Fall is finally here!

Hey Everyone!

     I finally have some pictures this week! Work has been so much fun the past few weeks. Between weddings, Christmas, and all of our corporate events I have been able to make a lot of fresh floral arrangements. Which is always my favorite!

This first photo is a wedding we did up at Red Cliff Ranch. This location was beautiful. And a perfect spot for the couples wedding reception. This is one of the many small coffee table arrangements I made for the wedding. 

We used the same birch containers and created a totally different look for another client. We are so excited for fall at Modern Display so we have really been implementing all of the changing colors into our arrangements.

I ended up making all of the arrangements for this event which was held in one of the amazing ballrooms in the Grand America. The space is so huge and I loved the chandeliers in here!

These arrangements were made for another one of out weddings. I didn't make these arrangements but I had to add them in. The flowers were amazing, especially the dahlias! The colors were all so bright and cheery. Which blended perfectly at the venue in deer valley. 

We continued the use of our bright colors with these arrangements for one of our corporate clients. These were also used in a venue up in the park city/deer valley area. My favorite was all of the purple statice we used, I really think it made all of the other colors stand out!

LOOK!...at this view! Can't get enough. 

All of the pictures above were taken on the way to our next event. Which was almost all the way to Wyoming! And don't worry someone else was driving while I was taking all of these. These arrangements in the cowboy boots are one of my favorite arrangements we have made for an event so far. It was so different from what we normally do.  

Before

                                                                                   After

This event was held at the county fairgrounds. The first floor consisted of all of the main cocktail arrangements we made in little mason jars. Then the second floor had all of the large table pieces for the main dinner. I helped with both pieces. We used my favorite variety of sunflowers, teddy bear sunflowers so I really have a fun time designing with them.

First Floor:

Second Floor: 

 And finally!...

We actually just set up this event on Wednesday and took it all down tonight. I made all of the large centerpieces that went on each booth. You really need large pieces in this space to make it stand out against the large scale in the Salt Palace.

Floral Adventures in Salt Lake City!

Hello all,

I have been very bad and have not continued my blogging since I got back from Florida. The last few months have consisted of going to school and moving down to Salt Lake City. So let me fill you in a  little. I finished another semester of school in the middle of July. I am excited to say that I only have 3 semesters left of school and then I am free to move on to the next adventure! I went home to Montana for about 4 days and decided that it was time to be getting a summer job. I heard about how amazing Modern Display was down in Salt Lake. So I packed up my things in my trusty car Hannibal and drove down to Salt Lake for an interview with Modern Display. (Long story short, Hannibal likes to eat little animals). Luckily enough the interview went amazing and I was hired on immediately. Praise the heavens! Since then my schedule has been non stop work and I love it! It's great to be back designing with flowers again. 

My goals for the next few months will be to share with you all the designs that I make at work and share all the places we go around the Utah area. I have also decided to start a design journal filled with things that inspire me as a designer and new ideas I would like to do someday for a future event. So stay tuned for the next few months! 

My first two weeks were filled with 70 hour weeks of trips back and forth to the Salt Palace and up in Park City. We were able to make some beautiful designs for these events, and the location in Park City was amazing. I will be adding pictures as soon as possible. So check back and I will have them up ASAP. 

Fast forward a few more weeks and we have been doing weddings and a few more corporate events on the side. Since the store is also retail I have been making pieces for the Modern Display showroom. It is very different working with artificial flowers versus real ones. Making them look natural is my biggest challenge and I am trying hard to perfect it so it looks so real the customers will have to touch it! I will also be adding pictures of these as well. 

I can't wait for the next few months as we get into setups for Christmas and other events. This will be my first Christmas season as a designer so I am hoping things go well!

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!