the first sept 18th couple...S&J

So - as you have probably already read in the last post, in a temporary moment of insanity, The Flourist agreed to decorate two weddings in the one day.
One was booked WAAAAAAYYYY in advance all the way from London, and the other was slightly last minute but was a close ex-colleague whom I used to drag to all the ballrooms in the hotels were were auditing to check out the decoration ideas.

The first couple for the day were S&J - they had contracted me to the church wedding, a wedding cake for the luncheon, all the wedding accessories, car decoration and the main table centre-piece for their dinner.

S&J were stunning on the day - not to say they were not stunning otherwise (hole getting bigger here - help!) but really they looked like suave movie stars of yesteryears. S's dress was so unique and beautiful - i have done a lot of weddings and this dress has to be up there in dream dresses category - and J in his suit cut really a dashing figure.
they were so stunning in fact, that for the first time in a departure from my usual philosophy of keeping the couples anonymous, I am putting up a picture of them at the end of the day - now who would not want to get married after this shot!

S&J seem to have been together for longer than most people which is a fantastic achievement in itself if you ask me. Stories I have heard of J paint him to be the cutie pie that all the girls flocked to, but he only had eyes for the husky long haired beauty, S. And their friends and family are amazing - fun loving, supportive and very creative judging by the video that was created for their dinner ;)

The first call was mainly to make their wedding cake for the afternoon of the luncheon after the church wedding. This was going to be my first commercial wedding cake - not counting all the practice sessions and simple one that I have done in the past! Go to www.theflourist.blogspot.com for more stories on this one. I started on the sugar flowers for the cake a month in advance!!! definitely a story you will want to hear.

The theme - red, pink and white.

We did the car the night before - usually my car designs are very simple - mainly because my couples are on a budget and rather than wasting flowers on a car that people see maybe for for 15 minutes, I tend to go for the less is more -
in this case it was quite a BLAM effect with a white car and red ribbons and tulle.

The church pews were meant to have branches but at the last minute, my supplier pulled out - which meant I had to invoke plan B of tall green foliage - I have to say I was a little disappointed with the pews - the lack of time meant I did not have time enough to check them, so they ended looking a little meagre on closer inspection, and I should have used a different ribbon - hmph not pleased. but with the pedestal pieces at the entrance stealing the show, I think everything looked good.

The altar and crucifix pieces stayed at the church, so were done quite simply to keep in line with the budget.

The pedestal pieces at the entrance to the church were huge pieces set in lanterns with tall foliage tipping the height at 7 ft!

The bride's bouquet had a centre cluster of red roses, surrounded by white and red anthuriums. I loved the way it turned out. the bridesmaids were her lovely sisters, and had lovely lisitanthus posies dotted with red hypericum berries. sweet!
The corsages were simple within the red and white colour theme for the groom, groom's men and parents.

The Flourist also provided the centre piece for their evening dinner held at GlenMarie Resort - the original design that the couple wanted had flowers going down the entire length of the support, however given the budget that they wanted to stick to, i compromised with a little gap and flowers are the base. By sheer luck the hotel had thankfully used similar flowers and stands for the aisle so it all looked lovely.

and the bride and groom? just stunningly, happily married!

photos courtesy of Alan from 'photoz' and yours truly

late but surely not to be forgotten

Remember how I mentioned I did a wedding in December? No I am not in a time warp...I so realise it is presently only May - i meant December 2009!

heh

yes I am a bit tardy, but to be fair I only got the photos in March, and then between then and now I have seriously not stopped long enough to say BOO to you right?

I mean who else would i say hello and write to if not to you my small but faithful readers of my blog.

So as i was saying... wedding in December... How did I get the job, I shamelessly plugged my services, met them, and tried to work with them to get the look they wanted within their budget. This couple went through quite a lot of planning dilemmas and issues, trying to organise not one but TWO occassions in TWO different countries!! it all turned out beautifully and so kudos to them.

I learnt some very hard lessons with this one, and at one point was about to drown myself in some very yucky flower leaf water..., but thanks to my mum, my aunt, my best friends and my husband I got through it. I am not too sure how I did. But you know how even if most of the project goes well, the one bit that didn't is the part that gets enlarged and keeps playing over and over in your head? well that was me... like a scratched DVD I kept rethinking and replaying it all over and over again, and learnt from it (fingers crossed)!

So thank you to the bride and groom for giving me a chance, and thank you for being gracious and letting me know what you thought so that I could be better.

enough of baring it all... back to the theme. White vintage and pistachio green were the main colours. I decorated the church with tall foliage and chrysanthemums and babies breath on the pews - an idea the bride saw at another wedding and wanted replicated for hers. This lady has known what she wanted for a long time, I just had to help her get there. The original idea had a lot more colours and expensive blooms to create the look - using different flowers and the idea we got her look for less.

For the bridal chairs, I made up some simple chair covers, and used the babies breath as the focus at the base of the chairs.  I love the way these turned out...especially with the applique motif of the floral on the chair covers coming through with the frame of the old fashioned church chairs.

the car was done with the image of the bunches of the babies breath in mind. But this time instead of babies breath I used net and feathers and plain ribbon. Against the dark blue of the bridal car it looked quite regal. The photo does not quite show it in a lot of detail - so you will just have to take my word for it ;)

For the wedding party accessories, I played with the colour elements from the brides maids and flower girls dresses. baby pink, pistachio green and white carnations, orchids and fish fern were the stars. the carnations really made the flower balls work well, and the colours were so lovely together.

The corsages were kept simple and light with mainly greens for the groom's men, and the anthurium for the groom's corsage to match the bride's bouquet.

The bride's bouquet was my downfall :( we had agreed on phaelanopsis orchid bouquet - the style was to be quite tight - which meant we would have to work with the blooms off the branch. While I had worked with the flower before, i had not worked with it in such heat. 

Yes, i know what you are thinking... it is so expensive!! but it was the perfect match for the lovely dress the bride had picked.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, the flowers wilted the minute I started working with them, and were dying before my very eyes. bleary eyed from the long work day and crying in frustration, I stuck in some  reviving solutions to try to make it work for the next morning.

The next morning, while they were looking better, I did not think they would last the whole day. 

So, for the first time, I had to call the bride and give her stressful news. that was probably the lowest point for me.

so that morning, while my lovely lovely volunteer worker bees got going at the church i ran out to the florist to get alternatives. anthuriums, peacock and white roses.

it was not what I wanted for her, let alone what SHE wanted for herself! 

and as a wedding florist for me to admit that I messed up on of the key elements is not easy. Its like the most important thing to get right! I don't have a picture of it, mainly cos it was so mad that morning, and I was so disappointed with it.

I did not have back ups which is something I ALWAYS have - but with such expensive flowers and trying to keep the cost down I thought I would be fine.

Moving on... 

for the reception, we had tree branches with photos of the couple and flowers and pearls strung, and for the table arrangements, we reused the babies breath bunches from the pews on the tables with the addition of some candles and clear christmas baubles which I had decorated with feathers and ribbons.

For the main table, the hotel had provided a large circular arrangement, which we filled in with baubles to match the guest dinner tables.

Another lesson - make sure you clarify with your clients if they are happy for their clients to keep props as keep sakes. I felt like the police sergeant from hell as I was packing up the baubles and finding people with BAGS of the baubles tucked away!! i think my polite attempts at telling them that these were not quite keepsakes may not have been taken quite so well but some!!

This was probably the largest and most emotionally draining project I took on, but it was certainly made me stronger and I learnt so many things.

All photo credits to Ms Sharon Lam

the legend of 9 suns - HKflowershow

This next display was based on a chinese legend about a warrior in the Yao Dynasty who shot down 9 suns, leaving just one to serve the earth and its people. when writing this story I found so many versions -  only one kept me interested...
It goes like this...


Long ago, during the reign of Emperor Yao, Di Jun, the eastern emperor of the sky and his wife Xi He had 10 sons--er, 10 suns. Each day the ten suns would travel with their mother, the goddess Xi He, to the Valley of the Light in the East. There, Xi He would wash her children in the lake and put them in the branches of an enormous mulberry tree called fu-sang.From the tree, only one sun would move off into the sky for a journey of one day, to reach the mount Yen-Tzu in the Far West. Much like a bus driver might tire of the same route after a few centuries, the boys grew bored and decided to take their celestial walk all together.
When Di Jun and Xi He found out, they were horrified to see their 10 sons in the skies. On Earth, crops were drying out, forests were bursting into flames, and the seas were boiling. If the ten suns persisted in their promenade, all living creatures on Earth would die.
To prevent the destruction of the Earth, the emperor Yao asked Di Jun, the father of the ten suns, to persuade his children to appear one at a time. They would not listen to him, so Di Jun sent the archer, Yi, armed with a magic bow and ten arrows to frighten the disobedient suns. However, Yi shot nine suns, only the Sun that we see today remained in the sky. Di Jun was so angry for the death of nine of his children that he condemned Yi to live as an ordinary mortal in the earth.


this display reminded me about why i started doing floristry in the first place - using everyday stuff, or stuff that we used to use everyday before microwaves and electric steamers and fastfood came in to our lives - to create design...
this was my style - IS my style - unfortunately in trying to build a business, sometimes not everyone's vision is the same, and sometimes I have to sacrifice my style for the sake of a happy client somewhat...


and the colours!!! sunset related colours - my favourite kind ;)


i love the use of the traditional steamers here - they have been modified a little and only the shell remains - better here than in the rubbish heap ;)