Another Favourite

I did a beautiful wedding last weekend. I guess I am slightly biased about these bouquets as they are very similar to what I designed for my sister's wedding in April.

My Bride and her Bridesmaid carried bouquets that were very similar the only difference was that the Bridesmaid's bouquet had a few dusty miller leaves through the flowers. The posies were made up with Honeymoon and Antique roses, white tulips and white freesias. We used several folded magnolia leaves using the underside which is a velvety brown and then around the skirt of the bouquet was doda vine and magnolia leaves using both the green upside and the brown underside.

Bride's Bouquet

Bridesmaid's Bouquet

I delivered the bouquets into McArthur Chambers in the city - this was the first time that I have dropped off there and I was pretty impressed with the size of the rooms and the hotel itself especially from the outside oozed old world charm, although after I delivered I was told that McArthur Chambers are supposedly haunted - could make for a memorable wedding night. One of my favourite hair and make-up stylists was on site working her magic - Tracy from The Powder Room again I am probably a little biased as she did the hair and makeup for my sister's wedding.

I was very touched to hear the Mother of the Bride say to her daughter as I was closing the front door that she thought the flowers were so beautiful.

Finally, the ceremony and reception was Victoria Park, the reception was in the marquee and the table flowers looked just stunning set against the chandeliers. The bridal table featured a tall martini glass vase with flowers from the bouquets on top and tall stems of willow with white Singapore orchids tied to the stems of willow. The guest tables featured my new 60cm tall cylinder vases filled with white Singapore orchids and willow.

The Bridal Table

The guest tables

Brides in Brisbane

Recently I was approaced by the marketing department of a new website - Brides In Brisbane, they asked if they could use several of my bouquet images in their flower gallery. I feel quite honoured that they have chosen to display many of my images in the gallery, it is quite a compliment to my work.

Brides in Brisbane is set to be a leading Brisbane wedding website for the reason that it offers users not only useful information and tips but it allows them to access local wedding suppliers and contact with other local brides-to-be all on one site. While there are wedding websites out there of this kind, there are currently none so comprehensive that focus solely on Brisbane and the surrounding areas.

The site has a section dedicated to real-life wedding profiles which can be submitted by members of the site to be shared with Brides in Brisbane users.

The wedding profiles are a fantastic opportunity for brides-to-be to get some inspiration on wedding themes and styles that they can use in their own wedding planning as well as ideas on bridesmaids dresses, hair styles, local venues for your ceremony and reception and recommendations and feedback on suppliers that other brides have used. And of course we all love looking at other couples wedding photos.

If you are a just married please visit Brides in Brisbane wedding profiles and submit your wedding pics.

Brides in Brisbane went live this week, so drop in and have a look, it would be great to start supporting a wedding site that is just for us Brisbanites.

Spring Weddings

Spring is here and the wedding season is in full swing.

Spring is one of my favourite times of the year for flowers. Roses are big and full of colour, spring flowers like freesias, tulips, hyacinths, jonquils, paper whites and iris are in full bloom. The weather is just right it is kind to flowers out of water all day. It is all great.

This week wasn't too busy with just a couple of weddings. My first wedding was on Friday, and an early drop off which meant that I was free to go out to brunch with my little sister who headed off overseas for a long holiday and then to work in Switzerland for a couple of years on Saturday.

The bouquets for Friday's wedding were lovely posies of roses and lissies, in pinks and whites.


Next week I have weddings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so it will be a huge week, before heading off to Stanthorpe Sunday afternoon for a mini break to celebrate my sister-in-law's 50th.

More Wonderful Thankyous

One thing I absolutely love about my job is hearing from my Bride's after the wedding and seeing pictures of their day. I love seeing how everything comes together to create stunning images. Here is another email and collection of pics from one of my past Brides.




Hi Karen

Home from holidays regretfully!! Please find attached some photos of our wedding day - tried to include some of my bouquet as well as the bridesmaids' and some of Tom's buttonhole.

Thanks once again for doing such an amazing job. Will be recommending you to friends and family.

Cheers, Lauren.

Water Crystals

I have discovered a new favourite item for decorating receptions. The Water Crystal.



These little lovlies are supplied in little packets and are little beads about the size of a pin head. You then place them into water and they swell up to about pea sized. They are then used in vases as a feature.

This week, my Bride supplied her own crystals that she had pre-soaked and dropped off to me. The only problem was that they were in black and they hadn't been tested before, and we faced two major problems, one: they wouldn't submerge to the bottom of the vase and two: once submerged they turned into a murky black smudge in the vase.

So, the day before the wedding I had to organise replacement crystals in white which I knew would definitely submerge and didn't turn murky under water. Luckily I had the contact details of a seller of the crystals and was able to organise some.

The finished product turned out just beautiful. So it was off to the River Room at Southbank with 31 vases of submerged crystals and flowers.

I just love the finished effect. Three different sized cylinder vases, with fully submerged flowers and crystals - each vase featuring a cluster of different flowers - orchids, tulips and hyacinths.

Thank You

Last week, I received this email and photos from one of my lovely Bride's from a wedding earlier this year.



Dear Karen,

We had a wonderful wedding day, I don't think it could have been better.

Your website was very helpful, and when we met for an appointment there were so many photo albums with wonderful examples it was very easy to choose exactly what we wanted. I really appreciated your prompt replys to my emails.

Our wedding flowers were beautifully designed and looked absolutly stunning. So many of our guests commented on how lovely they were. The packaging of the flowers when they were delivered kept them in top condition and the flowers also lasted for a long time after our wedding day.

Thank you very much for all of the time and effort you went to for our special day.

Love Lynda & Liam
09 May 2009







Lynda's bouquet was a tightly packed strauss bouquet of Magnum red roses featuring small sprigs of red rosehips. The Bridesmaid's posies were the same but without the rosehips.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Well I have been back a few weeks now and had several weddings. One a week since coming home. Of course that all changes next week when the wedding season hits.

Last week was a Friday wedding leaving the rest of the weekend free, so hubby and I left the kids at my mums and headed down to the Sheraton Mirage for a night - that was bliss. Friday's wedding bouquets are definitely going down as a favourite. While I love the tradition and beauty of all rose bouquets, it is always exciting to do something a little different. The bouquets were designed in monotone colours of red for the Bride and white/cream for the Bridesmaid. We used full size standard roses, spray roses and calla lilies.

I received a lovely email from the couple on Sunday:

Karen!

Thank you so much for your beautiful work on the flowers for my wedding. Everyone commented on my bouquet and it was exactly if not better then I wanted!

I will highly (almost forcefully!) recommend you to anyone I know needing a florist, you are a true professional!

Thank you again!

Kelly and Garvin

Bride's Bouquet

Bridesmaid's Bouquet

I then popped over to Boulevard Gardens to set up the reception flowers. These are a really great budget conscious option. A boxed arrangement with organza ribbon, tall ting ting, 3 long stemmed roses and foliage. Very effective.

Thanks

Following on from the saga below, I received a lovely email from Rachel today. I was so stressed over pulling this wedding together, so I am very happy that it all came together.

Hello Karen,

I would like to say THANKYOU for our beautiful flowers on our wedding day 16 May.

You are an absolute champion to have worked so well with the lack of flowers available, your efforts are truly appreciated. My bouquet was absolutley gorgeous, and the maids bouquets were so unique! It all looked amazing. The ceremony arrangements blew me away as well, especially once they were at the reception where they looked great under the downlights. Together with the rest of the room looked perfect. I really can't thank you enough.

Funny how things happen in the whirlwind of a wedding, and a fact confirmed, you can't trust boys... During the ceremony I kept looking at Gavin's buttonhole, and wondering why it had ribbon in it.
Afterwards I realised he was wearing his mum's corsage!! :) Not to worry, Tam sorted him out for the professional photos!!

I hope to send some images once I get release of copyright from the photographer.

Thanks again, regards
Rachel Thiele (nee Dazeley)

Although I never expect it - it is so nice to have all my hard work appreciated. I love the comment about the groom ending up with his Mother's corsage on. I must say at this point that all my buttonholes and corsages are delivered in little cello bags and all of them have name cards with the buttonholes.

I can't wait to see some pics from the day and I will be sure to post them when I get them.

A Big Day Out

Following the saga of sourcing the flowers for this weekend's wedding. I had to face a big day out deliverying, setting up and moving flowers.

Now, this isn't something I would volunteer to do for just any wedding. But, this weekends Bride, is the third sister in the family whose wedding flowers I have had the privilege of designing. So when I have such wonderful families who keep coming back I will do just about anything.

Saturday morning started off bright and early with packing the car up and heading off to Sanctuary Cove with the wedding party flowers. I had a quick stop off, to give Sarah-Jane from Cake That the cake flowers and then it was straight down to Sanctuary Cove. It was a first time delivery to the Hyatt for me and I have to say it was just lovely, I could see that it would be a photographers paradise to photograph a wedding party around the grounds.

I had my two girls with me and they insisted that we stop and pat a couple of ponies that were on the edge of a property by the road. As well as everything else I had to do I was told that I simply must find a shop to buy carrots to feed the ponies on the way back down the mountain.

After the quick pony stop I headed straight to the ceremony location, Avalon Gardens. Another first time for me. I did get into a bit of trouble for driving in through the main gates and ever so slightly messing up their gravel driveway that they just raked, but it did go to prove that they are pendantic about provided the best for their Brides and Grooms. Avalon Gardens would have to be one of the most lovely garden settings that I have had the pleasure of setting up in. The gardens are lush and abundant, the grass is green and thick and wandering around the gardens is a real treat.

Here I had to set up two extra tall ceremony arrangements to be placed inside the ceremony space. As these were so large I did the actual set up on the grounds. My girls found a romantic love swing tucked away in the gardens and so were happily occupied while I worked.

The ceremony arrangements



The Ceremony venue


The Love Swing

We then had about 3.5 hours to waste until after the ceremony when I had to return, dismantle the arrangements and transport them back to Sanctuary Cove Country Club for the reception.

We went for a mini bush walk, my 2 year old managed to walk about 1klm of the 1.4klm walk so I was pretty proud of that. We then went to Gallery Lane for lunch and a poke about the shops, then I went to find the elusive carrots for the ponies and then back to the ceremony where the guests were enjoying drinks on the beautifully raked gravel driveway in front of the venue.

Bushwalking

I dismantled and loaded up the flowers and headed back to Sanctuary Cove, stopping to feed the ponies.

I had left Brisbane at 9.30 am that morning and arrived home just before 6.00 pm. What a day!

Phaelonopsis Orchids

One week after Mothers Day and I had a wedding to do using Phaelonopsis orchids. Now, originally when I booked in this wedding I had checked with my suppliers and I was told that I would defintely be able to source the phallies as they were going to force them to flower early for Mothers Day. I should have expected it, because when you are dealing with nature nothing seems to go to plan and sure enough things didn't work out and there were none available.

After an emergency meeting with my Bride, who was adamant that she have fresh phallies, I had a plan. I had to scour all the Bunnings and Big W stores on the northside and buy up every pretty much every flowering plant they had in stock for Mothers Day.

I did speak to one of Brisbane's leading orchid suppliers who did warn me that these plants would only be flowering because they had been grown in a cold room under special conditions and warned me not to be surprised if they simply turned to mush once they had been out in the real world for a few days. I had no choice and I had to take the risk.

Because, I couldn't get enough of the flowering plants and they were costing a lot more than purchasing blooms from my suppliers, my Bride opted for silk phallies for her hair, and to add white Singapore orchids into the Bridesmaids' bouquets, we also used the Singapores for the cake flowers and buttonholes.

I snapped up the plants the week before Mothers Day, because I obviously didn't want to miss out, so I had a long 2 weeks of watching over the plants in my workroom, thankfully some the buds popped open and I only lost one stem of flowers.

Late Friday afternoon I started work on what was one of my most stressful weddings ever. On top of everything else these bouquets needed to be delivered to Sanctuary Cove and then travel with the Girls up to Mt Tamborine for the ceremony and then back to Sanctuary Cove for the reception. I of course did every thing in my power to make sure they went the distance, using a couple of my secret tricks - the last time I saw the bouquets straight after the ceremony they were looking pretty damm good, if I do say so myself.

The elusive phaelonopsis orchid.

My Sisters Wedding

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing the flowers for my sister Katrina and Nigel's wedding. Being her MOH and the Flowergirls mum meant that I had a pretty full plate for the day, from the moment they announced their engagement, I knew that I would do all of her flowers for her, no doubt about it.

Working in the wedding industry I became their unofficial wedding planner. I am proud to say that they trusted my recommendations for quite a few of their suppliers and found some new suppliers that were all truly wonderful.

It was a pretty big week leading up to the wedding and I did work pretty every night until midnight in order to pull everything together. My run sheet looked a bit like this:

Brides bouquet
Matron of Honour's bouquet
2 Flowergirl posies
Neices wrist corsage
Buttonholes
Corsages
Tin buckets of flowers for shepherds hooks
Ceremony arrangements
Cake flowers
Table arrangements
Vases for fish
Candy bar
Rose petals for ceremony and reception

We set up the table arrangements the night before - large oval arrangements of full Perfume de Grande, Salinas and Honeymoon roses, freesais and lissies. In the centre were brandy balloons with goldfish. We also set up a candy bar with all pink and white sweets and this looked fabulous and went down a treat on the night. I then had to go home and do up the buttonholes and corsages so it was a very late night and very early start on the day. But, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Everything on the day went without any problems. I had to deliver the ceremony flowers to the Northlakes Golf Club and it was great to see Emma from Brisbane Wedding Decorators doing the chair covers. I have known Emma for many years but haven't seen her around for awhile so that was nice. Kellie from the golf club couldn't have been more helpful and super organised.

Now my little girl, Ella has been around weddings since the day she was born, I coundn't count the number of weddings we have delivered to where she has looked enviously at the little flowergirls getting ready and it has been a constant 'why can't I be a flowergirl' since she could talk. Well, Ella had the privlege of being Katrina and Nigel's flowergirl and she so enjoyed being a princess for a day. In her Elizabeth de Varga gown (nothing so special for me the MOH mind you) and her tiara and jewellery from Wendy Makin she definitely had a special day. Katrina's son Harrison was pageboy and he and Ella made a very cute couple.

There was no question about who was going to design the cake for the day, Sarah-Jane from Cake That! As always she did a stunning job. Sarah-Jane also very kindly did the fresh rose petals on the cake and candy buffet tables for me.

As all my Bride's would know the biggest complaint of the day is that it goes way too fast.

There are some beautiful photos of the day on their photographer's blog, ST Photography scroll down to Katrina and Nigel.



The ceremony - Shepherds hooks with buckets of roses, lissies and freesias. Rose petal aisle. Tall vases filled with lilies, orchids and willow.

On the way to the Ceremony.

The Cake.

A New Beginning

Unbelievably it has been almost 12 months to the day since I last posted. I was absolutely amazed when I logged on tonight and saw that it has been a year. So now it is time to get back on track and start updating as often as possible. It has been a year full of work, family and fun, I have had weeks where I wasn't sure if I could get everything that needed doing done.

This last weekend gone, inspired me to start blogging again. I did a lovely wedding, with my girls in tow and we simply had a beautiful day out together. More on the weekend to come soon.

So here goes, a new beginning of blogging and keeping it up.