Happy Holidays!!

We wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season! Whether you're lighting the Menorah or counting down the days til Santa arrives, we hope you enjoy the time with your family and loved ones. 


We will also be taking time to spend with our families and loved ones and will be closed, December 23rd starting at 1pm and will not reopen our doors until Wednesday, December 28th at 10am. Please feel free to leave a message or email and we will return it upon our arrival.

And of course, a VERY... 

From our Botanica Family to yours, Happy Holidays!

Christmas Inspiration

With Christmas right around the corner, we can hardly wait! As we count down the days, we thought we'd share some Christmas inspiration to get you in the mood.

We hope you enjoy!

Kudos to Jess of Botanica for creating this inspiration for us!

It's coming...

We’re gearing up for a new year and a new Botanica. Don’t worry, it’s the same dynamic team but with some new twists designed to surprise, delight, and simply WOW!


Below are three ways in which Brides can WOW their guests at various price points.


$50 and under:


Personalized cocktail napkins! A personal obsession of mine. :) It's a small cost ranging from $16-29 per 100 napkins, but a small detail that will leave your guests thinking that you've simply thought of everything. Whether you incorporate a design on the napkin used throughout all of your paper materials, or even just your new monogram. The rule is typically four napkins per person, however even just a couple hundred to initially wow your guests is perfect, with the balanced just used from your venue.

$100 and under:

Hand fans. In Florida, this is a MUST for any outdoor ceremony and SUCH a great price. For as little as $1 and under depending on the selected quantity, you can cool your guests off, while also adding yet another layer of detail to your day. The fans are available in a variety of styles and colors. We love the look of having the fans completely open on each chair or even every other chair to really add some color to your ceremony chairs.

$200 and under:


Valet turndown service. What exactly is this? It's a way to let your guests know that you have literally thought of everything, and that even though the wedding is over, you wanted to make sure they still knew how important it was that they were there to share this day with you. Enter, the valet turn down service. Whether it's a chocolate, or personalized bottles of water, or just a sweet note thanking them for attending, this is the perfect way to end their evening. And a surprise for for guests that will certainly not go unnoticed. It's a cost that will certainly range in price, but with 100 guests, on average 50 cars, something that can certainly be done for $200 or less. 

We hope you enjoy these ideas - Happy detailing! ;) xoxo- Zoë


Photo credits:
Cocktail Napkins,  Hand Fans, Valet turn down mirror hangers 

Just wait...

Patience is a virtue, right? We’re busy bees here at Botanica putting the finishing touches on our fresh brand and we can hardly stand the wait to share with you! However, we think it will be worth the wait :).


In addition to moving into our new space in 2012, we're giving ourselves a facelift. (not literally) We feel refreshing Botanica every couple years or so keeps us up to date which not only benefits ourselves, but our clients. And to us, is such an incredibly important part of our business. 


We're focusing on continually educating ourselves in order to better serve our clients and provide them unique designs and services through an experience unlike any other. Taking inspiration from the newest trends and adding our own Botanica twist. We're improving the way we do things, adding to our inventory and kickin' it up a notch! 


We hope you enjoy this journey with us, as we take Botanica and the way we do things to the next level. Stay tuned! 


xoxo- Zoë

New Color + Design Trend for 2012

As promised, we'd love to share with you again this week an additional hot and new color and design trend for 2012.

Today we share the Con Brio color story. This color collection displays animation, vigor and liveliness.

What does this color scheme consist of? Analogous burgundy, deep coral, orange curry, fuchsia pink, loganberry, violet, deep coal, deep brown and champagne silver. I thought it might be fun to share this color palette slightly different from the presentation the other day and show the colors through fashion. :)

This creates a luscious and luxe feeling, neighboring colors that provide a rich and romantic feel. They are bold, daring and audacious. It is an energetic palette that exudes strong emotions in the reds and purples, mixed with playful and spirited pinks and corals.

Fun fact: This is very flattering to many skin tones - so perfect when thinking about selecting bridesmaids dresses that compliment a variety of skin types.

When considering this color and design palette, keep in mind it will create a more formal or garden like ambiance.

We hope you enjoy and have a fantastic Friday!

xo- Zoë

Picture source, through Pinterest.
Text source, through the Society of America Florists, developed by, Frank and Margaret Hofland of Accent Decor, Kim Morrill or Morrill Support, and Gretchen Sell of Design Master.

Something New.

Weddings are ever changing - trends, designs, styles, budgets! We’re excited to share “something new” that challenges our imaginations to create inspiration and beauty for everyone. Get ready for our big reveal in February...

Today we share a new color and design trend for 2012. 

This trend? Deliberate Abandon: 'Structured recklessness'. What exactly does this mean? They are Polychromatic, high chroma colors such as; teal, citron, raspberry, tiger lily, delphinium, purple california poppy and Driftwood. This color palate plays off of neutrals and wood tones, or grayed out backdrops creating a tension in color and mood.

This can be described as comfort for multiple generations. Items plucked from several decades, including mid-century modern, 60s and 70s mixed with treasures from your Grandmother's time. It's creating your story, juxtaposing elements to create an eclectic mix of design and style. Think Anthropologie.

It's creating interest in your event with color and texture that gives a more gathered object and in-uniformed, yet coordinating look, that is more casual in appearance.

The rest of the week we'll share more new colors and design trends, so stay tuned!

XO- ZG

Source: The Society of American Florists, Frank and Margaret Hofland, Accent Decor - Kim Morrill, AIFD, Morrill Support, Inc. - Gretchen Sell, Design Master color tool inc.

We're Moving!!!

We made the announcement yesterday via our facebook/twitter, but we just wanted to share the excitement of our move a little more in detail.

Our new location will be almost triple the size of our current studio. We are so thrilled as we've been bursting at the seams these past couple of years and have multiple off-site storage units as a result. Since we constantly add to our inventory, we're so happy to have the opportunity to have everything organized and displayed in one place.

December 1st, we start working on the renovations of the building, painting the outside and getting the inside painted and up to BOT standards and organization! We hope to be fully moved into the place the beginning of February.

We'll have multiple client meeting offices and a large new design room (a space bigger than our entire current building) and of course plenty of room for storage and working offices.

We can't wait to share the progress as the days and months pass by. Stay tuned for updates!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Your friends at Botanica

Things We're Thankful For.

With Thanksgiving literally right around the corner, we thought we'd use today to share some things the people behind the flowers are thankful for here at Botanica. A mixture of fun and heartfelt thank yous and everything in between, we hope you enjoy!

1. First and foremost, our family, our Botanica family. From our designers to the lovely ladies that run the 'front of the house', to our set up crew and everyone in between. We couldn't do anything without each and every one of you and couldn't be more thankful to have you in our lives.

2. Great Brides and clients that allow us the blessing to the job that we love so much. We are thankful to have the opportunity to do something every day that we are truly passionate about.

3. Our amazing industry talents and teammates. We feel that no event can be complete without the amazing talented professionals that make it work. We feel so privileged to work with so many fabulous people and we thank you for the talent that you bring to the industry. And of course for being our favorite teammates on the big day!

4. When we're involved with weddings, we love the fact that we get to be a part of one of the most memorable and important days in a family's life.

5. Happy clients. There is nothing that makes us more happy than a client that is thrilled with the products and services we provide. We love the emails and thank you notes that we receive that let us know we've done a job well done. Fun Fact - we always read and share these sentiments with our entire staff.

6. Wedding and Event planners. We cannot stress enough the importance of an event planner on the day of your event. Having someone there to coordinate and organize the day is not a need, but a MUST. On our end, a planner that is organized and communicates set up and breakdown times, is something we need every week and can't express enough our love of timelines and final layouts! :)

7. Photographs and Wedding Film Highlight videos. Just as much as client's love to relive every moment of their big day, so do we! We love sharing these items, not only with our staff that were involved in the event, but also with everyone else. There is nothing better than posting beautiful photos and films to share with our past, present and future clients and friends!

8. Technology. What on earth would we do without it.  Enough said.

9.  FLOWERS! Not sure why we didn't mention this sooner, but we are grateful for anything and everything pertaining to flowers. Their fragrance, the way they open to make an arrangement look perfect, their color, texture and variety. We are so lucky to work with such a beautiful and amazing product of nature.

10. For being blessed. We have so many more reasons to be thankful but above all, we are blessed in so many ways - we are so passionate about what we do and the people we provide our products and services for, we cannot thank the Lord above enough for giving us this daily opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving, from our family to yours!

xo-Zoë

Style Me Pretty Feature

What a perfect start to the week?! We are thrilled to announce that we are featured on Style Me Pretty today! Check out this fabulous vintage chic wedding where we had the pleasure of being a part of the event design, decor and of course, floral. We hope you enjoy this wedding as much as we did - the family were absolutely amazing to work with, we truly enjoyed every minute of this wedding! Click HERE to see the feature. xo - Zoe and Ian, poolside from Grand Cayman :)

What We're Up to!

This Sunday, Ian, myself and Fiona are off to the Cayman Islands!! As it sounds like a fabulous getaway, which we know it will be, we're actually there on business!

Monday starts the Engage2011 Conference and we couldn't be more excited! What is this conference you might ask? It's a twice yearly luxury wedding business summit where fabulous leaders in the event industry and other wonderful event vendors gather to learn and grow.

Our days will be filled with the most amazing informational meetings and leading industry speakers and presenters. We can wait to share some of the action! Stay tuned to our facebook page for pictures and other fun updates!

Bon Voyage!
Zoë

Sneak Peek - Lauren and Richard!

We were thrilled to receive these photos from Lauren and Richard's Renaissance Vinoy Resort wedding that took place just last week!

Thanks so much to the fabulous, Phillip McDonald of Phillip Lloyd Photography  for sharing these photos in a ridiculously timely manner. :)

For Lauren and Richard's Wedding, Lauren wanted an enchanted forest, whimsical look accented with some pops of color. For the linens we selected a combination of coral lamour napkins, coupled with a softer papaya lamour table linen. We always love for our Brides to surprise their guests, so during cocktail hour we always like to mix it up a bit and for the cocktail tables we had some fun 'tree-like' overlays.

The arrangements consisted of natural elevations covered in moss and branches, with the low pieces in vintage french wire lined in moss. The arrangements were a softer color palate including, ivory, chartreuse green and peaches.

For Lauren's wedding we provided the floral, napkins, linens, chargers, some of our Bentwood and Bergere Chairs, draping and our new lounge furniture pieces!

We were honored to be a part of this big day and resume of amazing vendors, thanks to the amazing Sandy Rule of Sandy Rule Events!

We hope you enjoy the photos!

XO - Zoë

Wedding Sneak Peek! Megan & Rob

This past July we had the pleasure of working with Megan and Rob on their beautiful Boca Grande Wedding. The ceremony took place at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and the reception, at the always gorgeous, Gasparilla Inn. They had a soft color scheme of pale coral, peaches, ivories and chartreuse green.

Below is a sneak peek of their wedding film from the o' so talented Mr. Jeffrey Stoner of Stoner Video.


Megan & Rob's Wedding Highlights - Gasparilla Inn, Boca Grande from Jeffrey Stoner Video on Vimeo.


We hope you enjoy! Thank you Jeffrey for sharing!

XO- Zoë

Change is a Comin'!

Yes, we are going to be those obnoxious people that tell you some new and exciting things are coming down the pipe, BUT at this current moment, aren't able to share what.

But we can tell you, planners and future clients will be thrilled to see Botanica as a whole more streamlined and efficient with an updated look. We're currently working on website and blog facelifts. Most recently, we've started the launch of our new proposal layout, something we just rolled out to our first 2 planners today. We have new products, services and oh so much more! Upon viewing our updates, we'd LOVE any feedback!

Some other fun things we'll share soon, but in the meantime we're thrilled and couldn't be any more excited to share along the way! We hope you'll join us on this new journey!

XO - ZPG

Happy Halloween from your Friends at Botanica!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from our Family, to yours!

XO - your friends at Botanica

Fun Fact Friday!! Part 2

We received so many great responses from our Fun Fact Friday post LAST Friday, we thought, why not do it again? :) For those of you just joining us, below are 8 fun and random facts about Botanica and the people behind the flowers.

1. Ian and Zoë are complete paper snobs when it comes to stationary and invitations. Our theory? If the paper is so thick it could physically harm someone, it's the correct paper weight. :)

2. We have one of our favorite designers from years past back in our studio! Amy Lewis started with Botanica back in 2004 and left us in April 2007 for the birth of her daughter, Libby. She's pregnant again with another little girl and we are soaking in every moment before she leaves us again this coming February!

3. When it comes to our organizational structure here at Botanica, it's the women that are in charge!! Between Jess, Zoe, Athena and Fiona - we keep our men in line.

4. We often give each other 'loving' nicknames, if you haven't been picked on at one point in your career at Botanica, something is wrong.  A couple include, M&M, FiFi and Peach.

5. Athena (one of our lead designers and Queen of Production Organization) has ZERO willpower when it comes to anything sweet. Whether it's chocolate, cake, candy - you name it, she'll eat it. We often joke about hiding anything people sometimes drop off at our studio because if you turn around Athena will have cleared the plate. :)

6. It's not even Halloween and we're already listening to Christmas music in the studio. (we are currently listening to it as we speak). It's our dear friend and FABULOUS wedding DJ and Band, Josh Walther and his band, Phase5, they recently released their Christmas CD and it's AMAZING! We suggest you purchase a copy.

7. From Ian, to any staff member - if we don't put our Christmas directions up immediately following Thanksgiving, it won't happen. Last year, I (Zoe) got our tree and added the lights and the star on top, and then never got a chance to decorate the rest of it. (something that to this day I still get made fun of for). Our designer Kyle, puts his decorations up as early as November 1st! I think this also attributes to the fact that every designer becomes a perfectionist when it comes to decorating, so enough time is needed in order to make sure it meets our personal approval.

8. One of our favorite things is beautiful flowers! Whether it's a single massive peony, or a fragrant garden rose, there is nothing more we love than a gorgeous flower! We'll have the designers come up to the front and say, "here, smell this!" or us in the front, will frequently come in the back and literally stop and smell the roses.

XO - your friends at Botanica!

Flowers Come to Life

We always love sharing some beautiful photos from current and past events, but we thought we might share our events in a more life-like way. Our amazingly talented friends at Voila Cinematic, Alex and Jocelyn Karas, have been a part of some incredible events we've produced.

They have so ever kindly put together a Vimeo page for us, which is an online video sharing site. As a result we have over 11 (and counting) wedding highlight films from some of our favorite weddings. We hope you enjoy the highlight films - we enjoy watching them over and over again. Another reason why we tell every client, in addition to all other vendors, videography is one of the most important vendors you should also include in your wedding.

Videography is often disregarded as unimportant (not sure why), but we think it's definitely on the MUST HAVE list! We know photography is always a priority, but aside from the photos how else will you remember Grandma tearing up as she walks down the aisle, or more importantly, the vows that you and your husband shared!? These are the little memories that will fade as time passes on, and once you return from your honeymoon, you'll want anything that will help you remember one of the most days of your life!


Greg and Kelsey (Coming Soon) from Voila Cinematic on Vimeo.


Click HERE to view our page and the rest of our wedding films!

A wedding film is priceless. A regret 99% of Brides realize after the wedding is over. If you don't book one for your big day, all we're going to say is we told you so. ;) Make the investment, you'll be so glad you did!

XO- Zoë

Fun Fact Friday!!

It's Friday, so let's end the week with a fun post! Below are some fun, random facts about Botanica and our crew:

 1. In the winter months our studio is absolutely freezing inside! Because we have the flowers in our studio, we aren't able to turn on our heating. So all of us in the office, have space heaters at our feet, sometimes sport UGG boots, and even have to wear fingerless gloves! (which I am currently wearing as I type this post).

 2. Our goal is to have our flowers PERFECT! Completely open and in full bloom for the day of the event. This means in warmer months, actually placing the flowers outside in the heat (and in shade of course) to help open the flowers.

 3. Since we are a family business, our entire staff is like family. We laugh, we cry, we make fun of each other. If you were ever in the studio on a big production day, you'll hear loud music, a lot of laughing and joking at one another, and of course a lot of flower arranging!

 4. Almost our entire staff has an addiction to Diet Mountain Dew, at 3pm daily you'll hear the sound of people popping a can. We are currently trying to break the habit. I, was unfortunately the originator of the addiction.

 5. Every member of the Prosser family at one point in Botanica's existence has helped out or has been an employee. Being in business 22 years, it's a long list of names. (which includes, spouses, sons, daughters, parents and grandparents)

 6. We name our trucks - we have (2) trucks permanently and have developed a wonderful relationship with Arlene at the truck rental company that we bring in additional trucks for busy weekends! We have our 15ft. Box Truck that Ian named 'Milva', after his favorite rose. We also have our econovan that somehow got the name of 'Sista'. In a conversation where they are involved you would think we are actually talking about real people. ;)

 7. Our Administrative Assistant, Jessica Stephens is ALWAYS cold and keeps her space heater on 365 days a year.

 8. Our studio 99% of the time always smells amazing (obviously) but none of us can actually smell the flowers when we come in in the morning anymore. I guess that's how bakers feel when they have bread or a cake baking.

 9. We always joke around about buying Ian a fanny pack because he always loses his car keys, glasses, cell phone and wallet. If he did your wedding 10 years ago and you tell him your maiden name, wedding location and month you got married he can tell you every single floral detail about it, but he won't know where his cell phone is. lol.

 10. One of the perks of working here are when it's the holidays, we ALWAYS have the most amazing centerpieces on our tables. :)

 We hope you enjoyed these fun, random facts about us and our Floral Family. We'll work on posting them more often, to help give you a better insight into the people behind the flowers. :) Have a fabulous weekend! XO - Zoë

Botanica is featured on Grace Ormonde's Blog!

We are thrilled to announce that yesterday we learned that we had the honor of being featured on Grace Ormonde of Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine's blog! We were so excited to be a part of Jennifer and Kevin's big day, but always love working with a fabulous team of vendors.

Make sure to check out the feature! Click HERE to view it!



Congratulations to all of the other fabulous vendors involved and of course to the amazing Amy Pezzicara of Pezz Photo for taking the beautiful images!

Halloween Inspiration!

With Halloween right around the corner, we thought it might be fun to make an inspiration board of some fun Halloween Decorations! Whether it's a close party for friends or even a wedding, Halloween is one of our favorite holidays to decorate for.



We hope you enjoy this fun board! Click HERE to check it out!

XO- JJS

A Week in Review!

Last week Ian and I had the opportunity to head to NY! While in the city we visited the New York Gift Market, where we purchased some fabulous new containers and candlesticks to increase our ever growing inventory. While also there, we had the opportunity to explore the flower district, say hello to some of our favorite wholesalers and of course just take in all of the beautiful flowers available. (and of course check out a couple broadway shows in between) ;)

A fun fact - larger cities like NY, etc. have the flower district available, where designers can literally walk down the street and select and purchase floral for their event that week. In Florida? We order and purchase everything via phone and email with our wholesalers. We actually receive all of our product via Fed Ex! Yep, that's right, in the mail! Since we don't have the opportunity to walk in and literally pick everything out, we're required to actually plan FURTHER in advance. For a wedding or event that takes place on a Saturday, our flowers arrive on a Tuesday/Wednesday. We have to have them arrive early since they are mailed, and require typically 24 hours to be processed and rehydrate from their big trip in preparation for production the following day. As a result, flower orders need to be placed NO LATER than a full 1-2 weeks before the date of their arrival!

So to all planners and clients out there, this is the exact reason why on our contract we require your proposal to be finalized NO LESS than 3 weeks before the date of your event. Delaying your final confirmation can risk product availability or worse, even further issues. So it's very important regardless of whether we're your florist or someone else is, that you take note and realize the importance of the contract/proposal final approval date!

But enough of the serious stuff, below are some pretty pictures we took while enjoying the flower district. :)






Enjoy! XO-Zoe

Flowers for your do!

Whether you're wearing a veil or not, flowers are always a beautiful addition to your gorgeous wedding day do! Whether you select a simple white or off white flower, or even add in a pop of color - it's the perfect way to add some natural elements into your wedding day ensemble.



If you're a traditional bride and select a veil to wear, we love having our brides do a small costume change during cocktail hour, by taking off their veil and adding in a fun flower to change their look.



We all know there are thousands of gorgeous flowers, but not all varieties make for great hair accessories. It's important to select varieties that will hold up well while you dance until the wee hours of the morning.

We suggest orchids, which come in so many fabulous varieties and colors, small spray roses that you can cluster and easily add into any hairdo, and lastly, gardenias. You can of course wear several other varieties, but these were just our few favorites and the ones we find hold up the best.



So when you're shopping for the perfect wedding day accessories and can't find the perfect broach or headpiece to complete your look, we suggest turning to your florist for a gorgeous natural accessory! :)

XOXO - ZPG

Pictures from Style Me Pretty and Theknot.com

Events Without Flowers

Even though we are an event decor company that specializes in flowers, we also produce events and weddings on a regular basis that actually don't have floral present at all. We love the creative challenge of producing designs for an event that don't require it. The purpose of this post is to encourage you to contact your event designer (or us) whether you require floral or not for your event. We're designers, and love to design with anything.

Recently, we produced a sample for a bride for her January wedding, including all birch and woodland elements, adding touches of snow, pine cones, mason jars with votives, etc. We are so excited for her big day and LOVE an event that is outside of the box!

We love events that require more of a table scape of gathered objects - we've incorporated beach elements, rocks, grasses, lanterns, broaches, vegetables and beyond!



(this event has touches of floral but can easily be removed)



Below are some non-floral inspired designs that we found online and love!





So always remember, regardless of whether you love or hate floral, have an allergy to it, or just want to do something different, talk with a professional designer as they can recommend some fun and unique options! :)

Happy Friday!

JS and ZPG

Structures, Chuppahs, Archways, Oh My!

Regardless of your religion, nowadays Brides and Grooms are looking outside of the church to exchange their vows as husband and wife. Whether it's a hotel ballroom, beautiful garden or on the beach, it's important to 'set the scene' by creating a beautiful marriage site.

One of the most popular ways of doing so, is with the addition of a structure or archway. It serves not only as a beautiful backdrop and 'Kodak moment' - but can also have a wonderful functional quality. Perhaps it's shields your eyes from the blinding sun, or creates a cool canopy for your groom in a tux. There is nothing more beautiful about a gorgeous muslin fabric covered or flower adorned structure.

The one and only down-side to having a structure is that it's unfortunately not an item that can be reused. (i.e. your florist cannot and does not have time to break it down and reassemble it inside of your reception room.) Nine times out of ten, your structure is something that is built on site - the process of putting it together alone can take several people one hour. So you have to remember, by the time you are done all of your fabulous photos in front of this beautiful structure (let's say 20-30 minutes) You're only left with 30 minutes for it to be disassembled, moved and reassembled inside prior to your guests making their way into the reception room.

If it's important to get double usage out of your ceremony decor, we suggest instead of your structure or in addition to it at the back of the aisle, to have (2) 'Altar' arrangements on pedestals that after your pictures are done, are a quick and easy repurpose for your florist. Both will create a beautiful look and a gorgeous backdrop to your I Dos. The only decision needing to be made is whether or not you're wanting to repurpose the ceremony items in your reception room, which will ultimately help make your decision for you.



-ZPG

Trend Alert! Colored Glassware!

We always love fun ways to add additional design elements to a wedding that will help continue or achieve a desired look or color scheme. One of our favorite ways recently is the addition of colored glassware. This is the perfect way to add pops of color to your table design. Whether it coordinates with your floral or even your table napkin.

We love colored glassware on a simple white table linen that will allow it to pop in a room of tables, or even coordinating with the entire table design so it completes a monochromatic color scheme.






There are so many great options out there to help you achieve your desired look - whether you get it through your designer (us), Caterer or event rental company! It's the perfect way to achieve your color scheme and at the same time a unique elements your guests will love!

- ZPG

Friday Inspiration!

With our newest obsession being Pinterest, we thought we would share a little inspiration on this First day of Fall!

Each week we are going to feature an inspirational board. Each board will have some sort of theme, this week, the board we're featuring is my (Zoe) dream event. My dream event would be to design an event consisting of all red elements! Red linens, chairs, lounge furniture, glassware, etc. I'm not sure where this dream came from, but it's something I've always wanted to do. Perhaps it's the intensity of the color that I love, especially when it's varying tints and tones of the color. I love how the tone on tone red can be interpreted as either modern or vintage - or a combination of the two.

But regardless, here is this week's inspirational board! Hopefully with the Republican National Convention coming this year, we might have the opportunity to make this event a reality! ;)

Enjoy! Next week, we hope to feature another Botanica Staffer's dream event inspiration board, Stay tuned!

Click HERE to view this week's board!

XOXO - Z

What to Bring to a Floral Appointment

We might have done this blog post in the past, however, we thought it might be helpful again to pass on this information on what to bring to a floral appointment.

It's important to arrive organized and the reason being is, this is a vendor meeting where your florist normally doesn't have set packages, because it's our goal to create something customized that's personally suited for your and your new spouse to be!

Prior to even booking your appointment you should already know/have booked the following things:

1. Ceremony and Reception Locations and start times
2. Bridal Gown and Bridesmaids dresses selected
3. Approximate Guest Count
4. Number of Bridal Attendants
5. Budget

If some of the items above are still missing items - we suggest waiting to book your floral appointment until after all missing pieces are complete. Your designer needs to know these items in order to make your meeting a productive one. One thing we want to touch base on is the budget aspect. You should know that whether it's your florist or any vendor for that matter, going into the meeting and providing your budget is incredibly helpful. Knowing your budget will help your vendor advise you on the best ways to spend it. It will also help ensure everyone is on the same page as what your expectations are and how they relate and can work with the budget you have available.



Now on to what to bring! Bringing the following items below will help give your designer a better sense of your style, flowers that you love and flowers that you hate - and will help them creatively offer some ideas and suggestions that will (most importantly) suit you and reflect your style and personality:

1. A picture or good description of your dress
2. A swatch of your Bridesmaids dress color and a picture if possible (Fuchsia, to you might be raspberry or hot pink to me)
3. Any inspirational photos - so prior to meeting go and buy any newly engaged girl's favorite thing, wedding magazines! Dog ear or rip out the pages and write on the page what you love about the picture you pulled!

Now, go get organized! ;)

XOXO - Zoë

The Week in Review!

Last week was such a fabulous week that we thought we would take a moment to recap on what we were up to! This past week, Ian and one of our lead designers, Kyle were selected by the Society of American Florists to be a part of their design team for their convention in Palm Springs. What does a design team member do? Well, they produce and design floral for ALL events held by the SAF Convention - Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, etc. They had a week surrounded by beautiful flowers and amazing florists and designers from all across the country.

Ian was selected by FTD to produce and Design the final night celebration and selected shades of orange to create a fabulous color palate to end the conference with a bang!



Thursday morning, Zoe flew out to Palm Springs to join Kyle and Ian - she attended several conference classes, one in particular regarding the upcoming hot colors for the season - which we can't wait to soon share! Saturday afternoon, Zoe and Ian presented an hour and a half program on upcoming wedding and event trends! With a crowd of 100, the presentation was a huge success.

Below (in order) are a couple of photos from the week; the design team including Ian and Kyle, Ian and Zoe presenting. It was a fabulous week filled with education and of course gorgeous flowers! We can wait to share some knowledge we learned in the upcoming blog posts. So stay tuned!




To learn more about the convention and The Society of American Florists click HERE!


XOXO - Zoë

Fall Inspiration

As Floridians, a change from mid 90s to mid 80s can only mean one thing, Fall is right around the corner!! As we start to feel a slight breeze in the mornings and we can walk from our house to our car without our sunglasses fogging up, it means it's time to start breaking out the pumpkins and fall decor!



It's our favorite time of the year for decor, fashion and of course weddings! In the spirit of the new season, we've created a 'fall inspiration' board on Pinterest (see the right side of our blog to follow us)- if you haven't heard of this site, you should certainly check it out! We'll start creating inspirational boards on a weekly basis, so make sure you follow us to check them out!

In the meantime, turn up the cold air in your office, grab a pumpkin spice latte and enjoy!

Click HERE to view our inspiration board! :)

XOXO - Zoë