Merry Christmas 2013!

A friendly, colorful tree with a mix of retro and new ornaments. It's a nice change of pace to decorate a live tree.

Amaryllis and Narcissus

Amaryllis and narcissus with fruit and pine in a vintage holiday tin.

Christmas Mantel

My favorite mantel this year. Gorgeous and glowing in mixed metallics, paper and cloth. This one is all about texture. Custom Christmas designs and home decorating is a big deal here at florissimo, contact us early next year, space fills up fast!

Danielle Ledbetter

Obviously I'm a bit behind on posting, been a busy few months, (and Facebook does make a blogger lazy.) I'll try to catch up quickly before I get into Christmas posts. Here is Danielle Ledbetter and Co. in October. She carried a great bouquet of eggplant calla lilies, white polar star roses with hypericum berries. Her attendants carried terra cotta roses, leucdenron, lotus pods and green hypericum for some contrast. A few unexpected materials made for some texturally interesting fall bouquets. The leucadendron (safari sunset) also makes a handsome boutonniere.

Katie Heim

Here we have Katie Heim, posing with her library book bag "Because it's Me!" She carried ivory vandella roses, picasso calla lilies, lavender lisianthus and purple stock (2nd.) Bridesmaids bouquets were, vandella roses, purple stock, lisianthus and stephanotis (3rd.) An altarpiece of gladiolas, vandellas, limonium, curly willow and hosta leaves (Photo by Image Matters.) Katie was great, the families were super nice and she brought the Weinermobile to give the "kids" rides, good clean fun!

sunflowers

Big 'ol yellow vase of garden sunflowers.

Vintage

  

I'm a fan of the vintage flower trend in weddings. I love the flower options, the dresses, brooches and even the babies breath. Top - A sweet bouquet of; astilbe, pink roses, bouvardia, nigella and dusty miller. Lace and a cameo finish the handle. 2nd - Garden flowers and roses in a collection of milk glass vases are still one of my favorite mix n' match centerpiece approaches (the book page ornaments are made by Jamey.) 3rd - Our take on the brooch bouquet, a scepter of; rose ball ornaments and brooches with a cuff of babies breath. 4th - garden roses, scabiosa, queen anne's lace, silver brunia and dusty miller (photo by Travis Duncan.)

Jewel Tones

One of our looks for the Fall Bridal Spectacular '13. Vibrant jewel tones! Top, a bridal bouquet of; red roses, orange ranunculus, green hypericum, blue Dutch hydrangea, and purple mokarra orchids. Next, a dynamic altar or entryway piece, the same flowers with the additon of gloriosa lilies. The orchids are in test tubes suspended with wire. Lastly, a piece of floral jewelry, a corsage of mokarra orchids, string of pearls and wire made on bright bangle bracelets.

roses and lilies

An anniversary/birthday arrangement for Grandma Brown. Phlox, crepe myrtle, monarda, queen anne's lace roses and lilies.

escaping tigers

Tiger lilies, blackberry lilies and coneflower escaping their enclosure.

coneflower and blackberry lilies

A summery vase of coneflower, blackberry lilies, dahlias and yarrow.

garden lilies

Lilies and dahlias from the garden. My floral fireworks.

Cat Smart

Here we have lovely Cat and company. Cat carried a flowing dendrobium and Vandela rose cascade with vinca vine for accent and movement. Each attendant (there were 8, I didn't get them all) carried basically single variety bouquets to match their shoes. Red roses, blue delphinium, orange dahlias and green button mums with hypericum berries and oregonia. When doing each bridesmaid's bouquet different I like to keep the bouquets simple, it shows a much clearer intention. The girls, as you can see looked fantastic!

lilies and vinca

Our lilies with a shelter of vinca.

Happy Father's Day!

My very own Father's Day arrangement from the garden. A warm yellow/orange design of lilies, red hot poker, St. John's wort, hosta leaves and sedum.

early summer garden bouquets

I've been off adventuring with some great florists this spring and am finally getting back to business here in Jeff City. We've had some good rains lately and the garden is responding very well (over responding in some areas.) Here are 2 hand tied bouquets from the backyard. Top is a hand tied clutch bouquet of; dianthus (sweet william), coreopsis, cornflower, monarda (horsemint), vinca vine, lemon balm, spirea and a hosta leaf. Next is a small arm bouquet of; delphinium, monarda, dianthus, cornflower, scabiosa and campanula (bellflower.)

Gregor Lersch at ISFA '13

Another excellent Illinois State Florists Association Spring Conference! The ISFA board does an amazing job bringing in world class design educators, vendors, provides scholarships and generally strives to keep the floral industry vibrant and forward thinking, not to mention showing us all a great time - thank you guys! This year I had the amazing opportunity to assist German designer Gregor Lersch (a big deal for a flower nerd like me!) When Gregor wasn't being completely charming (which was always,) craftsmanship was the name of the game. There were no pre-existing containers, everything was handmade, including that basket and stand in the first photo - wire wizardry. In the second image I am weaving curly willow through a wire armature created on a stand made from fencepost and rebar. The willow served as not only a device to attach water tubes for the gloriosa lilies and lily grass ( finished design 3rd image) but also as a visual counterbalance to the fencepost. The last image is a piece of fencepost attached horizontally to a rebar stand wound with ficus roots (lovely,) gloriosa lilies, senecio (string of pearls plant) and green trick. Just 2 of many amazing pieces - more later. Ciao!

Silk Bouquets

Outside of holiday work permanent botanicals have not been something I spend enough time showing here on florissimo. Time to change that.
Silk and dried flowers of course have their place in interior decorating but are generally only thought of in bridal work only in relation to being more cost effective. Unless you are buying low end silk blooms prices are very comparable. In my opinion permanent elements must be chosen even more carefully than their fresh counterparts, in wedding photography there will be close up shots of the flowers and inferior quality blooms just don't show well.
  Top - A cascade bouquet of; roses, ranunculus, mini hydrangea, maidenhair fern, hops and pearl strands. In the modern cascade movement is key.
Middle - A clutch of peach roses, spray roses, ranunculus and seashells (photo by Rachel Bader.)
Bottom - A lily-of-the-valley bouquet.
  There's nothing wrong with wanting to have and hold your bouquet forever, I just suggest going to your design professional first.

Emily Shackelford

Here we have the wonderful Emily Shackelford. She's carrying white polar star roses and picasso calla lilies. Her girls are carrying polar star roses, purple lisianthus and lavender ocean song roses. A picasso calla with ruscus and wire make a sleek boutonniere. Photos by Travis Duncan.

florissimo butterflies

A few summer garden butterfly images from '12 to combat the deep freeze blues; sulphur on phlox, great spangled fritillary on alium, monarch on zinnia and a beautiful buckeye.