Ian needs your VOTE!

We are so thrilled here at Botanica that Ian was nominated as Event Solution's "Designer of the Year"! Just last week we learned Ian was selected by judges as one of nine finalists in the country for this award!

Now that the judges have selected him as a finalist it's up to YOU to help Ian become the winner! Click HERE to vote for Ian Prosser as Designer of the Year! While you're there, please vote for our friends, Brooke Palmer as 'Rising Star' and Heather Snively as 'Event Planner of the Year'.

Voting is open until January 31st, 2010! The winner will be announced at the March 8th Event Solutions Conference in Las Vegas!

Fingers Crossed!!! Don't forget to tell your family and friends to help us SPREAD THE WORD!!!

We love Peonies!

Our current "love" of the moment is peonies. Traditionally they are a June flower. However, just these past two weeks we've been thrilled about getting in some beautiful cranberry red colored peonies!

If you're an end of May or June bride, take advantage of something not all Brides have the opportunity to enjoy... PEONIES! They are available in various colors and such a beautiful and stunning flower. We're busy with Holiday events this week, but we wanted to take a moment to share.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to all!!

Brides.com and Brides Florida Networking Event

On November 11th we had the honor of being one of many fabulous vendors asked to participate in the annual Brides.com and Brides Florida Magazine Networking Event.

Ian worked with Aymee Brace of Brides Florida Magazine and Ashly Olivier of Olivier Events to design an event that was just out of this world! Unfortunately Brides, it was vendors only. But we had a great time nonetheless, and everyone involved really went above and beyond to make this event such a HUGE success!

Enjoy the pictures below. :)















Just a few of the many fabulous vendors involved are mentioned below and pictured in the images provided:

Event Coordination and Management: The wonderful Ashly Olivier - Olivier Events
Floral Decor and Design: Us :)
Linens: Lines by the Sea
Venue: T. Pepin Hospitality Centre
Lighting: BayStage Lighting
Vinyl Dancefloor covering: ShoworksEvents
Room Draping and Ceiling Draping: conceptBAIT, Inc.
Lounge Furniture: AFR Furniture Rental

and of course, a BIG thanks to Jeff and Ana of K and K Photography for taking all of the photos to document this beautiful event!

Don CeSar Fall Inspired Wedding

Last month we were a part of a beautiful fall wedding at the Don CeSar in St. Pete Beach, FL.

Something we love about Fall is the color scheme. The deep orange and rich red colors are something that not all Brides can (or should) take advantage of. And two months out of the year, it's the perfect way to take your Florida wedding and give it that warm Autumn feel - the weather we Floridians love, even if our average temperature is still in the high 80s!! :)

We hope you enjoy this wedding as much as we did!







Ceremony/Reception: The Don CeSar Resort - St. Petersburg Beach, FL

Floral Decor: Us. :)

Wedding Planner: The fabulous Monica and Erica of Elan Event Studio

Photography: Beautiful photography by Lauren Pauline Photography

Kind words.

We recently received a very nice note from a past Bride and Groom's whose wedding we had the pleasure of being a part of this past October.

We just wanted to share, as these are the reasons why we love so much what we do. :)

Dear Ian and Zoë,

Thank you so very much for all of your creative energy and dedicated effort to help make our wedding day as beautiful as we could have ever imagined! Everything, from the garlands to the uncanny flowers was absolutely perfect! Considering the unqiue design objective we provided you with, we cannot imagine any other florist who could have produced anything closer to what we had in mind. There is a reason you are the BEST! It was also such a pleasure working with you. Thanks for everything!!

Warm Regards,
Evan and Mark

Botanica is now in ORLANDO! (and still in Tampa as well) :)

Botanica Orlando is officially open and ready for business!! Even prior to our Grand Opening Event and the completion of our new studio, we've enter Orlando hitting the ground running! We're excited about meeting new clients and working with new vendors of all kinds!

In order to make a grand entrance, we invited Orlando's premier vendors and local venues to check out our new digs and we figured the best way to showcase our new studio and introduce Botanica to Orlando was none other than throwing a party! (of course) :)

Check out the photos below!!!










The ladies of Botanica! (From left to right) Brittany Myers (Orlando Event Account Coordinator), Fiona Prosser (Owner/Wife of Ian/Accountant) and Zoë Gallina (Tampa Event Account and Sales Coordinator)



A HUGE thanks to the wonderful Amy Pezzicara of PezzPhoto for photographing the event for us!

Organic Orlando Photos!

We've been slacking at Blogging recently, but with opening our new studio and our opening event, we got a little behind with the blog! So our apologies!

Below are some great pictures from Damon Tucci Studios from the Room Service Organic Orlando Event!

It was a fun event and a great first time experience for Botanica Orlando in the Orlando Market!

Botanica and Room Service Rentals creating an 'Organic Orlando'

This Thursday Botanica is thrilled to be an event Sponsor for Room Service Rentals' Annual Showcase and Networker event at The Orlando Brewing Company. Not only are we so excited to be asked to be a part of this event, but honored to be doing an event with a team of such fabulous vendors!

The theme is 'Organic Orlando' - we love themed events because it really allows Ian and our designers to get creative, use unusual varieties of flowers and take the theme to a whole new level! You'll see bright colors, tropical foliages, wheat grass and other items to accomplish this 'organic' look!

Stay Tuned for photos following the event!

Our new home!!

Before confusing everyone - we still have our wonderful studio in Tampa - however, we have a new addition of an Orlando Studio!

These past few weeks we've been painting and decorating, but our new sign went up today! You can find us on Ivanhoe Row on N. Orange Ave., overlooking Lake Ivanhoe!

More photos to come soon! :)

Botanica is coming to Orlando!!!

We are very excited to announce our new ORLANDO location!! It's a small work in progress, but we will officially be open to our clients on October 1st! Between now and then we will be painting and decorating to make sure Botanica Orlando is just as welcoming to our clients as our Tampa studio.

Stay tuned for pictures, but in the meantime our Orlando address will be 1217 N. Orange Ave., Suite B Orlando, FL.

With the new studio we are also VERY excited about our new addition to the Botanica Family, Mrs. Brittany Myers! She will be our Orlando Sales Coordinator and will be an amazing addition to our team.

We'll make sure to post pictures of our progress and give you a better introduction to Brittany soon. :)

Ian Prosser elected to sit on council for SAF!

Congratulations to our very own Ian Prosser for being elected by his floral peers to sit on the board of the retail council for the Society of American Florists.

You might ask yourself, what exactly does a member of the board of the retail council do? "SAF Councils represent the three main segments of membership: Retailers, Growers and Wholesalers. Council members, who are leaders in their respective fields, meet twice each year and keep SAF apprised of the latest developments in the floriculture industry. The Councils make recommendations on how SAF should respond to industry needs and give feedback on SAF’s strategic direction. Input from these important advisory groups is forwarded to the appropriate Committees for further expansion." - www.SAFNOW.org

THEN FROM THERE .... "SAF Committees help develop and implement all of the programs and services SAF offers to members and the floriculture industry. Organized into nine functional areas and representing all segments of the industry, these Committees provide vital insight, direction and leadership to SAF’s programs, products, and services. Committees help SAF monitor and evaluate industry trends, assist in the creation of new products and services, determine government relations strategies and create professional development and industry recognition programs." - www.SAFNOW.com

So as you can see, it's not JUST about putting flowers in a vase. :) The floral industry and the florists that are members of the various organizations, are committed to more than just designing arrangements and events. It's about being an active member in your event community and making a difference within our industry!

SYLVIA WEINSTOCK coming to TAMPA!

Botanica featured on The Knot's PartySpot.com

When we found out our good friend Shannon Wilson from Table 6 Productions was pregnant we couldn't have been more excited for her and the Table 6 family!

When you have a baby of course a baby shower is definitely a MUST! But when you add a Mom who's a wedding planner with friends in the industry, only good things will happen!

We were thrilled to be a part of Shannon's baby shower and now only months later she has given birth to quite the cute little boy!!

Everyone was excited to be a part of the shower, not only was it a great success, but we recently learned it has been featured on The Knot's new party planning website, PartySpot.com.

Click HERE to see the article!

Kudos to the fine catering of Catering by Design and as always, the talent Phillip of Phillip Lloyd Photography!

Botanica featured in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine!!

We are thrilled to announce that one of our recent weddings has been chosen as a featured wedding in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine!!

As we blogged following this March wedding, Abner and Amanda were absolutely amazing to work with. We had such a great time!

We feel so honored to have had this wedding selected. Please share the excitement and check the article out online! CLICK HERE to view the article!!

A Ritz-Carlton affair!

Our favorite thing is getting professional images of the work we have done for weddings. We never post 'un-professional' images, as our basic point and shoot cameras just never do the work justice! :)

With that being said, we just received a couple of images from a wedding we did back in March at The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, FL.

This wedding was just stunning and when the ceremony and reception rooms were completely, it looked truly beautiful.

~The Ceremony~

The plan was initally to have the ceremony under a tent on the beach, however, unfortunately due to the weather the ceremony had to be moved inside. Considering the change, we still think it ended up looking beautiful. For the ceremony we created custom handmade, manicured boxwood 'hedges' to create a defined aisle, each boxwood hedge was topped with white hydrangea to create a very structured and manicured look. The boxwood hedges were then connected with white rose petals and hurricanes housing pillar candles.

The ceremony structure was also created out of boxwood with the addition of cherry blossom branches, white phaelenopsis and dendrobium orchids, white hydrangeas, etc. accented with hanging candles.




~The Reception~

The overall color scheme and theme for the wedding can only be described as a beautiful salute to Spring! Pale pink and celery green were the featured colors accented with shades of pink and pale peach. We also punctuated the room with gorgeous 12-15ft. tall palm trees designed with matching floral at the trunks of each tree.

In the centerpices we used beautiful antique green hydrangeas, blush and pale pink peonies, pink garden roses, pink tulips and roses, peach roses, pale peach amaryllis and beautiful pink cherry blossom branches.

We loved the combination of colors and textures as well as the use of natural chivari chairs with matching celery green chair pads and napkins.




Many thanks to Mary and Janet with Mary Kenealy Events for allowing Botanica to be apart of such a fabulous wedding!

Juline and Adam

We had the pleasure of working with a great Canadian Couple, Juline and Adam recently on their June 14th Wedding at The Don CeSar. We always loved our consultations with Juline and Adam when they came in town, they were such a fun and energetic couple! Below are just a couple images from the wonderful Damon Tucci, we also included a sweet note we received from the Bride, Juline.






A fun thing we loved that the Groom did - a costume change! We've all heard of Bride's having a costume change and changing into a new dress for the reception, but in this instance, Adam, our Groom was the one that did the changing! He wore a location appropriate linen suit for the ceremony on the beach and then changed into a black tux with a fuchsia tie for the reception. We LOVED this idea! And of course you know, it's a whole lot cheaper for the Groom to change than it is the Bride! :)

And now, a sweet note from our Bride Juline, that we received shortly after the wedding:

Dear Ian and Zoë,

I wanted to thank you for the absolutely stunning job you did on Sunday. Adam and I and our families and guests were so incredibly thrilled with the flowers! The chuppah was so beautiful. My bouquet and the bridesmaid's bouquets were exactly what I had envisioned. The centerpieces and the flowers on the head table were so gorgeous, I was thrilled.

Thanks again,
Juline


Juline and Adam had quite the roster of Vendors including, of course, the beautiful Don CeSar Beach Resort, The fabulous music of The Buzzcatz - who can get anyone on the dance floor, Damon Tucci Photography, Digital Wave Videography and the wonderful coordination and planning services of Mrs. Jennifer Fitzsimmons from A Friend of The Bride.

Andrea and Justin at The Sand Pearl

Not only do we love creative Brides, but when they are creative and have fabulous style, it's the total package. Andrea was such a wonderful Bride to work with! She has experience in the wedding industry and came to us from Orlando. She had a vision, however when it came to the decor she let us take her vision and run with it.

In this instance, the Bride allowed us take care of the concept and decor - soup to nuts! Botanica International Design Studio provided her with ceremony, cocktail hour and reception linens, aisle runner, chivari chairs and matching chair pads, napkins, chargers, lighting, draping, lounge furniture, the covering of her dance floor in vinyl and of course all of the floral!

So Brides out there, keep in mind - we can be your "one stop shop" in regards to providing all aspects of your wedding decor or even something as simple as just a wedding bouquet. We're here for all of your needs. :)

Below are some images from this FAB wedding!

The Bridal Bouquet


Andrea's bouquet consisted of several varieties of orchids, including ruffeled tulips and sweet peas.

The Groom's Boutioneere


Dorotonopsis Orchid - (try saying that 5 times fast) :)

The ceremony "altar"


When we get pictures of the aisle we'll post them, as it was such unique ceremony decor and we LOVE weddings that are out of the box. For Andrea's "altar table" we covered the table in wheat grass and loaded it with different heights of candles. It was so beautiful.

The Aisle Decor


We had two of these pieces on either side of her "altar table" and two at the back of the aisle. Something to note, as much as we love to make the "altar" area of your ceremony beautiful, it's also important not to forget about the back of aisle. A lot of your photos taken, are of people walking down the aisle, including one of the most memorable moments of when the Bride takes that first step and the guests and the groom see how amazing she looks for the first time. So why not create a beautiful backdrop that will make pictures that much spectacular?!


The Escort Card Table


The days of having a standard arrangement in the middle of a round table are now gone! Well, maybe they aren't quite gone yet, but it's always fun to present your escort cards in a unique way - a way that hasn't been seen by your average wedding goer - think outside the box ladies, the small details like this is what makes your wedding unique to you and your new groom. Here we used assorted plexiglass boxes accented with candles, wheatgrass and the same brillant flowers used throughout Andrea's entire wedding.

The Bride and her Maids


Andrea wanted her Bridesmaids to carry the same bouquet, however in order for them to be slightly different, we increased the concentration of magenta and hot pinks.

The Reception


Her table decor consisted of copper containers filled with lush arrangements and candles. We continued her color scheme by introducing copper crinkle taffeta linens, copper chairs with mando orange square chargers and chocolate napkins. Just stunning.

Dance Floor and Lighting


The best way to creat ambiance is with lighting and candles. A fun thing to notice about Andrea's lighting is we created custom gobos. Rather than your standard monogram gobo we took the design used in all of Andrea's paper materials, save the date, invites, escort cards, etc. and created custom gobos and projected them on the dance floor and splashed the walls and ceilings with it. Because of this, we covered her dance floor in a white vinyl. We explored the idea of covering it in copper, which would have looked amazing, however, when having extensive lighting, the white dance floor allows you to project images, etc. really featuring the lighting and gobos - so we decided to use the white as oppose to the copper.


The Dessert Lounge


With an oversize ballroom, a great use of space is to break the room up into smaller rooms and/or area with draping. In this case, Andrea's ceremony room was deadspace after the ceremony was over. Instead of letting it go to waste, we flipped the room during cocktail hour, transforming it into a dessert lounge. We used all chocolate furniture and accented it with mango orange and magenta pillows. It created interest and conversation with guests while at the same time continuing her color scheme and proved to be the perfect example of how decor can really 'transform' a space.

A HUGE Thanks to Debbie Glancy at The SandPearl Resort who was so amazing to work with and of course Garrett Nudd for perfectly capturing and providing us with such stunning images.