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.

One table, two designs: Masculine vs. Feminine

In these last two designs for the Tablescape Challenge we kept the same art deco paper for the table runner as we used for the calla set-up but used the bright yellow flowers paired with some simple silver vases we picked up at Ikea.

The first version of this design is much more structured and architectural in design. I used only one type of flower in the two taller vases and then grouped the lotus pods and craspedia in the low vase. I would say this look has a more masculine and minimal feel in comparison to the second version.

In the second version of the same design we eliminated the calla lilies and added amazing two toned ranunculus. I'm not usually one for two toned flowers but these were beyond beautiful. The addition of the low vase filled with feminine and lush ranunculus as well as a few additional bud vases brought the design in a completely different direction.

You can see that with just a few tweaks and changes you can really make a difference in the overall look of the table. When designing your own table, whether it be for your wedding or a dinner party at home, play around with different combination of vases and flowers.

All photos courtesy of the lovely Sara Wasilausky.

Art Deco Calla Lilies

Here is the third table set-up we did for the Tablescape Challenge. This was ultra chic and so simple. There is no vase for the flowers and while it might not seem to be the most practical thing there are some flowers that can withstand being out of water for a certain length of time. This is not something that could be set-up hours before an event but for an intimate gathering or dinner party at home this would be perfect. Take a chance and try something a little bit different, you may be really surprised with the results. We definitely were!













Again, Sara of Sara Wasilausky Studio did an amazing job of capturing the look although it posed some challenges since it was such a low and flat design.

Behind the scenes: Shopping for flowers

Back in April we took part in the Modern Tablescape Challenge over at Brooklyn Bride. While this end up being the final submission we did have a few designs that we played around with before choosing. I'll post those over the next few days but today I thought I would give you a little peek into the behind the scenes process of shopping for the flowers.
Sara Wasilausky was my teammate on the challenge and took some beautiful images of everything.

A view of the flower market early Saturday morning.

Vibrant pin cushion protea - we ended up choosing the yellow variety.

Thought about using this amazing palm leaf as a vessel but decided to go in another direction. Pretty common to start with one idea in mind and then be swayed in another direction by all the amazing options to choose from.

Rows and rows of tulips, hyacinth, ranunculus and other seasonal beauties.

Here I am choosing the final bunch of pin cushions.

These amazing open cut white calla lilies are not always available so I couldn't resist grabbing some for at least one of the table set-ups. My hands are also full with craspedia and waxflower as I make the final choices.

Nicky from Associated Cut Flowers and I catch up on the happenings in the market and new flower arrivals as he writes up our invoice.

Just another day for Fat Cat at Gpage.

A visit to the flower market can really give you a new perspective on your original design and help you better define the direction it will take. It's a great experience and I always welcome couples to take a trip with me to explore all the options available for their wedding flowers.

Stay tuned for our other table set-up options that we didn't end up using for the challenge.

Brooklyn Bride: Modern Tablescape Challenge

i knew i wanted to enter the tablescape challenge over at brooklyn bride the minute i saw the post. i worked with sara wasilausky who photographed the table and helped me with the design. we had a great time since there were no requirements other than it needed to be modern. it's such a great feeling to have the freedom to design something with only one prerequisite. of course we kept it within reason in terms of budget and realistic so that someone else could actually recreate something similar themselves. in the end we tried a few different ideas and this was the one that worked for submission.





i'll share some of our other ideas in the coming days along with a behind the scenes look at the process.