Studio 237 goes Orange

This post will share a lot of piks from start to finish of the undertaking of converting the large central arrangement at Studio 237 from it's previously white and chartreuse colour scheme to the new accent colour orange. The arrangement will be a focal in the centre of the salon, in order to increase the stability of the arrangement Darek has decided to make it more permanently located there and we are adding a substantial wooden framework which will create a lot more weight. I took a lot of pictures as I worked on the arrangement in the evenings when the studio was not open. We completely removed the former arrangement and Darek had the structure built and encased within the large fibreglass base. He also had the pedestal and the base permanently attached to one another.

The ugly beginning structure and all the materials......

To begin I started greening the base...

Welcome 2013!!

Well if anyone ever looks at this blog aside from myself you may notice some sincerely lackluster blogging performance in 2012.....My New Year's resolution this year among a severe need to organize my various recent technological advances and to hone the skills required to operate aforementioned devices is (drumroll please) to get all the images that I have in folders uploaded as posts on this blog. We look forward to another amazing year with great brides and bouquets to share!

100 Mile Bride

This bride and groom presented an unusual theme to their wedding -both vendors and guests! They hosted a potluck reception and asked that all items offered were procured within a 100 mile radius of Belleville. The same was expected of the items I used. I travelled to several local markets and agricultural vendors in order to select the blooms and foliages for the ceremony arrangements, bouquets, table centres and cake top. Fortunately there was a lot of flexibility in the contents. I was able to use zinnias, glads, sedum, heliotrope, echinops, phlox, verbena bonariensis, chelone, and garden roses. We added additional texture from the centres of coneflowers, hops and berries, and finished with a wide variety of foliages including baptisia, euonymous,ninebark and flax.

It was exceptionally quiet in the shop today- I suspect we will all be a little sad each time we look in his favourite spots.... He was a wonderful animal, though, and I will miss him dearly.

Nicole

Nicole came to her bridal appointment and knew exactly what she wanted. In fact she was so completely certain I knew very little details about her dresses and colours until I saw the finished photography by Ruth Stenson Photography... I must admit- although I'd like to take credit for the entirety- her choices were amazing and I was pleased that we could accomodate her requests.

Her colour palette was composed of orange and lime green for her bouquet and the rest of the bridal party. The maids' pomanders hung from a broom handle across our backroom door on a beautiful fall afternoon.



Nicole wore a couture dress with an ostrich feather detail on the bodice and we added some creamy ostrich feather accents to the pomanders which were composed of green viking or button mums and orange flat daisies.



Nicole's bouquet featured mango calla, orange dahlia, orange cymbidium orchids lime green flat mums, queen anee's lace and more ostrich feathers.



The table centres were contemporary cubes filled with orange lily and gerbera daisies, green hydrangea and fern fronds wich echo the movement of the ostrich feathers...


Two large vase arrangements of orange gladiola flanked the stairs of the Montrose Inn which looks remarkably like a southern plantation in the photography from Ruth Stenson which I will post next.

Amanda

The same evening we hosted the Artwalk we also prepared for Amanda's wedding. The September date of her wedding conflicted with her desire for peonies...We felt the best option to create the same soft pink romantic feel would be garden roses- a product we didn't have much experience with. With some research and a lot of communication with Alexandra Farms (the grower) we settled on a couple of varieties that could provide a complimentary tone to her colour scheme while providing a lovely fragrance and getting close to the shades of pinks and fuschia of peonies.

The bridemaid's bouquets were composed of white spray roses the 'Marietheresia' and 'Yves Piaget' garden roses with a small collar of variegated pittosporum as well, but were somewhat smaller than the bride's.

Her 2 year old daugter would be her flower girl and we decided to try something slightly innovative, modern and yet easily carried and fun for a little one. We dressed a series of concentrically smaller styrofoam balls which we selected because they are lightweight; the smallest ball was woven with bear grass, the next variegated pitt and dressed with pearl head pins, and the largest ball with a sage green moss. The balls were tiered together and pink cymbidium orchids were the cherry on top!

The wedding and reception took place at the River Inn Corbyville - a venue that provides a fabulous, substantial solid wood bar. Amanda envisioned a collection of 3 glass cyclindrical vases with a modern treatment. We anchored some cymbidium blooms at the base of this vase and submerged them, a tai leaf with pink striation circled the interior of the glass obscuring the stems of the sedum which were angled jeff leatham style, folded aspidistra leaves and more garden roses.

A saucer dahlia provides a dramatic focal point in contrast to the shape of the roses and submerged rose petals add textural interest.

The lenth and curve of these calla ideally suited the largest vase- we based the cylinder with tai leaves a white hydrangea and another calla nestled in to draw the eye. Mirror covers the wall behind the bar creating the appearance of even more cylinders and a grouping was placed at each end of the bar

The tablecentres were inspired by the Ellen Degeneres show and as I'm not a regular viewer I had to go online to determine what that style enveloped. We had some beautiful green moss which we lined the low glass oval cylinders and pink ecuadorian roses in rows stood at attention interspersed with rose buds.

They're all tucked in and ready for bed and so am I!

Gorgeous Holiday Urns and Swags

We had anothere series of extraordinary classes this holiday season. Each urn was as unique as it's designer and I am once again suprised and impressed!

You can't beat the smell of fresh pine, cedar and fir! Each urn was accented with magnolia, ilex berries, dogwood, curly willow and a variety of holiday greens.
With some reorganization of the back room we were able to host more guest designers comfortably this year and we'll definitely keep that in mind- maybe a floral design class in March would be fun!

We used the left over tips to create some lovely door knockers or swags with a few cones and some wonderful ribbons to choose from that each designer could personalize to their taste.