Whew!
What a crazy weekend for a first post. We had not one, but TWO gorgeous weddings to put together, which meant our shop was jam-packed with fancy flowers, and of course our brides had two different ideas for what they wanted so we really had to shift gears from one thing to the other. Weddings are pretty much all hands on deck here, and we stay until the work is done — and for our boss, “done” means “perfect,” because our brides are the most important part of our business. (Seriously, you’ve gotta figure that everything else on that day is gonna be so nuts that you should at least know your flowers are going to be exactly how you wanted them.)
Fortunately, one wedding was on Saturday and the other was on Sunday, which meant we didn’t have to scramble back and forth to get both weddings set up at the same time. Nobody wants a frazzled florist! Saturday’s wedding was a garden explosion of beautiful blushes and ivories and peaches, not to mention — this is always my favorite — succulents. The thing about succulents is that they sometimes get cranky when they’re not being planted, so you have to be very gentle with them. But when all is said and done, honestly, they are so gorgeous in a big bundle of flowers, or just resting on a handsome gentleman’s lapel.
Our Saturday bride’s flowers were big and bold: white and pink O’Hara roses blow open huge and have that stunning garden look to them, not to mention the peach Garden Spirit roses. And her ivory peonies had the same big and fluffy appeal. All these big roses had their little spray rose cousins tagging along (in peach, of course), and ranunculus — they’re adorable little flower whirls.
Keep in mind, I want you to either get some ideas for your special event, or just to broaden your knowledge of the different types of flowers, because who knows when that’s gonna come in handy? Jeopardy, probably. Anyway!
She also had some Tibet roses (ivory), which are the kind that typically hold tight, as opposed to the rose explosions from the garden variety. For greenery, we had huckleberry and Italian ruscus tips (one of my personal favorites). And she had every bouquet wrapped in white satin — both classic and classy.
Now, the boutonnieres aren’t as big as the bouquets in any wedding, but they still need to be special. And for any wedding, “special” means it needs to be beautiful, of course… but when it’s easy to make, that’s a big bonus. This bride’s boutonnieres included white lisianthus, variegated pittosporum (which, I’ll tell you a secret — it has a really strong smell when it’s cut!), and the ever-stunning succulents. Lisianthus look to me like ranunculus and hibiscus had a little fluffy baby, especially when they open up. For those succulents, though, they had to be carefully hand-picked from our fairly large succulent selection, just to make sure they were the right size AND the right shape to sit delicately on a gentleman’s shoulder.
You probably wouldn’t think that the lovely lotus sitting in your dish garden right now is a fussy thing, but they are homebodies. They like to stay where they’re comfy… and honestly, who doesn’t sympathize with that at least a little bit?
The venue of choice was Front & Palmer, a very cool spot in Philadelphia, PA, which was once a barrel factory before a thorough makeover turned it into a unique event location.
Dana, their wedding photographer representing First Impression Photography in Delran, NJ did a great job — and she was generous enough to let me put her photos on this blog. Trust me, our pictures may focus more on the flowers, but they would not look as nice.
…No offense, Scavullo. (That’s what our head designer calls the boss when she’s shooting pictures from the top down!)
All in all, it’s the final product that matters. As long as the bride and groom love their flowers — and each other — then mission accomplished. Another summer wedding come and gone!
Zenplicity's Flowers 