Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Real Weddings: Shauna and Brent

Shauna and Brent were married on a beautiful September day at one of my favorite venues: Historic London Town and Gardens.

Shauna carried a classic white bouquet made with locally grown dahlias and scented geranium. A beautiful, jeweled broach added a pop of color to the bouquet wrap.

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The wedding colors were shades of orange, gold and green. The style of the wedding was rustic and natural. (My favorite colors and style!)

The guys boutonnieres were made of small succulents, orange gomphrena and a little splash of white statice.

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Two lush ceremony arrangements were placed on the deck where the couple said their vows. The colors looked so vibrant against the blue of the sky and the Bay.

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Sweet, pint sized mason jars filled with dahlias and zinnias hung from the ceremony chairs. A great added touch for the center aisle.

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The reception tables were decorated with potted herbs, succulents and in this case, salad greens.

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Even the cake got gussied up with flowers! Orange dahlias and zinnia added a great pop of color to this classic, beautiful white cake.

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We’re so grateful to all of the growers that provided flowers for Shauna and Brent’s wedding including: Locust Point Flowers, Belvedere Farm, Plant Masters and Wollam Gardens.

Special thanks to Nathaniel and Rissa from Balance Photography for these beautiful photos. I can’t  tell you what a joy it is to work with this super talented couple.

Finally, congratulations to Shauna and Brent. Wishing them a lifetime of happiness.

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Sunday, May 6, 2012

How We Got Started: Happy Anniversary Jen and Dave

Back before LoCoFlo started, my friends and I did flower arranging as a hobby. We fondly call this time “back when we didn’t know what we were doing”. What we lacked in know how we made up for in enthusiasm (which is still with us today!) Six years ago today, LoCoFlo co-founder Jen Reese married our friend Dave Bryant on a beautiful May afternoon.

In planning for the wedding flowers, we were ambitious and brimming with creativity. We decided shortly after the engagement, that we would grow all the flowers (tulips) ourselves. Of course, we waited until it was snowing (it was literally snowing) to put in the last bulbs. We chose early and late blooming bulbs figuring we’d hit the jackpot and they would all bloom at once.

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No such luck! Here’s a glimpse of some of the tulips we planted at my house blooming about 6 weeks early! (they all bloomed WAY early)

Since this was long before we knew any flower farmers that had early Spring local flowers, we decided as a last minute plan, we would order flowers from the wholesaler. Carla, Marina, Dave’s sister Amy and I loaded up Marina’s station wagon with hydrangeas and roses and headed over to the reception spot to put the flowers together.

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We also cut Carla’s peonies from her house and found a few bunches of local tulips from a farmer we all used to work for.

Chalk it up to extreme naiveté, but Marina and I were in way over our heads with the timing of things! We totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to make 7 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, loads of tables arrangements and decorate the reception site…not to mention deliver everything AND get to the ceremony on-time to see Jen and Dave get married!

Good thing Jen’s family was staying at the bed and breakfast at the reception site. We went around and knocked on doors trying to enlist help!

Jen’s dad and cousins helped hang the tulle (they didn’t quite understand the concept of “draping” but at least it was up!)

More cousins helped with the “kissing balls” and table arrangements.

Oh yeah…and Marina was pregnant!

We gave ourselves about 5-6 hours for everything!

Despite everything…we made it to the church on time. More importantly-everyone looked beautiful, the flowers looked beautiful and it was a WONDERFUL day!

And we are STILL laughing about how we pulled it all together!

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Happy 6th Anniversary Jen and Dave!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Book Review: The 50 Mile Bouquet

imageI have not been this inspired by a book since Amy Stewart’s Flower Confidential in 2007. Flower Confidential inspired me to start Local Color Flowers back in 2008 and the 50 Mile Bouquet is going to inspire me to grow LoCoFlo into the business I always envisioned.

The 50 Mile Bouquet is a beautifully written and photographed book about local flower farmers, designers that specialize in using locally grown flowers and clients that choose to buy local for their weddings and special events.

The grower section was great to read because I ACTUALLY KNEW some of the growers! How cool is that to see people you know in a book?

Much of the book focuses on the progressive growers in California, Oregon and Washington State. I loved learning about a urban LA flower farm called Silver Lakes Farm that grows beautiful flowers in the middle of Los Angeles! I’ve already referred two west coast friends to them! I was super excited to read about Flora Grubb and the Cutting Garden, an amazing spot that my dear friend Susannah took us to the last time we were in San Francisco.

While I LOVED reading about the growers, I was truly inspired reading about so many amazing designers that value local flowers…many of whom, like me, have built their business on buying local. I suddenly felt less alone when I read about designers with untraditional spaces like Lila B. Design, that works out of a loading dock in the Mission in San Francisco. (made me feel better about our garage studio). I felt less like a freak when I read about the ladies at Artis and Greene who have totally rejected floral foam and chemical preservation of flowers. I knew I was on the right track when I read about Max Gill, the floral designer from Chez Panisse that forages in his Berkeley neighborhood for interesting design ingredients.

I actually cried several times while reading the book because I felt so…included! I was so proud of these growers and designers I was reading about and I was proud of the community we are building at Local Color Flowers. I was proud that we are building a business on beautiful local products and inspired relationships with our growers and clients.

If you get the chance, read the 50 Mile Bouquet! You won’t be disappointed!