Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day - is the biggest day of the year in the flower industry and when your a wedding florist who has nothing to do with Mother's Day (other than having and being a mum) it is one big pain in the neck. Firstly I received a phone call from my supplier Tuesday - I could only get 4 of my ordered 7 bunches of Vendella roses. On Wednesday morning I received another call none of my ordered Sahara roses were available. Wednesday lunchtime I am about to leave to pick up the flowers and there is a another call saying that I can't pick up as not all of the order is in and won't be ready until tomorrow. Thursday I can finally pick up - and things are not too bad the freesias are tight little green buds, not good when you want open full flowers, the white tulips are green and at least there are enough roses albeit not all the correct colours. So a word of warning that I give to all of my Brides getting married Mother's Day (and Valentines) weekend and the week after be prepared for some minor changes as the flower industry is in chaos.

Despite all the problems everything turned out beautifully, I have worked enough Mothers Days and Valentines to know to order a few spare bunches of similar coloured roses.

First thing Saturday morning with the two littlies in tow we headed out, with a quick drop off of cake flowers to Sarah-Jane at Cake That, the to Sinnamon Park, there were 5 Bridesmaids in this wedding and it was an absolute pleasure to walk in with the flowers and have 5 ooing and ahhing girls appreciating their flowers for the day. The Bride's bouquet was a tightly clustered posy of Bianca, Vendella and cream spray roses and the girls carried smaller versions of Vendella (only a few), Chantilly (instead of Sahara), Emmanuel (to make up for the Vendella) and Sweet Perfumella roses. After that drop off it is a quick drive home and then over to Boondall with the buttonholes.



Above - The Bride's Bouquet.
Below - The Bridesmaids' bouquet against the fabric of their dresses.




While I was out deliverying, my second Bride called by to collect her flowers. These bouquets were very fresh and funky. The Bride's bouquet was Bella Vita roses, white tulips and individually wired white Singapore orchids and her two daughters the flowers girls carried mini posies of Bella Vita roses and white Singapore orchids. Shelly from Brisbane Bridal Photography was photographing this wedding today so fingers crossed I should get a few good images from her.



Last but not least - I headed off to Snug Harbour. My Bride here had a bouquet of Emmanuel roses, white tulips and white freesias and her two Bridesmaids carried smaller versions of the same. For the reception we did tall square vases filled with red roses, I also wrapped thick green tropical leaves around the stems of the roses and fully submerged in the water.



Above - close of view of the Bride's bouquet.




Finally, a photo of my two assistants for the day at Snug Harbour - another of their favourite delivery spots, the water features, the river and boats.




After all of this weekend's hard work I can only hope that I get an easy day off Mother's Day. Then it is back to work again next week with a wedding or two.
Happy Mothers Day to all.

A Sunday Threesome

What a weekend. Three weddings in one day, I have had much bigger weekends but never with the two littles in tow. But everything went smoothly and all of the flowers turned out perfectly.

The first wedding was for a lovely couple from the UK - most of the initial planning was done via email and then we met 10 days out from the wedding to organise the finer details. I absolutely adored the bridesmaids bouquets for this wedding. The bride's bouquet was slightly English in style, being a little looser and using spray roses, babies breath and bridal fern mixed with oriental liles and Emmanuel roses.



The three Bridesmaids were wearing an unusal metalic brown colour. The posy bouquets we designed would have looked stunning against the fabric - they were a mixture of Emmanuel roses, Cool Waters roses, cream spray roses and magnolia leaves folded so the brown underside featured.


The Groom and Groomsmen wore buttonholes featuring roses and hyacinths.



Finally I did table arrangements for Hillstone St Lucia. I have been hearing about Hillstone from quite a few brides over the last few months but I hadn't realised that it is the refurbished St Lucia Golf Club. It certainly is a stunning venue. Here we decorated the tables with square glass vases filled with a mixture of cream roses and with lenghts of ivy wrapped around the stems under water and then wrapped around the outside of the glass.



Whilst at Hillstone I also had to set up the cake flowers on the cake. This is one task that can get a bit tricky at times todays problem was that the icing was so thick and hard that I simply couldn't push the wire stems of the flowers into the cake so I had to cut all of the wire stems off, re-tape the much shorter stems and sit the flowers onto the cake. Thankfully the cake was fully set up in position so there were no worries about them falling off when the table was being positioned.



My next wedding saw my Husband delivering to Carindale whilst I set up the cake flowers at Mt Cootha. He was surprised to learn when he delivered the flowers that he had also delivered the flowers to one of the Bridesmaids on her wedding day about a year ago. Surprised, firstly because he delivers so few weddings and secondly that she actually remembered him....

The bride's bouquet was a tightly packed bouquet of Vendella roses and white tulips with just a few of the tulip leaves showing. I just love the combination of white and off white colours.



The two bridesmaids were wearing dark burgandy dresses, their bouquets featured red parrot tulips, Vendella roses and Black Bacarra roses - simply stunning.


There were also two Flowergirls whose little posies were a mixture of Vendella roses and cream spray roses.



The cake flowers were just stunning. The cake was square and decorated with shards of white chocolate and the flowers were Vendella roses, Black Bacarra roses and white tulips. The dark red of the Black Bacarra roses looked absolutely stunning against all of the white chocolate. Good enough to eat. Unfortunately when I put the flowers onto the cake it was in the cool room and the cake was still boxed so no photo opportunites there.

Lastly, was a smaller wedding with a Bride and 1 Bridesmaid. They carried identical bouquets only the Bride's was slightly larger. These bouquets were another one of my favourite mixes of off white roses, Emmanuel and white freesias with lots of lush green foliage. This was a garden wedding so the bouquets were just right.





Next weekend if Mothers Day, so although I don't do flowers for the day (well maybe I will for my Mum) I still have another big weekend with 3 weddings on Saturday. Oh well, I can look forward to my sleep in next Sunday after all the work is done.

Honeymoon

What a great name for a wedding rose.



Today I got very excited when I started working with this new rose - a new colour that is not like anything that has been available up until now.

"Honeymoon" is just beautiful. I am only using it in table arrangements this weekend but I am most grateful that I have had a chance to order and use it. In trying to describe this rose let me start by saying it is a bit of a tricky one Iwill start with how the grower describes it:

"This exotic rose variety with a tall well presented bud, displays a myriad of colour tonesof which inlcude light brown, cream, pale yellow and a pink tint, these colours alter as it opens into a unique latte coloured bloom releasing a noticeable spicy frangrance.

I would have to add that I saw a lot of very pale lilac tones - under the fluro lights the petals were tinged with an antique musky/mauve colour deepening into a coffee colour (imagine a really weak milky latte). In the full light the mauve isn't quite so obvious but it is still there and so is the coffee colour. It is also a big old fashioned style rose with lots of petals. It is most defintely going to be a wedding favourite for brides whot are looking for this unique colour combination. This rose is going to work beautifully with metalics, browns, musks and antique themes.

Now I just need to convince someone to use these roses in the bouquets.

An Old Favourite

Today's wedding saw me creating one of my favourite designs - this style of bouquet I have done many, many times in so many different colour combinations. Today's was an absolute classic teardrop featuring ivory roses and white tulips. The 3 bridesmaids carried round posies of matching flowers. The ivory roses in this bouquet are called "Emmanuel", the order this week was for a rose called Vendella, but as can happen with roses they simply were not available, the Vendella rose is just one shade paler than Emmanuel and unless they are next to each other you probably couldn't tell the difference. And even then in different light rose colours can look so completely different which you will see if you look at the Emmanuel roses in the bouquets and then the same roses again in the cake pictures below. Needless to say I had a very, very happy bride when she saw her bouquet.





I also had to deliver the cake flowers direct to Sarah-Jane from Cake That early Saturday morning. I surprised Sarah-Jane with a bunch of flowers, Sarah-Jane is always recommending Brides to me and it is always nice to simply say thank-you with a bunch of flowers (and pretty easy when your a florist). Anyways, Sarah-Jane in turn gave me a box of the most incredible cupcakes, now I have always known that her cakes are to die for but let me simply say that the diet was well and truly out of the window for the day - well I had to try each different flavour....

These photos of the cake and flowers are courtesy of Cake That.





I had to deliver the bouquets into the Stamford Plaza and my two girls love coming along with me to the Stamford. The highlights of the Stamford are the views - right in front of the elevators are windows that look out over the river and Botanical Gardens - which is great when your on the 21st floor and the other favourite is to get out of the elevator one floor up from the lobby and walk down the grand staircase.

This is one of my Brides from a while back coming down the staircase my girls love to play on.




Next weekend I have the weekend off and then it is back to work with a couple of really big weeks.

Home From Holidays

I had two weddings this week.

I arrived home Thursday night after 6 days away with my two girls - which was a lovely break, but it was straight back to work as I had two weddings to prepare for the weekend. Of course, when my 6 yo realised that the only reason we had to leave the beach early was because I had wedding work to do she was very resentful - I even heard from the backseat of the car a tune along the lines of 'weddings, weddings, weddings it always weddings fault'. Well, little one thats life.....

Normally, only starting work on Friday morning (with 2 littlies underfoot) would mean that I would have to work all day and through the night, but luckily for me my Dad who is an absolute lifesaver was on my doorstep bright and early Thursday morning to accept delivery of the flowers and then he did all the hard prep work on the flowers - striping, cleaning and conditioning over 100 roses, wiring up countless numbers of leaves for the bouquets, buttonholes and corsages, he then came back on Friday to wire up over 100 individual Singapore orchids.
So it was an easy job for me to create the bouquets as all the hard work was done.

Saturday morning my first delivery was to a lovely Bride who was getting ready at Forest Lodge Apartments in Indooroopilly. Even though I have delivered hundreds of weddings I find it amazing that there are still hotels that I haven't been too before.

These wedding flowers were so stunning - they were simple designs featuring all white flowers - orchids and oriental lilies with the lushest of glossy green leaves (sun leaves). The Bride carried a modern styled teardrop and the three Bridesmaids carried round posy bouquets, the flowergirl carried a cute basket filled with individually wired Singapore orchids.

The Bride's Bouquet




The Bridesmaid's Bouquet



The Flowergirl's Basket



My second wedding was a classic rose wedding, the Bride carried a round strauss bouquet of roses in 4 colours - Emmanuel, Sweet Avalanche, Rosita Vandella and Mascarra. The two Bridesmaids carried smaller posies featuring massed Mascarra roses. After that I had to set up 2 arrangements in the Church - St Agathas in Clayfield. These were simple arrangements of tall glossy green gymea leaves, massed white gladdies and lush foliage at the base - ivy berry and mini monstera leaves. Simple but effective.

The Bride's Bouquet



The Bridesmaid's Bouquet



Packed and Ready to Go



My Flowergirl


The Church Flowers



When I arrived at the church to set up the flowers there was a Christening finishing up so I had to fill in a bit of time outside the church - this was easily filled getting my "helper" to pose for a few photos.

Two In A Row

I don't normally do Sunday weddings. My husband works Monday to Friday and then weddings usually take up all my time from Thursday through to Saturday, so Sunday is a bit of an off day for the whole family. Every now and then though I do a Sunday wedding for many reasons. Friends, friends of friends, friends and family of previous couples or I have a quiet Saturday. This Sunday's wedding was only booked in 3 weeks ago - I knew that I didn't have a big Saturday wedding and knowing that I will also be on holidays next week I simply couldn't say no. It can be really hard to find a good wedding florist with such little notice and when a Bride is in this position I really like to do everything that I can to help.

The ceremony was being held in New Farm Park so it was a bit of a casual affiar and the bouquets reflected that beautifully. They were simple clutch bouquets, which is a bit of a change from doing tight round posies. The Bride and maids all carried the same style the only difference being that the maids were smaller.

Amazingly, the flowers were very similar to yesterday's wedding. I can sometimes go months without using unusual wedding flowers and then I do two in a row using green Singapore orchids and berries.

These bouquets featured full stems of white hyacinths, Bianca white roses, green roses, green Singapore orchids, green berries and large lush green tropical leaves.

The Mothers were given very modern styled corsages featuring green Singapore orchids, white hyacinths, a sprig of ribbon, magnolia and ivy.

And what a perfect day it is for a garden wedding, the sun is shining, it is warm but not too hot, there is no wind - it is absolutely perfect out today.

The Bride's Bouquet



The Mum's Corsages




Well with school holidays starting at the end of the week, I have next weekend off so I am going away for a mini holiday next Saturday with the kiddies and then I will be back to do two weddings the weekend after.

Lotus Pods

I just loved today's wedding. Lotus pods, berries, orchids, vine, a few roses for good measure and deep lush brown magnolia leaves. I absolutely adore working with such an exotic mixture of flowers and foliage. Today's Bride carried a stunning tightly packed bouquet of Vandella (cream) roses, individually wired white Singapore orchids, lotus pods, green berries, with just a few folded magnolia leaves through the flowers and then around the skirt of the bouquet was doda vine and more folded magnolia leaves There was only one Bridesmaid and she carried a tightly packed bouquet of Vandella roses, green and white Singapore orchids, green berries, doda vine and magnolia leaves.

I had to deliver and set up the cake flowers to Northlakes Golf Club as I arrived the cake designer was just finishing up with setting up the cake on the cake table. The cake designer was Deb Casey and of course she wanted to wait and see the finished result - so it was with an audience that I went about arranging the fresh flowers onto the cake - white and green Singapore orchids, Vandella roses and green berries.

The Bride's Bouquet




The Bridesmaid's Bouquet


The Cake - the lighting in the room wasn't the best.

Hooray for Easter

Wow - is it really Easter already, well I guess that it is a very early Easter. I certainly have one very excited 6 year old who can't wait for the Easter Bunny - we have instructions to shut and lock all the doors that the Easter Bunny MUST hide everything outside for a big hunt Sunday morning. This Easter is the second Easter ever that I am not working. So apologies to all the Easter Bride's who wanted to book me for the weekend BUT I am going away for the weekend and am so looking forward to it.

As I am not working - I have no new weddings to show off in this - my first post so I thought I would show one I did a couple of Easters ago for an absolutely beautiful couple. Their reception was themed around Easter - all the tables were named after famous rabbits such as Peter, Jessica and the most famous the Easter Bunny. The tables had lovely glass fishbowls on them with miniture versions of the Bride's bouquet.
The bouquet was a stunning tightly packed posy of Antique roses, pale pink Bianca Candy roses and white lissies. The bridesmaids carried clutches of pale pink hyacinths. Absoultely beautiful.

Welcome to my Blog

Well this is it - I am finally catching up with the in IT crowd. I am blogging. I thought this might be a great way for everyone who is interested to easily be able to view samples of my current work each week. So Welcome.

I will try my best to post every week - the trials and tribulations of being a wedding florist in Brisbane and working from home with 2 kiddies.

I have been designing wedding flowers for 8 years - it is my passion. I love creating that perfect round ball of roses or getting the chance to create something totally exotic and wild.