ghosty dreams and flower things

Casual elegant Palm Springs wedding

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:05:00 +0000

Oh, Jane and Rick. So pulled together, chic, and effortlessly cool. With total goofball engagement photos (where they were making funny faces) on display at their wedding. A winning combination, no?

Jane loved succulents and so we pulled together a palette inspired by the tones that they come in. Our dominant color of white was accented with grays and dusty blues and muted greens. It was subtle and full of texture and I thought it came out just beautiful.

We used succulents in a large variety of shapes and colors along with air plants, lots of herbs, silver brunia, dusty miller, acacia, garden roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, and thistles.

The centerpieces were organic and wild but in simple, clean glass vases to rein them in a bit. Perfect for an outdoor reception poolside in Palm Springs. The herbs and garden roses smelled heavenly.

I know I say I fall in love with a lot of bridal bouquets, but holy moly did I love Jane's bouquet. Like true love. Like my heart still beats faster looking at the pictures true love.

The grace of those roses (grown by my favorite garden rose grower in a tiny farm smack in the middle of urban North Hollywood) astounds me.

The bridesmaids each had a complimenting but slightly different bouquet in whites, grays, and greens.

I always think it's fun to do the bridesmaids with a bit of variety. It still looks cohesive, but it lets each girl have her own little thing going on.

And the guys each wore a different type of succulent on their lapel. The Groom's one request was for his boutonniere to smell good, so we added rosemary and sage to them. The stems were wrapped in a soft gray velvet.

We also made some terrariums for the ceremony. They used succulents and airplants in clean, modern vases. We topped the dirt with crushed glass crystals for a tiny bit of sparkle.

The terrariums lined the aisle along with strips of fabric in blues and grays. Later we moved them to a lounge area.

The end. Except that I have to show you that bouquet one more time. Or two.

P.s. If you ever find yourself near the Colony Palms in Palm Springs, where this wedding was held, you should check it out. If only because the manager looks eerily, wonderfully like Jeff Bridges as The Dude in The Big Lebowski. It's awesome.

Elyzza and Michael and the 2D Pinata.

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:14:00 +0000

This wedding was magic. An incredible vendor team, a wonderful couple, and oh yeah, I got to make a nine foot tall two dimensional pinata.

Elyzza and Michael got married at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. The space is super modern but quirky at the same time (think two or three story concrete walls painted an almost obscene shade of fuchsia).

When I met Elyzza for the first time, Christina from Simply Modern Weddings had already put together a gorgeous inspiration board for her Latin fusion wedding. I would love to take more design credit, but honestly, those two had done all of the heavy design lifting for me. Beautiful handmade Mexican pottery for the florals and an incredibly fun color palette? That was all them. All I had to do was provide kickass flower arrangements. Oh, and the 2D pinata. More on that later.

First? The beautiful pictures from Ashley Rose.

We used tons of texture and color in the florals.

The boutonnieres and the bridesmaids' bouquets were wrapped in braided fabric. Makeup by Erica at 1011 makeup.

Elyzza's bouquet was wrapped in Mexican embroidered fabric. I cut up a small blouse that I picked up in Olvera Street for it.

Me? Not so much a shoe person. Not normally. But HOT DAMN those are some good looking shoes.

Each bridesmaid bouquet had a dominant color (either pink, purple, or orange) so that they were cohesive but subtly different from each other.

These getting ready pics are at the gorgeous Hotel Maya in Long Beach.

Okay. It's pinata time. So the wedding ceremonies at the Museum take place on a big concrete stage. With a giant rolling delivery door on it. We wanted something high impact to make the stage look as wonderful and colorful as the rest of the wedding. Enter my idea to create a 9 foot tall by 8 foot wide fringed tissue paper backdrop. The 2D pinata. And Elyzza, bless her soul, said yes.

We also made matching tissue pom poms (inspired by confetti system) to hang from the chairs.

Things to know if you make one of these: It is going to take you a long, long, long time. It is going to resemble the coat of a Snuffleupagus on acid when it is lying on the floor of your living room. Make sure your ceilings are tall enough before making it (it was going to be 10', alas I have 9' ceilings).

The backdrop was moved behind the dessert table after the ceremony. Desserts are by Long Beach heroes Sweet and Saucy Shop.

The super cute escort cards (and other paper goods) were made by Paper and Thread. Christina created this backdrop for them by painting a table runner from CB2 and nailing it to a huge sheet of plywood we brought.

Half of the tables had wooden boxes with colored glass bottles, and half had florals in beautiful decortive pottery.

I love the tile table numbers!

Thanks Elyzza and Michael for being so fun to work with! (P.S. Elyzza had already bought a Ghost Academy card to give to Michael on their wedding day without knowing the connection. It made me super happy!)

Thanks to 100 layer cake for featuring this wedding!

And thank you to all of the kickass vendors!

Design/Coordination: Simply Modern Weddings
Florals: Us!
Paper: Paper & Thread
Hair/Makeup: 1011 MakeUp
Sweets: Sweet & Saucy Shop
Photography: Ashley Rose

Happy anniversary, Monica and Josh!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:11:00 +0000

Monica and Josh will always be special to me. Besides being awesome, funny, and cool, they have that wonderful kind of chemistry where you can tell how crazy they are for each other just by the way they look at each other. (Their chemistry is so great that I actually asked them to model in this photoshoot). On top of all that, their wedding was the first wedding that I ever booked as Honey and Poppies. When I booked Monica and Josh's wedding in October of 2009, the website had been live for a couple of weeks. They were married one year ago today.

Here is a video of their wedding (stolen off of facebook this morning :) I think Josh put it together)

And some flower shots...

Monica's bouquet, with tree peonies, Judy roses, antique hydrangea, dahlias, succulents, and accents...
I picked up the cameo brooch for the stem wrap at a vintage flea market.

Cheery and simple daisy bridesmaid bouquets (Daisies are a favorite of Monica's)

Ceremony set up. We lined the aisle with maple and oak leaves. The Muckenthaler (where the wedding was held) has a giant gazebo structure that's a bit too modern for the vintage vibe Monica and Josh wanted. I had just done this wedding a few months before where I hung windows from it to give it a bit more character. We recreated that look but changed it up quite a bit and also hung tons of jars with floating candles from the structure. The top had hydrangea, roses, and tons of berries, leaves, and autumn accents.

I strongly dislike tall centerpieces. M&J do too. But Mon's mom wanted them. So to create something that we all loved, we acquired some stair spindles salvaged from a Victorian era house and built them into tall containers to hold half of the centerpieces. I love the way they turned out. We surrounded them with candles, and we also made table numbers using Mon and Josh's silhouette.

Happy Anniversary you two! xoxo

Treehouse themed Happy Trails wedding

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:19:00 +0000

I had so much fun designing decor for this wedding. When I first met with Dolly, she told me that she and her fiance Andrew were thinking of having childhood nostalgia as the theme for their wedding at Happy Trails (a venue I love.. remember it from this wedding?). Later they decided that since at Happy Trails you basically get married in a giant treehouse, that that would be the wedding theme.

I'll start with Dolly's bouquet. She wanted soft, fluffy, cloud-like flowers, so I used Cafe Au Lait dinnerplate dahlias, several varieties of garden roses, balsa wood flowers, and herbs and lavender foliage. The stems were wrapped in scalloped lace.

The bridesmaids had simple clusters of cafe au lait dahlias, lavender, and herbs with a stem wrap of a sweet faded looking calico fabric.

The boutonnieres and corsages were all made out balsa flowers and herbs.

To bring in the treehouse theme, we brainstormed about games kids play and things that kids are into when they're in that treehouse-y age range. We tried to stick to things that had a classic vibe and weren't tied to a specific era. We made about 20 tin can telephones (yes, they really work - we tried them out in the studio) to hang on the chairs going down the aisle. The ceremony area was flanked by two cute painted chairs that we filled with tons and tons of classic soda pop bottles with single blooms.

The tablescapes were composed not just of flowers but of tons of fun items that the guests could interact with. These included jars of marbles, crayons, and jigsaw puzzles, board games like Monopoly and Scrabble, classic games like sliding number games, domino, and wooden peg games, cool and funny toys like dreampet animals, kids books and boyscout manuals, paper planes and mini kites and... it goes on. Here are some studio shots of individual items to give you an idea:

This was one of my favorites... mini aqua mason jars and coke glasses with hearts on them. I cut the hearts from japanese comic books and affixed with washi tape:

The flowers are all garden roses and veronica in these guys.

We also made pennant table numbers with little pom pom trim:

And here are some action shots of everything assembled on the tables:

You can see more detail shots of this wedding by clicking through to our flickr, and all the fun pro photos by Mark Brooke Photographers on Green Wedding Shoes here: http://greenweddingshoes.com/a-whimsical-treehouse-wedding-dolly-andrew/

It's almost here! It's almost here!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:23:00 +0000

The end of wedding season. I can see it. I was just telling my friend Amber that I'm picturing it as a field of rainbows and sparkly frolicking animals and confetti falling from the sky. I don't mean to sound ungrateful or like I'm not excited about the rest of my weddings this year (I'm pumped for each and every one). But I do mean to sound like by November 12th, I will have done 40 weddings in 2011. And I am creatively exhausted.

Meanwhile, I am trying to design new Valentine's Day cards for ghost academy. And printing up a storm sending out Christmas and Halloween designs. We've been shipping an average of 1,400 cards the last few weeks. Each week. Printed by hand. Plus weddings. Plus assembling non-handprinted-card things, like our first ever offset printed Christmas cards:

And making gift products like our hand stamped tags:

And (I had to throw in some flower photos because it's what you all come here for) doing mockup arrangements - these guys are for a wedding next weekend:

Next year? Fewer weddings. More downtime. More cards. Also waiting for Martha Stewart to call to have me be her resident flower maker for her magazines (in my head, this job pays obscenely well).

smog shoppe citrus and cacti wedding

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:15:00 +0000

I really love Smog Shoppe. I thought it was cool the first few times I saw it on blogs and loved that it was a revitalized urban space (after all, what's not to like about taking something run down and making it fresh, modern, and gorgeous while being respectful of its roots?). I also love that it runs on solar power and has living succulent walls. And even though I thought I was pretty over it after seeing it featured a billion times all over the internets, I fell in love all over again the first time I saw it in person. It's just a good place.

Erin contacted me about doing flowers for her wedding at Smog Shoppe last July. She gave me a general color palette (orange, yellow, green, blue) and a tiny bit of guidance (citrus, desert influence) and that was that. That kind of creative freedom really lets us do our best work. Fast forward a year, and we had put together a floral concept inspired by Southern California.

Erin carried a bouquet of succulents with locally grown garden roses and orange ranunculus. I added in lots of textured elements like yarrow, scabiosa, asclepia, acacia, craspedia, and dusty miller. The stems were wrapped in an ivory textured trim.

The bridesmaids carried complimenting bouquets that had predominately succulents, and I wrapped the stems in turquoise twill.

For the altar at the church, we made two arrangements of different toned orange dahlias with viburnum berry in recycled green glass vases.

For the reception, I used a wide variety of flowers that speak to California's landscape - there was a desert influence including tons of succulents (guests also had a potted succulent favor at each place setting), locally grown flowers such as dahlias, ranunculus, and garden roses, and also lots of tangerines and fruited/berried branches. The vases were a mix of repurposed vintage containers with a 70's vibe to fit in with Smog Shoppe, green bottles, tea tins, and wooden boxes.

I sourced public domain vintage artwork from fruit crates (including some from California farms), tweaked the colors to fit in with the wedding, printed it out on labelstock, and attached it to the wooden boxes so that they looked like mini fruit crates.

Wild and wispy

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:40:00 +0000

These are from a small wedding where we just did the bouquets. We don't normally do partial weddings, but one of our all time favorite former clients (friends? cli-friends? friendlents?) was organizing the decor for the wedding of a good friend of theirs, and they asked if we would take on the personals. I recently came upon these gorgeous images by Michael Radford Photography and had to share.

The wedding took place in a gorgeous wild outdoor setting, so Tara (the Bride) wanted something a bit wild and wispy to compliment.

For the bridesmaids' bouquets, we used rice flower, scabiosa (both pods and flowers), anemones, jasmine vine, maidenhair fern, poppy pods, and lisianthus. Tara had these along with a few peach poppies for just a touch of color.

The guests sat at one super long table that was decorated with maidenhair ferns and candles in wine bottles. I love how simple and effortless it looks.

We picked up some bulk flowers that Heather (our talented former bride) arranged.

I think she did an awesome job!

You can see more images on Grey Likes Weddings (where I also, um, borrowed these lovely photo layouts from :) ). Thanks to Michael for sharing images!

what does a florist want for her birthday?

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:17:00 +0000

FLOWERS.

In the office.

On the windowsill.

In the living room.

EVERYWHERE.

Flowers all over the damn place. Not left over from an event. Bought just for me (or, in the case of the dahlias gifted to me by a favorite grower). And made to suit nobody's tastes but my own.

I could also go for a new camera lens... the focus on mine bit it while I was taking these.

p.s. those coppery roses (called Combo) have since faded to an amazing metallic champagne color. In heaven.

psychedelic biker photo shoot

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Four months ago, I posted this inspiration board for a shoot I was really excited about. The shoot had been in the works for two months before that. And now I finally FINALLY get to share it! It was worth the wait.

So back in March, Melissa of The Loveliest Day and Melissa Elise Event Design told me she had an idea for a photoshoot inspired by psychedelic album cover art and asked if I would like to be a part of it. Obviously I gave a big huge YES. My record nerd husband is a huge psych fan and I have always loved the look of the album art. The crazy colors, swirling patterns, and art nouveau influence totally get me. I grabbed a stack of 30 or so records and got together with Melissa. We narrowed it down to 7 or 8 albums that really inspired us, and Melissa threw out ideas like biker culture and a hippie commune vibe. We bonded over a mutual love of things that are beautiful but a bit rough around the edges and knew we were on to something good.

Fast forward two months, and Melissa had put together an amazing team of wedding professionals all ready to bring their A game. Melissa herself did an amazing job of pulling together perfect details and crafting a ton of decor for the shoot. Miss Tashina custom made dresses for the shoot and also was our bride model. She also brought in gorgeous accessories from Sweet Evie and Jenny Dayco. Melissa from Pow Wow Vintage Rentals not only provided a ton of decor, she actually custom made many elements, including the lattice tabletop. Adam Hunt created papergoods that looked like spot-on psych posters. Erin Hearts Court took dreamy photos, brought like a billion different cameras, and gave us stellar styling input. My girl Erica made a beautiful cake. Emily Dawn Artistry did a beautiful job with the hair and makeup. And finally Star Ranch (the venue) was just AMAZING (seriously; Melissa and I about died when we did our first walkthrough).

Some of my favorite shots:

A bit more about what we created:

For the ceremony, I really liked the idea of sticking to the album art inspiration. I love taking a sort of esoteric idea and reinterpreting it in a subtle and surprising way. Basically, I wanted to create a structure that was the shape of a record and somehow incorporated some of the vivid, swirling floral designs common to the backgrounds of psych albums. And I wanted the structure to be big enough to frame the couple. So I created this:

I purchased two 4 foot by 8 foot panels of wood and attached them together to create a giant square. Then I drew a flowy, organic shape on the wood in pencil. This was filled in with about two dozen small floral foam pieces that were custom cut and hung on little screws to fill in the space. Finally, I added tons of peonies, garden roses, dahlias, poppies, bouganvillea, viburnum, and celosia to fill out the shape. I loved seeing the lushness of the flowers against the raw wood. It took about two hours of prep and two hours on-site construction to create. But once I had it in my head, I had to make it. Some close ups:

For all of the flowers, I chose lots of big, colorful blooms that have a trippy feel. I used four different varieties of roses that all had variegated painterly colors and mixed them with garden roses. I mixed in accents and even a few passion flowers cut from my yard. The bouquets were wrapped in psychedelic trim complete with embroidery and tiny circular mirrors. My favorite bouquet shot:

And some more details, in no particular order:

Ombre miniature flower arrangements in jars as favors:

Gold lattice tabletop and tie dyed bowls:

Crazy-with-textiles cake display with a gorgeous view. Created on a hangman's gallows of all things (we had to take down the rope):

Moonshine bar. With Moonshine, beer, and rootbeer:

Florals in colored depression glass:

I could go on but this post is already obscenely image heavy. You can see tons more detail on Green Wedding Shoes and The Loveliest Day. And if you didn't follow those links, just know that there was more awesomeness. And there was also a motorcycle getaway into the sunset.

Sigh....

p.s. if you hire me to recreate that ceremony setup, I will be your b.f.f.f.f.f.f.f.f.f.

Franciscan Gardens wedding

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:22:00 +0000

This is a small wedding we did just last Friday (I have loads of events to blog, but sometimes it's just easier to put up the most recent...).

Gloria at Grand Engagements coordinated (Gloria also coordinated the last wedding I blogged), 24 carrots catered, and the Franciscan Gardens... um, venued. (I get to make up my own verbs since it's my blog).

Heather, the Bride, wanted a classic black and white color palette with a romantic Southern Weddings - esque vibe. I'm such a color nut that all white is not really my bag, but when I get to mix it with greenery and make it look a little bit wild, I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

Heather carried a bouquet of hydrangeas, white garden roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, ivory coast, and the first black and white anemones of the season. For greenery, I used jacaranda foliage, which I've been snipping from neighborhood trees lately. I'm a bit obsessed with it.

The bridesmaids each carried a monobotanical bouquet of white flowers, with each girl having a different variety. I added hints of Italian pittosporum to soften the look. The stems were wrapped in white ribbon with a black lace overlay.

The tables had simple centerpieces of hydrangea, stock, queen anne's lace, and greenery in a mason jar tied with a black ribbon. Lace wrapped votives surrounded each floral arrangement.

I really love the Franciscan Gardens. It has a wonderful Old California vibe - a Spanish building with lots of brick and dark wood. Fingers crossed that we get to work there tons more.

My favorite detail from the wedding was these ribbon and lace curtains we created to hang on the pergola that divides the ceremony and reception areas at the Gardens. We made 12 11 foot tall curtains total, and each one used more than 100 yards of ribbons. They looked gorgeous all hung up, and the tails fluttered in the wind.

We also hand made 40 feet of garland out of acacia foliage and seeded eucalyptus to hang between the curtains.

The terrazo (a small deck area) received a similar treatment. This is where the Bride and Groom sat.

We let the terrazo ribbons hang loose so they could flutter around.

Heather and Matt, thanks for having us be part of your big day!

local and edible

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Here are a few things we did for a wedding last Friday.

The couple are very into cooking (he is a chef; they do underground dinners) and love using local, seasonal ingredients. So we made sure everything we used was grown locally and used many varieties of herbs (mint, marjoram, rosemary, three types of oregano) along with edibles such as stemmed blackberries and oranges in the centerpieces.

Even these garden roses were grown in LA County.

I want you to know that the girl who carried this bouquet is wonderful, hilarious, and swears like a sailor. (I swear like a sailor also).

And that the guy who wore this boutonniere (yes, a guitar and not a flower) is a chef and a musician. And didn't openly judge me for my vegetarianism even though chefs usually scoff at us herbivores.

And a quick Bridesmaid shot... I don't want to share too much because the photographer for this one is amazing, and I'm expecting some wonderful pro shots to share.

And also, did you guys know that it's already August? How in the world did that happen?

A torrid love affair with dahlias

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:15:00 +0000

It's close to 9pm on a Friday night and we have to leave at 10 to go strike today's wedding. I am exhausted. Seems like a good time to blog, no? No? But it's been almost two months.

My friend Erica asked me yesterday what my favorite wedding so far this season was. And I think it might be this one. Which you can't hold me to because I fall in love with every wedding. But this bouquet:

Oh my do I love this bouquet. Dahlias get me every time. My husband asked me what I was going to do when dahlia season ended and I stared at him like I was 7 and he told me there was no Santa. Let's look some more.

RIGHT? I don't know where dahlias get off being so beautiful. They really make you work for it though. They don't like being too warm or too cold. They wilt immediately in the sun but don't start blooming until it gets hot. They die faster the more you fuss with them, and also if you don't change their water every day. In fact, they die if you just look at them the wrong way. They're so totally worth it.

The greatness of dahlias is not the only thing that has me loving this wedding. In fact, the bridesmaids had another favorite, Scabiosa.

Scabiosa, in addition to being effortlessly beautiful, is exceptionally fun to say.

I've also been putting mint in everything lately. It smells heavenly.

Further proofs of greatness: there were dogs. Two of them. They had flower collars and ran around being happy the entire time. I was tempted to hold off until I could get pro photos of the dogs but then I realized I don't know who the photographer is. Dang it. They were adorable, trust me.

The centerpieces were clusters of colored glass... filled with, you guessed it, dahlias. Plus whatever other seasonal blooms I wanted. Which were yarrow, veronica, asclepia, feverfew, hydrangea, coxcomb, you name it... I like variety.

I also love a complex color palette.

And arrangements that are casual but still elegant.

And, have I mentioned, DAHLIAS?

Sweet and Saucy made wonderful desserts, as always. I didn't steal any even though I really, really wanted to.

Calamigos Ranch provided a gorgeous setting with a summer camp feel, a ferris wheel, and a merry go round. They always do that too.

The ceremony site at Calamigos has the bridal party on a terrace under a giant tree with lights. Guests sit below, and there is ivy between. We (okay, I) waded through said 2 feet deep ivy to make this heart of, erm, dahlias.

We also hung little bouquets from the chairs.

There were succulent favors

Oh, and did I mention this bouquet? Of, sigh, dahlias?

Danielle and Jordan, I really truly loved your wedding. Thanks for letting us be a part of it.

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Wedding season, folks, is serious business. I have so many events backed up to share and no time to blog them in. Last weekend we had our first double header of the season. We covered something like 400 miles in just a couple of days, heading north to market, south for a mockup meeting, north to a wedding, south to a wedding, and back south to strike. This morning we arrived at the flower market at 3am sharp and proceeded to snap up every bunch of orange dahlias we could get our hands on. Sorry other florists, we needed them. I've been to the chiropractor twice this week. I'm sore and exhausted.

It's all totally and utterly worth it though every time I see the flowers:

Lauren and Martin and awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:19:00 +0000

I love this wedding. LOVE it. The morning before delivery, I was done early and bouncing around the studio antsy to deliver it. I walked away from it in a glow. LOVE.

The palette (turquoise, fuchsia, and yellow, with coral accents), the flowers (peonies and garden roses), the venue (an amazing arboretum), the bride and groom (awesome), the way the bride and groom found me (a referral from the Ladies Choo), all of it was a big heap of YES.

The Bride (Lauren) carried these lovelies:

And her Bridesmaids (8 of them! and 2 jr. bridesmaids!) each carried a similar but slightly different bouquet like so:

The guys had mix and match pink and yellow bouts:

The ceremony was under a tree hung with ribbons (a diy project by the bride)

The little dresser held candles, and we added jars of garden roses

The amazing desserts were from the Rialto Cafe in Fullerton, where Lauren and Martin got engaged.

By the way, those yellow peonies? Like 7" across.

The tables had mix and match vintage containers collected by the Bride:

with tiny chalkboard table numbers

These guys were on the buffet. Unfortunately not in my living room, which is where I wanted them to be:

happiness! Can't wait for the pro pics.

bursting with excitement

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Next week some crazy awesome stuff is going to happen. And some crazy awesome people are involved. That's all I can say for now except that I'm absolutely giddy.

Happy St. Mommy's Day

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Mother's Day is the busiest holiday of the year for florists. You'd think it was Valentine's, but no - not everyone has a sweetheart. But we all have moms. This is only the second Mother's Day in the last 15 years that I have not been sore, exhausted, and frantic on this day. I'd like to spend it with my mom, but (wait for it) she's busy doing a wedding. Ahhh, florist families.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the Mother's Day cards Ghost Academy offered this year. Which also (yay!) got two mentions - on Curbly and Parent Map.

First is Black Sheep. After designing this, Matthew informed me that it was just going to remind people of Minor Threat. After staring at him blankly for several minutes, I just said "I don't think my customers are really into hardcore punk." Men are weird. Okay, my man is weird.

And then there's hugs, which is the second card Matthew has designed. Well, he conceptualized it and I drew it. He wasn't sure I could make cute snakes. Yeah right. I can make ANYTHING cute.

And finally, Super Kid. The card specifically designed for my own mom. Yes, we have that kind of relationship. I think she'll love it.

Carolina hit my car!!!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Fri, 06 May 2011 08:06:00 +0000

Not really. But she did arrive at my home studio to see her centerpiece mockup seconds after someone else did.

The car alarm had gone off and when I went out to investigate, a freaked out looking woman had just parallel parked behind my car, hitting it in the process. There was an indentation exactly the size, shape, and placement of her license plate frame in my bumper. "I DIDN'T HIT YOUR CAR," she exclaimed (not making eye contact) the second I walked out.

"Really?" I asked, "because it looks like you hit my car."

"NO. I really didn't!"

I traced the shape of the bolts on her license plate in my bumper and looked at her incredulously. Then I went back inside. I don't mind dented bumpers. But I really don't like liars.

Anyway, pretty much every email I received after that from Carolina said at the bottom "p.s. I didn't hit your car" or "p.s. no, I really didn't!!" It made me laugh every time. Other things I love about Carolina: she has the best smile ever, good taste in flowers, and she and her husband Victor have that special glowy kind of love that makes me feel all sappy. Their first look made me tear up and I had to run back to the car where I could pretend to be tough. Enough with the chatter and on to the flowers:

Carolina's bouquet, including first of the season peonies that I had to beg AND pay a million billion dollars for:

(they were totally worth it)

Fresh greens and whites for the bridesmaids:

Succulent boutonnieres for the fellas:

I'd been planning on using mini peppers in the boutonnieres. Four nurseries turned up not a single pepper plant that was anything but leaves. So I substituted that little reddish green sedum (a kind of suculent) instead. The fuzzy gray guys are also succulent leaves.

Half of the tables had a terra cotta pot centerpiece:

And half had clusters of lab glass used as vases (Carolina is studying to be a scientist):

I scored the labglass from ebay. It was wrapped in newspaper from 1991 and some of the flasks had sciencey things written on them. Somehow that made it even better.

I forgot to bring my camera to the install, but you can see some of the pro pics on the he&she photo blog. You should probably click over there now. The pro pics are pretty darn cute.

strawberry farms forever

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:02:00 +0000

Marissa & Ric were married a few weeks ago and had their reception at Strawberry Farms. Things I like about this wedding: poppies, spring flowers, barns, strawberries, tissue pom poms (not over them), the really cute paper goods that I don't have good pictures of, Marissa, Ric, and the fact that Ric forcibly gave pastries to Matthew and me every time we saw them. He gave us an entire cake on his wedding day. We may or may not have eaten it for late dinner after striking.

I'll start with the gorgeous pro shots from Floataway Studios:

And my own flower detail shots:

the Bridal bouquet (which had about 50 stems in it but was still pretty petite)

the Bridesmaids had a small version:

so many billies for family members to wear!

centerpieces in the studio and on the tables

loved the heart escort cards:

and a few more details:

Thanks for looking. And thanks for all your comments on the last post. I'm glad y'all have my back on that.

anti anti rose manifesto

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:36:00 +0000

When I have an initial consult with a new potential client, among the questions I ask are "what flowers do you love?" and "are there any flowers that you hate?"

The single most common answer I get to the latter question is roses. I get requests to not use any roses in a good 2/3rds of my weddings. And while I would never ever ever use a flower one of my brides hated, I must admit that I fracking LOVE roses.

Rose haters, I think I understand. When you think of roses you perhaps think of pointy, bullet shaped roses that don't open, have no fragrance, are surrounded by leather fern and then sold at the grocery store. Or perhaps tight domes of all one type of rose that you associate with boring ballroom weddings. Or even a single red rose with a piece of babies breath wrapped up so tightly in cellophane that it's choking.

I hate all of those things too. But may I make a case anyway for the rose? I'm not even talking about garden roses, which some rose haters will begrudgingly accept as a peony substitute. I'm talking about things like this:

That orange guy in the front is Milva, possibly my favorite rose variety. It opens huge and has a rich, heady, honey-like scent. Here Milva is again:

Or how about my favorite yellow rose, Judy?
Another huge one, with a delicious cup-like shape when it opens. It thinks it's a garden rose, even though it's not. (Above pic by my girl Jessica.)

Not an orange and yellow person? How about my friends Aqua and Sweet Unique? Both lovely pink roses:

Or perhaps you prefer richer pinks? Or even softer?

Maybe instead you love a more sophisticated, muted palette? Please observe quicksand and camel:

Do you want something to sweeten the deal even more? Roses (not garden but the ones above) are available all year round, in almost every color, and cost only slightly more than, oh, let's say a ranunculus.

So let's use roses! Or not... and I'll (sigh) continue loving them silently and using them rarely.

As always: all floral work by me; click on any pic to see a bigger version.

she's like a rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:32:00 +0000

I just got a new camera. Well, new to me.... it was a starter camera for a photographer friend and she was selling it. I don't know if it's just the novelty of the new, but we did this wedding yesterday and I'm already sharing *faints*. There's just something about having lovely photos to share that I don't have to edit or color correct to make presentable. Just snap, upload, and blog. Hopefully I'll be sharing a lot more.

So Samantha and Chris got married yesterday at breathtaking Wayfarer's Chapel and had a reception at a nearby hotel in San Pedro. All I think I'll tell you about Samantha is that at one of our meetings she said quite emphatically "Pastels make me want to BARF." The flowers really explain the rest...

aaaaaand it's up!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:18:00 +0000

After working obsessively all week, the website update is live! Please check it out and tell me what you think! Also, I run IE and chrome, so if any Firefox or Safari users have trouble with glitches, please give me a heads up :)

Thanks everyone for your input and happy weekend!

click to visit!

this and that

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:25:00 +0000

How are you, lovely (but usually silent) readers? Talk to me!

I have been working all day on a website update. It's tedious. But a nice cocktail and some video games (don't judge) will set me straight.

Another florist copied my web design, and I figured it was high time for a revamp anyway, so I've been working away. This is my inspiration:

what do you think? I'm not sure why I never thought about actually using the color poppies come in as my palette before, but I'm loving it now. I'm changing my fonts to the same fonts I use for ghost academy for a bit of synergy. I'm changing the front page image to a phonograph because I love them and I'm sick of the typewriter. Which I also love. The black and white washi tape is just because I have a roll and am a bit obsessed with it. Thoughts? Critiques? Tell me now before it's done!

So far the site is coming out much brighter and more fun than before. Even though it was already bright and fun. I'm excited.

Random: Here is a picture of some centerpieces from last week:

Yes, that's a kitty sitting behind them. She inspects and then cuddles many arrangements.

Some of the ranunculus from last week were four inches across. They're from my favorite farm - local and family run for three generations.

p.s. we're on green wedding shoes today! With a Lady and the Tramp inspired anniversary shoot. I'm not a Disney girl and even I think it's adorable. Go look!

for Japan with love

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:43:00 +0000

It's hard to know what to do when your heart is hurting and you don't know how to help. Three girls (Lucia and Henny from Utterly Engaged and Lydia from Ever Ours) wanted to do something, and so they thought they would see if they could get a few wedding friends to pool donations. They selected Shelter Box, which provides emergency housing and essential supplies such as blankets, and cooking tools, as their charity. Each tent costs $1000, and they were hoping to be able to send five. Three days later, For Japan With Love has collected over $13,000.

If you have considered donating, this is a wonderful place to do it. Every little bit helps.

Find out more
Donate

inspiration boards of late

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:31:00 +0000

I thought I'd share some of the boards I've made for clients of late. Well, some are for clients, one is for an aborted photoshoot. Three are for clients who have booked already, one was for someone who didn't book, and one just went out to the bride 15 minutes ago. Guess which is which.

p.s. the new portfolio came today and is fabulous. I highly recommend blurb.
p.p.s. this weekend's wedding is having little stuffed polka dots on sticks coming out of the arrangements. Really. Jesi is making them.
p.p.p.s I sadly don't have photo credits for most of these. I'm terrible about saving them. I know there are three fruit arrangements made by Ariella and one lovely bouquet in the second board made by lovely Kate. Many others are made by me.

orphans

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:17:00 +0000

I just sent a new portfolio off to be printed, and I'm jumping up and down excited for it to come.

The sad part though is that it could be only 160 pages or I couldn't get premium paper.

Yes, ONLY 160 pages What?

So I have to leave behind so many orphan pictures. These are some of the ones that didn't make the cut. It hurts a bit to leave them behind.

Would it be bad to force potential clients to look at, say, 3 or 4 huge books of pictures so the orphans get seen too?

I don't think so. Client consults should take 3 hours, right? Nevermind.