Easter design ideas

Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  I love spring and everything that goes along with it.  Sunshine, warmer weather, spring flowers are a wonderful way to jump start wedding season.   However I am dedicating this post to Easter design ideas, a bride can easily tweek one of theses examples to make it fit her wedding.

Wheat grass is so fun to add to arrangements.  Place it in a cute festive container to hold colored eggs and add all those yummy treats or flowers to doll it up.

This is Martha Stuarts take on Easter.    She makes everything seem easy.  I love how her style is clean and simple.  The white background makes the colors pop.

Spring Flowers are so beautiful.  Lilac, lilly of the valley, sweet peas, tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, anemone, and iris are common flowers that you can pick up at your local flower shop.

Purple, orange, green, yellow, and pink are the perfect hues for Spring.

Green Wedding

Since everyone is trying to learn green, live green and save green these days, I’m not at all surprised that brides are incorporating the color green into there wedding more than ever.  We are even seeing couples get more and more excited to incorporate eco-friendly ideas into their ceremonies and receptions.  Here are some examples of the green wedding trends for 2010.

Reduce – In honor of the environment, more couples are choosing to scale down their weddings rather than plan an elaborate affair for their closest 500 friends. Instead, couples are going for a smaller more intimate wedding that is easier to plan and easier on the Earth since less guests mean less resources used for the event.

Reuse & Recycle – Couples in 2010 are planning their weddings with a little more “something borrowed” than couples have in the past. They are borrowing decorations used in friends and family member’s weddings, buying things at tag sales and consignment shops, and finding new and creative ways to invent what they need out of something that already exists. Reusing materials is a great way to help cut down on waste-it might save couples some money as well.

Home Weddings – With so many couples planning smaller weddings, many of these couples are choosing to host their nuptials at home (or at their parents home). Keeping guest number down, allows couples to hold a ceremony at home and again allows for a simple, elegant solution with a lot less waste.

Decorating with Nature – Going with an eco-themed wedding can mean bringing the outside in. Couples are using things like branches, greenery, stones, seashells or leaves as wedding décor today. These options are economical, simple and biodegradable. Couples are using their creativity to make the most out of what they can find outdoors. And when done right, using nature as a decorating palette can exude an easy elegance like no other.  Think Green…..

Purple and Green Wedding Flowers

Purple and Green Weddings Flowers
This season purple and green wedding flowers have been the top color pick for bride after bride.  I guess I’m not too surprised with everyone going green theses days. It makes sense that Brides are looking for a clean, organic look and feel to their weddings.
I suggest to stay with deeper shades of purple or lime green to keep it looking fresh, modern and new verse the lighter palettes that will make your wedding look like Easter.  I especially have a new found love for green flowers.  Green is a color that one may not think there would be many face flowers to choose from, but the list is quite long.
Wheat grass (one of my favorite this time of year), hypernicum, roses, tulips, cymbidium orchids, hydrangea, lotus pods, coxcomb, hanging amaranths, gladiolas, anthirium, cala lilies, and succulents  are some examples.

Here are some other purple and green wedding images for inspiration.

Stop and Smell the Roses

4 days to Valentines day!  Don’t forget to place your orders.

Rose, tulips, orchids you name it.  Your special someone will love it!

Call 858-229-3569 or email

It’s time to plant your garden

Time to plant your garden!
Nothing tastes better than vegetables picked fresh from your own garden. There’s a certain satisfaction to serving and eating food that you yourself have grown and harvested.  The time is here.  Don’t wait another minute.
Although gardens typically demand a good bit of space, herbs can be grown in window boxes. Everyone, then, can experience the many joys of the kitchen garden.  Especially living in Califonia, gardening is quite the easy task.  All you need to do is put a few seeds in soil, water, and let nature takes it course.  I can almost garantee you will harvest something yummy by summer.

Here are some more photos from last years garden.  We had a friendly visit from to wild parrots that fly and quawk in La Jolla.  they just adored the sun flower seeds.

I can hardly wait to harvest this year.  The produce keeps on getting bigger and better:)

Flower of the Month-January’s flower is the Carnation

January’s flower of the month is the Carnation.

The thought of Carnations used to make me scream “the 80’s”.  However, Carnations have been reinvented in this modern age and are becoming quite popular in event design.

There are a few things that make carnations appealing for event decor…first and formost, they are inexpensive compared to other types of flowers-if you are on a budget they are a great cost-cutting solution.  Second, they last…once carnations are in full bloom they can stay fresh and fragrant for up to 3 weeks!  Lastly, carnations are available in hundreds of colors naturally and they can also be artificially colored.

If you choose carnations for your event decor, here is the trick to make this budget-friendly flower look like a million bucks…use carnations in lush groupings of the SAME COLOR.  Take a look at a few fabulous carnation arrangements and see what I mean…

With a little creativity, the sky is the limit with carnations.  And carnations are not just for centerpieces, they can be incorporated in your wedding cake, bridal bouquets, and  can create a an elegant placecard base.

As you can see, this budget-friendly flower provides endless possibilities for a high-end look.

White Bridal Bouquet’s

If you’re having a white wedding, feast your eyes on our white bridal bouquet ideas and bridal bouquet pictures. White flowers come in different shades; paper white, cream and ivory and have distinct elegance and formality. Your choice in white will depend on the shade of your bridal gown and if you want it to match or contrast with your gown or bridal accessories.

A classic white bouquet works well in all seasons and can make a casual wedding graceful and refined. A lovely flower choice for a white wedding bouquet; calla lily, lily of the valley, roses, anemones, white dahlias, gardenia, stephanotis and freesia.

White signifies purity, innocence, humility and a new beginning, it also depicts faith and is associated with light and is considered the colour of perfection. White flowers are most often used in bridal bouquets.

The Bishop’s Christmas Tea. Flowerchild gives back

The Bishop’s School Christmas Tea
Flowerchild gives back

The 20th Annual Joyeux Noel Christmas Tea at The Bishop’s School on Dec. 4 brought together old and new friends for some holiday merriment. Hosted by the Parents’ Association, the tea featured a performance by the Bishop’s Singers, and launched The Gayle Williams Scholarship Fund in honor of the head of the middle school, Gayle Williams, who passed away in September.

Of course, I was honored when the Christmas Tea Chairs, Terri Bourne, Beth Lauer and Karla Thiele approached me about creating a main floral piece to go on the central food table.  Without hesitation, I jumped on board knowing that this would be a wonderful event to donate my time to.  What a lovely tradition to be a part of.
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Fitzpatrick engagement party at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club

Wow! What a beautiful day at the beach and it is the end of November.  We are so fortunate to have amazing weather in La Jolla at the Beach and Tennis Club for the celebration a special engagement. The Fitzpatrick’s were certainly happy.

Bride to be loves garden flowers in hues of yellow, white, and greys.  Tulips, hydrangea, dusty miller, and some garden greens turned this gathering into a beautiful setting.

The Kellogg Wedding

Wendy Kellogg and Dave Machala were married in an intimate ceremony under a curly willow arche of cascading red and burnt orange flowers on November 15, 2009 at the top of Mount Soledad.  They exchange their vows with a backdrop of the beautiful La Jolla sunset glowing on the mountain side.

Wendy, daughter of Bill and Tricia Kellogg, came to me wanting a wedding that is reminiscent of the fall with all its warm, bright and crisp colors.  Her bouquet was a traditional white and cream colored beauty incorporating hydrangea, ranunculas, roses, and gardinias. The bridemaids  bouquets were full of color with orange being the main hue.  Orange is fresh and vibrant! It seems so youthful and so full of energy which fit Wendy’s personality.  Her flower picks were mini cala lilies, pink brandy roses, pin cushions, and dalhias.

After the ceremony the guests arrive at one of La Jolla’s most memorable dining restaurants, The Marine Room.  I would say that this wedding was all about the views!!

Wendy and Dave congratulations!  I wish you the best!