Showing posts with label WEdding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WEdding. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Wedding and Prom Season is Here~


May, June are the 2 months that are mostly busy with Prom, Wedding rush... Right after Mother's day, most florists will get lots of orders for the high school proms for Thursday and Friday; and then wedding on the weekend. Sometimes there are multiple schools having the prom on the same week. Many times that we have to premake the pre-ordered corsages & boutonnieres 2 nights before juts to finish all the orders. The volume is good for business during the economic down time but it gave us lots of green and cracking fingers just to wire all these flowers. Each corsage take about 10-30 minutes depending on how many flowers to wire and how difficult to wire the flowers. Out of all flowers, I love to wire roses or carnations since they are the quickest to get done... Besides the proms, there comes the wedding flowers. Same with lots corsages and boutonnieres making. Other than that, it will have bouquets, centerpieces and the alter arrangements/head table pieces/cake deco arrangement. Sometimes we will have multiple wedding over the same weekend. But most of them are bouquets and flowers to wear. Recent years I found that people tend to decorate the table or the hall themselves with whatever they can found cheaper in price. Sometimes the decoration don't need to involve with flowers. Often time, people can get fabric from Fabricland or some fabric wholesale to decorate the hall with. You usually can get a great deal on Lights right after Christmas. People uses lanterns, crystals, marbles or rose petals to decorate. As long as you can find some friend and family to help and plan them all out, it usually not hard at all. Rushing usually causes a lot of dramas... In order to avoid these dramas, we always stick a big note at the store window to tell the kids when is the prom order deadline; otherwise we will never finish all the orders till morning... And still the kids will come at the last minutes just an hour before they get on the limos and ask if we still make corsages or boutonnieres...

Thanks Mom!!!


Seems before and after Mother's day there was a big gap of period that I don't even have time to touch my computer... Lot's of emails to respond, and lots of junk mails to delete. Updating whatever has to be updated... Lack of motivation to doing anything else but sleep... Oh well, it's just a typical symptom of laziness/recovery right after Mother's day rush. Right before Mother's day Sunday, there was a big prom going happening on Thursday... Good 40-50 pcs of corsages and boutonnieres orders to make right before all the holiday rush... I haven't seen or said hello and kiss my daughter and son during Mother's day weekend. Me and my husband went out to store to get ready for the preparation at 7am and didn't come back home till later of the night around midnight. As a florist after all the years, I really missed all the big holidays. We did work a lot to satisfy other people and customers during the big holidays, but we missed our own quality time with our family a lot. Thanks to my mom (and dad) that they are very helpful to take care of our kids while we are busy~~~ Thanks Mom!!! We love you~~~

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Making Boutonniere...


Making Rose boutonniere is probably the easiest out of all other flower boutonnieres... Why? There are couple reasons. First, the stem is hard and strong comparing to other flowers. Second, the flower bud is durable and hard to crush. Third, when the rose opens (if it does opens... sometimes it doesn't open at all), it opens up to a big bloom. Other reasons such as it's easy to wire and tape without being worried about killing it by pressing too hard. And it won't have a sad look too easily if its out of water for a while. And it's available and affordable.
Cymbidium orchid is the best flower to make boutonniere since it will last for a long time without water. However, it's really take a long time to make it into a boutonniere, plus the price for cymbids are not cheap. And oftentimes the flower will turn brown easily if petal get damaged... (cannot peal it off like rose...)
Dendrobium orchids are good choice of boutonniere making. But they are also very delicate and take time to wire carefully. But they also last long too.
I got many customer want stargazer or Casablanca lilies for boutonniere or corsage... It usually gave me headache when I heard it... They are just too fragile to wear as boutonniere or corsage... The 5 petals may only have 1 petal left at the end of the party if you are lucky... I ususally ask them to change their mind...
Gerbera daisies are beautiful to make corsage or boutonniere. But using a water tube to hold the moisture may be a good idea if it's going to be hot at the party. Alternative way will be wiring the Gerbera Daisy stem with wet cotton sealed with foil or cello. Because once the Gerbera daisy is dehydrated, it will give you a very sad look...
Carnation and daisy are OK too. They are very affordable in terms of the price; but with the same amount of labour like making rose boutonniere, florist would rather sell the rose boutonniere than a carnation one. But for DIY lovers or junior florists who need lots of practice, these flowers are great because they are very economic.
By the way, I forgot to mention Calla Lily... It's a great choice for boutonniere but not so good for corsage... Anyway, it will be next time's topic =)

Monday, 2 March 2009

Wedding in March with Roses

<-- Jumbo White Calla Lilies Handtied Bouquet with White Mesh Ribbons.



Today I got the first wedding order for end of March in 2009. Quite happy~~~ Although it's not a big order, just a couple bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages with lots of roses, at least it took me away from thinking about the slowness of the month...

For most weddings, people use roses (75%); the rest of the common flowers used are calla liles (shown in the picture), orchids, gerbara daisies and other flowers. For the bridal bouquet, most color used are Ivory/off white showy flowers - such as calla liles, open roses, cymbidium orchids and gerbara daisies. The next popular color for bridal bouquet is Red, and then is Pink (either light or hot pink or mixed with both).

From the past experiences, these are the common wedding flower color theme for different cultures:

White people - All white/Ivory theme or mixed color (white/pink or purple)

Black people - All white/Ivory theme or mixed color (orange/peach/exotic color/flowers)

Brown people - All white/Ivory theme or mixed color (red/gold very big and showy peice)

Asians - All white/Ivory theme or mixed colors or all red or mixed pink (light & dark pink) ---> Asian girls really likes pink or purple flowers in their weddings...

Above just the general observations from the pass wedding I'd made for all different people from different culture background. There's no bias on the races~ Everyone has their own color(s) for their wedding. As a florist, I still love using roses for wedding bouquet. Why? Because they are pretty, durable, blooms are big, won't get damage as easily as other flowers, the stems are hard, smell good and the most important part is..... they come in all kinds of different colors and shades!!!




Pink+Green Hand tie Bouquet:

Light Pink Roses (Vogue)
Dark Pink Roses (Hot Princess or Sarena)
Light Pink/Dark Pink Spray Roses
Green Buttons - Pom Pom Daisies
Green Hypericum
Salal Leaves
Beaded Garland
Pink Satin Ribbons

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Get Married in Caribbean

On Friday I have to make a small wedding bouquet for a lady who work at flight center. She is going to get married in Caribbean. I asked her, why you are ordering fresh bouquet instead of artificial. You cannot possibly bring it through Canadian Custom XD. She said she got everything planed out at the resort oversea. The fresh bouquet is just for her to bring to a small reception in Toronto before they fly down to resort~ She had invited 60 guests; and each of the guest cost $1600... $o$... CAD$96000 for a wedding in Caribbean... For me it's the down payment of the house... LOL Anyway, although the economy is pretty bad out here ow, it's good to see people still spending money to boost economy of the world. Although I will never spend that kind of money on myself; maybe one day I will have to spend it on my daughter... on her wedding... in another 15 years... Just a maybe...


Small wedding bouquet displayed in a clear square vase:
2 tone orange-yellow Gerbera Daisies
2 tone White with Reddish Pink Roses (Blush)
White Vendella Roses
Italian Ruscus
Variegated Pitt
Small Bouquet Holder for Fresh Flowers
White Mesh Ribbon - Wrapped on wooden picks
Beige Satin Ribbon - Wrap the bouquet Stick (use glue gun)