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Earth, Water, Air, and Red.

Show and tell! Simple elements in a bright open space made for a bold statement for this summer wedding. The colors were red and white with black accents. We fused elements that hinted at the bride and groom’s Indian and Chinese heritage while still maintaining their modern style. The centerpieces were inspired by Chinese landscape design which aims to set up scenes and environments that are smaller scale, simplified versions of larger landscapes. Pond=lake, Large rock=mountain. You get the idea.

This event was held at Pravda Studios on Capitol Hill and was catered by Lisa Dupar Catering. Red Sparrow Photography kindly came by to shoot some pics of our lovely arrangements pre-event.

Intermingled driftwood branches! You really don’t need much else for a striking shape and focal point.

Have I mentioned how much I love Pravda Studios? The light in here is amazing.

We used local water-lily dahlias in lieu of more costly and less available lotus blossoms. Bamboo stands in and outside of the water basin and mimics the Seattle skyline. The bamboo is painted in red enamel.

Half of the tables had the bamboo and half included these shiny black stones. This is the mountain part.

We always have a hard time staying inside the container.

Each table had one black napkin. That was the groom’s idea.

Hooray!
Another great thing about these event arrangements? No waste- well, maybe the candles. Everything is either a reusable, or a compostable.

PS, check out Lola Floral in this season’s issue of Seattle Bride in the “Paper Parade” article.

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Categories Floral Design, Green Weddings, Weddings

Pure Imagination

7 Nov

Hey, here’s some eye candy from the Pure Imagination event held last month in Tacoma.

Run by some of the same peeps that run the Tacoma Wedding Walk in February, this event was at the Thea Foss Working Waterfront Maritime Museum. When draped off, basically like a big beautiful warehouse with a ceiling that does wonderful things when drenched in light. This was the premiere for this event and it was magical. That means next year will be mind-blowing. Lola partnered with Sensorium Event Productions on this space and had help from Trendy Event Rentals and Olalla Production Solutions (do look into them).

Our space was a little challenging. It was skinny and long, and centered in the entire event space. Our theme was to have a groom’s side and a bride’s side- or a more masculine side and a softer side. Guests would walk into the space and see our spot first. So it kinda had to be cool- and somehow coherent. Lola pulled the two spaced together with two tables mirrored and offset into the center of the ‘booth’. Gobs of purple fabric was billowed into a bustle toward the fiery side, and the fiery side, billowed lava-like folds, and gobs of red roses petals toward the soft side.

They were further pulled together with a backdrop made of paper garlands. Super rad and easy.

Each side had its own custom made chandelier (ehem, by yours truly). They were my favorite parts. The drippy fabric chandelier that looks like a sea creature is actually a grey to white ombre effect. A little lost here, but in the future I will use a bolder color transition for a more successful effect. The best part for you? We are expanding our inventory and color choices for these chandeliers to rent to your for your event. Ditto for the fiery branch mass that also looks like a sea creature.

And on the purple side we had multi height arrangements as well as low arrangements on tables and cocktail tables. Flowers included lush, bold orchids, roses, ranunculus, beautyberry, amaranthus, fringe tipped tulips, dahlias, purple anemone, and dusty miller.

The groom’s side? Textural, moody and fiery. And this crazy, fiery mass of branches.

Flowers for the fellas included parrot tulips, burgundy gerberas, ranunculus, and red garden roses.

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Categories Floral Design, Neato Places, Weddings

The Spirit of Autumn, Florified

8 Oct

I’m writing this blog with a big ol’ Darth Vadar-esque respirator on my face. Not because it’s almost Halloween and I need to practice obtrusive breathing, but because my house is making me miserable. My house has revolted against us and sixty some years of homeowners who neglected some much needed home improvements. We’ve basically spent the last two months rebuilding a good chunk of our house. And today is clean up day. The day my dear house’s tears of construction muck are wiped away, her newly insulated surfaces polished up, and given the big “Your gonna be okay” pat on the… wall.

The last month’s house challenges have sent me and my house into a state of depression. The kind that can only be comforted with episodes of Glee in bed (the only room that is unaffected) and bad food choices (specifically flour tortillas fried in butter until they are 30% black). Yum but not so healthy. But big changes that shake up routine in some areas, seem to shake up other areas. And out of this period of chaos has come… well, more chaos of the good kind. In desperation to get away from my house, I’ve finally moved my biz to a bona-fide workshop. It’s still not open to the public, but dedicated and outfitted for making some event magic. It’s in Lake City and I couldn’t be more excited about it. With some publicity from Floral Design Magazine and more in the works, we’re finally ready to give Lola Floral a loving kick in the ass it needs to make our moving and shaking less like spastic gyrations and more like a funky new groove. An updated business vision, a comfy new ‘thinking chair’, and some exciting new projects are all building up the excitement. AND my sister had a baby girl. So hooray! Wahoo for happy changes and wahoo for fall because isn’t that what fall is all about? Or was it about the hokie pokie? hmmmm….

And what better day for rebuilding/ restarting/ new beginnings than a crisp, sunny fall day. It is perfect here in Seattle. My favorite kind of day that would only be made better if I weren’t hacking drywall out of my lungs. And really, what better flower arrangement to celebrate all this than this one here. Local and organic through and through. So textural and welcoming you could scoop it up and give it a nose nudge…. or strap a collar on it and take it for a walk….. or dab some silky, frothy, steamed milk foam on top and slurp it off…. Maybe my respirator is also restricting oxygen intake.

Purple kale, by the way, is a rockstar for floral arranging. I also used it in wedding flowers last night. Of course, before using, trials were run. After leaving a leaf out in my warm workshop for 24 hours – no water, the kale was still as turgid as ever. No wiring needed.

This hanging amaranth is so amazing. Thank you to the local flower farmer’s coop for bringing us such wonderful, unusual plants. And for the asian pears. I swear I ate two! And for the brownies on Wednesday.

That is pink snowberry back there… (eeeeeee!) I love it. I also love it in your yard so you should plant it. Then you can invite me over and we can admire it together. I will bring warm cornbread….

All right, time to spiff this place up. This fantastic arrangement is available for groping at Brown’s Coffee. The coffee will inspire you too.

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Categories Brown's Coffee Flowers, Floral Design, Green Weddings, Weddings

What do a bunch of feathers and two balls make?

16 Aug

…..A beautiful wedding!

Lee and Crystal were married this past weekend at Willows Lodge, and this was one of my favorite events because of all the personal details.We celebrated the couple’s worldliness and overseas guests with a specialty guest table arrangement that had people stating their favorite places near and far.

What is this? Greenland?

Whuh? Two globes?

...and some foliage?

Globe Topiary!!!

The color palette was based on Chinese tradition and the groom’s English Coat of Arms. Also in the coat of arms was a crow. We nodded to the familial crow with sprays of black feathers in the arbor and table arrangements. The crow was pleased. The feathered look was mimicked elsewhere with knotted and looped Ti leaves and Cordaline straps. Flowers native to both England and China were used in most of the arrangements.

I didn’t like using this gel stuff (which I call ‘goo beads’) until this event. It does such wonderful things with light and gave just enough support to the dendrobium orchids.

The bridal bouquet was trimmed in red silk and adorned with a black cord clasp.