Week 10

 This week we were busy pulling all kinds of things for both of our weddings coming up for the weekend. I didn't think my job of cleaning and prepping candles and vases was ever going to end! Everyone ended up tackling the job and then it was time for the fun part…flowers!

Each wedding we do requires a specific recipe for all of the arrangements and bouquets. I helped to set aside each recipe on the work bench so that we could start putting together all of our bouquets. This week I got to make the brides bouquet for the wedding in Boca Grande. I was so nervous! I have never made a hand tied bouquet so I ended up spending quite a bit of time on it. The bouquet had hydrangea, garden roses, ranunculus, and English Ivy. I really learned a lot from making the bouquet.

While I was designing the bouquet I was having a hard time fitting in the smaller ranunculus stems and some of the last few garden roses. Athena and Tiffany showed me that if I just simply loosened my grip on the flowers I could place them in and then tighten my grip when I felt like the flowers were placed correctly. Loosening my grip helped me to adjust and move the flowers and get them to sit where I wanted to. I’m really glad I got the chance to learn how to build a hand-tied bouquet. Hopefully I will be designing more in the next few weeks.

The Brides Bouquet:

Once I was done with the bride’s bouquet I got to move onto the junior bridesmaids bouquets. The junior bouquets had hydrangea, dahlias, and ranunculus. They we’re much smaller than the bride’s bouquet and went much faster for me.

Junior Brides Bouquets:

On Friday the boys and I went to a venue called the Vault to set up draping and furniture for Ian and Zoe’s show. The Vault used to be an old bank so it really has a huge old bank vault towards the back, which I think it would be great in a party for a VIP area. Although in our setup we just draped off sections for the different areas of the show.

The Vault:

Saturday! My favorite day of the week finally came and Athena and I headed off to Boca Grande which is an hour or so away from the studio. Once we got there we drove to a cute little cottage on the side of the Boca hotel to deliver the bouquets and corsages to the bride. It was so fun seeing the bouquet I made go from the studio, to the bride.

Personals: (Bouquets and Corsages)

We walked across the little cottage to the hotel where the dinner would be held after the ceremony and set out table arrangements and.

Boca Grande Hotel:

Once we delivered the personals and table arrangements we moved onto the beach setup for the ceremony. The bride and groom wanted an archway facing out to the beach. We took curly willow and secured some around cement posts. We took two of these posts and buried them in the sand to secure them. The wind is so strong on the beach you have to make a strong foundation first to make sure nothing comes apart mid-way thorough a ceremony. To complete the archway we took more bunches of curly willow and curved them together to create the arch.

The Arch:

We also had flowers to secure on the arches but we had to wait just before the ceremony to secure the flowers on. In the direct sunlight and wind the flowers would wilt quickly if they were put out right away.

The Archway Finished:

Time For The Ceremony:

While Athena and I were in Boca Grande the rest of the Botanica crew was busy setting up another wedding at the Ringling Museum. I came back with Jordan later that night to pick up our product after the wedding. This place is so beautiful! Especially with all the candles lit up at night.

Ringling Museum:

Week 9

This week was my favorite week yet. I have never been so exhausted! Every day was just go, go, go. We had so many things scheduled this week every day just kind of blurred together. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

Our Schedule For The Week:

We spent most of the day Tuesday just processing the large amount of flowers we got in for the upcoming weeks. We had over a 1,000 hydrangeas come in and that was just the start of it!

Just A Few Flower Boxes:

Processing Before And After:

Once we made a spot for all of our flowers I was onto the next project. A lot of our events include candles. When we get our brand new candles in we have to burn a well in them before they go in a hurricane vase. If you don’t burn down a well in the candle, the wax will drip down the glass and you can’t get the candle back out without breaking the glass. So in order to prevent that we just put some water in the vase put the burned candle down in the vase and done! This way we can keep reusing the candles over and over, definitely something I would have never thought of doing.

Looks Like A Shrine With All These Candles:

We spent the next few days pulling vases, urns, and lots of other pieces together for all of our events and putting them in our hard goods area on the side of our warehouse. For the King’s dinner we needed over 80 votives with gold wire for all the dining tables at the event. This became my job for the next three days. I finally figured out a system with the pliers, wire cutters and oasis wire, but it still took me a while. I feel like a wire master after all those votives!

The Never-Ending Votive Job…:

Thursday we started making arrangements for all of our events during the weekend. Ian had me make 25 arrangements in small gold urns. They had red and orange roses with just a little bit of boxwood tucked in. About halfway thorough I started timing myself to see how fast I could get one arrangement done!

Here They Are:

Friday was entirely a design day, which was the best day of the week! We had to make long arrangements for the Kings Dinner head table and all of the long dining tables. We also had to make large centerpieces for the round dining tables. I luckily got to help with both!

Steps Of Making Long Arrangements:

We fill all the arrangements with hydrangeas

White Roses Next:

Then Orange Roses:

Tuck In Some Orchids:

Add Some Dahlias:

And Finally Some Hypericum Berries:

So Many Arrangements:

For the large centerpieces we used the same assortment of flowers. I hadn't made an arrangement like this so Tiffany and Ian helped me by putting in the hydrangeas first to help me get the right shape I needed. After they finished putting in the hydrangea I had a better idea of where to place all of my other flowers for each arrangement. We all worked on getting all 23 of them finished and called it a day.

Ian even made 4 amazing arrangements for the front entryway and the inside lobby area. I’ll point them out in the pictures below!  

Saturday my new favorite day of the week finally came and we started out bright and early. We loaded flowers onto our big truck (Melva) for the Brown wedding, and sent the first crew out to install for the wedding. 

Bouquets For The Wedding:

Bridal Bouquet:

I stayed at the studio and helped pull more last minute things together for the King’s Dinner. Once we were ready to go we loaded up our smaller van (Sister) and headed out to install our pieces for the King’s Dinner. We started unloading and I really think for the first few minutes my mouth was hanging open. Everything was so beautiful, and so big! The double red carpet entryway when you first come in, then the amazing dining area with tons of chandeliers, and gold everywhere! I was in love! Once I got my sense back we started unloading and installing the flowers, couches and vases. I could keep going about how amazing this event set up was but, I think the phrase: “a picture is worth a thousand words” fits perfectly so…..here they are!

King’s Dinner At The Straz Center:

You can see the large round arrangements we made in the bottom two pictures, in the collage above. They were all placed above all the round tables.

This week was definitely crazy and pretty much non-stop but I really loved it! I’m so glad that I've finally found a career that I’m truly passionate about. I can’t get enough of flowers, weddings, and design and I can’t wait to see what we have planned for next week!

Week 8

This week has been the busiest week yet! We started out the week by getting in a ton of flowers in for the weddings and Eyeball event we had this Saturday. So we spent the first couple of days getting them processed and organized in buckets for each event. Just so you guys know when I say processing flowers it just means unwrapping flowers and cutting the bottom of the stems before putting them in the water. The reason we cut the stems is because the flower will dry at the base from when they were first cut. If you don’t cut the base of the stems they will not be able to continue to get water and will die. Which you don’t want to happen!

A Bucket Of Antique Hydrangeas:

Once we finished organizing and processing flowers we started to make some arrangements for weddings we had coming up. I got to help make a few arrangements in bubble bowls for the Rainier wedding. In this arrangement we used hydrangea, beautiful pink garden roses, white roses, and some seeded eucalyptus.

Rainier Arrangement:

My next project was making moss runners for some feasting tables. I cut long sheets of burlap and glued sheet moss on top of the burlap. I loved it! So easy, and yet would really create an interesting detail for a table arrangement.

Moss Runner:

On Thursday Janet and I headed to the Sand Pearl Resort for our weekly delivery and then made a stop at the Oxford Exchange to pick up empty terracotta pots. The pots are going to be used to replace the orchid cubes we had placed on all the restaurant tables in the past few weeks. Tiffany ordered a whole box of amazing succulents that we could use to place in the small pots. Janet and I then lined all the pots and placed a variety of the succulents in the pots and packed them up to go back to the Oxford Exchange.

Succulents:

I loved these in the pots with just a little bit of sheet moss:

As the week progressed we pulled more vases and candles for our events. I also spent some time spray painting candelabras gold for the Reiner wedding ceremony. I was spray painting for a while so I got to wear a very fashionable mask for this job.

My Mask Face:

Spray Painting Candelabras:

Once I was done with my spray painting job I got to help with quite a few arrangements that we needed to make for the Eyeball event.  We used celosia, roses, lisianthus, and some seeded eucalyptus. I would have never thought of the color combination we used with the flowers and I really liked it all together.

 Eyeball Arrangements:

Saturday finally came and I started out the day by packing up all the bouquets for the two weddings. Before we could pack them up we had to wrap them with a little bit of packing material and then wrapping them with ribbon. The packing material makes it more comfortable for the brides and bridesmaids to hold through a long day.

Box Of Bouquets:

Once I finished packing up what I could Athena and I headed out to the Eyeball event. We unpacked all the arrangements out of the boxes and placed them on the coordinating tables. We then placed chargers and votives out on all the tables. There are so many little details that make the whole event come together and look amazing!

Eyeball Event:

Once we unloaded all of our pieces for the eyeball event we headed back to the studio to load up for the rainier wedding ceremony in the church. For the ceremony we had to load up the candelabras that I had spray painted earlier. Before we could load them into the van we had to wrap them in greenery so that we didn't make a mess in the church. Once we finished that job Athena, Jordan, Ian and I headed out the church. The church was so beautiful with the stained glass windows and huge organ. We lined the aisle with the gold candelabras and then fit candles in each holder. The candelabras with the candles all lit made such an impact in this already beautiful church.

Hyde Park Church Before And After:

We finished just in time and waited to watch the bride come out of the limo just before the ceremony was scheduled to start.

Here Comes The Bride:

Once the ceremony finished we had to go in and take down all the candelabras and load them back in the van. It was amazing seeing the whole process of making the pieces for the wedding, installing everything, and tearing it down. The tear down is always so much faster than the setup! Athena and I headed back to the studio with the loaded van and emptied it out. We needed to empty the van out for the pickup Eric and I were scheduled for later that night.

It’s been a great week and I love getting the chance to learn new techniques and improve my mechanics in my designs. I think Saturday is going to become my favorite day of the week now! There is so much to learn while I’m here and I’m excited to see more of the weddings and events that we have coming up in the next few weeks.