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!