Empress Hotel Photo Shoot

I recently received some gorgeous photos from the girls over at Two Tiny Elephants. They had asked me to do up a bridal bouquet for a photo shoot they were doing at the Empress Hotel. It's always very exciting to see my flowers in a beautiful shoot! I just can't get over the blue chair, red lips, and that dress, I love it all!! What do you think?

The bouquet was filled with local speckled hellebores, tulips, viburnum, freesia and fern.

To view this whole shoot please visit the Two Tiny Elephants blog.

Photography - Two Tiny Elephants

Invitation and stationary - Two Tiny Elephants

Dress and accessories - Blush Bridal

Hair and make-up -  Rika Kirihara

Flowers - Tara McHugh Flora

Location - Fairmont Empress Hotel

Garden Rose Bouquets

My best friend's wedding. What can I say, it doesn't get any better as a florist to have carte blanche. She knew she wanted soft and romantic, and I knew I wanted to use garden roses! 

In her bouquet I ended up using three different varieties of roses, white peonies, dusty miller, yarrow, and some eucalyptus.

A special detail was the heirloom diamond pendant borrowed from her mother-in-law which I hand stitched onto the ribbon. And don't you just love her jewellery? The fine, simple gold bracelet is my favourite!

I was also lucky enough to be the maid of honour and the only one in the bridal party, which meant I got to make myself whatever I wanted! Here is my bouquet being held by a girlfriend of mine, and doesn't it look like it was made for her?

Love you Mrs. Henderson!  xoxox

More on this wedding coming soon......

Herb Wedding

This past August I had a really fun request from a bride who was getting married at the beautiful Sea Cider Farm. She wanted an all herb wedding. Everything was to be herbs, including her bouquet! I was very excited to do something different and even more excited to source everything from local gardens. A herbal wedding is such a "green" concept. Everything can be grown in your garden or neighbour's garden, and after the wedding day you can dry some of the herbs for a keep sake or throw the rest in a batch of stock! The timing for this wedding was perfect to be able to catch a few herbs in late summer bloom. 

(bay leaves, rosemary, oregano flowers, variegated thyme and mint, parsley flower and purple sage)

White bridal bouquet - hydrangea and roses

This luxurious bridal bouquet consists of white hydrangea, everest roses, bouvardia, small white cymbidium orchids and freesia. It's soft, textural and scented.

(Ashley and Brandon Photography)

(Ashley and Brandon Photography)

The bride for this bouquet had a small picture frame that she wanted added to the bouquet, and she also wanted to include some of her mother's wedding dress. I ended up cutting the sleeve and luckily the cuff fit perfectly around the stems of the bouquet. Where I cut the sleeve, it left a bit of a ruffle and I finished it with a tie from the dress. I love adding personal touches to bouquets!

Calla lily bouquet

Calla lilies are a modern, sleek and sophisticated choice for a wedding. They are a very tough flower and can withstand many hours without water. They come in various shades of purple, mango, yellow and white. The bouquets below have a variegated lily grass added to the callas.

 

Summer Bouquet - White mums and green hydrangea

I find this combination of colors very "happy and classy" at the same time. This lovely little bouquet is filled with white mums, green hydrangea, craspedia, calla lilies, and alstroemeria buds. These are very hardy flowers which make them very suitable to a summer wedding.

 

 

Every flower in this bouquet is available all year round except the yellow ball flowers.

Summer Bouquet - Tea spray roses

 I have had brides request no roses. I think quite often brides associate roses with tradition and formality and some brides just don't want that. These roses have a nice casual, informal feeling to them because of the uneven nature of the bouquet. Perfect for a garden wedding. This sweet little tea rose bouquet is actually mixed with another lovely flower called godetia.

Lady's mantle, camellia and hydrangea leaves are a few of the greens used to add texture.