Botanica - I'm Going To Miss This

I can't believe it's finally time for me to leave Botanica! Time has gone by way too fast! I will be heading back to the freezing state of Idaho to finish up my schooling. Then hopefully I will come back to the sunshine state!

Tampa Bay Museum of Art: 

The last couple of weeks we have some beautiful weddings as usual. Our first wedding was held at the Tampa Bay Museum of Art. Which is always an amazing venue. We decorated the arch with cherry blossoms and fringed tulips. The flowers really brightened up the outside space and all the colors really popped. Right before the bride came down the aisle we rolled out her aisle runner and had it secured for her to walk. This was my first time staying for the ceremony so I was pretty excited! The bride looked so beautiful walking down the aisle. I love love love weddings!!

 For this reception Ian ordered three huge olive tree which was a bit fun getting into the main reception area. Thank goodness for the bay doors on the side. The trees really filled up the room and created an amazing atmosphere for the rest of the reception decor. We filled the rest of the room with white farmhouse tables and lined some garden style tulip arrangements down the center. For the round tables we alternated with ranunculus and orchid arrangements lined with boxwood. We then added candles and votives which always makes the space feel more romantic and intimate for guests. 

Our gourgeous bride getting ready to go outside for the ceremony. 

Boca Grande Wedding: 

For my last wedding I got to be on the Boca Grande crew! I love Boca we always have amazing weddings there and the space is always different for each wedding. Every time we go to Boca I always want to stay and enjoy the space. I mean look at this amazing view!

This couple had a gorgeous setup outside on the croquet lawn. They decided to go with a plastic top tent which looks amazing at night. Guests first attended the ceremony on the right side of the lawn then made their way over to the tent/reception area.

Ceremony: 

Reception:

My final hurrah picture suggested by Zoe!

Ian Prosser and I. So lucky to get to work with him for the past two semesters.

I'm going to miss everyone at Botanica and all the crazy wedding weekends. I don't think I will really know what to do with myself on weekends now. It's already been a couple weeks and I am back in school but I am definitely still on Botanica time.

I have been so blessed to have such an amazing opportunity and I am so glad that Ian and the Botanica crew helped me so much along the way. I couldn't have asked for a better internship. I can't wait to finish school and continue my career in floral design and event planning. I hope to come back and work with everyone again in the near future. 

I plan to keep up my blog and keep you all updated on my floral adventures and ideas so keep checking back!

Let's Catch Up

I am so far behind on my posts! So let me update all of you on the past three weeks! With all of our events we of course need...flowers! Lots of them! So for the last few weeks the first thing we see is the mountain of flowers. Which for me, is a bit like Christmas day when we get all of our different varieties into the studio.

Mountain of Flowers:

 This wedding was held at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota. We used two of the ballrooms for the wedding. One of the rooms was for the ceremony and the other for the reception. The bride wanted a grand entrance for her ceremony so we provided these black gates that would open up for her entrance down the aisle. I was able to design half of the gate on  both sides. I really wanted to make sure it looked right, being the first thing that the bride sees. I also made the altar piece on the left side. This was my first altar piece I made that was so large, but it really turned out great and looked amazing all together with the other elements in the room when we finished.

 Grand Entrance:

This was definitely one of the favorite photos of the day. Jordan just photo-bombing the intern.

 Once the ceremony was done guests then transitioned into the reception area. The bride and groom sat at the long feasting table facing the dance floor and  all of their guests. This reception area looked beautiful and I loved the arrangements on top of the crystal vases. This room was so large that it really helped to fill up all of the visual space.

Reception: 

We also had another wedding that had their ceremony held at this beautiful church in downtown Tampa. The detailing and stained glass in this church is so beautiful. Perfect place to get married! We stopped by to add a few details to the church by adding a few bows down the pews and dropping of the most important thing...the bouquets and boutonnieres! 

Details and Delivery:

 Once we finished the setup for the ceremony we drove down to the Marriott hotel and setup for her reception. We all loved the pink snapdragons in these arrangements. It really made all the other shades of pink in these arrangements pop!

 On our busy weeks with lots of events and weddings we get to have Sylvia Bird come and design with us. I always love the work she does and this is some of her beautiful bouquet work. I love watching her work, makes me realize that there is still a lot for me to learn!

This wedding was held at the Tampa Yacht Club. I really loved the combination of calla lilies and orchids in these arrangements  Athena made the base of the bouquet and let me finish it off with the orchids which changed and finished the whole look of the bouquet. It was great! Also, if you look closely at the picture on the top right you'll notice that we have one orchid with three throats! We definitely don't get those in very often, if at all.

So in between all of our weddings we also have other events that somehow we fit in during the week. I don't know how Ian and Zoe do it all sometimes. I loved the used of cherry blossoms in the arrangements, they are just so light and airy against the pink roses. Larry and I had a lot of fun making all of these. 

We also make arrangements for a salon every week and this is just a little something I made for the week.

For my internship/school semester my professor at school wanted me to practice making funeral arrangements  We normally don't make anything for funerals but I needed the practice so Ian taught me how to put together a funeral casket and spray. This is from my first attempt. I was so nervous since I've never done anything like this before. You really have to make sure everything is secure because you don't want flowers falling out during transport, which is a lot at a funeral.

So after giving me a chance to get the idea of how I needed to design funeral arrangements Ian wanted me to make a new set of arrangements  This time with the clock running. I was given an hour and a half for both arrangements  I didn't think there was any way I could finish both in that time! But, we started the clock and this is what I made. Once I finished we stopped the clock and I still had 45 minutes left! I was so excited!  

This was an Indian style wedding which was being held at the Marriott Waterside Hotel. I loved the blue linens paired with the deep purple flowers. We then set out jeweled votives that were used as party favors for all their guests. Once again...it's all about the details that really makes the difference. 

This week we needed some fresh arrangements for our office so I made this arrangement with some garden roses and orchids. I love love love garden roses! Can't get enough!

And this another weekly salon arrangement!

Wedding at the Don

I was so excited to see this wedding all come together this weekend. We used so many bright colors that made everything so bright! This wedding was held at the Don Cesar in St. Petersburg. The bride looked so gorgeous when we came to deliver the flowers. I got to peek in the side room where her dress was hanging up so I had to share! Enjoy!

During the week we had a small floral show where various floral companies around Tampa had to create a design for each part of the Ringling Museum of Art. This was the section assigned for Botanica and this is what Ian designed for the area. Ian decided it was time for me to go out on my first solo setup and delivery so this was a good one for me to start out with. I was so nervous, but everything turned out great and we ended up having some great reviews for our designed section!

One of the head designers here at Botanica also had to interpret a painting this week with flowers. The picture was a man dressed all in black with one sleeve that had a red lining. After looking more closely Larry noticed that there was a waterfall in the background where the man was reflected. He chose to use this as his inspiration and used just a small section of the waterfall where he showed the red lining in the man's jacket. I thought this was a very interesting interpretation of the paining! I don't think I would have thought of doing it this way.

 Ian also had me make a couple of these crowns for another Gasparilla party we had during the week. The roses opened up perfectly for this event so they looked great!

Party In An Airport Hangar

We had an amazing event this weekend in Boca. The event was being held by Mr. Busch, a.k.a Mr. Busch Gardens. The event was held in a private airport hangar. All of the trees and palms that you see in the first picture were all brought in just for the event! After moving all these plants in it was our job to make the finishing touches with the flowers. My favorite part!

The tall vases on the table were a bit fun to get onto the tables. I think each vase weighed about 30 pounds each. Both of our guys Larry and Eric had to lift them up and over all the glassware on the table and set them right in the center. I think both of them got their workout in for the day after that! The tall vases made all the difference in the hangar. They really filled up the upper space and created more depth with the trees and low arrangements on the other tables. 

We also had another event that our other crew (Tiffany, and Janet) set up this weekend too. This wedding was held at the Dali Museum. I was able to help build the smaller arrangements that you can see on the right. We used antique hydrangea, roses, stock, and some foliage to create these arrangements. 

We also had a small event during the week at the Tampa Bay Yacht Club. I loved, loved, loved, the linens at this event! All the colors in the arrangement just popped when we put them on the tables.