The 2012 Portland Bridal Show

We had a great time at the 2012 Portland Bridal Show this weekend!  It's always fun to meet and talk with all of the brides-to-be, and it's also a great opportunity to connect with other wedding professionals.  Not to mention a chance to try out some new designs in wedding flowers!  Here's a few pictures from the show:

Our booth display at the 2012 Portland Bridal Show

Wedding bouquets and arrangements

More wedding bouquets and arrangements

And now for a closer look at some of those bridal bouquets, centerpieces, and boutonnieres:

We always like to do a tall centerpiece such as this for the shows, as they always grab people's attention.  While these centerpieces can be quite expensive, if you are on a budget you don't necessarily need to have them on every table.  Having just a few of these, mixed with other smaller centerpieces on other tables, still gives you that wow factor.  In this arrangement:  bells of Ireland, white lilies, green fuji mums, white snapdragons, peach roses, and assorted greenery.

If you're looking for something a little less extravagant, these cylinders are a nice option for simple wedding centerpieces.  These cylinders are filled with blue glass marbles, vanda orchids, and white floating candles, but they could be done in any color with nearly any flower inside.

This hand-tied bouquet would be perfect for a beach themed wedding.  Blues and lavenders are an excellent color palette for a seaside wedding.  In this bouquet:  blue hydrangea, lavender freesia, blue thistle, white roses, lavender lisianthus, muscari (grape hyacinth), blue delphinium, seeded eucalyptus, and sea urchins with sparkly rhinestones in the centers.

Coordinating boutonniere of thistle, lisianthus buds, and seeded eucalyptus, wrapped with periwinkle ribbon and accented with a rhinestone pin.

Keeping with the beach theme is this lantern arrangement.  Inside the lantern is a battery operated pillar candle surrounded by sand, shells, and sea glass.  A spray of flowers adorns the top of the lantern.  Wouldn't this be lovely on a guest book table?  

For a black and white wedding theme, you can do one of two things:  add an accent color for the flowers to give a nice pop of contrast, or incorporate non-floral elements to create an all black and white bouquet.  Either way you go, black and white is definitely a striking wedding palette.  In this bouquet:  white mini calla lilies, white ranunculus, white freesia, white anemones, stephanotis with black pearl centers, viburnum berries, black feathers, and some fun black and silver ting ting around the edge.

A coordinating boutonniere of stephanotis with black pearl centers, viburnum berries, and black feathers, all tucked neatly into a cone made of black and silver ribbon.

Here's a fun table centerpiece for a black and white wedding theme!  A black square vase is filled with white gerber daisies, black feathers, viburnum berries, and babies breath.  For added pizazz, black and silver ribbon is wrapped around the bottom of the vase, and black and silver ting ting is sprouting up from the center to give it some height.

Speaking of fun, it doesn't get much more fun than this bouquet!  From the vibrant colors to the spunky style, this hand-tied bouquet won't go unnoticed.  In this bouquet:  orange mini gerbers, orange and hot pink spray roses, and orange freesia, with gloriosa lilies and variegated lily grass around the edge and pink nerine lilies in the center.  Little orange flower jewels scattered throughout the bouquet give it some sparkle.

A coordinating boutonniere of an orange spray rose and pink nerine blossoms, wrapped with variegated lily grass.

The loose gardeny bouquet was a popular look in 2011, and we expect the trend to continue in 2012.  In this bouquet:  green hydrangea, deep pink peonies, purple lisianthus, pink roses, white veronica, white and pink ranunculus, and lavender freesia.

Another interesting look that is gaining popularity is grouping.  A grouped bouquet has clusters of flowers that are grouped together rather than intersperced throughout the bouquet.  In this bouquet:  yellow cymbidium orchids, red spray roses, yellow hypericum berries, burgundy mini carnations, yellow roses, green hydrangea, scabiosa pods, seeded eucalyptus, and viburnum berries.

If you're having an autumn wedding but don't want to go with the typical fall colors of red, orange, and yellow, here's a color scheme that's a bit different from the ordinary.  In this bouquet:  green cymbidium orchids, red and orange roses, fern curls, green fuji mums, scabiosa pods, and magnolia leaves.

And lastly, let's take a closer look at the columns.  The columns were topped with a boston fern, draped with white fabric, and adorned with a cluster of greenery and flowers on the side.

The clusters included a variety of greens, purple ornamental kale, pink cymbidium orchids, and heather.  After I made these, we looked at them and thought they would actually make a beautiful bridal bouquet too.

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!