Peonies, before they meet your bouquet!

Ever wondered what your flowers look like before they make it into your arrangements and bouquets? We're so excited to share a couple of photos of peonies growing wild in Italy. Aren't they beautiful?! If only we could grow peonies in our backyard!!

Thank you to Ian and Fiona's neighbor, Sandy for sharing these beautiful photos! We only wish we could say we took these photos ourself! Next team retreat! ;)

XO- Zoë

Flowers Suspended From the Ceiling

There is NOTHING we love more than flowers or foliage suspended from the ceiling. Our good friend and photographer, Amy Pezzicara from Pezz Photo, shared a blog post from Ruffled Blog. Amazing post and I couldn't help but share some of our favorite images!

Flowers suspended from the ceiling provides the most unique focal point in any space. Below is a picture of a wedding we did last year, where we suspended floral chandeliers and covered the frame of the tent in smilax foliages.

The first picture is an idea of what a frame tent would look like before, and then the second picture is the design I mentioned we created above. Isn't it just amazing how flowers and their design can completely transform a space?

{Real Botanica wedding pictured above}

Before you decide you want flowers hanging over each of your guest tables (and if you do, please feel free to call us) ;) there are some important things to consider:

1. If you are in a Ballroom or similar event space - are there rigging points? What are rigging points you might ask? They are the support system that allows you the ability to suspend items, such as a chandelier, floral or lighting from a ceiling. Sometimes they need to be added and will be an additional cost, or some locations unfortunately don't have the capability of having them or even adding them.

2. These designs can be rather pricey. Why? Because of the amount of product and labor involved in the creation of these items. Sometimes it might be best to just hang one impact point over the center of the dance floor for maximum effect.

3. These items are the easiest to construct when you have a tent. It still requires a lot of work, but tents make it the easiest for installation as if there aren't rigging points, we can always suspend items from the frame of the tent.

We hope you enjoy the images and the link to the blog post. Amy, thanks so much for sharing and inspiring our blog post today!!

XO - Zoë

{Wedding Sneak Peek} Damon and Laura!

Laura and Damon's vintage inspired wedding took place at the Crosley Mansion in Sarasota, FL earlier this month. Laura's love of purple, pink and blue influenced the design of this wedding. Coupled with vintage elements, the wedding came together beautifully. We used a variety of stunning summer flowers including, hyacinth, peonies, ranunculus, garden roses, stock, hydrangeas, lilies and so many more.

The couple provided some of the other decor elements such as the tissue hearts to add in some personal elements. We were so happy to be a part of such a beautiful wedding. Thank you Limelight Photography for sharing these beautiful images!

Thank you to Laura and Damon for allowing us to be a part of your special day!

XO- Zoë

Summer Cocktail!

It's Friday and possibly 5 o'clock somewhere, so why not end the week with a delicious summer cocktail? On today's menu - Sweet Tea Vodka and Lemonade, known as a 'Spiked Palmer'.

For a healthier alternative, I'd suggest diet lemonade, or even lower sugar lemonade. But the recipe is pretty simple. Take a glass, fill with ice, fill half with your sweet tea vodka and the other half with lemonade and voila! It's a delicious and refreshing treat, perfect for lounging by the pool or hanging with friends on a boat.

This could also be the perfect addition to a Southern wedding, featured as your signature cocktail!

Enjoy and Happy Friday!!

XO- Zoë

{Wedding Sneak Peek} Amanda and Alex in Orlando, FL

April 14th, Amanda and Alex became Mr. and Mrs. Mestdagh. It was a beautiful spring day in Orlando, FL. They exchanged vows at Knowles Chapel at Rollins College, followed by a beautiful reception at The Citrus Club in downtown Orlando.

There are so many things that we loved about this wedding, from the color scheme, to the details Amanda so perfectly created, through the beautiful bride herself!

The flowers were in shades of oranges and off whites, including hydrangeas, anemones, ranunculus, tulips and pin cushion proteas. The orange paired with the charcoal grey gave a very modern and sophisticated look which worked perfectly with the decor and color scheme of the club. Below are some images from the wonderfully talented Abby Liga of Liga Photography. Thanks so much for sharing Abby!

Thank you Amanda and Alex for allowing us to be a part of your special day and of course, for being such a fabulous couple!

XO - Zoë

Wedding Sneak Peek!

This past April, we had the pleasure of being a part of Caitlin and Rob's wedding day at The Davis Island Garden Club. Despite a little rain, the bride and groom were radiant and the setting was just beautiful.

For their wedding we used a variety of chartreuse green and purple spring flowers placed in collections of mixed vessels including wicker, mason jars, urns, etc. Caitlin planned everything beautifully - no detail was untouched. We especially love (pictured below) her custom burlap pillows! A huge thank you to Justin Demutiis of Justin Demutiis Photography for sharing these beautiful photos!

Shortly after the wedding, we received a wonderful handwritten note from the couple:

Ian, Zoë, Jessica and all other Botanica Staff,

Thank you so much for providing such beautiful florals for our wedding. The bouquets, centerpieces, and ceremony decor were all lovely and really helped set the ambiance for our special day. Your entire staff were so easy to work with and accommodating. Thanks again for helping plan and execute the vision for our wedding.

Love,

Caitlin and Rob Gorman (Williams)

Thank you Caitlin for allowing us to be a part of such a wonderful day!! 

A Letter to Our Clients

One a more serious note today, we thought we'd take a moment to share why our clients and brides are so important to us.

Dear Clients,

Each client that books with us, each day, allows us to realize the importance of what we do. We aren't just working in an office, working for a paycheck. We have a passion. We are blessed to be doing what we do. We feel honored to be a part of one of the most unforgettable days or occasions in a person's life.

What are the most important things to us? Quality and Experience. Our goal at Botanica is to not only meet, but exceed your expectations. We want your experience while working with us, to be unlike any other. From your first meeting, through our countless emails and phone calls, to the big day - we want to create an experience for you that gives you the piece of mind knowing that the quality of design and product you receive on your special day is beyond what you envisioned. We strive to ensure that your experience throughout the entire process was stress-free, enjoyable and memorable, and that you never felt rushed or overwhelmed, but most of all, your experience was personal. That is our ultimate goal.

We strive for perfection. We've implemented policies and procedures, created event day timelines and provide emergency phone numbers to ensure as perfect of a day as possible. But we'll admit, we're humans and we're not perfect. As much as I would like to tell you every event 100% of the time is 100% perfect, that's not true. But I will tell you, we will try our very HARDEST to ensure a seamless day, or at the very least, do whatever it takes to fix any issue that might present itself.

We aren't just vendors showing up dropping off items at a Bride's wedding or your celebration. We are your teammates, your partners, designing YOUR day. Our goal is a beyond thrilled and happy clients and we will do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

We are grateful for every event we're a part of and for each relationship we form with our clients throughout their planning process. We aren't just a business, we're a family that we consider each client to be a part of.

Warm regards,
Your friends at Botanica

P.S. - We aren't professional writers, so please excuse any horrible grammatical errors made. ;)

Wedding Sneak Peek! Elena and Michael

You might have already seen this on our Facebook, but we still wanted to share this fabulous wedding regardless! The wedding of Elena and Michael at The Ritz Carlton Sarasota Members Beach Club was such a fun wedding, not only the day of, but throughout the entire wedding planning process.

Elena was a lover of purple - so for her design we used a variety of shades of purple to achieve her desired look. From purple hydrangea, through purple mokara, phalenopsis and dendrobium orchids, purple anemones, lavender roses and more! There is nothing we love more than a monochromatic color scheme. It achieves such a fabulous look!

In addition to this amazing collage of photos below taken by the wonderful Michael and Rebecca of Limelight Photography, under the pictures, we couldn't help by sharing Elena's kind and thoughtful review of us on Yelp. We cannot thank Jamie Billig, of Confetti Events enough for allowing us to be a part of this special day. Thank you for making the planning process and the wedding day, such a smooth and enjoyable process that ran like a well oiled machine! ;)

"There are not words to describe how AMAZING this team of floral designers is. I hired just a few months before my April wedding, after having to terminate my agreement with another florist that I didn't feel was providing the best service. I was so worried that a florist would not be able to go through the design process quickly enough to meet my crunched timeline, but Ian and Zoe at Botanica just listened to what I wanted and reassured me that they could do it. When they showed me my mockup tables, I was FLOORED at how they took what was in my head and make it even better than I had imagined. With that reassurance, I gladly signed the contract, which was reasonably priced and easy to negotiate. 

On my wedding day, THEY BLEW MY MIND! I cry just thinking about how gorgeous the reception site was and how excited my groom and I were to see it. Botanica thought of everything and my guests said they had only seen such amazing flowers and attention to detail on David Tutera's show! Even the venue staff said that it was the most exciting decor setup that they had seen in that venue. Not to mention, they had to relocate and adjust the entire setup for my ceremony and cocktail hour on the fly due to extremely high winds. Ian and Zoe are not only extremely talented and awesome at what they do, but they were a REAL PLEASURE to work with. They listened to every word that I said and guided me along the process. Meeting with them was like getting together with Friends. They never seemed stressed about anything and so on my wedding day, I had ZERO STRESS because I knew they had everything under control.

I can not recommend them enough and will never forget the integral part they played in making my wedding day better than I had ever dreamed of!"

- Elena W

Thank you Elena for being such an amazing Bride to work with! We enjoyed every moment and in our eyes, you will always be our #1 Facebook Fan! ;)

XO-Zoë