Just Say I Do

A Winter Gift For You:

Receive a complimentary head table arrangement when you book your wedding flowers with me by December 31, 2010.

The Lovestruck Wedding Show took place on November 7th in the newly renovated Vancouver Club, a location with old-world elegance starting at the stately front entrance and continuing through the grand rooms and hallways, all the way up to the Members’ Lounge on the 3^rd floor where I had my booth.

A friend remarked days before the show, “So you have your tag line, Just say I Do, but what’s your design theme?” And for all the gauzy romance and white froth of this year’s Lovestruck theme, I felt drawn to blood-black bacarra roses with their luscious velvet petals. I wanted dense undergrowth of leucadendra and knarly vines heavy with tiny privet berries, turgid ropes of limey cymbidium orchids and large-headed calla lillies with their tubular bodies protruding like wild green exhibitionists, their wide-open throats blaring white light.

What I like about wedding shows is you get to create whatever you want. With the onset of Vancouver’s winter--its abundant evergreen textures and branches overrun with moss and dampness--I was in the mood for rich, dense and tactile.

I also enjoy the chance to reconnect with others in the business, such as Randal Kurt and Meralon Shandler of Randal Kurt Photography, winners of the 2010 PPABC "Best in Class" award for Photojournalistic Wedding, and always warm and approachable. Across from my booth, I had the pleasure of meeting Kathryn Bass of Pure Something whose exciting wedding gowns were featured in the fashion shows.

 

The day before the show, as I prepared for a consultation with a bride whose wishes were for the pale apricots and milk whites of spring blooms, I was enticed by the white tulips that spring out of our greenhouses around this time of year as we anticipate Christmas and perhaps some snow.

And for some of the guests at my booth there is nothing that says wedding like white.

As a part of the Lovestruck Wedding Show, I offered brides who signed with me before December 31, 2010, a complimentary head table arrangement. I'm extending that offer to you! Check out my website for more information.

-Lois

Lavender is Blue

In the world of flowers “blue” is often used to describe blooms in a range of hues including mauve, periwinkle, sky, royal and even some purples. Blue symbolizes peace, calm, purity, cleanliness, wide open spaces in many cultures and everywhere blue is associated with water and the sky.

It’s no wonder then that blue flowers hold such attraction and none more so than lavender which has been prized throughout history for its medicinal and culinary properties.

Summer in Vancouver is rife with blue flowers.  The scabiosa with its pale, translucent petals is popular with brides.  Towering delphinium and larkspur, perfect for large florals are abundant in shades from softest ice blue through periwinkle and into the deepest electric, royal blues and purples. Hydrangea bushes produce their large blooms in the same range of colour. For scent there is phlox in mauve and purple, and in these same shades is the delicate lisianthus.

And there are more. If blue is your colour come and explore the possibilities and even if your wedding is not till fall, there will still be blue and a few springs of late lavender can go a long way.

-Lois

May There Always Be Lace

 After listening to an article on the dying art of lace-making in the south of India, I was drawn to the outdoors to gaze gratefully at the ways in which nature persists in this ancient art.

 The maiden hair fern (Adiantum pedatum) is a plant that many will know, as it is grown both as a houseplant and a garden perennial. Its delicate plumes occupy the secret shade of the garden with access to constant moisture. It layers its leaves like crisp lace handkerchiefs tucked away in a grandmother’s trousseau.

The honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida Baggesens gold) prefers to be where the sun beats down all day. Here its golden tracery cascades over a hot bank keeping company with swollen poppy buds as they wait for the sun’s signal.

And close by in part sun the jasmine (Jasminum officinale) has sprouted new green tendrils. They will offer their own delicate beauty, long after the masses of scented white lace which arrive in early summer have bloomed and gone.                                

 I like to use these wisps of jasmine, the ruffles of peonies and poppies and the stunning loops of clematis to create the romance of lace in my floral designs. Many of these garden treasures like the hardy jasmine are not available commercially but have great cultural significance to us.

Let me know which ones have personal meaning for you and I will be honoured to design your Indie wedding bouquet using these flowers and foliages with your sentiments at the heart of it.

In nature, there will always be lace.

-Lois

The First Poppy- Where to look for a unique bouquet

Each first thing in the garden is precious: the first strawberry you pop into your mouth, the sweetness of your own first cherry tomato.

Today my delight is the very first Oriental poppy (Cedric Morris).

I love the subtlety of its coloration as if it wanted so badly to be a cream poppy but couldn’t resist the silvery tone of the dusty miller and the appeal of a pale pink dawn. So this poppy is the blend of all three elements and is nature’s perfection. It evokes all of the loveliness of spring: mildness, pale newness, soft delicacy. And it combines beautifully with the spring blooms which are its companions- the peonies, the anemones, the irises.

It’s the uniqueness of stunning garden gems such as this poppy that I seek out to help make your bouquet truly the only one you will find.

--Lois