Evergreens

So, I have a bucket full of evergreens. They are soaking up water and waiting for me to do something with them. But, what shall I do?

A wreath?
A swag?
A centerpiece?
A garland?

Shall it be red and green and shiney?
Shall it be natural and woody and full of pinecones?

Should I add some gnarly old branches or maybe some smooth birch branches?

On the table?
Over the fireplace?
On the door?

Living room?
Dining room?
Entry way?

So many choices! I can't wait to get started but first I must decide! Welcome to a florist's Christmas decorating dilema!

Sympathy Flowers

Here is a challenge for me.

When I think of flowers, I think happy thoughts! But sympathy flowers are different.

I've only done three sympathy arrangements and they challenge my emotions. I'm not happy while I am making them, but I know they comfort those who receive them. They are very important.

So, when I put together a sympathy arrangement I focus on hope, memories, thoughtfulness, kindness and still remember the sorrow and seriousness of the situation. And, I pray. Praying for the one who is in pain to have peace that only God can bring.

for the ring bearers

A tiny little bout! This will be for the ring bearer. It is really smaller than it looks. These are little spray roses not normal size roses. They will be the perfect size for little boys!

Flowers in her hair...

flowers everywhere! I hope that the flower girls enjoy these special creations. Tiny spray roses, ming fern and ribbons all attached to a little hair clip. We had fun making these!

the beginnings!

The wedding flowers have begun!

Behold, the groom's man bout. I like it :)

Back to work!

The flowers have arrived!

~Here is one more blessing living in Colorado--your pantry become the perfect walk in flower cooler in November!

~ I brought home the flowers this morning and have trimmed all the ends, dipped everyone in quick dip (helps the flowers to drink) and set them in those very clean buckets full of water with flower food. Whew!

~Now for the hard part...waiting. The flowers need to sit and drink all day and night so that they will be in the best condition for arranging. So, I have a pantry full of the most beautiful flowers and I can't do anything with them. There must be a spiritual lesson here!

~For the rest of the day you can picture me totally distracted...blogging...admire flowers...cleaning...admire flowers...lunch...admire flowers.... I think you get the idea. But know that I am happy to have a house full of flowers!

~ The real fun starts tomorrow!

(and Whitney, if you see this, don't worry about those Christmas red flowers, they are for a different project and won't show up at the wedding!)

week-end progress

Just in case you were wondering what nearly 50 lbs. of glass marble/stones look like...here you go!

Well, I accomplished a few more tasks toward the progress of the wedding flowers this week end. As you can see, I made bows. Bows, bows and more bows! And believe it or not, there are still more bows to go :) But there were some that I could make ahead of time and now those are done.

You may be wondering what the little scraps are. Well, the end of each ribbon has to be cut to a 'dove tail' and those are the little scraps that are cut out. They were all over the floor and it looked quite festive actually! But I scooped 'em all up for the photo and now they are gone!

The vases are all washed, sanitized, and labeled. Now we should be able to get each vas back to its owner!

The dishwasher made quick work of this task. The buckets weren't so quick, but no big deal either. It is nice to have everything clean and ready for flowers.

And just more vases!

Wedding Blog

I had so many people enjoy the blogging of the step-by-step process of preparing wedding flowers that I am doing it again! Hope you enjoy this blog as much as the last :)

The first step (well, the consultations, flower decisions, a field trip to the wholesale warehouse, etc.) was to open all the little packages of glass rocks. They are so great to work with and add so much sparkle, but we need a lot. There will be 40 underwater arrangements, and that equals a lot of rocks in the bottom of the vases. This morning I had Todd weigh the rocks. Can you believe that we will be using 49.6 pounds of glass rocks!!?? I bet you never knew that floral design was also weight lifting!

Today I am washing buckets and vases. If you have read my earlier blogs then you know how important it is for every container to be CLEAN! If you wouldn't drink out of it, then don't expect your flowers to drink out of it! So, soap and bleach and hot water today. And thankfulness for rubber gloves! Big buckets and vases in the sink, smaller vases in the dishwasher.

When the vases are sparkling clean I will be adding stickers so that we know whose vases are whose :) The vases belong to 3 different people and it would be nice for them to all get back to the right people.

I am so thankful that I work from home and can do all this around my daily chores. I don't have to work 8 hours straight on wedding prep., I can just do bits and pieces here and there. It takes more days this way, but maybe less hours. And it is fun just to break up the normal routine with washing buckets :)

Flowers Ordered

Will and Whitney's wedding is just around the corner! Today I made the final count and ordered the flowers. It is going to be beautiful! The bride's bouquet will be especially stunning. Do you have a good imagination? Well then, imagine this:

Black Beauty Roses
Deep Red Lilies
Burnt Orange Tulips
Eggplant Callas
and a touch of 'pearls and diamonds.'

Beautiful isn't it!?

And, for the tables~underwater arrangements! Now this is going to be fun! This is too difficult to explain. I'll have to put up photos so that you can see what we are up to.

Will and Whitney are very creative--underwater arrangements! I hope my designs will all that they had hoped for--or better! Better is really my goal :)