Okay, so it was GORGEOUS! Completely eye catching with the dramatics of red and white and black. Becca has great taste! I know this post is late, since the wedding was in June, but I guess part of me wanted to save it for later, since I miss doing flowers so much.Pictures by Melissa Burnett Photography. - but flowers done by
Rachelle Ellis of Abloomin' Daisy!
Becca had a lot of bridesmaids, so rather than get a bunch of bouquets for each one, she made a money saver move. She just asked for a simple large red gerbera daisy for them each to put in their hair. Unfortunately my mother has those pictures on her camera.
Cute little Bentley in her floral crown.
So you can sort of see the throw bouquet, but another cool thing about the photo was is the little umbrella. I totally made it! I had this grand design, but when I got to the location, and realized the space on the table and the time, and materials... I couldn't make it work. I will have to save that design for another time.
The evolution of the umbrella if you care to know. I tore the fabric off of a normal umbrella to it's skeleton, gesso-ed the doilie my great-grandmother made, so it would be whiter and stiff, then laid it on the skeleton umbrella overnight to shape and dry. My mother and John liked the idea of modern meeting the vintage, but for some reason, I just didn't like the little plastic handle, and had to find another way to make it happen. So I took the bamboo used for floral design, to match the shape, and created the umbrella. I was going to set it up high-ish and thread flowers with fish line to hang over the guestbook, creating a floral canopy..... like I said, I will save it for another time.
The Bride's bouquet included red ranunculus and little red spray roses, white stargazer lilies and some salal leaves. I had to make a repair from the temple pictures to the reception since the lilies are fragile and since they were white they show thieir folds and bruises well. The boutonnieres for these ring bearers were small white spray roses, while the groom's were ranunculus blooms to match the bridal bouquet and the flower girl's crown. The groomsmen and fathers had mini white or red gerbera dasies, and the mother's had large red gerbera wrist corsages with black beaded wristlets- very formal. I learned a lot from this event, but as always really enjoyed working with the flowers!
Becky's Bridal bouquet was set in a holder, and her main request was to have large white gerbera daisies and her colors were light watercolors. For her green: it's old english ivy to contrast all the lights. For fillers: baby's breath with white and pink mini carnations. The kicker: The light blue hydrangea. I saw it at the wholesaler, and HAD to have it! I had never worked with it before, but fell in love with it. The problem: They, like their gerbera nieghbors here, wilt quickly and depending on the color, bruise easy.
The peacock feathers were a real challenge because of thier shape. They are one sided, flat and tall. The callas are considered a "tall-headed" flower head, the 3 inches height make out for a larger radius on the head of a bouqet. So the two combined, made it difficult for me. But it certainly paid off! The cascade shape looks great with the tear shaped callas.
At first glance, it may not be much. But look closer, it's a piano. Margaret was an accomplished pianist, and I was told, she played right up until the day she died. She was a classic.
A little different than the tradional, but personally, I love it. My sister Robyn hired me, and gave me with the inspiration on this one. In our family, daffodils are pretty meaningful. To me they represent new beginning, they are the first up in the spring. They look like suns, and represent a celestial state. They are planted by my sweet nephew's tree, and my mother did paintings for a book called "The Daffodil Principle". 
Notice the shape of the flowers.... like a ship sailing? Sailing away to new beginnings. The spring flowers represent those new beginnings, and graduation from this life, to the next.
If I haven't already told you yet, I love doing specialty designs for funerals. It can really stretch my creativity. And sometimes the flowers themselves guide me, I'm not kidding.
