Jetta and Griffin (Bridals)

I'm probably like most of you, addicted to Pintrest! I see all kinds of floral arrangements. They each have different colors, flowers, styles, and textures. I get so motivated to experiment with floral arrangements. However, it would not be very practical for me to spend ALL my time creating new arrangements. That is why I love working with new people! They give me that chance to try new things! I am so happy I was hired to do Jetta and Griffin's flowers!

Whenever I work with a new client I ask them to send me a few photos of bouquets that they like. This helps me to visualize what I will create for their bouquet. When I saw the photos Jetta sent, I was super excited. I have never worked with succulents before, so this was my first time!

The photos also help me to get a sense of who my client is and what their likes are. I always try my best, and I also ask my client what she would like. By working together, the results are, well... you can see for your self :)

 

Jetta wanted the colors of white and cream. The flowers I used are cream roses, white carnations, and a cream/white hydrangea. Also used are green hypericum berries and succulents.

To add more to the cream I used a cream colored ribbon to wrap around the arrangement. On top of the ribbon I used a light tan raffia/twine. I love using raffia/twine! It think it gives the bouquet a rustic/elegant look. It is a wonderful natural look. It is perfect for Summer or Semi-Casual weddings! Plus, it just looks that good ;)

I also used the raffia/twine for Rachel's wedding and bridal bouquet. Take a look at that post here.

From the pictures Jetta gave me and the details she asked for, I could tell she knew the look she wanted. FYI changes were made to the wedding bouquet, but like I said earlier I try to work hard with my clients so I can give them the flowers they always dreamed of to help enhance their special day. I love the over all look of Jetta's wedding. It seems to fit her and her fiancee perfectly! 

I love this picture! It looks amazing! This cute couple look amazing! I hope they felt like the flowers added to their amazing-ness!

These photos were taken by Moxie Photography.

Max Lee Pinegar's Funeral

As the season's change the thoughts that consume my mind are these - change, constant change. As the snows of winter melt; the flowers of spring grow. A decision that is made changes ones life.  A dear loved one leaves this world; and a new, special, little one comes. As much as we love or hate today, tomorrow is always different. Nothing stays the same forever. 

"When we are no longer 

able to change a situation, 

we are challenged

 to change ourselves."

 -Viktor Frankl

Earlier this year my wonderful Grandpa passed away. It was an extremely hard time for our family. We each had to come to the realization that our family is different. A change has been made, a hard change.
It was decided by my Mom and her siblings that my Aunt Tinah and I would do the flowers for my Grandpa's funeral.

This is my Uncle Matt (my Mom's baby brother), his wife (my very talented Aunt Tinah), and my beautiful Grandmother (we call her Moni). They are standing at the graveside of my Grandpa.

My Aunt Tinah, my Mom, and myself spent an entire day preparing the flowers for my Grandpa's funeral. We couldn't help but enjoy putting the flowers together; but when we were reminded of the purpose of the arrangements, our grief would consume us again.

We decided to think about how much Grandpa loved flowers! Especially tulips! He served an LDS mission in the Netherlands and served there again as President over the LDS missionaries serving in the same mission. He loved the Netherlands, especially the tulips. So, as a tribute to him, we incorporated as many tulips as we could in the funeral arrangements.

During the day we made the arrangements, so many family members came to see the progress we were making. I think they wanted to feel close to Grandpa; and they knew Grandpa loved nature and flowers.  Having the family together helped us to feel Grandpa was still with us in spirit.

This was the first funeral Tinah or I have ever done. We decided to make two podium arrangements, two floor arrangements, and one half size coffin arrangement. I mainly worked on the podium arrangements and Tinah did the other three. We did help each other with all of the arrangements.

For our first time, we received a lot of compliments on how beautiful the arrangements looked.

Each of the arrangements had the same flowers, with a few exceptions.

Lets start with the podium arrangements.

 There are roses, hydrangeas (were used only in the podium arrangements), mums, stock, delphinium, status, carnations, golden rod, wax flower, and leather leaf. I hope you notice the size of this arrangement. This arrangement, needed to be big. Not bigger than the floor or coffin arrangements, but bigger than your typical arrangement. Flowers used at a funeral are there to help those who are grieving. They need to be big enough for everyone in the room to notice. This is the smallest bouquet arrangement for a funeral.

Here are the two floor arrangements done by Tinah! They are beautiful. The flowers that were added to these arrangements are spider mums, calla lilies, iris, tulips, and lemon leaf. These arrangements are on a stand that are on the floor next to the coffin. They are rather large, so it can hold a lot of flowers.

 Notice how the plants with a lot of flowers are used to define the length of the arrangement. Floor arrangements need to have length, not particularly width. It helps to make this arrangement noticeable, especially since it is on the floor. They also help center the coffin, bringing symmetry. 

Here is a close up of one of the floor arrangements. I love how Tinah put the main flowers in clusters. This helps the arrangement look taller, plus it is just beautiful.

Here is the coffin arrangement. Like the floor arrangements, the plants with many flowers are used to define the size of the arrangement. This is a half coffin arrangement. The reason why it is called a half coffin is because when half of the coffin is open the full arrangement will fit on top of half of the coffin. Then when the coffin is closed it will sit in the center on top of the coffin.

Tinah did a fantastic job on this arrangement! She made it with love and respect for Grandpa, and it definitely shows. I believe this is perfect for Grandpa. He would have loved it.

I don't want to get too depressing here, but I wanted to show the extra flowers we kept so each family member could place a flower on Grandpa's coffin. 

A funeral is a very sobering experience, especially when it is for a loved one. The flowers used at a funeral help to remind everyone to be thankful for life. They are there to celebrate the life of the one who has died.

 Our lives are like flowers. We grow where we are planted, we become strong, we bloom, we withstand the elements around us, and then we die. Like each flower, we have a lasting influence on the world around us. Let us each try to make our own corner of the world, our gardens, our homes a little brighter, better, and blessed with life. 

We all loved Grandpa so much! He blessed our lives and the lives of everyone who knew him. He was so sincere when he wanted to get to know you. He found a friend in everyone. He made everyone feel important. We all had great worth in Grandpa's eyes. He never failed to tell each of us how much he loved us and how proud he was of us. I hope he knew how much we all loved him. Whenever I say my Grandpa, I kissed him, I thanked him, and I told him how much I loved him; because I wanted him to know he was extremely important to me. He still is.

I love you Grandpa!!!

Another High School Dance

McKay is the one who keeps me in business! :D

Here is a corsage I did for one of his dates.

This one is very basic. Two red spray roses, white wax flower, and bear grass. I used a silver pearl bracelet, with silver ribbon to finish it off. Even though this is a very basic corsage. I love how the simplicity of it gives it elegance. 

 I love to make corsages! Its a bracelet made of flowers! To bad fresh flowers don't last forever, or I would always be wearing a corsage.

Thank you McKay for your asking me to make these corsages for you! I love making them!

Grandpa Christensen's Wedding

My husband's Grandma Christensen passed away in Dec. of 2012. We were all worried about Grandpa Christensen, because he still has many good years left and we didn't want him to spend them alone. Well thankfully, Grandpa found Katie! I had the great opportunity to help Tyler's Aunt Fran with the flowers for their wedding!

This was a new experience for me. I have never done a cascading bouquet before. :P

And to be quite honest. I loved it! If I could I would go back and do my wedding bouquet as cascading. (I have told my two sisters, they both are having cascading bouquets). I just love how it turned out and the look of it. It is so elegant. The white flowers, with a touch of silver and blue also added to the elegance; but the shape of the bouquet was the key.

Katie wanted the colors to be blue and white, because they got married December 2013. Which I thought was very appropriate color choice. Aunt Fran and I also wanted to add in some silver, to help make the feel of the whole wedding a Winter Wonderland. I found these great berries that were spray painted silver and they turned out perfectly. To incorporate the festive time of year I used mostly ever greens, with some other greens, as fillers. Katie told Aunt Fran she wanted daises, because those were her favorite flower. I also used white roses, white mums, and a white hydrangea. To help add blue to the bouquet, I added blue ribbon. I also used the ribbon to add length to the cascading effect of the bouquet.

I made corsages and boutonnieres for the the couple's kids. I made the corsages similar to the bouquet. I used daises and Peruvian lilies, with those great silver berries. You can see the blue ribbon I used at the end of the corsage. You can't really see it, but I used small pieces of ever green as well. 

For the boutonnieres I used a white rose, daisies, evergreen, and the silver berries. With the blue ribbon and pins with a pearl bead at the head.

I was very pleased with how these flowers turned out. I loved seeing them all together and finished. I was so happy to be able to help with Grandpa Christensen's second wedding. :)

(FYI: I'm sorry about the picture quality. My camera on my phone is not the best and the lighting was terrible. Those are my excuses :) )

Thanksgiving 2013

Two posts in one day? I know. But I just had to publish this one. :)
Being married, my husband and I share the holidays with our two families. Thanksgiving of 2012, we were with his family. Thanksgiving of 2013, we were with my family. 

I did the flower arrangements for Thanksgiving dinner; but something different happened, my Aunt and I did them together! 

Tinah Pinegar my beautiful, wonderful, amazing, fun, and thoughtful Aunt! She and I worked together to create the beautiful center pieces for our delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I have to say she is an amazing florist! She creates the most beautiful arrangements! I love working with her, I learn so much and am inspired.

In my family, the day before Thanksgiving the women in the family gather at Moni's (my Grandmother) home and we make homemade pies for Thanksgiving. We also prepare the dinner table, including the floral center pieces. Pie Day is probably more fun than Thanksgiving.

Look at all the delicious pies we made and the finished floral arrangements - beautiful site. :)

This is just a fun picture I took on Pie Day, with my sister and our two teenage cousins! I love them all so much!They make the holidays so fun!

This is the arrangement I did. I had a square container. Now, the shape and size of the arrangement depends on the shape and size of the container; and the occasion. These arrangements were created to be used as center pieces on our Thanksgiving tables, so we had to keep the flowers small enough so you could talk to the person across the table, yet big enough to make it proportionate to its container. 

Another thing to keep in mind is, when an arrangement is a center piece at a dining table, the arrangement needs to look good on all sides; because it will be seen on all sides.

 I'm not sure if I have said this before, if I have sorry; but my love for flowers first started from my Moni. She has a garden full of flowers and she loves to arrange them. When I was a young teen she let me help her with the Thanksgiving day center pieces. I was always amazed at her eye for it. She made sure not only did the flowers have to look beautiful, but the flowers had to match the table. Each year, even if Moni doesn't create the arrangement that year, the tables still have her touch.

Because of the size of my family, there were three tables for Thanksgiving dinner. I did the center piece on one "grown-up" table and the kid table, Tinah did the other arrangement for the second "grown-up" table. If you can't see the difference in our arrangements Tinah's arrangement was at the table with the red candles and mine was at the table with the green.

Even though we used the same flowers and greens Tinah's and my arrangements are very different. The flowers we used were: red roses, yellow daises, sunflowers, yellow/orange Peruvian lilies, different greens, sticks, and ornamental grass.

In an arrangement, you want to feel all the spaces. Make sure where ever you look on your arrangement something is there to fill it. To fill in our spaces and to add more textures to our arrangements, Tinah and I got some pruners and went to Moni's garden and got some extra greens to put in. We got great lines from the different plants and different shades of green that accented the bright colors of the flowers. 

This is the kid table :)

Another fun thing that happened with these arrangements was the ornamental grass. When we made the arrangements on Pie Day the grass looked like ornamental grass, but the next day the grass opened into these fuzzy seed like puffs. It was so funny! It just added more texture and pizzazz to the arrangements.

I thought these were fun pictures. My baby brother, McKay loves photography and likes fiddling around with it. So some of the pictures in this post he took and others I took. Thanks McKay for the fun pictures! The second one is a delicious punch my family makes each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas :) yum!

I bet you could have guessed by now, but I LOVE MY FAMILY! In Nov. 2013 I did a 30 day challenge, posting a picture each day of something I am grateful for. (the first picture in this post was my Day 28) My family, was at the top of my list (after my sweet husband). My family is so special to me. I'm thankful they allow me to use my talents for our family gatherings. I'm grateful for their praise of my arrangements, it means a lot to me :) I don't know where I would be in my life without my family.

My cute girly cousins!

This is Tyler and I being silly :p

I have so much in my life to be thankful for. I have so many blessings.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving, for the reminder and the celebration of our blessings. I am thankful for flowers and the beauty they bring into this sometimes dark and dreary world. They are pieces of heaven here on earth, to help make this a beautiful place and they serve as a reminder that there is something far more beautiful beyond this life.

I am so thankful for my sweet and wonderful husband - Tyler. He is the world to me and my greatest blessing! I'm so blessed to have him by my side as my husband!

I love you Sweetheart!

McKay's Senior Homecoming

I told you I wouldn't be very good at this. As you know, and I'm sure you all have experienced, life happens and life gets busy. I still have done the flowers for a few events, though.

The next event is my baby brother's Senior Homecoming. He looks so handsome when he gets all dressed up. :) Is it wrong to be proud of your brother's good looks?

To match his good looks was his date! Don't they look cute! I did McKay's boutonniere and his date's corsage.

When the main color the couple is wearing, is a deep and dark color; I love complementing it with white! It makes a bold statement and is a great contrast. It just adds to the depth to the main color! The main color here, as you can see, is blue! (Which is my favorite :) )

FYI: I also took their homecoming pictures, so I played around with editing a bit. Sorry its not easy to see the flowers. They were a fun couple to take pictures of, because they always had a smile on their face.

I wanted to make the boutonniere simple, but elegant. I only used two flowers: white spray roses and babies breath. I used a blue tulle to add that deep blue in to the arrangement. The simpleness of the boutonniere doesn't degrade McKay's look, it just adds to his handsomeness. It complements it, because of the contrast in colors the blue looks bluer and the white looks whiter.

I love this picture, because it is showing off all the girls corsages, but I only did McKay's date's corsage (on the far left, in the bright blue dress). Her corsage had the same flowers as McKay's boutonniere: white spray roses and baby's breath. I also added a blue tulle bow in the middle of her corsage to compliment her dress. The tulle and her dress are the same color! I love it when that happens! I also found, as I have made corsages, I love using the base/bracelet part that looks like an actual bracelet; especially for occasions as dances or weddings. Notice how her bracelet has pearl beads, it just makes the whole corsage look 10x better!

I just have to say, I had a blast taking pictures of this group. They were fun and goofy group that laughed the whole time. We were taking pictures for probably 1.5 hours, because they were having so much fun! They wanted picture after picture! Thanks McKay for having such great friends!

Sorry another edited picture, but I just love this picture! You can see both arrangements, since the flowers were white anyway, it doesn't make such a difference with the special effects :p

I am glad McKay asks me to  do the flowers and taking pictures for his high school dances. Being four years older and living under a different roof, this gives us a chance to spend time together and have fun! Little McKay! I remember helping Mom take care of you as a baby, now you are growing into this tall, big, handsome, and righteous man. I have loved being there for you and becoming one your best friends! Thanks bud! Love you a whole bunch!