Real Weddings: Stephanie and Dave

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Stephanie and Dave were recently married on the beach front venue, The Malibu West Beach Club, on a sunny Saturday in May. They worked with Theresa Shlimanoff, of Hustle and Bustle Events. It was so good seeing Theresa again and I look forward to working with her again in the future!

Stephanie and Dave’s colors were pink, ivory, navy, and silver. With flowers, it was easy to bring in the pink and ivory using roses, peonies, ranunculus, hydrangea, and cymbidium orchids. For silver, we used touches of dusty miller (so beautiful!) and wrapped the centerpiece glass containers with a band of silver ribbon. The tables were covered with a lovely navy linen.
Stephanie’s bouquet was all white and ivory with “Polo” roses, cymbidium orchids, and lovely ivory peonies. Her bridesmaids carried bouquets of all pink flowers – peonies and roses



Boutonnieres for Dave and his groomsmen were a single “polo” rose with Dave’s subtly extra special with a couple of leaves of the silver leaf, dusty miller.
I love the arch we used for the ceremony. Stephanie wanted something simple and natural, made out of branches. Here we used three thin birch logs and secured them in white pots. Some simple, gauzy, organza draping blew gracefully in the breeze. And we finished off the look by attaching flowers to the top and sides: pink roses, white hydrangea, and dusty miller leaves.









Real Weddings: Stephani and Kyle / Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles CA

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Stephani and Kyle have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary, but when I was cleaning up files on my computer, I realized I forgot to post these beautiful images taken by Michael Seagel Photography! The (now pregnant!) couple was married at the impeccable Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on a sunny Sunday in May of last year.
It was a purple and ivory and lavender wedding – Stephani loves purple!
































Real Weddings: Alex and Jason/ Saddlerock Ranch, Malibu CA– on Style Me Pretty!

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Everyone’s favorite wedding blogsite, Style Me Pretty, recently featured a wedding we did at Saddle Rock Ranch in Malibu. Alex and Jason were married back in June of last year, so it was like seeing old friends again when I saw the blogpost. The flowers look simply stunning in these pictures taken by Hazelnut Photography!
Here are some of the pictures: 





  















Check out the full blog post here.


Real Weddings: Valerie and David

Valerie and David were recently married at the lovely Altadena Town and Country Club on a beautiful, sunny Sunday in February. It was a garden and vintage-inspired wedding in ivory, purple, and plum. We were at the height of ranunculus and anemone season – especially local varieties grown in Carpenteria.
The bride carried a hand-tied bouquet in a natural and wild style with peonies, anemones, lisianthus, limonium, waxflower, sword fern, and seeded eucalyptus. 


In contrast, the bridesmaids carried bouquets of mostly white and ivory flowers with accents of variegated Italian pittosporum leaves. The flowers included lisianthus, ranunculus, anemones, and snapdragons. I loved the rustic and sweet vintage feel of these bouquets.
Boutonnieres and corsages were made with ivory ranunculus accented with a succulent, plus light purple freesia for the women.





For the ceremony, we decorated the arch lightly concentrating at the top of the structure. In addition to the flowers, which consisted of limonium, anemones, lisianthus, ranunculus as well as seeded eucalyptus and ivy vines, we hung little glass mason jars with purple ribbon filled with the same purple and plum colored flowers.



Mason jars filled with spring flowers were hung from every other aisle chair, and the aisle was lined with ivory rose petals.
 

For the reception centerpieces, the flowers were held in silver metal buckets and surrounded by small mason jars filled with similar spring, garden flowers. As in the ceremony flowers, we used ranunculus, anemones, limonium, snapdragons, waxflower, lisianthus, and accents of sword fern and seeded eucalyptus.










Real Weddings: Corinna and Hide / Yamashiro, Hollywood, CA

It was a colorful wedding in red, purple, and pink at Yamashiro Restaurant in Hollywood. Corinna carried a hand-tied bouquet of purple hydrangea, pink cymbidium orchids, purple mini calla lilies, and deep red roses.
Each bridesmaid carried a similar, but simplified, bouquet of purple hydrangea and deep red roses.


Hide wore a pink cymbidium orchid boutonniere accented with horsetail, while the groomsmen and family members wore purple mini calla lily boutonnieres, also accented with horsetail.


The mothers wore wristlet corsages made of pink cymbidium orchids and purple mini calla lilies.
For the centerpieces, Corinna and Hide requested bright and vivid colored flowers arranged in a unique and modern design. Each table sat six guests and we placed a rectangular centerpiece in the center. We topped the surface of each black wooden box with purple or plum carnations and arranged a row of short pieces of horsetail down the mid-line of the box. Then we arranged, in parallel, red and fuchsia ranunculus, plum anemones, and magenta dendrobium orchids around the horsetail. As a finishing touch, we weaved several lengths of purple midollino around and throughout the flowers and horsetail. These unique and colorful centerpieces were a big hit!





Learning how to make a lei po’o on Kauai

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Last month hubby and I went to the lovely garden isle of Kauai to attend our friends’ Dallas and Rachelle’s wedding. On our second day there, I saw an article in the local paper about a lei making workshop at the Kauai Museum. It was not your typical needle lei-making class, but rather a 6 hour long affair to learn the wrapping or “wili” method of making a head lei or lei po’o. You know it’s going to be intense when they tell you to bring your own sack lunch!

Master lei maker Kumu Kalei Cadawas began the class with an introduction to some neat Hawaiian chants. Something to sing when you are on the mountain ready to begin collecting the materials for your lei. It is in essence a way to greet Nature and ask for permission to enter the forest and begin collecting leaves and flowers. Kumu (which means “teacher”) Kalei also included an inspirational chant for when you find yourself feeling tired and sluggish from working on the same lei for over 5 hours!
There were about 10 women in the workshop and we sat in the shade of the courtyard of the historical Kauai museum. The sun was shining and there was a slight cool breeze – how wonderful to learn and work with plants and flowers outdoors!

Each student received a lovely parcel of goodies wrapped specially in several ti leaves. 
After untying the piece of raffia at the top, the ti leaves separated and fell down, opening like a blossoming flower to reveal all the ferns and flowers we would be using for our lei po’o. What a delicious surprise! I had never seen this way of packaging before and loved it! We re-used the ti leaf package to hold our leis at the end of class.


Here is a picture of the finished product!

Notice how the inside of the lei is completely covered with ferns making it comfortable to wear – no errant stems sticking you in the head.


After class, I asked Kumu Kalei if it would be appropriate to wear the lei I just made to Dallas and Rachelle’s wedding. He replied that it was very much appropriate indeed. In fact, giving the gift of lei is very special and is a gift of the heart. I considered giving the lei to the bride and groom, but I only had one to give and suspected they probably had their own leis specially prepared for the wedding. So I wore the head lei to the wedding (to poor hubby’s embarrassment!) which was a lot of fun. After the ceremony, I gave it to Dallas and he wore it for their after wedding pictures and almost the entire rest of the evening. He got a little too sweaty with it on after he started to boogie.

Real Weddings: Gloria and Emmanuel / Aquarium of the pacific , Long Beach CA

Mr. and Mrs. Jacinto were recently married at St. Lorenzo Ruiz Catholic Church in Walnut and then held their reception at the famous Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I was very excited to get to visit the aquarium again because it had been a while since I last been!
Gloria couldn’t have picked a more fitting color scheme for her wedding – orange and blue. I love this color combination and don’t get to work with it that often when it comes to weddings. Although blue can be a very difficult color to use when it comes to flowers, there is a very stunning dark blue hydrangea I love. Here are the bridesmaids bouquets in deep blue hydrangea, orange “circus” roses, gold cymbidium orchids, and orange freesia.
Gloria’s bridal bouquet was mostly white for that bridal look, with orange flowers to go with the overall theme. We used white mini calla lilies, ranunculus, and ivory “polo” roses.



The ceremony altar flowers were also white and orange: Casablanca lilies, hydrangea, “circus” roses, orange mokara orchids, white gladiolas, and curly willow branches.
And finally the reception! Gloria loved the look of deco beads, which are these cool re-hydrated beads that come in all sorts of colors. For the centerpieces we used two cylinders, a 4″ cylinder within a 6″ cylinder, and poured the deco beads into the space between the vases. Then we submerged blue LED lights into the inner vase within the stems so that the vases glowed and blue light emanated through the beads when the ambient lights dim. Something about the round shapes of the deco beads mimicking bubbles and the blue lights reflecting the blueness of the aquarium exhibits – it was simply perfect for the aquarium!







Real Weddings: Denise and David / Shutters Hotel, Santa Monica CA

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Denise and David were married at the beautiful hotel, Shutters on the Beach, in Santa Monica. A romantic winter wedding, their colors were deep red, white, and light green. Some amazing pictures by Michael Segal. ( bad ones by our phone)

Denise carried a bridal bouquet of deep red and white flowers: white peonies, white “polo” roses, red “avanta” garden roses, white cymbidium orchids, and dark burgundy schwarzwalder mini calla lilies.
Her bridesmaids carried bouquets of light green cymbidium orchids and deep red “Black Magic” roses.


Boutonnieres was made with ivory cymbidium orchid accented with a hypericum berry, plus lily grass.
I love these floral ring bearer pillows! This one was made of green kermit poms and accented with freesia and a cymbidium orchid.
The ceremony was held on the pool deck at sunset with the Pacific Ocean in view.

Tall white arrangements of hydrangea and “casablanca” lilies were placed on pedestals framing the bride and groom.


A light green cymbidium orchid was placed at each place setting on the reception tables. We also made three tall separate, yet similar, designs for the centerpieces. For each centerpiece we used white orchids, hydrangea, and light green hypericum berries. We also accented the centerpieces with hanging crystals.
Here’s design #1, a sphere of hydrangea, roses, and hypericum berry placed on a cylinder with immersed white dendrobium orchids. Long stems of white dendrobium orchids radiate out and downward with 10″ crystal strands attached to the stems.




Here’s design #2 featuring curly willow branches, cymbidium orchids, and dendrobium orchids; a classic arrangement with stems in the water.

I really liked how this design turned out (#3). We placed a sphere of hydrangea and hypericum berry on top of a cylinder filled with immersed white dendrobium orchid stems. Curly willow branches radiated up and out from the top center of the floral sphere and were accented with long white Hawaiian dendrobium orchids. We finished the arrangement by hanging clear teardrop shaped crystals from the branches.



Beautiful sunset.










Real Weddings: Tina and Mauricio / Castaway , Burbank CA

Tina and Mauricio were married at The Castaway Restaurant in Burbank. Set atop a hill, the restaurant has 360 degree views of Los Angeles. Lots of twinkling lights in the evening when the reception is in full swing. However, we had a rainier than usual October and on the day of Tina and Mauricio’s wedding, it was pouring rain. So they moved the ceremony from the outdoor patio to the ballroom.

When I talked to Tina about her wedding flowers, she mentioned a lot of things she loved – in particular, green cymbidium orchids and red berries. The table linens were in a dark chocolate brown and her matron of honor was wearing a fuchsia satin dress.
For the wedding arch, we hung floral spheres made of green kermit poms and white daisies tied with fuchsia satin ribbon. In between and around the floral spheres, we tied hanging glass icicle-shaped bud vases filled with stems of pink ranunculus, anemones, and hypericum berry.

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The bride carried a bouquet of green cymbidium orchids, white cymbidium orchids, white freesia, and lots of red hypericum berries. Her matron of honor carried a bouquet of all pink cymbidium orchids accented with lots of hypericum berry.



Mauricio wore a boutonniere made of a white cymbidium orchid and accented with hypericum berry. His best man and the fathers wore boutonnieres of all red hypericum berry with a touch of jade green trachelium.
The moms wore wristlets of green cymbidium orchids, white freesia, and red hypericum berry.




For the reception table centerpieces, we made two-tiered arrangements filled with mostly pink flowers and maidenhair fern for a lush, garden look. We used all in-season flowers – ranunculus, dahlias, sweetpeas, anemones, alstroemeria, green baby hydrangea, magenta mokara orchids, green dendrobiums, hot pink spray roses, red hypericum berry, and amazing tree peonies.
Tree peonies usually start showing up in the market for the month of October and come in beautiful shades of pink, purple, yellow, and peach. The stems come short so they work best in centerpieces as opposed to hand-tied bouquets. They have enormous blooms with large fluffy petals – so beautiful!!


Around the centerpieces were personalized Kleenex boxes at each place setting as favors for the guests. I had never seen this before and thought it was a great idea – very practical and cute too!





Real Weddings: Betty and Mike / Four Season Hotel, Westlake Village ,CA

Betty and Mike were married at the immaculate Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village. The colors were pale pink, ivory, and gold and the theme was classic simplicity with a chic French twist, featuring plumes of ivory ostrich feathers! Tiny Wren Press (aka moi!) got to help Betty and Mike with their letterpress invitationstoo!
To help cut down on costs, the tall reception centerpieces served double duty and were featured as the wedding ceremony flowers. The flowers were the same, but we made them look slightly different, arranging some of the feathers at the bottom of the arrangement and some at the top. Also, to slightly “disguise” them, we placed the flowers on gold aisle posts arranged in an arc surrounding the bridal party.

We arranged the pale pink and ivory petals into swirls and curls down the length of the aisle. Lucky for us, there was hardly any wind that day! I have always loved the look of petals making a pattern down the aisle! Surprisingly, it isn’t as difficult as it looks, but does require more petals than usual and getting down on hands and knees in the soft fluffy grass.




Betty carried a lovely bouquet of pale pink and ivory flowers. There were white cymbidium orchids with pale pink lips, pale pink roses, ranunculus, and lisianthus, ivory “polo” roses, white freesia, and white sweetpeas.
The bridesmaids carried smaller, simpler bouquets of similar flowers.


Here’s a close-up of the flowers in the bridal bouquet.



For the reception table centerpieces, we had half low and half tall arrangements with the same flowers. The low arrangements were held in gold, glass footed bowls and the tall arrangements in 21″ curvy, footed clear glass vases. The flowers included: roses in ivory and pale pink, ivory and pink hydrangea, ranunculus, sweetpeas, dahlias, and lisianthus. The ivory plumes of ostrich feathers arranged at an angle completed the look!
We decorated the lovely cupcake wedding cake tier with a ring of pink hydrangea at the bottom of the cupcake tier. The toss bouquet and loose blossoms were arranged around the table.

The little sugar birds on the top of the cupcake cake were too cute!!





Real Weddings: Lisa and Raul

Lisa and Raul were married at the lovely venue, Occasions, in downtown El Segundo. The ceremony was held in the garden and the bride and groom stood beneath a wrought iron canopy. We decorated the canopy with ivy vine, roses, dahlia, seeded eucalyptus, and hydrangea. The colors were subtle – pale pinks, peach, gold, ivory, and greenery – so it all blended and fit well with the rest of the garden.
Mason jars of dahlia, roses, stock, and snapdragons hung from the aisle chairs.



The bride carried a gorgeous bouquet in the garden style with dark brown/burgundy cymbidium orchids, pale yellow ranunculus, pink lisianthus, ivory roses, pale pink cymbidium orchids, pink ranunculus, peach roses, golden orange dahlia, and white snowberries.

The groom wore a matching boutonniere featuring a pale yellow rose accented with dusty miller and snowberries. Groomsmen and family members wore ranunculus boutonnieres accented with dusty miller.

The bridesmaid bouquet was similar to the bride’s, but with slightly fewer flowers for a simpler bouquet.

The mothers wore wristlets of burgundy/brown cymbidium orchids with dusty miller and snowberries.
Reception table centerpieces were also in the garden style. Dahlias, snapdragons, roses, stock, ranunculus, hydrangea, snowberries, and seeded eucalyptus were held in brown wooden boxes. Tea lights in 1/2 pint jelly jars surrounded each centerpiece.





For the escort card and guestbook table, we placed a medium arrangement of garden flowers in a 1 pint mason jar. The edge of the table was lined with smaller mason jars holding stems of garden flowers – dahlias, stock, snapdragons, seeded eucalyptus, roses, and ranunculus.
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We placed a cake topper of flowers on the top tier of the wedding cake and decorated each tier with small cluster of flowers. The bottom tier was surrounded by ivory, peach, and light orange rose petals. I loved how the flowers looked against the exposed brick wall!

Real Weddings: Jennifer and Michael / Calamigos Ranch, Malibu CA

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Jennifer and Michael were married at Calamigos Ranch, in the lovely Cottage Pavilion. Jennifer loves orchids!! So we featured several different types of orchids in her wedding color scheme of white, green, and purple. Calla lilies were also used in white and purple.

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of all bright green cymbidium orchids.

 Jennifer carried a bouquet of white cymbidium orchids with purple lips mixed with white mini calla lilies.
An modern installation of 5 tall clear glass cylinders were arranged on the escort card table. The two taller cylinders were topped with purple mokara orchids and the lower cylinders held bouquets of purple mini calla lilies.
On each cocktail table, we placed a clear glass vase with vines and long stemmed purple mini calla lilies twisting within the vase.
A tall manzanita branch arrangement was placed on the guestbook table next to wedding pictures of the bride and groom’s parents. I always get a big kick out of seeing these vintage wedding pictures – love it! We anchored the sandblasted manzanita branches in a tall glass square vase filled with white pebbles. I like how you can see the pebbles through the glass of the vase making it look like the branches are in a white vase. The branches were decorated with white cymbidium orchid blossoms, clear crystals, and stems of purple dendrobium orchids.
The ring bearing flower girl carried the sweetest pillow made from flowers! Here we used green kermit poms and tied a white satin ribbon around the pillow and accented it with orchids.

For the aisle chair decor, we tied entire stems of green cymbidium orchids onto every other chair with purple satin ribbon.
The reception was held under a big white tent decorated with twinkling lights. Each table held a tall skinny white tower vase topped with all purple dendrobium orchids. And flickering battery-operated tea lights in frosted glass votive holders completed the look.
Stay tuned for John Li’s gorgeous photographs of the lovely bride and groom on their wedding day!

Real Weddings: Gina and Will

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Gina and Will choose vivid wedding colors of orange and blue. I loved how these orange summery flowers looked against such deep and intense blue hydrangea!
For her wedding bouquet, we used golden cymbidium orchids, white mini calla lilies, “caramel antique” garden roses, white freesia, and orange tulips.
Gina was also a little bit of a DIY-bride. She found her own clear glass vases to use for the reception and The Flower Lab filled them with flowers. We used large and fluffy deep orange dahlia, garden roses, alstroemeria, roses, blue hydrangea, and chocolate geranium leaves.

These small square vases each held 3 stems of dahlia and were placed on the cocktail tables.


Tall stems of orange “mango” calla lilies were held in skinny clear glass rectangular vases.



Real Weddings: Angeles and Steve / Hotel Maya , Long Beach CA

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Angeles and Steve were married at the Hotel Maya in Long Beach. It was a purple and lavender themed wedding with accents of pink and ivory. I loved the decor at the Hotel Maya – lots of eclectic furnishings and wall hangings.
The ceremony was held outdoors with a view of the water and downtown Long Beach. We decorated the chuppah with ivy, hydrangea, lisianthus, roses, and delphinium.
Angeles carried a bouquet of purple hydrangea, pink lisianthus, purple freesia, “polo” roses, and cafe au lait dahlia. The bridesmaids bouquets featured purple lisianthus, cool water roses, and pink cymbidium orchids.



The ring bearer carried a small pillow made of variegated ti leaves and decorated with white and pink cymbidium orchids and purple dendrobium orchids.

For the escort card table, we made a manzanita branch arrangement with sandblasted manzanita branches decorated with hanging pink crystals, orchids, and hydrangea. We covered the base with purple and lavender hydrangea and ivory roses. Pink crystals were draped throughout the branches and we glued white dendrobium orchids and pink cymbidium orchids to the branches.
The centerpieces were comprised of a grouping of three rectangular vases each with a layer of sand and white cymbidium orchids. The cymbidium orchids had purple on the lips – perfect for the purple and lavender themed wedding

We decorated the cake with white and pink cymbidium orchids. A toss bouquet accented the table and we edged the cake table with orchids and lisiathus blossoms.








Real Weddings: Marjan and Arman / Saddlerock Ranch, Malibu CA

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The Flower Lab recently helped set up another wedding at the extraordinary Saddle Rock Ranch. It was another perfect Saturday with clear blue skies. The horses were frolicking, the zebras were snoozing, and the llama didn’t spit at anyone.
In the Persian tradition, the bride and groom sat at a table laden with nuts and sweets during the ceremony. Here, we decorated the canopy with sheer organza draping and accented with white hydrangea and green cymbidium orchids. Centerpieces of white hydrangea lined the front of the table and two tall manzanita trees framed the bride and groom. The trees were decorated with puffs of hydrangea, cymbidium orchid blossoms, hanging crystals, and floral spheres comprised of green kermit poms.






Individual green cymbidium orchid blossoms accented with a crystal and tied with ivory satin ribbon adorned each aisle chair. I love how effectively simple (and economical) this method of decorating the aisle chairs is.
Marjan carried a gorgeous, large bouquet of all green cymbidium orchids. Triumphal!!

Petite poseys of soft white peonies were carried by the sisters.

Cute floral spheres made of kermit poms were topped with white cymbidium orchids for a couture look.

One of my favorite style of arrangement for a long, rectangular escort card table, this arrangement of bleached corkscrew willow branches, white hydrangea, dendrobium orchids, and cymbidiums is interesting and unique.

Fluffy, bulbous centerpieces of white hydrangea have an asymmetrical flair of green dendrobium orchid stems and curly willow branch accent. They look so haute couture to me that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump up and prance down the catwalk!


Real Weddings: Jennifer and Jasen / Redondo Beach Historic Library, Redondo Beach CA

I love the flowers in Jennifer’s bouquet: white peonies, “polo” roses, and white cymbidium orchids with sweet little yellow marks in the lips. My new favorite ivory rose to use are “polo” roses because they open beautifully and look like vintage garden roses.
Jennifer and Jasen held their wedding reception at the Redondo Beach Historic Library – a very unique venue for a wedding (I am a big fan of libraries!). Their colors were ivory, green, and teal. For the green bridesmaid bouquets, we used baby green hydrangea, “super green” roses, and lime green cymbidium orchids.

Tall arrangements for the church altar were comprised of velvety green gladiolas and white fluffy hydrangea.



Tiffany (my assistant extraordinaire) took most of these pictures. I really like the composition of this picture of the wedding cake topper – so creative! The flowers we used include hydrangea, cymbidiums, and roses.

Corsages for the moms featured light green mini cymbidium orchids as well as white freesia.

I really like how the floating centerpieces turned out – not your typical arrangement with a few floating orchids in a lily bowl. The lily bowl has been arounda long time, but here they look fresh and re-invented! I attribute it to the use of lush, leafy passion vines wrapped around the edge, some parts placed inside the bowl, and other parts above and outside of the bowl. Stems of white and green dendrobium orchids are not rigidly placed in the bowl, but rather allowed to breathe and angle over and around the lip of the bowl. Everything is kept tidy and within the glass bowl, but also looking loose and modern. So simple, yet looks elegant and new!


All the centerpieces lined up and ready to go!