When I first spoke with the bride, she wanted to create a fall-colored wedding when they were home for the holidays on Mercer Island.  Though turquoise, orange and brown are not the typical winter holiday colors, they were sure beautiful on a cloudy December day in Seattle.



The day may have been rainy but the view was gorgeous from the Mercer Island Beach Club.



The bride bouquet, featuring tulips, mokara orchids, stephanotis and carnations.  



The mokara orchids always remind me of butterflies, maybe because the petals look like wings. The stephanotis blooms added a nice fragrance to the bouquet.



The bridesmaid bouquets featured tulips, alstromeria, roses and carnations.  The tulips were especially beautiful, showing a range of orange colors.



Aren't they beautiful, all lined up together?  Such a great color combination.



This is not a great photo, but gives you a general idea of the ceremony arch.



Eucalyptus garlands wrapped around the arch. A few flowers were added, but kept mostly natural looking.



Cocktail tables held small groupings of clementine oranges, greens and stephanotis blooms.   A great pop of color against the turquoise tables. They were my favorite part of this wedding. 



The dinning tables were adorned with flowers of orange and cream in turquoise square vases. Oranges and blooms clustered around the base.  Again, the colors were vibrant against the table cloth color.

Congratulations to the bride and groom! Thank you for letting me help make your day so special.

The Lairmont Manor in Bellingham, WA remains one of my favorite venues for events.  Such beautiful architecture and gardens! And the staff, Tammy and Susan, are amazing to work with.

They hosted an event this week for which I provided a few arrangements.  The first arrangement was for the dinning table. The decor was to be fall harvest theme.  Since I love working with seasonal plant material, this was right up my alley!



Very natural and textural, this arrangement contains locally sourced materials. Except the orange protea.  The kale, purple beautyberry, orange twigs and crabapples are from Jello Mold Farms. The artichokes, blackberries, lavender, grass, rosemary and leaves are from my yard.



Here is a view of the arrangement from the top.  When I delivered the arrangement, the table was already set.  Several of the serving platters were italian majolica pottery, very artistic and colorful.  The flowers looked amazing with them.

I also brought an arrangement for Tammy and Susan, for their front office.  Partially because I love bringing these ladies goodies and partially because I was playing with different fall arrangement styles.



This arrangement is an ode to the beautiful fall leaf colors.  Red roses, orange leaves from my maple tree and crabapples in the vase. Simple and beautiful arrangement.



Closer look at the crabapples.  Aren't they gorgeous!  They are pretty heavy, since they are real apples that are just tiny, and they sink well in water. Think I will play with this arrangement idea for some Thanksgiving arrangements I am creating next week.  Stay tuned!

Yesterday was a very busy day for Country Bouquets Floral. First was the MOPS meeting at the First United Methodist Church in Mount Vernon, WA with small narcissus bouquets for centerpieces. I am a hostess for our group and try to bring in fresh flowers when I can. Then I gave a speech at the PEO meeting on creating bouquets with flowers from your yard (stay tuned for a separate blog on those creations). Finally, a wedding consult with a sample bridal bouquet and centerpiece for a summer wedding client. 

After everything was complete, I looked on my counter and saw this:



The perfect collection of little vases filled with little flower bouquets in a rainbow of colors.  As I work on creating arrangements, I place the broken or extra flowers in small vases to keep them fresh.  Sometimes I can use them in designs, like bouts and corsages or small arrangements for bathrooms.  Other times not.  But I do not like to waste flowers!

A trend in floral design is to use an assortment of vases, containing a single variety of flower in each.  Though you may not choose this particular color palette, the image at least illustrates how it might look.  Great for reception tables, bars, bathrooms or guest book table; anywhere you want a bit of floral color without using too many flowers.

Today should be a mellow day compared to yesterday.  Next up, Easter!