Wonderful springy sweet peas! They live up to their name with their sweet fragrance and delicate blooms. Sweet peas are a climbing flower and can grow up to six feet long. However, when found in the flower market are usually cut from 6-12 inches long. Every once in a while you can get them with long stems, which usually have flower tendrils and leaves attached as well. A great accent to any spring arrangement or floral bouquet.

Sweet peas are generally a pink or purple, varying from light pink to deep plum purple. They also come in reds and whites.

Sweet peas are beautiful cut and placed simply in a single stem vase. If you change out the water and remove any shriveled blooms they last quite a while. Make sure that any limp or slimy stem is removed from the rest of the group as they tend to become toxic to the remaining blossoms.

Sweet peas are a wonderful flower to add to bridal bouquets. The ruffled edge adds light, romance and gaiety to any floral combination.

Pretty, pretty ranunculus. One of my favorite Spring time flowers.

This full petaled beauty is a hardy flower if treated well. Remove all the leaves below water level as they are toxic. Change the water daily to keep the blooms fresh and perky. There is usually one large bloom per stem, but many buds grow up along side of it. These will continue to bloom, so cut them cleanly away from the main stem and place them in cool water.

Ranunculus are most commonly found in white and yellows, but also include red, pink, orange, coral and an incredible green.

Ranunculus look great as a single flower vase arrangement, or can be accompanied with other lovely spring blossoms.

Orange ranunculus with yellow and green centers tucked among dahlia, gerbera, mums and orchids

Aisle Cone arrangements, orange ranunculus with green centers

Soft and hot pink, and white ranunculus among peonies and maiden hair fern.

white ranunculus tucked among garden roses, kermit mums, orchids and hypericum berry

red ranunculus tucked among purples and yellows.

Kale. It’s not just for dinner. This unique and beautiful green, actually has a lovely “flower” at it’s center. Coming in a variegated green, white and purple, it adds an earthy organic feel to any arrangement. Give veggies a try next time you make a “flower” arrangement!

Nothing says spring quite like the beautiful hydrangea. This water loving plant gets its name from the Greek word “hydra” for water. Hydrangea bushes can bloom multiple heads per stem and have a lush green foliage.

Hydrangeas heads are full of miniature blossoms and can grow quite large, up to 8-12″ diameter. There are over 70 species of hydrangea plants, most of them originating in Asia. In most species the flowers are white, but can also can be blue, green, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple. In these species the color is affected by the pH of the soil. The more acidic the deeper blue or purple the color.

There are many hybrids as well, an “antiqued” color that range from green to blue.

Hydrangeas do well with a lot of water. In fact, if you have a hydrangea bloom that is beginning to wilt quickly, fill a sink or bath full of cool water and submerge the entire blossom and stem under water. Remove additional foliage, as they will divert the energy needed to draw water into the stem.

Hydrangea work well as a stand alone flower. They are voluminous and few heads can fill space nicely. Each bloom can branch out into clusters allowing for smaller clusters to be formed. However, once separated from the main stem, the flower will wilt quickly, unless submerged or in a constant water source.

Hydrangea heads are a very popular base as well. They fill a vase or container, while allowing room for show case blooms or signature flowers to stand out. I often use them for pomander balls in order to fill large spaces with few blooms.

Get ready for the cutest DIY/Vintage wedding ever! Katie is such a creative bride, and worked tirelessly for months with her sister in law Karen and best friend Faith to make incredibly delightful details throughout the entire Upland backyard wedding.
It threatened to rain, actually sprinkled a bit, but gloriously broke into the perfect weather for this cute couple.
Check out quirky Brett and Katie and their fun September wedding as captured (amateurly by me and) incredibly well by Faithfully Focused Fotography! A huge thank you for sharing your beautiful images.

Ceremony and Reception were both held in this beautiful Upland backyard

Katie thought of all the little details. From the bunting leading you in, to the heart bunting down the isle. Touches of cute were absolutely everywhere!

Katie collected vintage stoneware, used recycled bottles wrapped in burlap and yarn for vases and hand stitched table numbers. Cute!

Katie carried a bouquet of Craspedia (“Billy Balls”) and chamomile daisies. Her girls had hand clutches of chamomile and daisy mums. Stems were wrapped in twine and burlap.

The guys wore boutonnieres of yellow billy balls and chamomile daisies, wrapped in twine and finished with a hand painted yellow wood button. Again, I say, Cute!

I am so happy for this cute couple, and was privileged to be a part of such a creative and inspiring day! Congratulations Brett and Katie and may God bless your marriage! You can also see shots of Katie and Brett’s wedding in my portfolio.

One of my favorite perennial bulbs is the gorgeous tulip! There are so many varieties of color and textures, size and length of tulips. Tulips come in every color but true blue.

There are many varieties of tulips as well. The “traditional” tulip, with a round head and 3-6 petals

The “French” tulip, with a long oval shaped head and longer stem

The “Parrot” tulip with ruffled edges

and the “Double” tulip with multiple layered petals.

Tulips love the light. In fact, when laid flat in a box, the stems with literally bend upward toward the light. You may notice that when you place tulips in a vase or arrangement they move, and never keep the same shape. That’s because they are light lovers and will always find the sun.

Tulips are also one of the few flowers that continue to grow even after they have been cut. When designing mixed bridal bouquets I always need to be conscious to bury the tulips a bit lower in the group so they can grow up to “meet” the rest of the flowers the next day. Otherwise, I get this look (which turns out Kyrstie loved!

Tulips make a beautiful bouquet on their own, and can be matched up with other spring blossoms just as beautifully. Nothing quite says spring like a tulip!

Parrot tulips mixed with succulents

A mixed French and Parrot tulip bouquet, single hue with lots of fun texture

Simple and classic white tulip bouquet

Simple pink tulip bouquet for bridesmaids

Gorgeous peonies and double tulips combined to make this striking bouquet

A clutch of orange tulips with calla lilies

Beautifully textured with parrot and double tulips

So. My daughter Sophia, is a first grader at Mayflower Elementary School, in Monrovia. As an active member of the PTA I am involved in our biggest fundraiser, the Spring Auction. It is a blast working with a great group of women, connecting with local businesses, and school families to create over 400 items to bid on and participate in.

This year was a huge success raising over $29,000! Our theme was “Surf’s Up!” A nice relaxed atmosphere at the ever impressive Dalcorp Racing and Area 51 car museum here in Monrovia.

I was in charge of decor, so asked my dad to make twenty 12″ wood surfboards for me, that I hand painted and attached to the table centerpieces. One of our committee member’s husband cut out 3, six foot wood surfboards that I painted, and where we had straight donation $1-100 cards for guests to donate money.

I submerged orange cymbidium orchids with a submersible light and sea shells for the centerpieces on the tables, and did three basket arrangements for the beach cruiser bikes that we used for stage decor and one to auction off. The baskets held real star fish, shells, orchids, dianthus (for the mossy look) Kale flowerets, sweet pea and ranunculus. So fun!

Preparation:

The Day of the Event:

All the baskets set up in 3 sections by table color-

The Bar and Dessert Area-

Raffle Tables, Live Auction and Pay To Participate-

And my favorite- The Decor!

And our Amazing Committee!!

Most of the weddings I do are with fresh florals. However last September I was asked to do an all silks wedding, as the couple wanted to keep all of their flowers to use in their home afterward.

This was a challenge, but fun. I got to do a lot of sourcing and research to find the most authentic looking silk flowers. I have to say I was impressed with the quality that is out there.

Maiden Hair Fern

Gerbera Daisies

Roses

Hydrangea

I thought it’d be fun for this post to share the process of how I often put pieces together.

First: research, plan, order flowers, sort.

grouping like colors and flower types

greens and roses

calla lilies and gerbera daisies

I usually start each wedding workday with all of the personal flowers (corsages, boutonnieres and bouquets) as these are usually the most time intensive and require the freshest and tightest blooms. I didn’t have to worry about my roses opening up on me this time however.

Groom's Boutonniere

Bridal bouquet

When putting arrangements together, I use oasis foam blocks that soak in water, hold stems on angle and in any type, shape or sized holder. For these silk arrangements I used a similar block of silk foam. Without the need for water, these arrangements were light as a feather.

silk foam blocks

The bride had provided two ceramic urns for the large arrangements and requested an additional arrangement for the altar. When doing two arrangements that will look similar in size, color and proportion I start by dividing the flowers and greens up evenly.

I begin with greenery. This provides the shape of the arrangement and helps to cover the oasis block or any other support items I may use to get the shape and height required.

The Altar Arrangement- greens plus the first hydrangeas as they are the largest blooms I was using.

After the greens are placed I use the largest blooms to provide the base. They take up the most space so it is good to keep them near the foundation. Hydrangeas and gerbera daisies were added here.

Next come the additional flowers, balancing color and heights throughout.

The last thing to put in is what I like to call “filler”. Usually light sprig flowers that fill in small spaces or holes.

An advantage for this wedding was getting to do the flowers a week in advance instead of the day before the wedding. Sara and Richard were very pleased with the outcome. I missed the smells and textures that fresh florals provide, but had a lot of fun learning a new medium.