lemonade Rose, I would say that Green Tea is a smidgen smaller and the stem is more flexible. How it looked on the day I unwrapped it is pretty much how it looked after 15 days in a vase on my desk – the bloom didn’t open anymore. This rose would be good for bridal bouquets as they fall into place nicely next to each other.

Lemonade
Vase Life: 12-14 Days
Bunch Size: 25 stems
Origin: South America, GreenRose by Productnorte
Details:
A HUGE rose head on this one! So big that of the 25 stems 3 of the roses snapped due to the pressure of the heads in the wrap.
This rose is so big that the 22 stems barely fit into one vase, they probably only fit because those 3 stems had snapped and couldn’t be used!
The palest of the 4 green roses, very ruffly petals. A great space using rose, good for centerpiece work! A bit too bulky and not flexible for bouquet work.

Super Green
Vase Life: 12-14 Days
Bunch Size: 25 stems
Origin: South America, Welflor.com
Details:
Very tight, compact blooms and the richest dark green color of the bunch. The stems are very, very thorny and take extra time to clean- keep this in mind for processing. Some of the outer petals have tips of red.
A rather small head, the smallest of the four. Personally it’ll remain my favorite green rose due to its dark, solid green coloring.

Wimbeldon
Vase Life: 12-14 Days
Bunch Size: 25 stems
Origin: South America, GreenRose by Productnorte
Details:
Very strong stems with a few thorns on the stems – easy to process. Many of the outer petals have red lines and these petals have a nice ruffle to them. These roses fall on the yellow-green spectrum. (this one should be the one called Lemonade – due to its coloring!, but that’s just my opinion). As with all the green roses, they just don’t seem to change much from day 1, no real blowing open of the bloom.

Details about all the roses in this study:
-The Roses were never placed in the cooler once I received them!
-The Roses were set out in the house for the course of the rose study.
-I did not use quick dip, flower food or crowning glory, or any other “helpers”. Just freshly cut stems placed in clear water.
-Even without the use of “helpers” all of these roses lasted over 2 weeks.
-None of these 4 varieties changed much in shape over the course of two weeks, pretty much what you see when you buy it is what you get!

Hey Flower Friends,
I have a Question for you today, and would love to hear your answers. It’s a What if this happens to you scenario…
It’s based off a situation I encountered this past month – here’s the backstory. A few weeks ago I was driving my SUV into Seattle with a full load of flowers for an event. Now I had had some problems with my SUV acting up and had taken it to the mechanic earlier that week and all seemed repaired and fine and I resumed business as usual. On the day of the event I had picked up my Uncle as he enjoys coming along for the ride and seeing different parts of Seattle. As we are cruising down I5 I see traffic ahead (not surprising anywhere near Seattle!) and as I slow down I turn off the AC, nice breeze out and I wasn’t concerned about the flowers being too hot. Well, about 5 minutes into sitting in traffic I see the temperature gauge going up and immediately roll down all windows and turn on the heater to pull the heat off the engine. The traffic is at a standstill and I start holding my breath for many reasons – please don’t break down, please don’t kill the flowers with heat. Kept telling myself that the heat will just help those roses and peonies open up more! Thank goodness my Uncle had come along for the ride so I wasn’t freaking out alone!! We made it to the venue fine, a bit hot from the heater blowing on us, but fine. We go about business and get all the flowers setup. WHEW!! In the end, that’s all I ask for, the flowers delivered and setup, don’t care if the car breaks down in the loading dock – ha ha!
The SUV did definitely have problems and I was praying all the way home that night. I live an hour north of Seattle and got home around midnight after the late night strike of the event. Driving home in the slow lane, praying, and heater on full blast the whole way to keep from overheating. I was very lucky that day, in the end all was fine – flowers delivered and cleaned up, and I made it all the way home! (well, in the end, not so good for the SUV – Cracked Cylinder!!)

This brings me to my Question though and would love to hear your answers and/or a situation you may have encountered yourself…

Have you ever had a problem on your way to an event? Car/Van/SUV break down while in route? Got into a car accident?
What did you end up doing? How did you handle getting your flowers to the event?

Hello from Denver!!
I’m currently in Denver and will be here for the next week. Today and tomorrow I’ll be attending AIFD symposium — follow along on my AIFD and other adventures on Instagram.
I’m really looking forward to running around Denver and visiting old friends for a few days, so hard to believe I haven’t been back here for TWO years!! Next week I’ll be assisting my friend, Robyn of Bare Root Flora, with a wedding. The blog will be setup to post automatically and my access to email will be very limited — as I have every intention of being in the moment!

OH, I keep forgetting to share this!! A photoshoot that I recently participated in was featured on Ruffled Blog!! Lovely images by B. Jones Photography –

Today we hand the blog reins over to Bloompop, who is interviewing Uncloudy Studio–

Uncloudy Studio is owned by Jolie Joswick
Check out the Uncloudy Studio page on Bloompop

When did you start your business and where are you based?
I started working in the floral industry over 20 years ago but started my own home-based studio in Washington DC in January of 2014.

What is your favorite thing about being a Bloompop Floral Partner?
Bloompop allows their florist partners full creative freedom with their designs. I don’t have to follow a recipe or use specific vases or containers. Customers choose the florist whose style best fits their aesthetic or Bloompop assists them in that choice. And there is no monthly charge or membership fees to be a partner! The Bloompop team is very friendly, accessible and easy to work with.

Can you tell us what prompted you to partner with Bloompop?
I first heard of Bloompop when they approached the company I was managing. That flower shop was one of Bloompop’s first partners in the DC area and I worked closely with them when launching our product line. When I left the company a year later to start my own wedding and event floral studio Bloompop approached me to join as a Bloompop Wedding partner which I did.

What (in your mind) is the biggest challenge facing the floral industry today?
Pricing. DIYers. Market saturation.

Where & how do you find inspiration for your floral designs?
Mostly I’m inspired by nature and the world around me. I love spying a branch or bloom or textural foliage and dreaming of how I could forage that and incorporate it into a design. I also follow a lot of creative and interesting designers on Instagram and social media which is always inspiring to see what other designers in other parts of the world are creating.

Can you describe a typical day at your shop?
Since I don’t own a retail storefront my busiest flower days are typically Wednesday-Saturday when I’m buying and processing flowers, prepping containers and designing for weddings or special events with Saturday being the day I’m typically delivering and setting up. Non-flower days involve lots of emails, social media, consultations, proposals, ordering flowers and supplies, meetings and paperwork. Not as glamorous as most people think

Bloompop partners with florists by invitation only, hand selecting the top luxury florists–did this play a factor in your joining Bloompop?
Yes and the fact that we weren’t forced to be cookie cutter florists. We were given complete freedom in our designs.

As a designer it isn’t always easy to go hunting for new business opportunities- Would you say that Bloompop helps augment your sales team for business?
Yes and the fact that we weren’t forced to be cookie cutter florists. We were given complete freedom in our designs.

What would you say to a florist who is interested in Bloompop?
Give it a shot! What do you have to lose?

[sponsored post]

Today we have guest blogger, Nancy Cameron of Destiny Hill Farm, sharing her experience of a recent destination wedding and what she learned.

Destination weddings are routine for some florists, along with their traveling staff and a giant floral budget. Destination wedding floral budgets are often greater than wee florists annual salary!
Have you been asked to do a destination wedding? Are you thinking about doing it solo because you don’t have the six figure budget?
If you are doing a destination wedding prepare to sleep in the cold. I recently did a destination wedding and I set my hotel room’s a/c as cold as it would go to protect my precious product. Florabundance, a California wholesaler shipped flowers directly to my hotel and owner, Joost, said they are happy to ship to florists anywhere.

Luckily for me, my wedding work was a car ride away and one state over. The Bride’s Father put me up in lovely Hilton Garden Inn that provided me with a large corner room. The Hilton staff accepted the floral order and had the heavy flower boxes delivered to my room. The Bride was able to provide me with a large folding work table.

A detailed packing and check list is essential to doing a destination event. You must take everything from flower buckets to ribbons! Efficient packing in easy to carry containers is a must. My room was on the second floor and the best access from the car for unloading was near an exit door with a flight of steps. Next time, I will request a first floor room!

Schedule to arrive 2 days in advance so you can visit the venue and let your flowers settle in after unpacking. Make friends with the Venue coordinators and ask questions so you can work as a team and follow the venue’s rules. The two coordinators, Ann Marie and Chelsea at the Scioto Reserve Country Club in Dublin, Ohio were outstanding. They made my job a breeze.

After your venue visit set up your hotel workshop and do early prep work. Make sure you have a healthy meal and get a good night’s sleep. You may want to request some extra bedding for warmth while sleeping in your flower cooler. Ideally, it would be nice to reserve a separate adjoining room that can serve as your cooler and wouldn’t it be fun to fill the bathtub with flowers!

The day before the wedding is a serious workday. Take a walk midday to stay fresh. While you are working stand up and do some stretches and remember to eat or at least fuel with healthy snacks. If you are in the same hotel as the Bridal Family and guests expect to have visitors. Everyone loves flowers and is curious! I kept my door cracked so anyone could enter without interrupting me. I was friendly to all but kept a business disposition so they understood I had a very important task at hand.

The morning of the wedding add finishing touches and load up to travel to the venue. Set up as early as possible. If time permits you can return to the hotel to rest your feet, shower and dress up for a wedding. Drive back to the venue early to greet your Bride and her party. Present your flowers and yourself in full bloom and you will be rewarded. Travel is good and work travel can be enlightening.

Contact Information:
Nancy Cameron
Destiny Hill Farm
Pennsylvania
Photo snapshots in this post are by Nancy.
Professional photographs are by Tyler Scott Photography

Hi Flower Friends!
I have a special request from a fellow Flirty Fleurs reader. Can any of you help Valorie out??
Here’s her request —

“My family owned a floral shop in Cleveland, Ohio from about 1953 to 2000. I am now writing a memoir about some of my experiences growing up in the floral shop.

I’m wondering if you can recommend a source (books, catalogs, etc) where I can find out the names and types of typical roses used in wedding bouquets and vase arrangements during the late 1960s and early 1970. Are some of those rose types still around, or are they quite different now?

Might there be old wholesaler catalogs from that era or classic books I could find?

If you can recommend sources of information, perhaps names of wholesalers who might have been around then, I would appreciate it.

I am also interested in flowers other than roses that we might have purchased on a wholesale basis back then. I’m especially interested in flowers for wedding bouquets of that era.”

Please email me your advice, suggestions, answers and I will forward them onto Valorie. Thank you everyone who can help, this project sounds amazing to me!! email to – info@flirtyfleurs.com

Interesting Links I’ve come across this week while surfing the good ‘ole World Wide Web ..

How to delete Instagram’s secret map of where you live

Is Your Digital Content the Right Length?

Google and Apple alum says using this one word can damage your credibility (I’m guilty of it, and will work to stop using this word – Just)

Congrats to Jessica of Blooms ‘N Blossoms for this pretty photo shoot she had featured on Kentucky Bride –

Florists are often misrepresented as “the ones to watch out for” when it comes to the wedding budget. Here’s the truth about all of that outdated advice!

Contact Information:
Alison Ellis
Floral Artistry
Vermont
http://floralartvt.com/

http://waterlilypond.com/floral-art/