Floral Design Classes and... Pearls!!!

Hello Everyone,
I am back with some fun news and some pictures of a wedding I designed while I was gone so long from Blog land.
First the fun news....   I am starting up my floral design classes again!

The picture above is from a photo shoot I did not too long ago. I am letting the cat out of the bag by showing you the image, hope I don't see it all over Pinterest in the next month.  I am trying to hold the rest of the amazing pictures for later publication!

I used to teach these several years ago and had great success with it.  My clients loved it and ended up making beautiful arrangements that I could have used in any wedding.  I am super excited to teach these again and especially to hold them on the ranch where I live.  I have a lovely compound with a prop warehouse, work studio and beautiful grounds.  We will create in the garden using some of the herbs and flowers I grow.  Each class will have a unique style with music, food and wine befitting the theme of the (I find wine always inspires the muse to greatness!).   I will also create and then discuss setting a magical environment in which we showcase our beautiful creations.
Imagine getting our of your car on this beautiful ranch and in addition to the sounds of the surf in the distance you are greeted by French cafe music.  You look over at the garden and set in amongst the flowers are barn wood tables with all your tools laid out ready for you to design.  Also on these tables are crockery, urns and platters from which to choose to design your masterpiece on.  Laid out in front of you is a mini flower shop with an abundance of beautiful blooms all for you to play with!  Tucked in a little corner of the garden is a beautiful bistro table set with fresh baked bread, local cheeses, olive oil and French wine for our pleasure as we create. I am so excited!!!

Also another fun and related tid bit is....(drumroll please)....  I am very close to launching my series of Floral Design Videos.  I filmed these a while back and am now compiling them into two videos which will show you all you need to know to create beautiful floral arrangements of your very own!  Now no matter where you are you can take classes from me (you have to supply the wine and cheese though). Lots of fun projects for me to play with in the Summer (along with weddings!).

So... speaking of weddings,  here is quite a beauty to show you.

This couple makes their living as pearl dealers in Hong Kong.  They wanted to keep the style and feel of the wedding around the ocean and pearls.  

They had a fresh seafood bar for the cocktail hour which of course was set right on the beach.  

Those are the escort cards on either side of the barn.  They are pined on two large burlap boards.

The main curtains at the entrance are tied back with flowers.  Soooo pretty!

Close ups of the flower tie backs.

This was the couples "love" seat.

The bride made this head table runner.  It was exquisite!

The tables were a study in textures and layers.  They had a base cloth of Irish linen then one of my vintage lace over lays then a runner of natural silk.  

The flowers were a dreamy blend of Roses, dish plate Dahlias, Anemones, Stock, Peonies and Dusty Miller.  The palette was so soft and lovely and reminiscent of the beach.

We also had small silver and glass dishes of Blueberries scattered around for a 

lovely midnight blue touch.

We also used real pearls throughout the centerpieces!!!  They gave me a huge box of pearls to play with, unfortunately totally inventoried so I had to give them all back.

However this lovely bride and groom gave the wedding coordinator (Tonya Szele of Soigne Productions) and I the most BEAUTIFUL necklace of Tahitian black pearls!!!!!!!  I have had some incredible thank you gifts and tips in the past but this one is right up there at the top!

This bride and groom were so generous... believe it or not they also gave every guest a strand of pearls as a party favor (beats candy almonds don't you think!!!).  

The tables were named after locations where they get their pearls.

They had a beautiful lounge.  I love the mixture of elegant furniture set on hay in a barn!

And of course... chandeliers!

They also had a fun photo area.  We set a beautiful chair in a picturesque corner of the barn then hung a frame in front of it.  The camera was set back a bit so people could get their picture taken and have the frame as the border of the picture.  They also have some fun props for their guests to play with.

Here is the idea... thats me

The props

The desert table was truly spectacular!

It was such a beautiful wedding!  I so love doing what I do!!!

Blessings to you!

Tricia

From full snore to full bore!!!

Well one post back I spoke about how I was hibernating through the winter and loving it.  Well, there wasn't much of a "Springtime thaw".  I pretty much went from quiet introspection to flat out working or full snore to full bore!  My girlfriend suggested that title and after I split my sides laughing I decided to use it!  So first up is a fabulous event I got to be involved in!  It was called Florabundance Inspirational Design Days.

Florabundance is the wholesale flower place where I buy most of my flowers.  Joost (pronounced yost) Bongaerts, a fun Dutch man who owns the place, approached me about holding a floral design workshop/convention on the ranch where I live.  There would be a whose who of designers, an amazing photographer, top bloggers and TONS of flowers.   Here is a link to Florabundance's blog entry talking about this event http://www.florabundance.com/blog/

Some of Florabundance's amazing flowers

How could I say no?!  I got approval from the owners and off we went!  He cajoled a lovely local event coordinator named Zohe Felici of Felici events into helping to put it on and so with our to-do lists in hand, we got busy!  Joost wasn't kidding when he said the presenters were the top in their field.
First up was Ian Prosser of Botanica Florist, a designer from Florida.

 This man was beyond amazing!  He has designed events for some of the biggest names in Hollywood as well as the inaugural balls for Presidents Clinton and Bush... aaannd a reception for Queen Elizabeth!!!!  He was completely unassuming, quietly confident and extremely gracious!  He is from Scotland and had that marvelous Scottish brogue.  He could have asked me to deliver the moon to the barn so he could put flowers on it and I would have found a way.  He also had a fabulous sense of humor as so many of the Scots do.  I gotta find a way to go over there!    You know I rather like Men in kilts!  (not that he wore one darn it!)  He had us laughing to the point of crying!  His son Jordan who helps run the business was there too and helped with their presentation.  Jordan even got involved in the photo shoot that was part of the event by becoming our groom.  Ian's whole family is involved in his business from his wife to his kids.  Just lovely!

Next up was Holly Chappel from Virginia.

Again an amazing designer!!  She too has designed for the white house creating their Holiday decor this last Christmas!  Her work has been published pretty much in all the magazines and again has an incredible list of clients!  Her style was so akin to my own, I love her free form, wild and natural look!  She spoke from the heart, sharing her life and business with us.

Some of the designers working under Holly's direction

I think she is made of something stronger than the rest of us.  She and her husband Even run their business and raise....  wait for it....  7 kids!!!!!!!!!  And they seemed perfectly sane!  Of course 7 free laborers probably helps...  oh wait 7 college educations are probably a bit more expensive than hiring help.  Like I said I haven't a clue how they do it.  Her husband Even was also there and couldn't have been nicer.  He builds all the props, does lighting and draping, computer work, raising the kids...  basically a super man.  He spoke fondly of his man cave with his fishing rods, guns and....  sewing machine!  I think one of the lessons of this workshop was that you have to have a sense of humor (helps with the mothers of the brides :  ) and these folks had it in spades!
Ian, Holly and Even couldn't have been more lovely.

 Holly Chappel and Alicia Schwede 

They were totally open with all of us discussing everything from how to design, to profits (or lack there of..., not for them, but how to keep us from suffering that fate), writing bids, trends, horror stories  (sorry you'll have to pay me a lot of money to hear those...) and success stories.  Ego was absolutely NOT present!  They completely won my heart as well as everyone there!

A couple of our attendent designers with the bouquets they made.

We also had the privilege of listening to Alicia Schwede and Chuck Graham of one of the top flower blogs called Flirtyfleurs as well as Kelly Oshiro of sbchic a seriously up and coming blog.  They spoke about social media and got us all fired up about blogging (obviously I do that.....), face booking (not yet but soon...... ), tweeting (still not sure about that......), and instagraming (totally hooked, addicted, over-the-moon about it!!!).  They spoke about the business benefits of all of the above and like the others opened up their hearts, minds and businesses to help us learn.  Alicia, Chuck and Kelly are also top designers in their own right.  I tell ya, there was no lack of talent at this event!  Alicia has a beautiful  book out called Bellla Bouquets of which I am now a satisfied owner.  Ian!  When is your book coming out?!?!?
In addition to these amazing folks we had a phenomenal photographer who captured it all.   Her name is Genevieve Leiper and she has shot for Martha Stewart herself.

 Unfortunately you will have to suffer through my pictures as I don't have hers yet.  I doubt I needed to say that as one look at my shots and Martha would have laughed herself silly!  They are obviously not Genevieve's.  I definitely need to stick to flowers!

Genevieve in action with one of the models from the workshop

I got to pull out and use all my props from my rental business Vintage Vignettes.  I had little lounges all over the place, my barn wood tables, vintage china, candelabras, pews, benches, TONS of candles...  I basically emptied my house, and storage into the barn and on the beach.  I gotta tell you my two arbors never looked better though.  Part of the fun of this workshop was that Holly and Ian got everyone into teams and then had them create two ceremony arbors and the reception's feasting table.

arbor number one

Arbor number two

One of the big joys is that we all got to sit at that beautiful table we decorated and enjoy a lovely gourmet catered meal (by Pure Joy catering) instead of schlepping our tired bodies and all our nasty buckets and gear back to our delivery vans, picking up Chinese on the way home and collapsing on the couch as we normally do after events.

That part was super cool!  We even had a proper cocktail hour with appetizers on the beach!!!

Unheard of I tell ya! Can you tell I enjoyed myself!!!

A really lovely thing that Joost lined up was at the end of the event The Dream Foundation came out and collected all the flowers.  They are a wonderful charity that works with terminally ill people to grant these precious folks their dreams and wishes.

Their delivery van getting loaded.

These flowers ended up at various places like Hospice and senior homes. 

This is Shelly Schulte (above), one of the owners of the ranch.  She is a big volunteer at the Dream Foundation and a lovely lady.  That van was packed!  They had to come back for another load!

Our class of designers, our teachers, and Joost.  We each got to make a beautiful bride's bouquet so here we are proudly holding them! (that's me on the bottom row second from the right).

All in all it was a wonderful experience!  I learned a lot, met a bunch of incredibly lovely designers, both the presenters and the attendees, and got to enjoy Dos Pueblos' barn and the beach like a proper bride does (well we still had to work).  And I only needed a week to recover!!  Not too bad!
Hope you all are having a lovely winter!
Blessings to all of you!
Tricia