Winter Wedding Part Two

The flowers arrived on Wednesday...check out the pictures! The flowers are flown in from all over the world and we carefully unpack each stem and inspect for quality, the correct color, and damage. Everything was perfect!!!

The next step is to condition the flowers. We clean all foliage that would go below the water level off the stem, then cut at least one inch off he end of the stem that will go into the bucket. The bucket is prepared ahead of time with clean water and a floral food that will give the flower the nutrients it needs to develop. it also works extra hard to help keep bacteria from growing in the water and killing the flowers. This process can take some time, even hours, depending on the quantity of flowers and how delicate they are.

Next, the flowers are stored in our controlled-temperature coolers until it is time to design, with the exception of roses. Roses are cooled in the cooler for a few hours so that the heads "harden" (this step helps ensure the petals stay ON the rose and don't fall off prematurely) but then removed and kept outside the cooler so the petals expand and the heads open to a lush look.

Today, we began designing! Take a look at the pictures! Amanda was hard at work designing corsages and boutonnieres today.

Tomorrow is Ashley's big day. Be sure to check back to see pictures from the setup of her flowers.

A Winter Wedding in the Making

We'll join this one in progress....I've already had the pleasure of meeting with the bride, Ashley, and putting her dreams on paper. Now it's up to me and our staff to take those ideas off paper and transform them into real life!

Here's the idea: We will follow the process for wedding flowers from start to finish; from putting ideas on paper to ordering the flowers to designing the creations and finishing with the day of the wedding. I'll post about how the process is moving along and include pictures. This is a great place for brides-to-be to learn how the wedding process goes and to see some of the behind-the-scenes elements so rarely published.

And now we join our January 19th wedding, already in progress...

So the flowers have been ordered and they will arrive here in the shop tomorrow (Wednesday). Ashley's wedding is this Saturday here in Columbus.

Her look started out as classic but slowly evolved to be more modern, with curly willow and bamboo branches becoming focal pieces in her decor. The main flower is the rose; Black Baccara to be exact. it's one of my all-time favorites because of it's intense deep red color and it's high petals count, thus allowing the rose to open and be very full.

Check back in late tomorrow or on Thursday to see pictures of the flowers arriving and to learn more about how the flowers are shipped and processed!

~Heather