Design: White Flowers

Just when I needed a break from the heat, my great friend, JoAnn, invites me over to play flower shop with some of her wedding flower leftovers. I love it when she does that! She is a great floral designer and when she is busy with weddings I often benefit--at a minimum by being able to see what beautiful things she is creating. Sometimes I'm also able to create my own arrangements with the extra. That is the best!

This latest wedding was all-white. I love monochromatic palettes. My own wedding flowers were white and a bit of green. It was beautiful. So I am enjoying these fresh, cool blooms inside with a lot of air conditioning. I need to soak it up before we head outdoors again. We've been on lots of field trips this week trying to make the most of the remaining unstructured days.

You too? Trying to fit it all in before school starts? I hope you are making the most of it.

Design: Flower Refashion

The night before the wedding, my in-laws hosted a beautiful dinner for the wedding guests. The room had concrete floors spread with oriental carpets, high tin ceilings, lots of windows, and one large table covered in white linen and bedecked with some incredible flowers done by my friend, JoAnn.  I had the fun of going along with JoAnn and my mother-in-law to the wholesaler a couple weeks before the event to look at flowers.We picked some great corals, with red, orange and bright green accents. We guessed that these rich arrangements would give the room the punch of color we were looking for. The were so perfect! Nice echo of the carpets too. And so different from the unique flowers and other details in store for the wedding day.

In addition to having great Italian food, and a wonderful time with friends and family of the celebrated couple, I was given one of the arrangements to take home. There is nothing more luxurious than having fresh flowers in the house, don't you think! Such a treat.

I was sad to see the flowers finally drooping but as I went to throw them out today I realized some of the "filler" was still fresh looking. So I found a much smaller vessel and filled it. Wouldn't this be a great arrangement for Christmas? I think these intense colors are really great together. The red is cockscomb but I don't know the names of the two green species. Any ideas? One is mounded in shape and looks feathery but is pretty sturdy. The other looks like a cross between a fern and an evergreen--pretty wiry feeling. Well, names or no, I like them! I'd love four or five down the middle of a holiday buffet, if I were having one!