Real Wedding | liza & eric

The bride and I met more than a year ago to start planning the flowers for her wedding. She was the first bride to book with me in 2008 for her 2009 wedding, and her wedding date 6/27/09 turned out to be one of the two most popular wedding inquiry dates for us this year. We had to turn down so many weddings for this one wedding, so it goes to show it pays to book early. =P

The wedding took place at the beautiful sun-beaming Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton - the ceremony in their outdoor oval terrace and the reception in their Grand Ballroom. Chic, black and white - linens, chair covers and sashes, completely accented by our red-delicious perfectly round balls of blooming roses and carnations. Also are dahlias, tulips and hypericum berries found in the bouquets and galvanized buckets along the aisle. A quick peek from my camera:

Events | Challenge of the camera lenses

A table made out of camera lenses...what (kind of arrangement) would you make?

Post update: Unfortunately, I cannot post pictures of the arrangements that I ended up making for this penthouse suite due to the Confidentiality Agreement I had to sign. But I can tell you the "camera lenses" table turned out to be indeed made out of lenses, but more like magnifying glasses side-by-side with crisp white edges along the four sides of the long table. The table was a lot narrower too than I had imagined, but the three low cylinder vases that I ended up designing -- flax leaf-wrap inside each vase with a cluster of curved miniature vibrant yellow calla lilies curving out of it (so curved that the end of the stem is not even in water) fit perfectly in this modern, chic space.

Real Wedding | sharon & carter

Happy and vibrant were the 2 words the bride used often when we initially talked about her wedding flowers. These two words slowly translated into rich hues of hot pink and cantaloupe orange, with pops of lime green.

My creative juices completely poured out for this wedding. It was truly unique because it was the first time my good friend from high school (the groom) and my husband's good friend also from high school (the bride), were getting married. They crossed paths themselves initially in college, then through the years, with my husband and my help (we like to credit ourselves forever for this union), the two finally started dating. I can still remember the time when they were telling us how they finally got together, and the four of us happened to be sitting on these couches at Macy's. I will never forget when he told me how happy he was - like Tom Cruise jumping on the couch on Oprah. And now, the two were getting married.

So I had to give them my all and more. Pink calla lilies, tulips, hydrangeas, with cantaloupe roses, dahlias, and pops of cymbidium orchids, snowball viburnum, AND KUMQUATS! Ribbons, ribbons, and ribbons tied the theme of these vibrant colors - thick hot pink ribbon outlining the aisle runner sprinkled with orange rose petals, pink and orange ribbons on the lip of the altar vases, ribbons wrapped around the guestbook and centerpiece vases. Because they were working with a budget, using these ribbons was an inexpensive way to add so much color and vibrancy, while using minimal flowers - all to set the stage at Kohl Mansion in Burlingame with the reception following at Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae.

Here are a few teaser photos from my camera, can't wait to get the photographer's pictures!

Events | Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce mixer at Wente Vineyards

Sweet summer, picnic-ky theme set the stage for Pleasanton's Chamber of Commerce mixer at Wente Vineyards. As one of Wente's recommended vendors, we were invited to sponsor the flowers for this event. The simple mix of white daisies and seeded eucalyptus in glass vases were the perfect accompaniment to the red-plaided, green linens and white wooden folding chairs on Wente's new ceremony setting, The Vineyard Lawn.

It was refreshing to meet some local businesses that were NOT in the wedding industry:

(1) Amelia's Gourmet Deli-Bistro - freshly baked breads daily and is venturing into the cupcake side of the wedding business, coming soon online

(2) Sue Evans Photography - refreshing to meet a photographer who does NOT do weddings, but focuses on "nature and you"

(3) Cynthia Safdari Realtor - buy or sell with cindy (buyorsellwithcindy@yahoo.com) at J. Rockcliff Realtors, Pleasanton location

(4) Red Door Restoration - Z Safdari, Cynthia's husband, has been in the business for 20 years and does everything from new construction to construction management and mold remediation (reddoorrestoration@yahoo.com)

Real Wedding | catherine & dan

The wedding this past Saturday at Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park really reminded me of why I love what I do. It was a beautiful outdoor setting with the perfect weather - not too hot, a little sunny, with a tiny breeze. I will never forget meeting with this bride at our initial consultation, she said "I didn't come here to chat, I came to buy some flowers!" Needless to say, she signed with me on the spot.

The photographer promised me his team of three will definitely take pictures of all the details, but I can't wait for them, so for now, here are a few teasers from my little point-and-shoot camera:

Q&A | Submerging flowers

A student from the floral demonstration I did last month at the College of San Mateo emailed me with a question and I'd like to share my response with you all in case you were trying the same thing:

Hi Annie,
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your demo at CSM and sharing some of your trade secrets. You have that God given talent of creating something majestic out of the simplest materials. I was mesmerized.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you have some simple method of keeping flowers submerged in a tube vase...especially if you want to float a candle. Example, 3 roses or 3 dendrobium stems. I tried wrapping the bases with plenty of the deco wire but wasn't enough weight. Any hints? Thank you again for sharing your talents.

ANSWER: Here are a few methods to try:
(1) Use a small pin holder (the ones used in Ikebana) at the bottom of the vase, stick your rose or orchid stems to it and place rocks/pebbles on top to hide the pin holder. That should keep the flowers in place. If you don’t have a pin holder, you can also try to keep the flower submerged with just the rocks/pebbles. That is the more traditional way of keeping flowers submerged.

(2) But if you’re like me and you don’t like the look of the typical rocks/pebbles at the bottom and would like a more clean look of just the flowers with the floating candle on top, place the flower in the vase FIRST, THEN fill with water to just the TOP of the flower (BEFORE the flower starts to rise in the water). At this point, place your candle so that it holds the flower down too. Then you can proceed to fill with more water until flower may start to float again. The only problem with this method is that the top of the waterline can only be as high as the length of the stem of the flower.

(3) To combat the problem in (2), you can place a piece of clear cellophane, crumble it and place in the vase between the flower and the candle. That way, you get your space between the flower and the floating candle.

(4) If all else falls, you can also try to get a cylinder vase that is thinner, so that the diameter of the vase is the same as the diameter of the flowers, so that the flowers should fit snug in the vase and not float to the top.

If you're reading this and will be trying this out, let me know what you try and tell me what worked for you! Good luck!!