Wedding Flowers: Five Unique Looks From a Recent Bridal Show

Creating flowers for bridal shows gives us the chance to showcase some of our most interesting and eye-catching wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, and arrangements.  We always set out to create bouquets in several different styles and color schemes, so that the future brides passing through can see the quality and variety of the work we do.  We did a bridal show a couple weeks ago, and thought we'd share some of the bouquets and boutonnieres that were created for the show here.

This first one is a really fun bouquet that we nick-named "The Orbit".  If you love bright colors, it doesn't get much more vibrant than this!  The contrast between the hot pink and orange spray roses, yellow freesia, and lime green lady's mantle really makes this wedding bouquet pop.  While the colors in and of themselves are fun, the bouquet is made even more so by the yellow balls of craspedia orbiting around it on lime green wire.  What fun!

Simple details like the orbiting craspedia can be incorporated into the boutonnieres as well, giving the wedding a consistent look.

If woodland chic is more your style, then you will love this wedding bouquet.  The natural elements such as the dried lotus pods, magnolia leaves and ferns give this bouquet a woodsy feel, while the burgundy calla lilies and green cymbidium orchids keep it elegant.  The uluhe fiddlehead ferns add a lot of style to the bouquet, and contrast nicely with the texture of the brasilia berries.  The stems are wrapped in a natural burlap ribbon with an accent of chocolate brown wire swirled to mimic the fiddleheads.  This woodsy bouquet would be beautiful against a chocolate brown or deep wine dress.

The woodland chic style is carried out through this boutonniere.  I love how the coppery brown color and velvety texture of the magnolia leaf contrasts with the deep brown color and smooth texture of the uluhe fiddlehead fern.  Little details like the brasilia berries tucked in and wrapping the stems with a piece of lily grass complete the look.

For a softer look, blues and lavenders are a very pretty option.  This loose hand-tied bouquet has almost a gardeny feel to it, but with the softer color pallet, it also feels very romantic.  The blue thistle provides a bit of structure, allowing the other flowers to gather softly between the stems.  Light blue delphinium and lavender stock give it some height, while the lavender spray roses and purple asters fill it in.  Seeded eucalyptus around the edge gives the bouquet an airy feel.

And here's the coordinating boutonniere of light blue delphinium, blue thistle, seeded eucalyptus, and limonium.  All of the different textures in this wedding boutonniere make it much more interesting than a run-of-the-mill rose.

A simple orange nosegay of gerber daisies and spray roses is taken from ordinary to extraordinary by adding a collar of artificial monarch wings.  Unexpected elements like this can make for a really eye-catching bouquet.

I love to make boutonnieres that will get noticed, and where it isn't always obvious what they are.  In this boutonniere, I knew that I wanted to do something with the monarch wings to tie in with the bouquet.  An orange gerber daisy looked great with them, but was too large for a boutonniere, so I opted to remove the petals and just use the center of the flower, and accented with a couple of orange spray rose buds.  The end result is a very intriguing boutonniere that people will look at and wonder what exactly it is.

Orchid bouquets are always stunning.  There is just something about orchids that is so graceful and beautiful.  In this bridal bouquet, I wanted to keep the focus on the purple vanda orchids, in order to truly highlight their beauty.  Simple loops of variegated lily grass and aspidistra leaves make a nice accent for the orchids, and give the bouquet it's overall shape and style, while the lime green button chrysanthemums give a vibrant contrast in color.  Green hydrangea is also tucked in behind the purple orchids to fill the bouquet in.  The above photo doesn't really do these orchids justice, as the light was reflecting off of them, so I wanted to be sure to share the photo below, which is much more accurate to their true appearance:

I hope that you have enjoyed viewing these wedding bouquets and boutonnieres!

Flowers for Halloween? Yes indeed!

Though you may not think of Halloween as being a holiday you would typically order flowers for, there are lots of fun and festive arrangements for the occasion.  Whether you're a fan of spooky or silly, frightful or fun, fresh flowers can add an unexpected element to your Halloween decor.  Attending a costume party?  A floral arrangement makes an excellent gift for the host, and will be sure to bring a cackle or two.  Designing arrangements for Halloween is lots of fun, as it gives us a chance to really get creative and experiment with flowers and materials.  Here's a few ideas for Halloween flowers that we've been working on:

Pumpkin on a Stick is one of my favorite things to use for Halloween arrangements.  With it's deep dark stems and vibrant orange "pumpkins" (they are actually a type of ornamental eggplant), it's just so perfectly Halloween.  To highlight the Pumpkin on a Stick, I kept the arrangement simple with the rest of the flowers low.  That fuzzy green stuff is a variety of Dianthus, commonly called "Green Trick", and I love the bright green color and mossy texture that it provides.  The rich chocolate brown center of the de-petaled sunflower adds a nice contrast and brings out the color of the stems.

Here's a fun Halloween arrangement that makes a statement.  These vases are specially designed to be filled with anything from candy corn, to sea shells, to dollar bills...how fun is that?  To go along with the colors of the candy corn, we've used orange gerber daisies and bright yellow sunflowers, filled in with thistile, bronze button mums, and green hypericum berries, and accented with black curly willow, Japanese lanterns, and a couple of long winding stems of plumosa fern.  

Boo!  A friendly little ghost peeks out from behind a gravestone in this spooky arrangement.  The white ghost is accompanied by assorted fall mums, autumn leaves, and Japanese lanterns.  The arrangement is made in a black glass cube vase, which makes a great keepsake after Halloween is over.

This arrangement has it all:  a bat, and black cat with a witches hat, all in a ceramic pumpkin.  What more do you need for Halloween?  How about some beautiful orange roses, Japanese lanterns, and assorted fall poms.  Meow!

Looking for something that will carry through past Halloween?  In this simple arrangement, a large glass cylinder vase is filled with river rocks and orange glass marbles, and contains branches of Pumpkin on a Stick and curly willow.  A perfect mix of elegance and fun for Autumn!

I hope that these ideas have provided you with some inspiration for Halloween decor.  Happy Halloween!