Inspiration: Jewel Tones

People often ask where designers get their inspiration. For whatever reason I have a hard time answering that question. I think it's because I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere but even this one surprised me.

As I sat in a pint sized chair with my son as he delighted in his first attempt at finger painting I watched the colors came together and thought, wow, it's simple and so obviously childlike but how beautiful.

By the end it looked a little something like this.

And I was inspired to create a  Pinterest board reminiscent of the combination of jewel tones. You can check out here.

                                                  Source: indiapiedaterre.com via Anne on Pinterest

Where do you find your source of inspiration?

Real Wedding: Lorelei & Michael

Remember that freak October snowstorm we had last year? I'm sure that Lorelei & Michael will never forget the weather on their wedding day. Although they avoided the snow for their City Hall ceremony which happened just a few days before the day of the reception at the 3 West Club was a much different story. I really enjoyed working with Lorelei on creating the right look for her wedding, she came to me with great ideas inspired by her love of travel and work with the Peace Corps. She still had a world map that had traveled with her from place to place decorating her walls. We mounted that on foam core and used it for the escort cards. Lorelei gathered many travel themed props to use and I scouted a few more from the local flea markets. Gold mercury glass vases and metal bowls were used to hold the flowers. Each table had multiple vases and the props were used throughout.
I especially love the entrance display where Lorelei displayed wedding pictures of loved ones which was especially fitting since she wore her grandmother's wedding gown that had been redesigned to best suit Lorelei.

 Lorelei's bouquet was a mix of white ranunculus, white calla lilies, astilbe and gomphrena with accents of green lily grass.

 

 Entrance display with vintage suitcases, maps, globes and a vintage camera were combined with brown bottles and gold mercury glass bud vases filled with white tulips, green fern, anemones and gomphrena.

  Map of the world with place cards.

 Each table had a different assortment of travel props with flowers.

All photos courtesy of Karen Cunningham.

What worked best about this wedding was that the "theme" seemed effortless and was not too overdone or forced in any way. You can include your personality, your hobbies and interests, the parts of your life that you are passionate about without overdoing it. It's important to find the balance between a personal theme and "kitschy".

Fresh and Green, foliage arrangement

There are amazing greens and foliage available at all times of the year and I think that they are often overlooked and more often thought of as "filler". This is sometimes true in poorly designed arrangements that have a mix of many cheap flowers along with heaps of cheap greens. I decided to create an arrangement using only greens/foliage.
I love the fresh feeling of this design, the layers of texture and the way it makes me feel like I can just breath a little deeper. Weird? Maybe but it's true.

Here are the ingredients.

 UMBRELLA FERN

Huge fan of umbrella fern and that's pretty much all I have to say about. LOVE THEM. Check out this post over on Design Sponge for some more info about them.

 LEATHER LEAF FERN

I know, check it out, me, the self admitted flower snob (sometimes) is using leather leaf. But I promise you'll see that used sparingly it can add a nice bit of texture and volume to the arrangement, key word = sparingly.

 

GARDENIA LEAVES

The waxy deep green of the front side of the leaf paired with the light tone of the back is great contrast, adding just one more layer. 

 PHILADENDRON LEAVES

These leaves are available in sizes ranging from mini to extra extra large. 

FUN BUN LEAVES

They are called FUN BUN's, how can you not love them? They come in a few different sizes as well.

Put it all together and you'll get a little something like this.

Simple, fresh and clean. Don't disregard the impact that all green arrangements can have, even for a wedding. You can create similar looks on varying scales and it would look amazing!

Valentine's Day - Beyond the Rose

As a floral designer you can have mixed emotions about valentine's day. You can either look at it with a sense of dread knowing the craziness that is sure to come or you can look forward to the energy that comes with knowing you have so many people anxiously awaiting to give or receive this simple expression of love. I prefer the latter.

And contrary to the tasteless opinion of one particular big market florist, it's not just romantic love (and that's giving a little class to the real message they were sending).

Remember everyone this valentine's day and send them a little love. Think beyond the traditional red rose, PLEASE, I beg of you. Be open to other flower options, there are many and they are all beautiful.

I'm are already taking orders for Valentine's Day and will be up until February 13th. 

To ensure quality and delivery we will not be taking same day orders. 

send an email anne@bladenyc.com

give a shout 917-723-3577

Studio Sale - Event and Floral Rummage Sale

Terrarium Board on Pinterest

Check out these great terrariums I've gathered over on Pinterest. I love the simplicity of them. The perfect touch of green for your home, especially great to have in a tiny nyc apartment. The addition of miniature accents is super cute and can really make them your own. These self contained little worlds don't require much care so they are perfect if you have a "not so green thumb". Look for a terrarium making workshop near you to learn just how to do it. I might take a road trip, pick up my sis and head to Terrain and check out one of their workshops soon.

You can find the one below over Run2TheWild on etsy.com. Sweet idea for your Valentine.

 

 

 

Source: etsy.com via Anne on Pinterest

Japan Bloom Show at New York's Japan Society

I took a quick trip to the Japan Society earlier this week to see some of the most beautiful flower specimens. More varieties of sweet peas than I could count and amazing displays throughout. Here are some of my favorites.

 

 Gloriosa Lilies for the main entrance.

 Chocolate Cosmos and yes they actually smell like chocolate!

 

Scabiosa japonica "Pretty Pearl"

 Over 100 varieties of sweet peas, you could smell them the minute you entered the building. 

My "favor" when I left the show was a bunch of these intoxicating sweet peas, lucky me!! 

 The entire structure is covered using a combination of sweet peas and scabiosa.

 I LOVE these leaves and I'm so happy to finally know the proper name!

 Peony (Paeonia suffructicosa, the pink is "Fukujuden" and the white is "Godaishu".

A combination of blue tweedia with accents of the "crispy wave" leaves shown above.

 Test tubes with single orchid and accent of smilax. This could be a perfect accent for a wedding design, hanging from ceiling or used to accent the chuppuh or ceremony area.

 The arch was made entirely of sweet peas with just a few accents of lisianthus. Wouldn't this make a spectacular entrance to the aisle for a wedding ceremony?

 The image on the left is a structure of made of yellow gloriosa lilies...amazing! 

The simplicity of the smilax hanging from the ceiling in the second picture was perfect and again I can see so many uses for these in the design of a wedding ceremony or reception.

Merci New York at The Wedding Party

I was lucky enough to partner with Jackie from Merci New York to create beautiful arrangements for her already stunning table at The Wedding Party. In contrast to the table I designed with these watermelon poppies these arrangements had a much more subtle color palette. I used a combination of soft pink ranunculus, white anemones, peach roses, dusty miller and pink sweet peas. They looked so perfect among the stunning jewelry and accessories Jackie featured on her table.
Be sure to visit Merci New York for more stylish inspiration.

Thanks again to the wonderful Trent Bailey Photography for the beautiful images!