Lessons

Lesson Info

Simple Attendant Bouquets Part 1

Let's start cleaning up our meant meant usually gets a little messy in the bottom so on some of the leaves get dark black so we'll take those off quickly to prepare for our book a great thing that you got our in studio students following along here so I will take all of these off this one is not in very good shape will just toss this question all night you had said that for the bridal bouquet on average it might be ten to twelve different types of flowers is there on average of how many of the ones that were in the bridal bouquet you might carry over yeah so for this one we just did yeah I mean maybe three or four you can carry over including the the film not the filler is really but the foliage so I have run oculus and these watches which I used in the bride's bouquet and so on and also I used uh explosion grass so I kind of continued with this theme with a little bit of variation and the white house still be instead of the pink and some sweet peas on poppies so I would say, you know ...

it's not quite eleven different things that twelve different things that we're using but I think it's enough to make a nice simple bouquet and beautiful one so are you are you guys all cleaned up? No, not yet the really nice it's really I love meant whenever I could use it meant or oregano time and it has beautiful flowers to you stage way used a lot of stage in the right way. Yeah, you try to put something aromatic in every bouquet that you know if I can yes, I will. Um it's nice to have a good smelling if your bride is not allergic to any smells or flowers it's always nice to have the sort of flour or greens that smell good that have a nice aroma. I had a bride once who wanted all urbs in her bouquet that's all she wanted, plus succulence because she liked to cook. So we use lots of thyme and oregano and rosemary and that's interesting because many brides will actually dry their bouquet. Yeah, after the fact. Yeah, and then maybe they can cook with it too. Yes. Can we have a question coming here about the order in which you design these bouquets? Do you always create the bridal bouquet first and then kind of work on the attendant bouquet? Yes, I like to create the bridal bouquet first because that's kind of where I get my inspiration from for the attendant bouquets, I have a question actually conditioning the time I recently tried to work with some um and it was it was pretty difficult, you know is pretty because it grows low to the ground, huh? It was pretty short stem yeah, it was pretty messy and I ultimately didn't end up using it wondering if you have any tips honestly, I don't know why but the time that I have in my garden it has just gone crazy and I don't know how I haven't done anything to it um maybe the kind that there were different kinds out there on it could be the different kind of herb that you know, the seed um that you used that you have in your garden that's not that doesn't grow as much or even the exposure to the sun isn't exposed well enough to the sun um, you know, I have two varieties of time that I'm growing on dh the one actually it was getting a little too much sun but into it I guess for me it's more there very long enough and they will, you know, so yeah and that hasn't happened to me I have very long ones on also the flower mart has had really tall ones, so I don't know how they I don't know honestly how did you get to do that? Because I haven't had to work for mine to be that tall wow, yeah, no need to know there's a different variety that yeah, definitely theirs what I think there is let lemon times that is really good for for using in case on the one that I have grown in my yard is definitely pretty is tall enough to use in a bouquet just curious I know earlier in the chatroom people were wondering a bit about your garden what do you grow besides the time is there a lot that you try to incorporate that you grow yourself yeah so I'm a big fat fan of david austin rose's and the garden roses and they are expensive so I try to have my own whenever I cannot not gonna be able to use those for event I don't have that many but I have about twelve bushes of david austin rose's and they're just absolutely beautiful I have wisteria I've got um three boxes of herbs and vegetables um what else do I have I have honeysuckle I love honeysuckle and I can't wait for it tio be blooming so that I can use it in a bouquet I think it's really pretty used in a bouquet what else do I have a way of just planet some poppies and sweet peas um I have a lot of geranium loved uranium it's something that my grandfather had in his garden and I love it um that's about it I have um grape to yeah I lilac what would a garden be without lilac? Yeah have lilacs? Yeah and I guess your palate changes though as the seasons change as well yes very good point yes how do you handle that? So I tried to grow things that would look good in the fall if I can um I haven't had that many things at idiot for the fall just because my it's hasn't I haven't gotten through the whole process with my garden and making sure that it's got everything blooming in every season but we have some holly for christmas there's crab apple which looks absolutely amazing in the fall with the little crab apple berries um what else you know what looks good in the fallen because our country expert here yeah yeah, you know, I don't know much about like there's certain foliage like uh silver tip and during christmas that's what were talking I tip leaves are amazing for holiday arrangement. Yeah, gran that's something that I loved any kind of uh pine gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, we have a pine tree is a huge one. Yeah, but I always see around melanie although I don't have any my garden I do have lots of hilla bora, which is again a spring flower and um hydrangea and those look amazing in the fall they have a different ship somehow they have a different shade in the fall than they do in springtime so, um anyway, I feel like california is not so with the changing of the season, you don't really it's not that drastic that you wouldn't have, um you wouldn't have flowers in your garden still, and now, you know, you have sort of a mixed bucket, but you're now arranging them into piles. Exactly. So is that how does that make the process easier? We'll just kind of organizing them so that as I'm putting it together, I don't have to keep reaching on dh into the bucket and then making sure that they're the right length or some of the dead ones are not included in my batch over here like this. Um it just seems like you have the flowers closer to you. Um some of the foliage yeah, maybe I do know that that wasn't intentional, that organically happy that we just happened to be at arm's length. So it's easy to exactly um I like these poppies won. One cool thing about poppy's is that you can sort of help them bloom are open up basically like this one. You can sort of help it by pulling this off like this and it will open up in a little bit and then just kind of help it open. How does that work with all flowers or two, no peace, no poppies, air somehow it's, just fun. They're buds open. These things will start to fall off. And the ones that look like they're gonna fall off. You could just hope, you know, help them by opening them. And then you'll see the party. Especially if there's a special color that you want to use. You could always do that. If it's you know it's ready. I'll put it down here for now, but it will open on its own. Especially if it's a little bit harder environment it would open. We actually had a question regarding the hotter environment. Are you mentioned living in california and having tempered seasons in the chat room? This is from dominique, and they say I live in austin, where the heat and humidity is intense from may through october. You have any recommendations for conditioning flowers for bouquets and centerpieces during intense condition. I would say the keep a very cool room in your home or if you have a garage where you store things, make sure it's air conditioned that's really all I mean that's all I did when I was in new york for my flowers, they were inside a refrigerated truck for two days and they were just fine, so that's what I would recommend make it make sure it's cool. Their ambulance says the same thing she says I haven't upright cooler and I put ice bags at the bottom of the cooler and the flowers are stored separately by type in bags of filtered water and they use the bloom print preservative and they store in a semi dark place wow dark is always good, of course and humidity isn't bad but the heat is that's the problem that sounds like a lot of work I feel bad yeah they're on the point of no return though with a flower though right? There are some flowers that if they like it if they die you can cut if they look like they're wilted you can cut him and put him back in water and they come back on that's happened to me with mark orange, which we will use tomorrow it's you know I've been able to kind of revive it but most flowers don't come back sometimes hello bora if if it from lucky will come back after I've cut it and put it back and you know, cut it short change the water cooler water lilac has been that way but for the most part if it's gone it's gone question do you ever fight from growers direct? And if you do, can you explain that process I have never bought from growers direct um there I've bought from a couple of farm owners at the flower mart and who have their farm bring their own stuff but I've never not online or anything like that just because I have so much available to me already at the flower mart yeah so yeah with bringing flowers back I actually recently in the floral class that I take watch hydrangea comeback really hydrangeas family you're absolutely right just getting a fresh chi I cut it and it comes right back yes you mentioned tulips similarly it'll just yeah I also I tried with the tulips and I haven't had much luck so maybe you have better luck than I do yeah let me know your secret I tried with the tilapia see and then we can get some of these roses out here so these air what basically what I'm using from the bride's bouquet are these roses that I had left over and this explosion grass and their own oculus for this bouquet and is it important how you pick the flowers up? I noticed that some of them you'll kind of lightly pick them up by the head or some by the stem is their system to that? I picked them by the head because I pick him up the way I feel like they won't get hurt and the other one's next to them won't get hurt but the one thing I've noticed with when I'm at the flower mart they don't like the for the florist too pick it up and then let it drip onto the rest of the flowers they believe that it doesn't help with it makes them wilt so for some reason I guess picking this up and letting the water drip on terrorist rest of the bucket of flowers is harmful so I don't try to do that that's good to know that practice yeah if they just they get mad at you pick it up look at it and hold it above the rest of the bucket it doesn't help me to get a deal for me no it does not endear you to them and so you better not do it shall we start building do you ladies have any questions for me? Are you done with your prep or should I wait a little bit and prep some more looks like you guys are pretty well prepped any other questions about preparation process guys feel good from watching her I tried to get out fewer this time and space them out a little you just look like you have a great organizational system over there okay so when the dallas yeah the sweet peace can get tangled and that's why when I pick him up I pick him off you know in a bunch because I like them to show themselves more and I like the texture they look like ruffles within a bouquet okay so let's start with our meant once them of a still the and eben oculus a couple more and again we're using the mirror oh yes right were I building in front of a mirror because it's easier for me to see what I'm doing in building an asymmetric bouquet now if you ever try to build a just symmetric bouquet is it always a symmetric it can come out symmetric by you know it doesn't mean I don't think of it in that sense but um something I have done so I have actually made of okay that was quite round and symmetric for a bride who didn't really want it into wild just a little bit of what I'm going to take some explosion grass again to put in between here maybe I'll make this one kind of symmetric and see what we can do with it and again you don't have to be standing up you could actually just put your table down and have a seat yeah I mean when I'm doing it in my studio it's I sit on kind of on my knees and in front of a mirror and I'll do it I'm curious for those of you students here are you guys finding it easier to stand up when you're doing this much easier yeah stander um for me it's it's easier to stand up if the table is level I'm used to having taller tables but for sitting it's fine as long as it's kind of level for me I think I'm okay it may just be sort of variety, you know, I think anybody would get tired of standing too long or sitting too long you want to have options and there is again there was a suggestion in the chat room that we didn't get a chance to share yet but there are impact absorbing a mat you khun you can buy if you plan to stand for a long time I think they they market them as kitchen uh absorb they absorb in the kitchen? Sure, yeah if you're cooking for a long time or just arranging flowers like this, it could help to sort of lesson that burden being on your feet for so long yeah, for all of you crafters and makers on hookers thank you for those just yeah just going to grab in my sweet peas in a bunch and put on wherever I think would look pretty and again it doesn't have to be an extravagant bouquet it just needs to be pretty now when you're designing the attendant bouquets, do you typically have the bride's bouquet nearby to refer to when you're creating it? No, not really you're sort of similar I'm using similar flowers and their their own separate entity I like to put maybe one here these were oculus were so pretty oh adam meant in between here mmm smells really good yeah take time to smell the flower enjoy and do you go through that similar process where you're designing it for the attendance of you as well? Yes, although this I'm trying to make it a little bit less asymmetric but yes, for sure so I'm just going to go around and make sure I have a nice day disbursement off flowers especially since it's going to be a little bit more symmetric I want things kind of evened out within the bouquet a nice balance of everything all over now our studio is incredibly well lit here we have all these beautiful light and some of our viewers air under different light sources poppy hill says I arrange on my dining room table and sometimes I wonder if standing under the light which is their chandelier is harmful to the flowers because they're there for so long that harsh overhead lighting effect it could I mean, I I where I trying to design were during the time of the day that I need light on I liketo have natural light around just so I can see what I'm doing I feel that the colors are better in natural light um so I don't use the light around when I'm but I don't think you should make that much of a difference really um if if if you're not taking three hours to make it okay, then it won't make that much of a difference the light exposure, but that's actually a really good point, because if the flowers air, let states an outdoor ceremony versus an indoor ceremony versus something in a ballroom. Yeah, I like to use natural light to build that's why I rarely make anything at night because it never looks the same in the morning. You think you've done a great job and then you wake up in the morning anything swim and that's, not that's, not very good, so we might have a little asymmetry, by the way, it wouldn't be yours and mine at some more men now. We talked earlier about, um you like to hand off the bouquet to the bride? Yes, and I don't know if you're able to show the attendant howto hold their bouquets as well. Well, it depends on where they are the time that I handed off usually what eighty percent of the time they're there when I'm handing off the bouquets. So they're all they I have them come and give them their bouquets, and I asked them to, you know, show me how they would hold it. Um, on the rest of the time, I would say they've done a pretty good job on their own and that's true, because at a wedding there's a lot of camaraderie, especially in the bridal party yeah it's like no, no, no your hair, your pony tail over to write all your strap is out or your lipstick is on your tooth or you're holding your bouquet upside teo that they're very good. So I like the way this is kind of this goes back to what we discussed earlier. I like the way this is kind of bending to the right and I like the way these buds they're showing so I'm just going to show it I want it I want to accentuate about putting it right here and if you notice I'm making it I'm making the asymmetry is a little bit not on this side top is to the left versus what I did for the bride's bouquet and a little bit more grass the's this grass is like lace to me the grass as well as the still be when you give the bride herb ok, see her react oh yeah you don't know a couple of times and I have yes and that's mainly why I like to give it to them myself because I want to know if they like it or not um they just you know the expression on their face when they see it or um it's really priceless, I love it there's nothing better than a happy bride for a floral designer