Apple Love

My Southern Gentleman Husband and I were invited to dinner by our dear friends Dirk and Josine this weekend. I brought this meandering centerpiece, partially to honor Steve Jobs, but also because I know that Josine adores apples. The tulips are a nod to our hosts' Dutch roots and I chose acorns because Josine's maiden name means oak tree. The winter berries? Just because.

It was a wonderful evening catching up with each other over wine, a gourmet home-cooked meal, and thought-provoking conversation.  Thank you Dirk and Josine, we cherish your friendship.

Black & White with Touch of Tiffany Blue - A Wedding in Houston

Enough about the preparations, now let me show you the flowers at the event. 

Lee created a lovely welcoming landscape of rose petals, peonies, and votives.

The guests entered into a large white tent with two magnificent chandeliers. Please note beautiful embroidered chair covers that the bride selected.

Stepping through the tent to the pool, floating tulip bouquets, à la Ken Marten style, greeted the guests at eye-level.

Here are two of the four head tables with the extra-fancy flocked black and white tablecloths...

...and contrasting Tiffany blue tablecloths. 

The higher-than-expected response rate necessitated the popular bride and groom to add four more tables at the last minute. We stretched out the thousand locally-grown tulips by wrapping each bouquet around five large water tubes.  The other reason we had to stretch out the tulips was that I was hoping for big, beefy Dutch tulips but the Iceland's volcanic eruption prevented any Northern European shipments from arriving into San Francisco. 

Tracy came up with the idea to use the six bubble vases around the submerged tulip inside the tall cylinder to add visual interest for the seated guests.

We had enough flowers and containers to create extra sets of the black glass cylinder trios:

The bride loves lime green and the "Limon" philadendron leaves fit the bill. The biggest cylinder of the trio had a two-inch band of black and white fabric wrapped around the middle to coordinate with fabric used for the wishing tree vignette.

It seemed that everyone had a hand in creating the signage for the wedding. Between the sisters, daughters, nieces, and nephews, all the signs got done with only a couple of panic trips to Michaels and Walgreens. 

But it paid off because quite a few guests left their thoughts and wishes with the bride and groom.

Guests had a choice to eat their delicious meal in the tent...

...by the pool...

...or in one of the cabanas.

And those who wanted to dine in a more secluded and quiet place, they could hang out behind the cabanas in front of the fountains at one of the cafe tables. 

There were 421 floral or candle containers, all but two had water inside. It would have been impossible to create this event without many, many hands with a large helping of team work to set it all up and take it all down at the end of the evening. We are all thrilled that the evening went off without a hitch.  The next morning, a guest clutching a bouquet of white tulips paid us the highest compliment as we waited for our cars to arrive: "We all had a fantastic time. It was the perfect mix of fun festivities with just the right touch of gala."

To the bride and groom:

"May a flock of blessings alight upon thy backs."

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Pumpkin Arrangements

I saw in our syllabus for European Floristry class at College of San Mateo that we were to bring a large hollowed-out pumpkin to class. I bought my pumpkin for a pumpkin display on my front porch before our instructor, Wendy Pine, told us that we should bring a medium-sized pumpkin instead a large one.  Due to an e-mail mix-up, I did not get the message that we were also to bring branches and bark to class. Fortunately Tracy, my floral partner-in-crime, tipped me off and I rustled up some just outside our classroom. Though my arrangement turned out okay…

Tracy suggested that I add more floral materials to bring. The arrangement was a little short, given the optical weight of the pumpkin, and the back did not have as much visual interest as the front:

Since I was hosting book club the next evening, and I needed an arrangement with all-around visual interest, I decided to follow her advice. The taller filbert branch from my yard added a more proper height and millet grass with pheasant feathers left over from here added width.

I am overjoyed to report that the very shy Michael Jackson just gave me permission to let you know that he resurrected himself just to come to book club at my house. Here's proof:

Eat your heart out, National Enquirer!

Since everyone at book club enjoyed the pumpkin so much, I decided to make more for gifts. This one had a more ikebana feel to it:

I planned to make one more using a green ironbark pumpkin, but some kids stole it from our front porch on Halloween night. I looked for its remains alongside the other smashed pumpkins on our street, but there was no trace of it. Note to self: bring pumpkins inside next Halloween night.

Gerbera Daisy Bat Mitzvah

I ran into an old acquaintance at a high school function a couple of years ago. As we briefly filled each other in on our lives, I told her that I was taking floristry classes at College of San Mateo. She asked me if I would be interested in helping her out with her daughter’s upcoming Bat Mitzvah. Though I had often provided flowers for friends, family, and charity functions, I had never accepted a professional job before. I would only have my second floristry class under my belt by the time the event came rolling around in nine months.

Then she sent me this e-mail:

Diana,

...  I have been meaning to follow up with you. Quite seriously, you simply MUST let me hire you for ******’s bat mitzvah.

I am generally dreading the planning of this celebration; thank goodness it's the last of three.

If I know that you will be helping, I will actually look forward to it. Amazing.

You could do whatever part of the celebration you prefer, although I would like you to do everything you feel competent at -- so maybe not the DJ part.

Invitations, flowers, decorations, table settings -- anything that requires a highly sophisticated yet playful sense of style. For years, ****** has been saying that she wants great decorations, but I have been refusing. On the other hand, if you take over, that's a different story. It could be a great way for you to experiment with some of those amazing, creative ideas of yours.

… Please say yes!

How could I not?

The best decision I made was to select classmate Tracy Lou as my partner for the event. Tracy had a one-year head start in taking floristry classes and was taking two classes per semester. Since we both studied computer science, at rival schools, I knew we spoke the same language and had a similar work ethic. We laugh when we use engineering terms to describe our floral creations but in truth it is a convenient shorthand between us.

Since our thirteen-year-old client chose pink and green for her color scheme, I suggested using the youthful and cheery gerbera daisy as her primary flower.

We finished making the last triple-decker daisy centerpiece at two in the morning. 

They looked eager to go to work on their way to the temple:

The reading (called a haftarah) for this Bat Mitzvah was about Moses parting the Red Sea, a name which some believe to be a mistransliteration from the "Reed Sea". We created a diptych-like arrangement for the bimah. Two containers were placed in a "V" shape to symbolize the parting sea.

We chose the tall green papyrus reeds because they grow along the Nile River where Baby Moses was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. The purple gladiola provided a great contrast to the green and brown base colors. 

The occasion marked a double bat mitzvah with two girls celebrating this coming-of-age ritual on the same day. It was convenient that there were two containers. After the service they were placed farther apart on the dessert table..  Each family had an arrangement for their individual dinners. The arrangements had versatility and longevity. They lived their fourth lives as the families hosted their out-of-town guests in their homes over the following days.

The luncheon at the social hall is informal, with just a few flowers:

But dinner was more formal, complete with handmade placecards for the guests:

We were proud to transform the stark, all-beige social hall with its towering ceiling into a more intimate, welcoming, and festive atmosphere by using green and white paper lanterns. The Asian effect of the lanterns is a nod to our client’s Chinese heritage. 

We made gerbera daisy topiaries for the buffet table:

On their way out, guests hanged Mazel Tov greetings on these Manzanita trees: 

Our first big event came to an end. We were exhausted but overall we were pleased with the outcome. My friend wrote us an e-mail the following week:

"You and Tracy created a magical space in the room and even in the foyer. Thank you so much! I can't wait to see your next projects. Take good photos for a portfolio, and make sure you always give me credit for being your first official client!"

We will absolutely always give her credit for taking a chance on a couple of new floristry students. Tracy and I were so blessed that our first official client was a dream.

Sushi Flowers

I'm enrolled in the European Floristry Class at College of San Mateo this semester. Wednesday we made an wedging armature and sushi flowers.

Instructor: Wendy Pine
Assignment: Wedging Armature. Use branches to wedge inside the container in order to create an armature.

Floral Materials Provided

• Red Dogwood branches
• 4 Aspidistra leaves
• 15 stems Alstroemeria
• 1 stem Japanese Pittosporum
• 2 stems Red River Chrysanthemums
• 1 stem Chinese Pistache berries
• Spanish moss

Supplies

• Suiban container (a shallow dish without drainage holes)
• 1 brick floral foam
• Paper-wrapped binding wire
• Double-pointed picks

Armature Notes

1. Think of a horizontal structure when designing this. Think about or draw your design up front. For this assignment, keep structure inside the container.
2. Cut branches to size where it can wedge into the container.
3. A little height is nice. (I failed on this front)
4. Okay to use binding wire to hold branches in place.
5. Flower Sushis should not more around; insert as many branches as required to hold the flowers in place.
6. Keep turning container to view arrangement from all directions.
7. Keep negative space in mind.

Flower Sushi Notes

1. Provided enough materials to make at least eight sushi wraps.
2. Slice aspidistra leaf along vein to cut the “seaweed” wrap.
3. Alternate wrapping materials that can be used:
• Hala leaf
• Magnolia leaf, both sides
• Ti leaf
• Galex leaf
• fabric
4. Cut floral foam into sushi shape. I created a cone for the handwrap.
5. Use toothpick to “stitch” Aspidistra leaf around foam.
6. Insert floral materials into foam. Looks better when you only use one material per sushi.
7. Work slowly.
8. Components should not move around container; wedge into armature.
9. Make sure that armature structure is not covered up by floral materials.
10. Cut  flowers short in order to cover as much foam as possible.

Spring Wreath Clinic

Preparing for the Spring Wreath Clinic. Have a great Easter and/or Passover everyone!

Holiday Wreath Clinic 2008 - Part II

My flower partner, Tracy Lou, brought two friends to the Wreath Clinic on Sunday. Tracy's on the right holding the bouquet, May's in the middle, and Diana is on the left.

May is getting married next year so they came to the Wreath Clinic to experiment making some bridal flowers. The mock-up bridal bouquet is at the top of this post. And they made a bridesmaid's bouquet and pew clip:

They decided that the bridesmaid bouquet should have more light roses so that it would show a greater contrast with the bride's bouquet. Tracy and Mae are taking Wendy Pine's bridal class this term; I think they are going to get an A plus.

For years I've been trying to convince brides that they should use miniature clay pots to make teeny tiny arrangements that could be used for favors or place card holders. I finally realized that showing them a tiny clay pot is not sufficient; I had to make some examples:

When I showed my examples, Diane's daughter had a great time making more:

I'm happy to report that May decided to use clay miniatures for her wedding! She is very lucky that she has talented bridesmaids Tracy and Diana to help her make 150 of them.

Dakota Angel has been coming to the Wreath Clinics since the very first one in 2000. This year she decided to make two dried topiaries. She left room to be able to add fresh flowers once in a while. It was an ambitious plan and a lot of work, but I think she will be happy for a very long time with these:

Stephanie made a beautiful candle centerpiece with no help whatsoever:

I think her sweet labradoodle, Lucie, was her inspiration:

This is Casey's second Wreath Clinic. This year's kissing ball is more elaborate than the one she made last year:

Linda made a gorgeous wreath and also had time to make a centerpiece:

We raised $600 for Second Harvest and a corporate community giving campaign. All in all, this year's event went very well.