Just in Time for Christmas!

Professional photos! We all know they make my day. :)

This was such a huge turnaround I was surprised. Marlene Fredrickson with OGrace Photography dropped a DVD of awesome images from Cholla and Jared's December 5th wedding in the mail.

That's lightening fast for pro pics and I'm so happy since, once again, I forgot my camera!

This wedding was near and dear to my heart since the entire event took place on or near my alma mater: Arizona State University (Go Sundevils!). The ceremony was at Catholic Newman Center and the lavish reception was at Old Main.

It was a gorgeous day, chilly for once and the soft pink palette was lush and romantic.

Cholla carried some traditional and romantic flowers including peonies (which were so late in the season they gave this florist a heart attack hoping they'd come in), ivory Vendela roses and gardenia.

It smelled as good as it looked! :)

Her wedding party was gigantic! There were 10 attendants on each side and they were dressed to the nines in a crisp black to show off all those pink flowers!

I am the height of electronic laziness today so for more pictures of this awesome event, visit our Facebook fanpage:

Butterfly Petals

Happy Holidays!

Thanks to all my brides and clients who made 2009 another awesome, flower-filled year!

We can't wait for all of our awesome 2010 events!

There's a lot of excitement on the way so stay tuned!

Rachel's Red Wine Wedding

I've mentioned before how I so love my professional pictures!

Rachel's wedding was November 7th at the Wright House Provencal. Her colors were deep reds and chocolate--a combination so stunning and rich I had to use chocolate cosmos with their yummy chocolate smell as well as color (yes that's right ladies, flowers which smell like chocolate yum!)

We mixed red tones and carried the same flowers throughout the wedding.

Rachel carried deep wine callas, deep red "black magic" roses, deep wine dahlias, chocolate cosmos and chocolate-colored fiddle head fern curls for a whimsical texture.

The bridesmaids carried smaller bouquets and added red gerbera daisies.

I can't wait to see more pictures of the ceremony set-up.

Thanks for sending these my way Rachel!

Houston: We Have Facebook!

I finally have a Facebook fan page! I was so pleased to log on and see a few of my lovely brides have already become fans!

Now if I could only figure out how to make one of those custom url thingies...

For now, here's the giant link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gilbert/Butterfly-Petals/198238334993?ref=ts

Add us to your friends' list today! I will try to keep all these social network sites in the air--kind of like spinning plates to a technology-challenged person like myself--but we'll see! :)

I already have recent pics up and a link to a few "teaser" pics of our November 14th wedding at the farm!

Inspirador's Big Night

Thursday night was the Grand Opening of the Inspiration Lounge at Inspirador.

We were asked to bring a centerpiece for a masculine sweetheart table.

Our table was right outside and I heard a lot of great things about the flowers!

I knew we would have teal as a table accent with silver pieces. I found nothing even remotely teal at the flower supplier today so I went with something that made my heart happy: purple and yellow.

The contrast is amazing and they work so well together.

Of course no Butterfly Petals piece is complete without some succulents. Look how cute those little echeverias are!

The centerpiece of our design featured a "lamp" with a succulent lampshade and submerged Picasso and deep purple calla lilies. I also included the little cute "Billy Balls" for a pop of yellow. The lamp actually lit and as the sun set the submerged callas had a soft, romantic glow thanks to some fancy LED lighting.

The two side arrangements featured yellow pincushion protea, succulents, the purple and Picasso callas, Billy Balls, scabiosa and the cute fiddlehead fern curls.

The handsome model even had his own little succulent boutonniere.

A Farm Fresh Wedding

For once I'm actually relatively on top of updating this thing! :) Life has been crazy but I can't complain too much. Crazy means I get to do the job I love and I get to do a lot of it.

Mary's November 14th wedding took place at the Farm at South Mountain. If you have a rustic, country or just outdoorsy wedding, this is an awesome venue! And what a great fall day! We actually had some nice temperatures, the trees out there were changing color a bit--gorgeous!

Mary's theme revolved around rustic elements like succulents and vegetation. Each guest took home a custom designed seed packet with planting directions.

I was thrilled to bring this unique, fun vision to life.

I unfortunately didn't shoot any pictures of the gorgeous bouquet! I really hope Mary contacts me when her pro pics come in! It was rustic and lovely with fall flowers and succulents. Take my word for it--it was great! :)

I did however try to shoot all the details. We used Mason jars for centerpieces and ceremony accents, we used fresh vegetables and herbs in the centerpieces, and of course each table had its own succulent!

To keep the farm fresh them alive I used parsley as a greenery in her ceremony chairs.

My brave husband stood on a folding chair to hang the awesome Mason jar arch on the Farm's blooming pergola.

Each table tied to Mary's seed packets and each had a different theme. Some of my favorites were mini pumpkins, kale, artichokes and asparagus!

Here's the mini pumpkin table:

The artichoke table:

The asparagus table:

Finally I created a cake topper featuring large succulents and all the rustic flowers we used in the big day. There were dahlias, ranunculus, and one of my favorites--chocolate cosmos. They smell like chocolate--what could be better?

A beautiful farm fresh event!

Inspiration Lounge Grand Opening

I'm excited for the Inspiration Lounge's Grand Opening at Inspirador.

We'll provide flowers in a couple spots this time around. There's food, champagne, lots of vendor information. In fact, it's a one-stop-shop for invites, florists, DJs, caterers, you name it, you'll be able to find the information you need to plan your big day!

It should be a great time!

Come on out and see us Thursday night!

Flowers Uncut

In the midst of crazy wedding season it's nice to take time to sit down and catch anything on the old television. Most of the time it's DVR with three-week-old episodes of Mad Men, but this week I got to catch a new show: TLC's Flowers Uncut with Jeff Leatham.

I am in love.

What makes a florist's heart sing but lovely, gorgeous, succulent, over-the-top flower arrangements? Jeff Leatham is a very talented designer and I was so pleased that the show not only showcased his personality and some lovely arrangements but it also showed the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Yes ladies this is what all of us go through to pull off even the smallest events. The end result is gorgeous, getting there is a ride!

Here are some of my favorite designs from this week's episodes. And just because his clients are celebrities and dignitaries, it doesn't mean you can't be inspired and pull off some of these awesome designs for your big day!

Amazing Floral Designs

Lost and Found

By some random, happy circumstance I discovered saved professional pictures from a wedding I did last summer.

Teddi had a rich color scheme of chocolate brown and red. We used red callas, red roses and gerbera daisies with dark centers to complete the look. Whimsical fiddlhead fern added texture and another chocolate pop the bouquet.

The professional pictures were by StaciaLynn Photography

I love the close-up of the bride's bouquet and mom's wrist corsage.

I also love stumbling across lost photos of my work! :) I promise we're working hard on the website and should have a lot more professional photography soon!

Enjoy!

Pro Pic Parade

I am in desperate need of updated pro galleries! When you're married to your web programmer you sometimes have to wait for updates. Uh-hem--Honey you reading this?

So I decided to give you some sneak peeks.

I'll try to go in order of event!

I've posted pictures of Rachel's wedding before but she sent me another set and they are just lovely! Thanks Harold Tseu from To Have and To Hold Photography!

This next step is from the dreamy March wedding of Hawlie and JP. When your bride is model-gorgeous the flowers look that much better! :) The shots are from the talented Ben Quillinan from Ben Quillinan photography. He won the prestigious Knot.com's Best of Weddings this year and it's little wonder why!

Ben sent us so many awesome shots I can't wait to showcase his work!

Of course no gallery would be complete without the lovely Kirstin! You probably recognize her from the landing page on our site. Her peacock-themed wedding is one of my all-time favorites and I can't believe we're closing in on a year since this awesome event! The photos are from Dawn Rosa Cole.

This is just a small sampling. I have a ton of awesome photographers waiting to show up on my site so stay tuned!

It's in the Mail....

Last year I had an awesome time at "Arts and Flowers." It's the coolest event on the planet. Hosted by the Phoenix Art Museum League, the event allows local floral designers to interpret art pieces throughout the museum in fresh flowers.

It was so cool and I knew I had to participate in the next one and every one after that! After making a pest of myself, my persistence paid off.

A week or so ago I received my official invite to participate in the event. I am beyond excited! I just dropped my intent to participate letter in the mail and now I have to wait a few months before I pick out my piece of art. Listen to that "my" piece of art. :) Can you tell I'm excited?

The event takes place March 4-7 2010. It may seem far away but it will be here before you know it.

Once I pick my piece I'll share it here but you'll have to come out to the event to see our floral creation in person. :) The event takes place over a "First Friday" weekend so if you come on Friday it's free!

Desert Nights at Inspirador

We've participated in several open houses for Inspirador this summer. This one was my favorite!

The open house was Thursday August 27th, the theme was Desert Nights--think Arabian Nights, Morocco, rich colors, incense (in fact, an incense bar greeted guests as they arrived), it was right up my alley.

Here's a shot of the incense bar. Guests were able to take home their own incense and an incense holder.

My entire master bedroom has a Moroccan flair so I really brought found items I had hanging around the house.

I used glass candle lanterns to hold my flowers, a little elephant statue, and as many Moroccan touches as I could find.

The awesome photos for the night were from Kelvin Leung. I love the collages on his blog!

My husband braved heights and broken glass to hang some star lanterns in the entry way.

It was an awesome evening and, as always, it was a great opportunity to show off in one of my favorite venues and to meet really awesome couples and their families.

A Bad Blogger

Sheesh I've been away so long! Sorry about that. It's not that I wasn't working this summer--I was! I had open houses, lots of consultations with awesome brides and a few weddings--I just can't seem to remember to bring my camera to said weddings which means really, really boring blog posts!

Well lucky for me, awesome photographers shoot weddings and create memories. Since I can't remember much of anything at the moment, these guys (and gals) are true life savers!

So without further ado:

A few teaser pics from Sara's 4th of July wedding in Sedona.

The venue was the Creekside Inn. It's really cute and the ceremony site is nestled in the trees, near the creek--it's almost like a fairy wonderland.

Sara's bouquet was simple but still really fun. We used white Fuji mums and a collar of black fig leaves. A cute polka dot ribbon criss-crossed the bouquet and added a little bit of whimsy.

White carnation pomanders hung on the ceremony chairs and we brought the black and white polka dots back.

Another shot of those pomanders getting ready to head into the lovely outdoors.

Her photographer was with The 24 Studio. I love the photojournalistic candid nature of their photography. Check out the site: www.the24studioWeddings.com

Bridal Show Madness! :)

What do get when you take 600 vendors, put them in a giant, echoey hall along with a thousand or so brides? Bridal Show Madness. :) But a good madness, a fun, frantic, overwhelming madness. But what fun right? All those cake samples and catering samples (Red, White and Brew tortures me each year with yumminess wafting in my direction), free stuff....it truly is a one-stop-shop for your bridal needs.

We love the Bridal Fashion debut and take part in the January two-day show and the June one-day show each year. It's a great opportunity to meet a lot of brides and show off some of my funkier style. For example, this fairly traditional bouquet--except of course for the artichoke and closed, not full blown giant peonies. I think they add fun texture that way.

This year I decided to go for a seasonal, summer theme.

Picnic Anyone?

What else is a barbecue grill for? I personally think each and every one should be filled with blue hydrangea and sunflowers! This was probably my favorite piece.

I also incorporated a few recycled and inexpensive pieces to show ways you can still beautify your reception in today's economy. These Mason jar pieces were a big hit and so simple and so inexpensive--a lot of color and texture for your table without a lot of cash! The recycled pop bottles offer a similar effect.

I think it was a big hit and thank you so much to all the brides, moms, fiances, babies, friends, and fellow vendors for stopping by to say "hello."

See you in January!