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

The GRAND Exit

Brides and Grooms always love finding new and creative ways to have guests send them off on their new journey as husband and wife. After a fabulous celebration they want the magic to continue, nothing is worse than an anticlimactic end to such an amazing evening.

Below are some of our favorite ideas that make for great photo opps!

1. Rose petals! They look great in photos, they can't harm anyone and there is nothing your guests love more than throwing something at you! ;) The main thing to remember is to let your venue know about this grand exit to ensure they won't charge you an additional clean up fee.

2. Oversized Glitter - It looks AMAZING in photos and your guests will be hysterically laughing at one another after you've left and everyone is head to toe covered in glitter! The downside, is of course the clean up!

3. Wands with ribbon or pom poms - we've seen both, even wands with bells on them! It looks wonderful as well in photos and regardless of how many males guests you'll have, I promise you'll see them continue playing with the wands on the way to their car. There are so many wonderful places to find ways to DYI making them or even purchasing them on etsy.

4. Glow wands - Remember your younger days when you went to the circus and they always sold those light up glow wands? Yes? Yep, your guests do too! This is a fun idea that guests always have a blast with - and the light looks incredible as you as your new partner run through to your getaway car.

You'll notice we've left sparklers off the list. Yep, we've done that for a reason. I know every girl envisions a sparkler grand exit - but as a person that has been burned numerous times, we STRONGLY advise against it. Put it this way, fire and intoxicated people just honestly don't mix. It's certainly a hazard, people and clothing can get burned. BUT if you're determined to do them, don't say we didn't warn you! :) But you should know the ideas above do provide a similar look without the damage. :)

Exclusive to Botanica Clients!

We're in the process of a little re-branding and website face lift - but in the meantime, we wanted to share the news of some new pieces we've added to our inventory. Our goal is it make some signature pieces that are exclusively offered to Botanica client's - accent pieces to add to current lounge furniture groupings, unique chairs unavailable in the Tampa Bay area except through us, and fun and different affordable chargers!

As our inventory continues to grow, below are a couple of pictures we thought we could share. We hope you enjoy! We'd love any feedback on our inventory items as we constantly research unique items that can help our clients achieve their look with items that aren't available anywhere else.


Our BENTWOOD Chair



Our BERGERE Chair



Our Square chargers - available in Silver and Gold



Our Wicker Chargers

Please excuse our iphone photos. ;)