20 years in Merry Making

The San Diego Association of Bridal Consultants celebrated last Tuesday - 20 years of amazing networking. Bringing wedding consultants and vendors together, bringing a new level of professionalism to the industry, and fortifying our roles as colleagues who work best when we work together- the ABC in San Diego has played a very important role as our city's wedding market developed and continues to boom.
Rae Florae was honored to provide floral centerpieces for the event!

For the Love of Cake provided a classic 3-tier that we adorned with precious johnny jump-ups, poppy, and african daisy blossoms.

Honoring the 9 past & current presidents of the San Diego ABC, we created corsages of orchid blooms that they could choose to wear with either a magnet at the shoulder, or as a bracelet on their wrist.. and, yes, those are slap bracelets :)

Our centerpieces were a fresh combination of baby green hydrangea, coral colored coxcomb, and locally grown varieties of white firework agapanthus, lisianthus, vibrant orange and peach alstroemeria, in a ring of white carnations and satin ribbon for unexpected kick.

The light flooded the room of the La Jolla Bridge Club, and the view of the water was an appropriate backdrop as we talked about how much San Diego offers for weddings.

Thanks to Jen @ Pink Star Design for the perfect programs and Sabrina @ La Dolce Idea for coordinating a wonderful event!

Summertime in the Woods

Kim and Gabe are a genuinely lovely, lovely couple- desiring only the brightest and most festive that summer has to offer, we went straight for the gerberas! All you see is neon amid a lush forest setting at the Mt. Woodson Castle in Ramona. The contrast was awesome, brought together by a touch of chocolate brown...

Going in reverse order for this week's post, we'll start with the fun cake! Flowers would only add to the chaos of that cool pattern, so we kept it simple with fresh blooms all over the table.

You can see what I mean about Neon! Picotee (2 colors on each petal) gerberas in orange/yellow, fuchsia/yellow alstroemeria, orange mini gerberas, and baby green hydrangea..

Pale lemon gerberas with a ring of pink at the center soften the coral and mango shades, and the huge dark green hydrangea foliage is a perfect match to the deep green glen environment.

Sweet vows under our rustic wrought iron arch and a pathway border of bright gerbera daisies growing right out of the grass :)

Close-up pic of the arch shows it's thorough covering of intertwining gerbera daisy stems of every size and color tied with ribbon streamers in orange, ivory, and chocolate. What fun to stand under that on a pleasantly breezy day!

Lilac Love

Heather & Josh were married at the Quail Botanical Gardens. Now her family has a fun tradition of creating all their own centerpieces and wedding decorations- but the bouquet was a special piece she wanted done with care. Of course, lilac blooms being perfectly in season, we couldn't be happier to oblige :) Thank you to Sweet Monday Photography for the captured image.

In further news, Heather from Amorology has posted many additional pics from Yia & Sal's wedding, courtesy of and in addition to a slideshow of their wedding available at Paloma Images...

Darling Darlington

Yia & Sal celebrated in the sweetest of locations, surrounded by beautiful rose bushes and blue tile mosaics, family and friends..

Fantastic color meld of peach-y apricot-y papaya-y hues with soft mocha browns in a base of creamy whites, greens, and anything naturally blending with the overall scheme.
You know I love the color freedom!

The composite table centerpiece with these adorable kraft paper numbers on a grapevine leaf, mercury glass votives, dinner menus, and florals.

Soft green dusty miller and creamy china mums, lipstick ranunculus, antique garden roses, and white/green parrot tulips.

Mini mocha cymbidium orchids, more green vibernum, and fragrant white freesia- gathered into one of three various size mason jars tied with a little twine bow.

Can't forget the stunner of a cake- Golden james storey orchids scattered amid the mercury glass votives, three luscious tiers of ranunculus, parrot tulips, mocha, lime green, and orange cymbidium orchids.

Love the teamwork :)
Square swiss-dot cake by Sweet Cheeks Baking Co.
Flowers by Rae Florae
Coordination by Amorology Weddings

Yellow Yellow Everywhere!

One weekend at a time, folks.
We've been having so much fun around here that I am already backlogged on photo posting! Starting at the beginning of spring let's take a gander at Jamie & George's spring nature fest.

I swear I felt like breaking into "the hills are alive..." like Julie Andrews as I was taking these pics of such fresh yellow and white ranunculus on the bluffs of La Jolla, surrounded by shady Torrey Pine Trees....

Sweet flower girl basket of white rose petals with kermit mums on the handle.

Cocktails in terracotta- cool dusty miller for that smooth gray-green, yellow ranuncs, white roses and statice.

Hanging baskets along the aisle full of locally grown goodness- ranuncs (because they're in season and beauteous!), wax flower & eucalyptus- giant dogwood branches along the shepherd hooks made the effect complete!

More ranuncs, chamomile -aka feverfew- blossoms, hydrangea, and dusty miller for the tables.

And sweets for my sweets! yummy cupcakes from Sweet Cheeks Baking Co. adorned with feverfew blossoms, kermit mums, and fatty yellow ranunculus; dogwood branches meandering through the goodies.

Celebrate Earth and Oxygen! (& get a free book :))

You knew I had to post for Earth Day and Arbor Day! Two wonderful reasons to put on your thinking cap, gardening bonnet, close your eyes and give thanks for the awesome splendor of our world.
In honor of April 22nd-Earth Day and today, April 24-Arbor Day, I want to do several things..

1) To REDUCE/REUSE/RECYCLE I would like to open my library of floral design books to the public. I have so many wonderful books on flowers and floral design and I will gladly give...

***10 people a book of their choice from my library!***

There's Vera Wang Weddings, books by designers Jane Packer and Paula Pryke from England, the list goes on...
2) To ENCOURAGE MORE NATIVE PLANT APPRECIATION for Southern California's wealth of beautiful flowers and trees, I want to provide links for 3 of the best places you can go for information, pictures, and purchasing of the right kind of native plants for you. There are SO Many beautiful, flowering native plants for this region that there is just no need to plant another pansy or petunia!
Check out your options & look at the pretty pictures-

Tree of Life Nursery, San Juan Capistrano
www.californianativeplants.com
Recon Native Plant Nursery, Otay Mesa
www.reconnativeplants.com
Las Pilitas Nursery, Escondido
www.laspilitas.com

Now go breathe deep and hug a tree!

Sweet Peas at the Prado

What a lovely setting for our monthly Weddings of Distinction meeting! Thank you to everyone at the Prado, notably Andrea Pena, for coordinating a delicious lunch in the Loggia Room. Amy Wright of Theorie (one of our newest members:)) was on hand to snap the shots- Thank you for making the beautiful colors of our flowers really shine!

Purple sweet peas and fun papaya-peachy-buttery ranunculus in a glass vases set upon a palm leaf and surrounded by river pepples in a mahogany wood tray.

Oh yeah, how pretty is the Loggia Room! Those colors just popped in the soft setting of gold and sea green! And the wall of windows overlooking the courtyard... so nice.

Now we've got the addition of fresh lavender and leucadendron all wrapped in horsetail (equisetum) and an orange satin ribbon. BEST PART.... IT'S ALL LOCALLY GROWN RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO!! Check out the potential for fun and beauty!!

Yours truly on the left, with the awesome Kristie Emmons from Continental Catering and the always fabuloso Elaine Ardizzone from Sweet Cheeks (a familiar name around here :))