Vast Space and Fresh Air

 We've been doing a lot of work in the yard lately, but at last, it was time to get away with the kids. We have some big vacation plans (or aspirations rather) for December... But for now we headed about three hours away to one of the most beautiful mountain ranges I have ever seen, finally arriving at our our fave fishing spot! We caught our limit every day. Together our group caught about sixty fish and let at least that many go. My husband first took me here shortly after we were married and we have been going back ever since.

King of the Mountain... That's my man ;)

Our luxury accommodations

Great Grandpa Mel with my niece and my daughter.

With my arms full I was caught on the other side of the camera!

 

Our Rat Terrier, Bo. He has his own special way of fishing!

Even these G's cleaned up on fish. My son (in purple) and his friend.

My oldest daughter fishing with my nephew.

 

On top of the world at sunset! If you look close you can see at least three different layers of mountain ranges in the distance.

More Wedding Flowers!

Another wedding! This time for the father-in-law of one of my Bff's, Melissa. she helped me with the flowers and it was a lot of fun. She also went with me to the flower freezer to pick them up.

What's the flower freezer? I will tell you (I digress):
"The flower freezer" happens to be one of my favorite places in the world! 2500 sq feet of wall-to-wall flowers in the distributors warehouse! Almost anything you want, right at your finger tips. I'm just waiting for the day that someone says "we want $5,000 worth of flowers for our wedding, and- we want you to choose the types of flowers that you think will make the biggest, most stunning and striking statement. Go wild." Now, clearly no one is going to do that, so it's just a crazy pipe-dream; But on the off-chance that your interested in exactly that, give me a call and I will ROCK your freakin wedding like you can't believe!!!

In case your wondering, the retail price for wedding flowers varies: The retail price of the wedding flowers I posted last week would be about $2800.00, and the retail price of this weeks wedding flowers would be about $500.00, with the difference being the types of flowers used and the number of centerpieces and arrangements. Minimizing the number of flowers required for centerpieces can make a big difference in price. I'm not charging retail for the weddings I'm doing, mostly because for now it's not something I do to make a living, and I can only book about 10 weddings each year.

Back to this particular wedding... I have to admit that at first I wasn't completely sold on the color scheme for this one: Lavender Roses with Bright Orange and Hot Pink Gerber Daisies.  But it came together beautifully and looked great!

 Gerber bouquets for six flower girls.

The Lavender and Orange Bridal Bouquet in mid-process, 

framed with Lemon Leafs, Eucalyptus and Heather. 

Trends in Boutonnieres include leaving the stems simple (no more curly stems), and avoiding bulky. 

In this picture the orange flower was a pin-corsage for mother of the groom, the small boutonnieres were for younger boys, the pink were for the Best Men, and the rose was for the Groom. 

This is what I call a "Leftovers" arrangement. We weren't planning on doing an arrangement but we had a few left over flowers, and some filler too, so they quickly went into a vase to be used at the reception.

Congratulations to John and Cindy. May your future be filled with years of happiness for you and your families!

Wedding Flowers

Last week I did wedding flowers for the wedding of a darling couple, Heather and Chad. The theme was a beautiful, black and white wedding with a style reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. Diamonds and pearls, feathers, etc. I loved the sophisticated details. The main flowers were Anemones, a delicate flower that comes in a few different colors and offers a green or dark center. They were out of season, so getting them was a bit of a challenge. The rest of the flowers consisted of White Roses and Hydrangeas.

I absolutely love doing flowers for weddings! I always start out with the best intentions of documenting my floral creations, but as the process goes on, the camera becomes the last thing I'm thinking about. So here are the pictures that I managed to get take or get my hands on this time, and a bit more about the stunning event.

The fun begins once the flowers are at my house. Storing them correctly is a big deal. I need time to work on them, but meanwhile they must stay fresh. This wedding involved over 100 hydrangeas stems. Each Hydrangea arrived individually wrapped at each freakin end. :) They had to be unwrapped, cut down, and the stem had to be skinned at the bottom.

This was the first bouquet, that I made the night before. Simply classic!

The bride used it in the morning after the ceremony.

The next day I made a fresh bouquet for the evening reception (not shown here). The second bouquet was fun and played a little more boldly off the wedding theme. Having another bouquet allowed for this bouquet to literally be tossed later that night!

This was the start of the larger arrangements.

These cylinder vases were for bistro tables on a patio
where there was additional seating.

We added ribbon to the vases to pull the color scheme into the outdoor setting.

This was the mid-way point on the second bridal bouquet- just before adding the pearl accents on the wrap, and cute-little, spiky, black feathers around the bouquet to frame the flowers. The second bouquet was my favorite!

Also the brides maids bouquets were nearly done. After that I made the bridal party flowers (corsages and boutonnieres) and the centerpieces. That was the point where I bagged the camera-

it was crunch time!  

Transporting flowers is always tricky, but two car loads later we made it!

Have I mentioned that these girls, who are all sisters, are as gorgeous as supermodels?! 

Each centerpiece was topped with a spray of  8-10 hydrangeas.

We added black ribbon to the stems of ten vases and draped them with pearls and crystals.

The bottom was filled with diamond-shaped jewels,

and above that was a layer of moss to accommodate each arrangement.

This cake was so beautiful that I didn't want to hide it with too many flowers,

just enough to tie everything together. It was made by the bride's sister!

Well, that's a first peek at the fun I had last weekend. I'm going to try to get back to blogging at the beginning of each week, so stay tuned!

Congratulations to Heather and Chad! Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day.

Sugar and Spice

The new color of my daughter Liv's, room was a hit with my close friend who was visiting from out of town. She went home and painted it in a couple of her rooms. The color is Celery Sprig by Behr. But I can't take credit for this one, my creative and talented mother-in-law helped both of my girls with their rooms and they turned out great.  I'm not joking when I say that my mother in law would give Martha Stewart a run for her money (except I don't think she knows anything about surviving in prison)! She has an incredibly beautiful way of decorating with items that represent the most peaceful and intricate parts of nature; Olivia was lucky enough to benefit from her touch. Having her work with the girls on their rooms gave us a chance to work on other areas of the house, otherwise I'm not sure how long it would have taken to get to them.

Before! I thought these unique shelves may have to go but luckily Grandma Caralee saw some potential in them...

After! the shelves add a lot to Olivia's room and the paint is a much better shade of green!

Stay tuned to see Kylee's room. Also, Saturday morning Kylee and I demolished my sons dropped ceiling after my husband made a remark about the girls not helping to move something in the yard (a hot tub no less!). We wanted to flex our muscles and show off our "girl power". My son was suppose to tear down the ceiling himself weeks ago, this was the perfect project. We have a few projects in the works right now that should be wrapping up during May, including this one!

Cheers!