folding paper

This wedding was so much fun, and so much work!



The bride's incredible mother did most of the work by creating a boatload of origami for me to wire and use. It was a lovely personalized touch.





Thanks Andrea for a beautiful day!

sneak peek

goings on in my cave space this week......

origami and pins and needles

A major element in the design for this week's wedding is origami.  My bride's mother is Japanese and a credentialed origami instructor.  She mailed me boxes of the most perfectly folded tiny origami elements to use for the wedding, and I've spent a good portion of the week wiring everything, which has proved about as time consuming as it sounds.  But I'm excited to see it come together.  I'm a huge fan of using origami for event decor, especially as a nod to the bride's heritage.

pinterest (source?)

borrowed and bleu

the crane chandelier project at the wedding co

origami place cards via pinterest (source?)

hanging cranes at the selby

in progress

Mini manzanita trees taking form.  My dear husband deserves cookies for all his help.

featured: manzanita

I'm working on a wedding that is incorporating manzanita branches as mini-trees.  Here's a few examples of this technique:

kaboodle

BZ events

living in the 513

wish special events

LA Botanicals

Elizabeth Ann Designs

Elizabeth Ann Designs

Elizabeth Ann Designs

featured: gypsophilia

Every flower is lovely (excepting perhaps flowers that smell bad) but some flowers get a bad reputation from being used poorly repeatedly over time.

The best examples of this are carnations and gypsophilia, or baby's breath.  The problem with the usual application of baby's breath is that it plays to its weaknesses rather than its strengths.  People often attempt to "artfully scatter" baby's breath amongst things, and a single stem of gypsophilia will always look rather naked.  The true beauty of this flower is best showcased en mass.

FYI, the most common varieties of gypsophilia are bambino, cassiopeia,  million stars, new love, mirabella, orion, and perfecta.

the petal's edge

No other flower can quite create the delicate, full silhouette that gypsophilia can. In large bunches it is the perfect balance of flower to green plant matter to create something reminiscent of froth and lace.  I'm particularly fond of these applications:

Megan Hobson

Pacific Weddings

JL Designs

wedding bee

wedding bee

the knot

lalalaurie

wedding bee

source?

rex and regina

leftovers

I had some gypsophilia and salal left over from last week's wedding.  Lucky for me, those are both excellent for drying.  So I made a few wreaths to hang around my mother's house.  Waste not, want not!

Amy and Roy Wedding

{ETA: This wedding was featured on Magnifique Photography (hooray!)  See the feature here.}
There was lots of praying for cooperative weather this weekend.  While it didn't exactly deliver, I'm glad my bride stuck to her outdoor venue.  It was beautiful.  And the flowers loved the snow, even if the guests didn't!

Easter

I had enough flowers left over from the funeral piece this week that I wanted to do something egg-shaped for Easter.  I picked up some pink spray roses and tulips at the supermarket, and the rest is what I still had on hand.  This does not make for the freshest arrangement, but I still think there's a loveliness to it.



And after I finished this piece I had extra pinks and still had some aspidistra leaves. I threw this mini together for my mother's vanity.

Up for bid

I created these arrangements for a charity auction last week.   When I'm left to my own devices I always seem to gravitate toward the Hogarth curve and the Phoenix design.  They're just such statement shapes, and make it so easy to showcase gorgeous flowers.





I could have done without wiring all those bells of ireland though.  Being phototropic they will bend toward the light, even after they are cut.  So if I want them to stay put, they must be wired.

Funeral Spray

This week I made my first (and maybe last) funeral spray.  It's good to have done, now I know what to say the next time someone asks me for an estimate on one.  (I was clueless).  Definitely not an area I want to specialize in, but I'm all about trying new things!

lookie!

Check out my work featured in this wedding shoot over at Magnifique photography!
Go me!