Flower School!

The Flourist recently had the good luck to meet an ultra inventive mum who was looking for something interesting to do for her daughter's 13th birthday... She had already planned a day of treasure hunting in the city, and a sumptious birthday breakfast and dinner treat and was looking for something to fill in the morning...

So, we planned a little craft activity. We went along to teach 4 13 yr olds and 1 10 yr old the basic techniques of wiring and making a button hole, and then building on that to make corsages.
They were amazing! They were completely serious and into it from the get go... from wiring, to taping and putting all the bits together, they were fantastic!

This is a great idea for an older child's birthday or even for a hen night activity before a night on the town.

We had so much fun teaching them the steps - we would love to do it all again!!
Have a look at the finished products!
Floura-tastic ;)

And as a treat at the end of the session, we made them little chocolate flower cupcakes... needless to say they did not need any lessons how to gobble them down ;)

step right up - next sept 18th couple

The second couple for this auspicious day was M&S. M is Malaysian and I met her on my very first assignment with Shangri-la hotels. Those were the days when i worked for the hotels, and i used to drag anyone who would care to come along (usually M was the poor unsuspecting soul) to all the ballroom deco days to see what they were doing for the events happening at the hotel.

So when she called and asked, how could i say no... the only problem was because I work with a small number of people, i could not do as much as she wanted (ie the car etc etc etc). But it all worked out.

M met S on the internet, and it worked - he came to visit her in Malaysia, and was hooked on both! They both looked so happy and filled with joy that night it was a lovely sight to see.

So, their theme was mainly green and white, with a touch of pink - and the venue was Bangsar Seafood Garden and Restaurant. The garden was the main thing that we had to spruce up. I did the wedding accessories and the venue deco.

The bride wanted big bold lilies in her bouquet, and thats exactly what she got for her morning tea ceremony. I did not confuse the bouquet with anything else but some huge dark green foliage- unfortunately the photo does not do it enough justice...or at least so i say ;)

The corsages were lisianthus with christmas greens, and we even had mini corsages for the mini members of the wedding party ;)

As they had the tea ceremony in the morning, and then the dinner in the evening, and given her choice of flowers were lilies, i did not trust the flowers to last the day - so i made a smaller bouquet for the evening - still with lilies, but this time with a few lisianthus thrown in.

The staircase up to the garden area was decorated with tea light candles, and the bannister had little test tubes of flowers hanging on them - i used lisianthus and roses for this - and the origami birds from a previous wedding made their appearance here. When you got to the top of the staircase you were greeted by the huge lanterns with the tall reeds ala balinese style - I know i know you are thinking you have seen these before - well yes, i did re-use the arrangement from the first wedding, but made it slightly different with the ribbons, colours and the bird cages in the styling.

Unfortunately I did not manage photos of the bannister and the entrance, but got the rest - so i hope your imagination is running wild!

the aisle was decorated with the same idea as the morning pews, but with the benefit of time, we managed to add more foliage to the cups and finally achieved the look that I was happy with - my hardworking team really pulled together for these. Sadly some children thought it was fun to knock them over - thankfully only after the happy couple walked down the aisle - note to self - don't forget to secure the cups to the ground!!!

The signing in table borrowed from the birds hanging at the bannister and on the trees in the garden, and so included the bird cages with lilies and roses in them.

the table arrangements were simple and pretty - unfortunately they were removed by the time the second course was served - a lot of the reason why I usually discourage couples to have something on the table for a chinese dinner, cos it is a displacement of your precious budget.

This was a great experience and i was so pleased to be doing it for someone who was there when the seed was planted (excuse the pun) with my flower and deco stuff -

congrats M&S - I really hope you had a lovely day.

Photos courtesy of YouStudio and yours truly.

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

and the bride wore lace

The Flourist did a wedding last weekend - it was to be the sweetest wedding so far.

The bride is Malaysian, and the groom a charming lad from Manchester (yes they do make them charming out there). Theirs was a courtship of 5 yrs (yes yes not quite as long as me and D)
and finally they set a date for June (which incidentally happened to be her best friend's wedding anniversary) - so cool right!!!
M looked absolutley moviestar-ish in her lovely lace wedding gown with the killer lace inspired heels, and R so dashing in his suit - certainly cleaned up good - not bad for a shopping trip that lasted about 20 mins!!!

As the bride lives in the UK, her bestfriend and I worked rather closely to arrange things for the wedding - from changing the layout of the ballroom set up, to drapery over the stage and deciding on the decorations.

The theme was white and green, but of course the bridesmaid had to get a teal dress - so i included pink in the wedding accessories (oooh but the teal dress was loverly! and she is allowed to lah after all she is a pretty little thing ;) )

I used lisianthus and eucalyptus leaves, cymbidium  and dendrobium orchids, and cyprus brooms - and the most interesting of all was the inclusion of the succulent cactus in the bouquet and the main table arrangements.
i was so pleased with the effects - esp after trawling sungai buluh garden shops for the right kind ;).

i created hanging decorations from hula hoops and paper - and hung baubles from them - they were so lovely slowly turning from the draft of the vents - lovely lovely lovely - next time I must do more I think - or at least make them a little longer perhaps.
thanks to my little helpers for climbing on the scaffolding to get these all hung up.
candles everywhere and low lighting - sooooo befitting the romance and love at this wedding.

congratulations mr and mrs H.

Again these are my lame photographic attempts just before I ran out the door before the guests arrived... professional ones as soon as i get it ;)

the bride's bouquet

the bride's maid bouquet

the groom's corsage with feather detail ;)

the other corsages

the pillars had banana leaves around them with cyprus broom and tuber roses

these were in the cocktail foyer

these were at the entrance to the ballroom while the circular designs were inside the ballroom hanging over the dance floor and tables

this was the main table arrangement

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