Laurel Coburn Wedding Event

Laurel's  Wedding   8 November, 2008

The Headwater Grill at Teton Springs Resort near Victor, IDaho was the site of a wedding event I recently helped with.  Laurel Coburn's parents have been friends for decades, and we have also been neighbors through the years in Logan, Utah, and Salem, Idaho.  It was a great thrill to help by providing and designing flowers for Laurel's wedding event in such a lovely place.

This is the Headwater Grill at Teton Springs in November of 2008.  You can check out the property web site by clicking here.  The staff and management folks were great to work with, and made the event quite pleasant.  It was a cool, but perfect evening, with a recent light rain that made everything look so clean, yet providing fresh snow in the nearby mountains.  This venue is located in Pierre's Hole on the west side of the mountain pass in the Teton Range. Jackson is on the east side about a thin half hour drive away in good weather.  If you are ever in Victor, you should stop at the Emporium and grab a huckleberry ice cream cone, shake or malt.

This is the entrance to the Grill, and the reception.

The flower girls were sure cute, even though a little tired of waiting for the bride to come down the stairs so they could do their job.


A contemplative moment for the bride, just after the "yes" and right before the photo session.

Both the bride and the groom had several family members there to support them.  What a great family!

Enjoy a quick view of the grand entrance of the bride...

This was a very pleasant event.  I used Black Magic roses from Ecuador, mixed with "new love" gypsophylla and dozens of mixed greens, some traditional foliage like Gaultheria (salal) Myrtus communis (myrtle), and some more unusual things, such as aspidistra 'milky way,' pistachio foliage, Australian tree ferns, Leucodendron 'Jester' and mosses.  The request was for a "traditional, cabin look," so the bridal bouquet consisted of two dozen Black Magic roses, with clusters of gypsophylla wound and layered in a spiral around the sides of the hand-tied bouquet.  I used a bright silver woven ribbon treatment over a handle satinized with black "tux" ribbon from Lion Ribbon.  Smaller bouquets constructed to match the Bridal bouquet were used for the four bridesmaids.  Corsages and bouts were black magic roses with pistachio foliage and sprigs of Irish moss, bound with silver boullion from Smithers Oasis.  The tables were decorated with round nosegays of the same roses, with Dutch Pico fronds (a small-leaved chamaedorea), and scattered rose petals.  I brought in the exotic greens from the Aalsmeer market, which means that they came from Australia, flew to the Netherlands, and flew to Idaho all in a very short time.  Thanks to my great friends in Holland and Miami for providing such fine product.  

Happy Roses waking up in Idaho

I brought some rainbow roses® in for our spring flower and bridal show in March, and since then have had many people ask about them. There are all kinds of rumors bouncing around the globe about how they are made, or grown, or magically coloured, so I thought I could post just a little information for my friends here. I will include a link to a great explanation that J Schwanke wrote in an article on his uBloom® page:

The Happy Colors of Rainbow Roses!
uBloom - Friday, 03 October 2008

© uBloom

You can check it out, and also learn more about the floral industry from our friends at uBloom

There is quite a bit of information as well if you go to the happy roses site where the original product development is described. Peter van de Werken is the owner of Riverflowers® and the happy flower concept. Here are a couple of links that are very interesting to look upon:

http://www.riverflowers.nl/

http://www.fjzandbergen.nl/
then click on the link "noviteiten" for a nice gallery of the happy rose colour choices

http://www.happy-roses.com/
the new web site

there is a very interesting video to watch, but you will have to brush up on your Dutch to understand most of it. If you google rainbow roses, or happy roses, you can see video clips from all over the world. It is quite educational.
The two photos I have placed here are bouncing all over the web, so it is hard to give appropriate credit to the original photographers. Please forgive.

People have been colouring flowers for ages, with myriad products that could enter through the stem, or be painted on the petals. There are paints, dips, and dyes, all creating illusions of colour that nature could not seem to come up with on her own. And sometimes when you are in a pinch, you need to alter the colour, blending an odd flower here or there with something that just would not match up otherwise. I love to guild the edges of a poinsettia or a fresh or artificial wreath with gold colortool® at Christmas time. Learning to air brush a rose with colortool® from Design Master is something every florist should know how to do well. It is not just spray painting, but rather a technique of brushing the paint through the air onto the petals with a very light touch.

Stem dye can be kind of messy, but who can not recall a stalk of celery in food coloring from a science class in grade school? It was a quintessential thrill to watch the dye as it gathered in the veins of the stem and leaf. We seem to want something that nature does not provide. It is a thrilling pursuit to try to find the perfect blue rose, or a black rose, or a chocolate orchid.
photo © getty images
I mentioned Florigene® dianthus in a blog post about Amy and Benj's wedding a while back. This is another way to play with colour in flowers. This company is using genetic modification to bring new colours into the marketplace. Check out the web site:

http://www.florigene.com/

Since 1986 the company has tried to create a blue rose. The result so far has showered many surprises into the vases of the world. I love the play on purples and lavenders. There seems to be an additional benefit of increased vase life as well. Playing around with the biosynthetic pathway of anthocyanins in the flowers has delivered genetic changes in pigment. With all the interest in phytochemicals that benefit us in our diets, I wonder if some foods could be improved with the same methodology. (maybe that is why Suntory is interested--they are most known for beverage production in Japan) Those dark natural colours seem to deliver more good things at every turn. The Florigene company is based in Melbourne, Australia. They have become involved with Suntory, a Japanese firm, in this pursuit. You put great people together, some of the best names in industry, and you are sure to come up with value and beauty. I love to see the results!

Please enjoy surfing the sites I have mentioned above, and let me know if you see something new out there while you are traveling the web, or the globe.
--br

Bethany and Jonathon wedd

Bethany Kaye Romney and Jonathon Lawrence were married on 14 June, 2008
in the Rexburg LDS Temple

They wanted to join thousand of others this year and be married 8 8 08, but the numbers didn't add up for them; that was too long to wait! But add 6 and 8 and you get 14. That will do.

The sum of the flowers added up nicely too. Beth wanted bright, beautiful whites with natural greens. That meant anything from olives to limes, with mossy undertones. She chose Hydraengeas for her photo shots a couple of days before the wedding--all white mounded giant blooms, and again for the bouquet at the temple, so I hand-tied them--just kept adding them until she was satisfied. This time we minimized the white and used more green The large bouquet was striking and bright in the morning light.


Wedding day for Bethany, our youngest daughter

Beth in her lovely gown, handmade in France

What bright light this couple radiates!

most of the family, minus some of the little ones, just after the temple ceremony

The bouquet from the morning was left in the car--the ultimate oops for this well-trained bride, so I tied another together before the reception. This time I used Rosa 'Limbo' and small white Zantedeschia (callas). It survived the evening at Romney Place, despite the afternoon of very strong winds, and even survived the toss. I placed mixed bouquets on the serving and seating tables, including more Hydraengeas, 'Green Goddess' callas, and some dramatic Eremerus lilies

The bouquet grabbers gather

Beth cuts the cake. Grandson Isaac is quite enthralled with the process while he sips limewater

I suspended the oval shaped cake and stand in a Wilson's weeping birch that grew in a heart shape after it froze back several winters past. It was an unusual way to display a cake and brought many comments. It was covered with about 100 'Limbo' roses I brought in from Ecuador.

Entertainment was provided by "the Brothers of Abraham"
check them out at brothersofabraham.com or buy their "removing the pain" album on itunes
Bethany's brothers, from left: Benjamin 6 string bass & vocals, Abraham, guitar and vocals, and Anthony, drums

Anthony and Kylie wedd

A Wedding in the Nauvoo LDS Temple
on 16 May, 2008

with a Reception in Indianapolis on the 17th,
and Open House in Rexburg on the 31st.
ATHONY & KYLIE ROMNEY

Anthony with his 5 siblings Abe, Benj, Jessica, Lydia, and Bethany

We are happy to greet Anthony and Kylie Romney, and wish them well on their new adventures together. It was fun to do the flowers for Kylie. She has always loved bright blue and electric green. I arranged with Van's wholesale in Indianapolis for the flowers there. They were most helpful, and allowed me to wander through the facility finding all kinds of treasures to bring back to the flower center. They brought in some lovely delphinium from Canada, along with a few other things we used. In Rexburg, I used a little more of a variety of material. I enjoy the textural differences when adding things like Eryngium, "blue" Leptospermum (which is really mostly pink, but added great depth to the mix) and green spider mums along with various blue Delphinium hybrids and Mollucella (bells of Ireland)


Watch the newlyweds as they leave the temple


Everyone needed a break for food--wedding breakfast in the Nauvoo Inn
then on the road to Indianapolis that night

It was a dream reception in Avon

Kylie's colours!

Kylie's dad, Lans put together a gourmet feast for us all in Avon, Indiana


Anthony & Kylie greeting friends and family in Salem Idaho





Benj and his jazz combo were the featured entertainment

Thanks Anthony and Kylie for letting me have so much fun with the flowers!!!

A wedding for Benjamin Joseph Romney and Amy Jolene Andreason
The Rexburg Temple was beautiful on the morning of 12 April 2008, the perfect setting for Benj and Amy to be sealed for time and all eternity.
A reception/dinner for family and friends was held that afternoon, then a full reception was held on 24 April, 2008 in the evening for friends and community members.
Amy chose lime green and various bright purple colours. We used the Floragene® dianthus that have an iridescent blue undertone through the intense purples and lavenders.



Dirk, Jody Andreason, Amy Jo, Benj, Ben, and Kaye



Amy's lovely smile, and bouquet



A quiet moment as the reception is winding down, and yes, the flowers are as tall as they appear! The freeform branch sculptures are ornamented with strings of green and purple shell fragments we picked up at the LA flower market a few days before the wedding.



The tables were adorned with very tall vases, as above, or cylinders, with flowers semi-submerged. They provided height, yet were mostly transparent so people could visit at the tables. It was a fun way to bring the colours to the table without a lot of fuss. I also used some purple larkspur, and purple delphinium in random order.

A special treat for Kaye and I was the visit of our friend Martin Valentine, from Rugby England. Martin is a very talented Fine Artist, and currently is the art director for the Sedbergh School in the lake district of northern England. We stayed with Martin at his home above the Music School for a few days, and traveled with him about the lake district during November of 2007. Martin and Benj became friends while Benj was serving in the Birmingham mission. It was great to have Martin stay with us during the wedding time.




After the wedding, we took Martin to West Yellowstone and Jackson Hole to see some of our beautiful winter scenery. One evening, he took us to the world of real English Trifle. What a delight that was!!! We ate one immediately, and put the other one in the icebox for the newlyweds to find when they came back to their new home.


Next up: Anthony and Kylie in the Nauvoo Temple.

Interpretive Floral Design

My Interpretive Floral Design class is collaborating on a project to put together floral interpretations of six different pieces of art. The paintings have been created by BYU Idaho art students, and now will be the focus of the next 10 days for our students to try to interpret the art into floral designs. We are going to incorporate structures and armatures, along with fresh flowers and other plant materials. Check back in a couple of weeks, and I'll post the results.


Hillary and Angela: pitcher and bottles

Emily and Audrey: Cucurbits (Squash)

Crystal, Tyanna, Sabrina: the Pepper

Brianna, Brittany, Melinda: the Mailbox



Michelle, Kerry, Tashina: the girls

Branae's wedding

Here are a few fotos of Branae Shaum and Danny Porter's wedding reception flowers I put together--Tuesday 4 march 2008 APX Building, Rexburg, ID

Ruins

Ben, standing in front of main temple in Tulum, Quintana Roo, México
Travel is so exciting. I love to see ruins. I observe so many plants and flowers around them too. Once I was strolling through Tikal, in Guatemala, the morning after a violent thunder storm. Bromeliads littered the path, having been blown or washed out of the estuaries above. Tillandsia, Bilbergia, countless others, bright as birds, were scattered as if faeries had sprinkled them in anticipation of our arrival. Now, when I place an exotic bloom in a floral design, I think of where that bloom grows in the wild, or where it is being cultivated for harvest.



These two fotos are taken in the Jamaica flower market in México City. The palms above are Chamaedorea, referred to as "Camedor" by the growers in Veracrus, México.
The foto below shows how this palm is used by florists in México for sympathy and special occasion, often very large designs. Note the intricate structure of one of these displays on the backside to the left.


In the foto below, note the bunches of roses crammed into the back of a pickup truck. The care and handling of plant materials in the market is not state of the art, but the volume, variety, and price were delightful.

I notice a trend toward more unusual greens and flowers during the past few years, and have since traveled through the jungles to see where these things originate. There is a concern in some parts of the world that plants over-harvested will disappear. There is evidence of that in parts of Guatemala. The Mayan word for the highly desired chamaedorea species is "xáte." There are "xatéros," people who harvest, gather, and export the precious palms to the floral wholesalers. In México it is referred to as "Camedor." On the dutch flower market in Aalsmeer it shows up as "pico leaves," or "Cocus nucifera," In the US, many florists have referred to it as "emerald" for years. It also shows up with other names, like "jade." Rare tropical blooms like the Bromeliads I just mentioned above can be found in some of the local markets throughout Latin America. I saw bundles of them in the Jamaica market in México City--for pennies. I wondered just how many of those would be harder to find after such a thorough harvest. I spoke with people as I traveled there in 2006 about controlling that harvest. If people could come to understand that there is plenty out there, especially when they learn to cultivate these plants, and harvest them with the idea of leaving some for future growth, many more generations will be able to enjoy such things.

Developing countries are aptly named, as much is happening to improve the lives of the citizens and more commodities are made available by international mass-marketers. Yet the rapid nature of this change demands products. Our floral tastes are equally insatiable, and world demand for the unusual is pushing some areas into the limits of product availability. The industries seeking plant materials in these regions, well, in any regions of the world, should be very responsible, avoiding over-harvest, and promoting long-term development of these lovely things. It is the responsibility of the consumer to find out where they come from too. We might think more carefully about purchases if we were more conscious of origin.

above, Ben in La Venta, near Villahermosa, México


Ben atop the pyramid of the Moon, looking over the shoulder to the pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuácan, México


Ben, with son Anthony in front of Xunántunich, Belize








in front of the castle Tsaravetz, near Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe