Lovely Leaves

I love leaves.  Aspidestra, Calathea, Banana, Cordeline, love em.  Love those leaves.  Here are some different ways of incorporating them into design.

Feature Flower of the Week – Leucadendron

Designs Featuring Leucadendron

CHAIRS!

Chairs are a great place for decor… Floral decor!  Whether they are being used in the ceremony or the reception.  Adding floral decor can bring a lot of lovely for a little money!  Take a look at these designs featuring flowers being used as ceremony aisle decor on the chairs and then using them in the reception.

CEREMONY CHAIRS & AISLES

RECEPTION CHAIRS

Super Fun Bouquets

Awesome bouquets – Just love them!  Fun and funky – and just something different and unique in each one!  I’m a big fan of feathers – can you tell?

Front of House

People tend to underestimate the importance of the front of house flowers.  Some people say it is completely unnecessary.  I disagree and here’s why.

The Front of House Flowers….

1. …set the stage and scale of the ceremony
2. …set the mood and theme for the wedding
3. …give the guests something to look at while they are seated and waiting for the bridal party to arrive
4. … are the background to your ceremony pictures and video
5. …tie in the colours of the clothing, bouquets, decor and more
6. …can be moved and re-used to be a huge focal in the reception

Take a little look at some great Large Ceremony Front of House Arrangements (some of which have been moved and used elsewhere – guest table, cocktail tables, entrance to the reception)

Give Orange a Chance

Orange used to be my favorite colour when I was a kid.  I loved it.  A LOT.  My 11th birthday party was an orange theme.  Everyone had to wear orange and every food had to be orange… Everybody wrapped my presents in orange paper and bags.  As I grew up my love for orange diminished.  It’s not that I hate the colour – I just don’t love it like I did.  Now that I have been working with flowers for a while this love of orange is creeping back.  I feel significantly disappointed as each wedding goes by with no orange flowers.  Here’s some of my favourite bouquet designs featuring ORANGE FLOWERS!  Check out my Jenn designs on my website too!

Fun & Unique Floral Ideas

These are some of my FAVORITES that I have come across in my recent internet searching.

I will make comments top to bottom – left to right!

1. The Most Beautiful Chuppah in the World.  You may call it an arbour, or archway, a chuppah or something pretty to look at and the thing you stand under when you get married… Whatever you want to call it.  This is the most gorgeous one I have ever seen.  Wrapped with branches and vines with touches of greens and clusters of fresh flowers.  AMAZING.

2. Great colours – and Cowboy Boots.  Well I love out-of-the-ordinary and even daring.  And wearing cowboy boots with your wedding dress really fits the part!  But the colour scheme is playing off the usual pink & purple by adding yellows to work off of the coral/orange bridesmaid dresses.  Daring!

3. Extraordinary Ceremony Venue.  Not only is the flower decor fantastic with the petal carpet and strings of flowers from the tree, but these choices just match so well with the venue.  It is just so gorgeous, I don’t know very many people who wouldn’t want to get married here!

4. Fun, Funky & Fresh Bouquet.  I love a ‘spicy meatball’ of a bouquet – especially by adding pincushion proteas which are a fan of texture’s dream flower – LOVE IT!

5. Perfect Outdoor Beachy Wedding.  Not very often is a lime green matched with a pale turquoise or blue for a wedding… But it totally works in this outdoor event!  Flowers everywhere – Green flowers everywhere.  Stunning!

6. Unique and Extravagent Bouquet.  I just love it.  It’s shape is a little bit different, it’s style is a little bit different, the colours are a little bit different… It’s not a “normal” bouquet – And I like it!

7. Perfect Place Setting.  Adding a single orchid to the corner, bottom, or top of a menu looks amazing when the tables are all set up and ready to go – BUT, when you add a large aspidestra leaf behind with a piece of snake grass – you have yourself a masterpiece of a place setting.  A simple (and fairly inexpensive) way to add some “SHA-ZAM” to your reception decor.

8. Daring Colour Combo.  Have you ever seen a dark red and light turquoise wedding.  I love 2 bold colours for a colour theme.  This is a daring drama filled wedding colour combo.  I almost want to get married again!

9. Out-of-the-Ordinary a Haku lei, Floral Head Wreath, Flower Halo or whatever you like to call them!  This one is beautiful!  If you don’t feel like carrying a bouquet, try a head piece instead.  Much lighter

10. COLOUR. I love a solid colour wedding – It’s glamorous.  But if you are more of a fiesta kind of person – then check out mixing and matching with your flower decor and changing up some seat covers. Not to mention adding some more flowers on those too!

11. Spectacular Ceremony Decor.  This is that same daring wedding as picture #8.  But the way they have laid out those petals for a carpet design for the aisle is rarely done and WOW.  Just WOW!  I wish I’d thought of that.

12. The NEW kind of Cake.  Are you diabetic?  Never been a fan of cake?  Have a cake made of flowers and you have yourself a gorgeous piece of floral art for your reception!

13. Shoes, Flowers & Colour.  Not too sure about having too much “POW” in your flowers knowing you will be looking back in 20 years asking yourself “What was I thinking”?  Try a fun colour pair of shoes, something that won’t be in every single picture… Or at least not your 18×24 framed in your house!

Enjoy!  And please check out our latest updates on dandieandiedesigns.com

And you thought a rose was your only choice…

I find that I am picky about bouts… Even more than corsages.  The reason is that they generally stand out A LOT against a dark suit/tux.  I think that the bout is a fantastic opportunity to make a statement (without breaking the bank).  It is the opportunity for a little fun without an overwhelming ‘what the heck is on the groom’s jacket’.

I can’t help but look back at the bouts from my wedding, wishing we’d gone a little bit more ‘out there’ with our single cymbidium orchid… But 4 years ago, that was still up and coming.  Now it is quite the norm. Looking at the last picture above just by using a different kind of orchid (mokara), using a bright colour (hot pink) and having it wrapped uniquely with texture (my key word in my designs – TEXTURE) brings a completely different look!

Before asking for a single rose boutonniere for your wedding ask about other options (including what your florist likes).  I tend to do my best work when I have a bit of freedom for creativity!  That’s why I’m a florist!  Let me pitch an idea to you… There is always room for compromise!

My in laws are coming from England to visit for 2 weeks on Saturday so I am on vacation.  Posts will re-appear when I get back from my family stay-cation!

Have a great rest of June!

Orchids Galore

Orchids are wonderful – they are great form flowers that do so well out of water.  The make a fantastic option for boutonnieres and corsages.  With so many types and colours to choose from – there is always an orchid option for you!