Flour LA loves creating beautiful floral designs and loves passing along techniques to brighten up any occasion with flowers.

We also make it clear that all artists can find beauty and inspiration in the work of others. What better way to expand your own creativity than to find it in another!

This is Karen Tran of Karen Tran Florals.

Tran is one of the nation’s top wedding designer with clear style aimed to awe.

The work is big and bold without being overwhelming. Have you seen such heavenly displays of white before?

Sometimes simplicity, fullness and color are the only things you need to make a real statement.

When talking about her creations she says it’s “just the right touch of extravagant elegance, and dazzling opulence wherever there is a desire for the beauty of extraordinary flowers.” Sounds like just the kind of magical combination needed for that special day.

Hey there flower lovers! This is Nicki Morris, incoming Social Media Assistant at Flour LA.

Maybe it was something about visiting my grandfather's farm for the last time this Christmas, but there is always a special place in my heart for farm weddings. Verbena Floral Design's wedding inspired photo shoot, gives a full, romantic look to a country setting.

These photos were taken on the Victoria Lavender Farm in Vancouver Island. The property has over 10,000 lavender plants. And purple has long been my favorite color, making it an amazing spot for any meaningful occasion.

The colors are rich and romantic. Vanessa Watters of Verbena Floral Design explains her inspiration for the shoot: For our fall lavender shoot, we found inspiration from the rich colors, evening light, and coziness that comes with the change of seasons. Our color palette included the warm and burnt tones of autumn, and had a wide range for us to draw from.

She continues: Effortless romance was brought to life through the bohemian gown and the long stemmed bouquet (the ultimate bouquet in romance department). All these elements just ooze romance and allow you to focus on the true theme of all weddings: love.

These designs take a blending approach to color palette. With different shades two or three shades darker and lighter, this arrangement blends together into a cohesive and romantic look. Captured beautifully by Jennifer Ballard Photography.

Filed Under: Weddings

I found out about Alicia of Bella Fiori through her very useful and practical blog Flirty Fleurs, which she cowrites with Chuck of BLOOM, whom I wrote about in this over-the-top wedding post. 

At first when I looked at this ranch wedding, I thought that those were chair flowers!!! I had never seen such large chair posies before, but after a quick, closer look I realized they were in vases. I like how dramatic it is, and a good alternative to having a chuppuh or arch. 

Per Alicia, "When the bride first told us her vision for her wedding day décor she mentioned the movie What Dreams May Come. We took that vision and created her aisle full of color, bright pinks, purples, blues and lime green." It does in fact look like a painting, and very vibrant. Normally these colors together can get dull, but the wild yet modern structure provides a beautiful vibrancy sprucing up the otherwise neutral venue. 

I'm not a huge fan of cascading bouquets, but the small, proportionate size of this really shines. I like everything about this, the use of texture, the color, and those fringe parrot tulips. I don't know about other florists, but for me, these types of bouquets are more challenging to construct, so I appreciate the mechanics of this piece! It has a nice variety of soft, exotic, and tropical, and is very well-balanced. Great job Alicia!

The parasol below is made of blush pink dendrobrium and cymbidium orchids. I like how delicate it is, and I'm sure the bride had a lot of fun posing with it for photos. 

Filed Under: Weddings

This out-of-the-box wedding took place at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, GA. I loved looking through the little details. The use of pink and black, traditionally feminine, was pumped up by their punk details, making this more funky than I'd expect. I asked their photographer Nadia D, based now in New York, for a bit of background on this wedding. Lets find out what she had to say! 

Per Nadia, "Both passionate motorsports enthusiasts from New York, the couple met through racing. They liked the idea of having a traditional, elegant wedding but wanted to incorporate an edgy twist to make it their own and show off their outgoing personalities. After a beautiful Jewish ceremony, the reception that followed included a lot of details that highlighted their love for racing including custom art on their printed materials, naming the reception tables after famous racetracks and a huge 2,800 horsepower racing turbocharger as the centerpiece for the escort card table."

I love the structure of this bouquet-- textured, modern, and with a shape. Usually we see these type of flowers (roses, orchids, astilbe) used in a traditional round shape. I love the color combo of the magenta, pink, purple and white. It's constructed really well! Flowers by Tulip in Atlanta. 

How cool is this cake topper?! So badass! Above, the bouquets are used to dress the cake table, which is a common thing to do. The linen really makes the cake pop and brings masculinity to the pink and white cake. 

These boutonnieres are super fun. The accents really spice up normally bland callas. And how about those ring holder below! So cool! 

Thank you so much Nadia for sharing. I love how crisp your photos are! Cheers to beautiful photographs and a prosperous rest of the year! 

Filed Under: DIY, Events, Weddings
I asked Darlynn why she chose to use these crafty fake flowers for her wedding, and everything that went into it, so lets find out what she had to say! Definitely check out her blog The Little Blog Dress while you're at it. And her ring on there- to die for! I'm not materialistic (except when I am;) While I do think this is an alternative for the nontraditional bride, I think these are great for any kind of celebration. I was surprised at how much I liked the ceremony pew "flowers"! 

"I actually looked at felt flowers but saw the idea of the coffee filter flowers, experimented by spray painting them (don't let ANYONE talk you into using food coloring, ha ha) and just loved them. I made about 100 of them put them in thrift store vases that we painted
cream."

Here's one of the tutorials she used to create her wedding flowers from She Likes Ruffles.

Thanks for sharing and good DIY work! 

Little Blog Dress Facebook, Twitter

Filed under: Weddings, Events
Instead of chosing one event, I found a plethora of design choices from gothic to traditional on Geranium Lake's broad body of work, which I love the most. It's easy to stick to rustic or romantic, and I think having a distinct style is valuable. I also think it is more impressive when a floral designer has a wide range, like Kim's. Lets find out her inspiration behind some of my favorite designs. 

Preppy Goth Table:   
- A take on "Twilight meets Ralph Lauren" with deep, red garden roses, low and lush in rustic, re-purposed, barn wood boxes. 
- Pheasant feathers and red delicious apples were used to give it a twist.
- The table was styled with antique accents: lace runner, stacks of books, old clock, a mix of silver candle sticks, candelabras, chunky and pillar candles to create an amazing tablescape.

French Pastry Table:
- A gorgeous pastry table for a breakfast wedding, the bride loved Laduree so to accent the various pastries being served, we created croque en bouche's out of sugary pink roses and juicy red strawberries.

Wild Green Bouquet:
- This bouquet is a major play on texture!  We used hanging green amaranth to create drape and a little romance, pops of color with peachy dahlias, white garden roses and fressia. To create the wild texture we used native grasses, and berzilliia berries.  


Thank you Kim for sharing! 

Geranium Lake Facebook

Posted under: Weddings 
You know when I do a Feature, I normally show 2-5 photos. When I looked through this submission, holy cow, I couldn't help choosing nearly all of them. I love this wedding for the unique creativity in each piece. I love that the tablescape worked, even though the designs were all a bit off kilter. It was creative, well structured, cohesive, and overall really gave the experience the couple wanted to portray. Janet Flowers in Rockville, MD won the we recently won the 2013 Capital Awards for Dining Table from ISES DC (International Special Events Society, DC is the largest chapter.)

Read below to find out the juicy details of this wedding, including 35 revisions to the proposal. 35!!!!! After 3 I'm like, okay we're done here. I also agree with her statement, "As a creative designer it is often insulting when we are asked to copy an exact design especially something published by a magazine." Agreed, Janet!

Janet provides a lot of insight into this wedding, which I find really exciting to hear about. Per Janet, "Our bride’s overall vision of her wedding décor included an upscale lounge,
a forest, and a lot of bling...

...When we met our bride and groom they came to us with a collection of inspirational
collages, none of them establishing a cohesive vision. They assured us
that they had complete and total trust in us; however, they were very
adamant about knowing every detail. In just 160 days, we exchanged 162
emails with the couple, made 35 versions of the proposal, and had countless
phone conversations with them."

Janet continues. "Bling bling and sleek eco chic for this stylish couple who wanted table
deigns like no other in their Indian community. The princess bride got her bling with the ceremony and cocktail reception with a 5 foot custom mirrored tree flowing with Swarovski crystals, candles and loose blooms. The dining reception dazzled guests with 10 foot vine walls filled with flower for the bridal stage, tablescape utilizing uniquely shaped glassware, 12 foot live trees, fairy berries, mum details on the outside of perspective
vases, pomander balls suspended inside glass trumpet vases, paved sculptures with hydrangea, fuji mums and green trick, and dianthus. Custom made moss table numbers, echevera in cake displays, just to name a few. Stylish and unique, just want we wanted, just what the client requested."

"Being of Christian Indian decent she was in no need of a mundap and since
she had attended over 10 weddings in the last year her desire to stray from
the typical Indian bold colors was essential.

Meeting three months before her wedding she was torn between doing a total
bling bling theme or earth tones accented with greens and whites. Our
decision to keep the “Bling” in the cocktail hour and the earth tones for
the reception gave the bride the best of both worlds. With the design
process quickly under way and her living in Miami so much was communicated
through many emails back and forth.

As a creative designer it is often insulting when we are asked to copy an
exact design especially something published by a magazine. Looking at a
design for inspiration is a given, spinning my own twist on it is a
definite. Our goal was to create something unique and different not seen in
the Indian community in the DC/Baltimore Metropolitan area. The detail in
this wedding is incredible and capturing everything in words is next to
impossible. The pictures say a thousand words so be sure to view sketches
and pictures."

Janet Flowers Twitter
Photos by Timmester Photo 

Filed Under: Editorial, Events, Weddings
While researching design for an upcoming shoot, I came across Michael Speir's work, and just immediately said yes. To me, there's nothing better than seeing fine art come to life in floral design. It's the closest, best medium to work in, when being inspired by, mimicking  or replicating a fine art piece. 

A tapestry coming to life. I love how Victorian this looks. Dried flowers would work well here and make for a lasting art piece. 

Above - a Warhol inspired portrait for a bat-mitzvah. A rose frame captures the essence of the pop art. 
Below- Orchid chandelier  I love this because the orchids are horizontal versus the vertical we normally see. 
Per Michael, "I was inspired to create a pristine classical setting, richly appointed with lush floral furnishings and living trompe-l'oeil walls. My client really wanted something regal, opulent, and pure."

Michael Speir Facebook, Twitter

Filed under: Weddings 

Wow has it really been two weeks since TPL was updated? I guess between all of our events, book stuff, and tv, time flew! Gearing up tomorrow for a special post about a new way to order flowers. In the meantime, I want to share with you these inspiration photos from a wedding consultation I did years ago. I loved the theme- very modern and calming. The ombre wasn't going to be in the design, but rather the concept. For the ceremony we were doing light blues, and sages followed by a transition of butter yellows and peaches for the reception. This really represents what I would want personally, so when I came across this old folder of photos, I wanted to share my vision with you. Of course, this blog is about other florist's work, so this will be one of the few times I do this. 

Photo from Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach. Peaks of light blue stick out. Upgraded chairs makes a difference. You can leave out the aisle flowers for this one. 

Lots of blue glass and blue dyed water. 

Hanging test tubes or bud vases with a single ranuncula in each. 

Blue glass bowls as vases. Lots of airy floating flowers with blue accents. Fresh and clean for a beach wedding. 

The after party continues on into the late night. 

Flour LA Facebook

Filed under: Weddings

Sabrina of Blossoms of Elegance submitted some really cool photos, but what really caught my eye was this backdrop. I asked myself, How did she do that? I actually stared at the photo for some time. I like everything about this, especially how delicate it is; very much like a watercolor painting. They nailed it for the space, and I just think this is such a good idea for filling it something grand, but keeping it simple. Lets find out her inspiration. 

Per Sabrina, "Every ceremony location that our brides choose, gives us, at Blossoms Of Elegance an opportunity to showcase that location for the magical moment when the couple says, "I do". The large marble niche at The Old Courthouse in Decatur, GA was the perfect background for a romantic garden-branch design with dark-blue delphinium flowers, to give the room some "pop". It softened the defined lines of the marble and created a focal point in the room for the ceremony. It was a challenge designing it on site but well worth the effort and our bride and groom were beyond delighted with the result!

Really pretty bride's bouquet too! It's so soft, and those grey berzelia are my absolute fav to incorporate into designs. The tightness of the bouquet with wildflowers gives this an elegant look. See you can use wildflowers and not have a rustic feel! 

Blossoms of Elegance Facebook