Glen Echo Gardens Wedding - Bellingham, WA

This was a very personal and special wedding for me.  It was my dear friend Vanessa who was the bride.  It was an honor to be both a bridesmaid and her florist, as well as a challenge.  Let me say this if you're thinking about doing your own flowers - DON'T DO IT. I tell you this as a florist and as a friend.  I'm a professional and I almost died trying to be in the wedding and be sure the flowers were exceptional.  Ok, it wasn't that bad, but y'all know I have a dramatic flair ;)  But I am not exaggerating when I say that Vanessa and RC had an insanely beautiful wedding!

My dear friend Vanessa and I clicked after first meeting and have been close ever since.  She has a wonderful eye and has studied fashion and marketing and it shows in everything she does.  She took an old lace dress and turned it into something spectacular, all the details, the venue, the food reflected her and RC's fantastic taste and fun spirit.

Not only was Vanessa's photographer, Karen, was a blast to work with - her images are AMAZING. Check out the rest of the photos here.

My beautiful friend in her perfect dress

When Vanessa and I exchanged emails about her flowers, I saw one major theme: She wanted something both romantic and unexpected.  I wanted to pair things together that normally you don't see.  Protea and David Austin roses, succulents and veronica, ferns, willow and stock.  By keeping the colors fairly neutral, I was able to work in a ton of product and it stay romantic and lovely. The first time Vanessa and I met she was telling me about her love of sticks and how she wanted to get a huge tree branch for the wall of her bedroom.  I had to put a touch of willow in for her.  It wouldn't be truly hers without it. 

I didn't have complete carte blanche, but she trusted me to do my thing.  I had to make a few adjustments as a few flowers didn't come in.  I put in a lot of flowers we didn't talk about but I felt that it helped 'make' the bouquet.  Having freedom does wonders to creativity.  Make sure you trust your florist (and any other vendor) to just do their thing. If you don't trust them, don't hire them.  If you give freedom for them to be creative, you'll probably receive their best work.  

Anderson Creek Lodge, Bellingham WA

I think here she was laughing at the stupid faces I was making at her.  I couldn't hep it.  She was supposed to be serious and I had to test her poker face. :)

We had a lot of fun waiting for RC to take his first look.  Now I know where my daughter got her nose crinkle when she laughs...

Glen Echo Gardens is pristine.  The most beautiful garden I've ever seen.  Such an amazing venue! 

The centerpieces were fairly simple, 3 jars and/or bottles filled with hydrangea, stock, dahlias, lavender, willow, ferns - really whatever.  I wasn't able to stay behind and do all the centerpieces myself, I had to get to the lodge to get ready. I was already 2 hours behind and was a hot mess when I got there!  But the little worker bees did a great job.  Thanks guys!

The bridesmaids bouquets we kept lush and romantic with hydrangea, dahlias, veronica, stock and succulents.

Don't you love her ring?  When she first tried it on I knew it was the one for her! 

Each boutonniere was custom and had a different succulent and foliage and was wrapped in twine.  They were so fun to make.  Each had its own personality.  

My sweet lady and I enjoying the party.  The blurry face in the foreground is my wonderful husband. Love ya babe :)

 My sweet Zoë Raine.  Isn't she the cutest?  I might be a little partial though...

Congrats Vanessa and RC! 

Wedding at Court in the Square, Seattle April 14th

Here are some amazing photos of Larissa and Zach's April wedding from Nathan Coltrane Photography.

They were married at Court in the Square which is a beautiful venue in Pioneer Square.  Larissa wanted the impressive arches of the venue mirrored in her bouquet.  So we looped bear grass over  hydrangea, spider mums, freesia, orchids and hypericum berries.  

And how frickin' A-MA-ZING does Larissa look?  Wowza!

 STUNNING....

I love the pool that is in Court in the Square.  I would love to make some floral rafts for it sometime!  Or float some big honkin' Dahlias. :) 

So sweet

Congrats Zach and Larissa!       

Aren't Mothers day flowers overpriced?

Ever question the price you pay for flowers? And why would someone want to spend $60 on flowers with me, when they can spend $30 at proflowers or ftd? I like and welcome questions like that. They're very honest and upfront. My answer is simple. All $60 of you order with me goes to flowers and includes a container and a premium card. On a major site, you'll still end up paying an additional $30 in fees, card and container. For the same price, you get half the quality. Here's what I got rung up for while trying to buy an arrangement from ProFlowers.com

For my mom I chose the deluxe Mom's Smiles and Sunshine, which includes 12 assorted roses and alstromeria. The funny thing is, I counted more than 12 roses in the image and it's supposed to be only one side of the arrangement, meaning for it to look like it does in the picture you'd need at least 24 roses.

But let's talk about the price at checkout:

Order Total:

Deluxe Mom's Smiles & Sunshine: $49.98
Happy Mother's Day Card: $2.99
Large Ginger(container): $6.99
Standard Delivery $11.99
Guaranteed May 11th Delivery $4.99
Care & Handling $2.99
Tax: $7.59
TOTAL: $87.52


With Studio 3, I chose the Kathleen arrangement for my mom. It is 10 stems of premium "mambo" spray roses, 10 stems of hot pink tulips, 2 stems hypericum and 3 exotic leaves. Included is the container and a full sized card.

Here's my checkout price:

Order total:

"Kathleen" arrangement: $49.50 (on sale until the 2nd of May!)
Container: included
Premium card: included
Delivery: $7.00
Tax: $5.36
TOTAL: 61.68

Also, the wire service that sends the order to your local florist to fill takes a rather large chunk of the money that goes to your flowers. This gives your local florist less to work with and gives you fewer or subpar flowers. This isn't your local florists fault, because they only received a portion of the $50 you spent.

I understand that not all of you are able to get your mothers day flowers through Studio 3, but if you do decide to get flowers, call your local florist directly. All of your purchase will go toward your flowers, giving you more bang for your buck, and the money you spend will help your local economy.

Most importantly, give the mama in your life a big hug on Mother's Day. And maybe a foot rub. And chocolate. And a mimosa. :) She deserves it!

Natalie and Elliot

Yay! A post on Natalie and Elliot's wedding from this past weekend! Natalie was a super sweet bride, wanting an elegant, formal yet fun affair!  They are super sweet and so obviously in love.  It's always an honor to contribute to a wedding of people like this!  Don't you just LOVE this photo from Tracy Adams Photography?  Perfectly captures their romance!  Their colors were blue and white and Natalie wanted all blue flowers for her bridesmaids to carry, and her bouquet to have a touch of white.  Natalie was set on having irises as her main flower, and we decided to add in some delphinium, tweedia, veronica and thistle to add more dimension and texture.

They were married right after Valentine's Day, which with flowers it can be dicey.  Valentine's Day is like Christmas to florists.  They are swamped!  Did you know 1/3 of Americans send flowers on Valentine's Day?  This means that all growers cut just about everything they have, even if it's not quite ready.  Our wholesaler had boxes of flowers stacked 5 feet high all over the warehouse getting ready for the big holiday.  Florists are there picking through the flowers and buying more flowers then they will all year.  Not only that, the flowers can cost nearly double because of the demand.  For weddings I always place the order for the flowers at least a month in advance.  I want to be sure everything I order is set aside, especially with Valentine's Day where florists are out for the best looking blooms!  But this time, things didn't go as planned.

When I got to the wholesaler, they didn't have what I ordered. Gah! What!?  I took a deep breath.  Don't panic, don't panic.  Mistakes and accidents will happen, it's how you respond to them that will set you apart.  They had the irises, (phew!) but no veronica, no tweedia, and the thistle that was to be used on the bouts were all about the size of my hand.  And I have HUGE hands!  They were just about the size of a hydrangea head.  I've never seen them so big!  I had to scour through the white mums because they were bruised and brown, which of course would not make their way into this wedding!  I knew the bridal bouquet needed something extra special, and I found the last two heads of imported blue hydrangea.  In the end, it all worked out.

The bridal bouquet consisted of white irises, two shades of blue irises, two shades of blue belladonna delphinium and blue hydrangea.  The bridesmaids were 2 shades of blue iris and 2 shades of blue delphinium.

Delphinium was used in the bouts, the massive thistle moved to the alter arrangements, which also held white spider mums, white china mums, hanging amaranthus, and just a touch of curly willow.  

 The wedding was held at the Rainier Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  This venue gets the award for longest name as well for the prettiest historical venue I've ever seen.  Everything has been maintained to keep the 1920 feel.  Down to the tiniest detail.  Loved it!

The simple cake was topped with 2 different shades of iris.

  You looked stunning Natalie!

What a moment!  

Thank you, Natalie and Elliot, for including me on your big day!  

Give it Away Giveaway Flowers

 In mid January we did a giveaway called "give it away giveaway".  The lucky winner got to bless someone else with their prize.  It didn't matter who it was, as long as it wasn't them :).  Kristin Boyett, of Kristin Boyett Photography  won and sent these to her Aunt Judy who was having a major surgery.  Her aunt was a history professor and has lived in the Pacific Northwest for a very long time, so I decided to make something that had an old world feel, but something that also compliments the gorgeousness (is that a word?) of our environment.

The gray urn was my inspiration and I packed it with premium 'Quicksand' roses, hanging green amaranthus, burgundy ranunculus, unripened black berries and a succulent. 

Get well soon Judy!  

Flowers for Luanne

Let me tell you a Christmas story.  Well, it's a story that happened on Christmas.  It's not a very good one.  On Christmas day, my wonderful Aunt got in a terrible car accident.  Her new car, which she had for about a month, was totaled.  Roughly a year before the accident, she had a major neck surgery that took a long time to recover from.  This accident completely ruined that surgery.  The screws they put in were everywhere they shouldn't have been, the cage was messed up.  Pretty much a complete disaster.  We typically have Christmas dinner over at her house and she LOVES hosting.  Not being able to host was very difficult for her.  She was in pain the entire time because all the pharmacies were closed and the hospital wouldn't fill her prescription.  Basically it was a big bummer for Auntie Luanne.  She needed some serious cheering up.

Her Birthday is on New Years Eve, so I seized the opportunity to cheer her up and let her know she's loved and that her family is praying for her.  Zoe even "decorated" her card.  I didn't get a picture of it, but it was as decorated as a one year old could decorate it.  It was cute.  She scribbled about twice and then got distracted by some lint on the floor. I love being a mommy.  Anyway, the flowers!

Orange Finesse roses, Motzart Callas, red freesia, green mini cymbidium orchids and aspidistra leaf.  We love you Aunt Luanne!!  Thank you Kristin Boyett Photography for the amazing pictures!

My sweet aunt then sent me this:

Awwwww....thanks Luanne!  Oh! And you can see Zoe's artwork on the envelope.  :)  How about a picture of my cute little nugget?

I love it when she makes that face.  Happy New Year everyone!