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

Indoor weddings at Butchart Gardens

Victoria is home to one of the most famous gardens in the world, Butchart Gardens.

I just found out recently, you can actually have an indoor garden wedding and reception at Butchart Gardens between January 15th and March 31st. The garden recently hosted some of us wedding vendors and gave us a tour and information about hosting weddings at their venue.

The wedding ceremonies happen in the "spring prelude garden" which is a lush indoor garden full of beautiful fragrance and spring blossoms. The number of guests allowed is 60, so it's perfect for an intimate wedding, or vow renewal. Once the ceremony is over receptions are held in the historic dining room of the original Butchart family home.

Another beautiful room that just blew me away was the "breakfast room". I think it would be perfect for a bridal shower, with the tables full of pink peonies!

My visit there was in prime daffodil season. And believe it or not, some lucky person's job is to pick flowers from the "cutting garden" and arrange them using the garden's collection of beautiful vases. Could be one of my dream jobs I think!

Butchart gardens would make a lovely venue for an early spring wedding. All the benefits of an outdoor garden wedding except for the rain of course!

Spring Boutonnieres - hellebore and succulent

Succulents are still popular for bridal bouquets and boutonnieres, and I love them. What is kind of neat about using succulents in your wedding is that after the wedding you can carefully remove the succulent from the boutonniere or bouquet and shove it in some soil. It will take root after a couple weeks and you will have a living keepsake from your wedding day!

Top boutonniere - succulent, anemone, clematis buds

Bottom boutonniere - hellebore and sword fern