Home for the Holidays

Today, I was sitting at home and thinking about the end of the semester coming up next week. I only have two more semesters and will graduate in August! I really do love school and I love going to UNLV. It truly is the perfect place for me to be since Las Vegas is the world's capital when it comes to weddings and events. I've already had so many amazing opportunities here. I was able to be part of a non-profit organization and help put together the biggest fair/carnival in Nevada. I have started a mentor program through school and I get to work with the head wedding coordinator at the Mirage once a month and be exposed to so much that will help me in the industry. I was also asked to be an intern at the Venetian this month and help out for 12/12/12; the biggest wedding day of the year at the world's largest hotel! Such exciting things have come my way and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring!

Today, I was thinking about how I haven't done anything floral for so long until I realized, I'm making a christmas wreath RIGHT NOW! 

This counts as floral design, believe me :) I had a christmas wreath I made from my high school floral design class that I just wasn't impressed with any more. So I took it apart and added some ornaments and ribbon. Since I already had the wreath, it only cost me $5! 

I also made a fall wreath a couple months ago. 

This wreath was a little more expensive because I bought the grape vine wreath and the dried wheat and sticks and some silk fall leaves. I just really love the sparkly cheetah print ribbon that I used as an accent :) 

While I do love school and all the opportunities it brings me, it's so exciting to think about being done and being able to start working my dream job. I know that I'm pursuing the right career because I have so much fun doing all these things as a student! I really can't wait until I can get out into the real world and make someone's dream event become reality. Until then, I really am content beautifying my own home :) But just FYI, I will have a 5 week christmas break so if anyone is getting married and needs flowers done, don't hesitate to ask! :D

Through the Years

I know, I know. I can't believe it's been 8 months! I only say that because it feels like years since I've had the opportunity to do flowers for a wedding. Currently, I'm living in Vegas and going to school and I just don't have the opportunity to be involved in many weddings. Believe me, I know plenty of people getting married, but this is when living far away is a definite bummer. I'll just throw my little plug in here to my Utah friends that I WILL TRAVEL FOR WORK :) And I'm having serious withdrawals that I'm almost on my knees begging, haha. 

Anyways, I thought I'd share some pictures of some of my firsts and favorites that I've done so I can reminisce as well as look forward to when I can get back into working again. 

This bouquet was the first bouquet I ever did for a REAL bride :) It was right after I came home for summer after the first semester I declared floral design as my major. My neighbor was getting married and his mom was in charge of the flowers. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time so I could help! I was the first time I had done a consultation with a bride and it went pretty well for having no experience. She wanted all white flowers and we came up with mums, anemones, and ranunculus. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first "real deal" :). 

This arrangement marked the first time I played with tropical flowers! I was just getting started at my internship at Sleepy Ridge and we did a wedding for a Hawaiian couple. Of course I didn't do this by myself, but my boss guided me and together we came up with a beautiful entrance piece.

These next three pictures are pieces that I did for Allyse's Bridal Wedding of the Year 2010. Every year Allyse's Bridal does a drawing for one lucky couple to win a $50,000 wedding. In 2010, Sleepy Ridge was the venue of choice and we also did the flowers for the luncheon and the outside entrance. I did 10 centerpieces and a few different flower balls for outside. Yes, that bottom one consists of all real roses and it was FREAKING heavy! :)

This "J" was the first time I ever did a floral monogram. It was the most stressful thing because the top of the "j" kept breaking off! I redid it a couple times until somehow we glued it together to make it work. We rigged it up pretty well and then had to figure out how to hang it! The other part to the story was that the other monogram was a "K" and once we hung them up we had to switch them. We were pretty sure the bride and groom didn't want their entrance to say "JK" ;)

This picture was of the first time I ever did cake flowers. It was actually terrifying because the cake arrived and my boss looked at me and said, "Hey, I have to go real quick so will you do the cake flowers?" I looked at her with a face that most likely said, "Are you kidding me?" and she smiled and said, "I have faith in you. See you in a little bit!" And she took off. I had no idea what was about to happen but it turned out pretty good :)

This bouquet is one I made for BYU-Idaho's Floral Open House in March 2011. I was one of a few in charge of creating a wedding with a "desert" theme. We were given probably 100 succulents and pale pinks and greens to work with. This was the first time I had worked with succulents and it was really cool! My group assigned me to make the bride's bouquet and it was pretty cool and different. 

This beast was the tallest arrangement I ever did. It was probably about 6 feet tall and probably had a couple hundred dollars of floral product in it. The bride had given my boss a picture of a similar looking arrangement and said she wanted "a tree of flowers" for her buffet piece. And my boss gave me the task of creating it. It was hard and at times frustrating but the end product was something to be proud of.  

I'll never forget the bouquet I made for my own bridals. First a little background story: when planning my own wedding, I came up with the color scheme of blue and orange. Of course when I told people that, including my fiancé and mother-in-law, they said, "Like the Broncos?" No!! So I started telling people it was the colors of blueberries and peaches. Sounds more appealing, right? So soon enough, blueberries and peaches were being incorporated into our wedding decor. This bouquet attests to that. In an effort to get more blue into the bouquet, there are strings of blueberries looping out among the flowers. 

Last, but not least, of course I have to post a picture of the bouquet I made for my actual wedding. It has a background story too. Being a floral designer, it's so hard to pick a favorite flower. But for my wedding I HAD to have Garden Roses and tulips. Everything else just had to complement those. As I sat with my boss while she ordered the flowers over the phone, I heard her stress the importance of having good quality, peach colored garden roses. She even explained that I worked with flowers so they had to be awesome. It came to the day before the wedding and I went to pick up the flowers. I was so excited to see them and to my dismay...THERE WERE NO GARDEN ROSES! They offered me some beautiful, but not quite the same, peach roses that I thought I'd just have to deal with. I brought them to Sleepy Ridge and explained to my boss what happened. She told me that in no way was I going to use anything but garden roses. She made a few calls and found some available at a wholesaler in Salt Lake. But who had time to drive clear up there and back the day before the wedding? My soon-to-be husband, that's who. He saved the day and I was able to have the flowers I wanted. He's so great :)

Well I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I did. I am so passionate and so in love with this line of work. I'm so grateful for the opportunities I've had to further my knowledge and experience. I'm currently studying Hospitality Management so I can get learn about the events side more and I'm excited to see where this path will take me. I've really enjoyed doing all of the weddings I have done in the past couple years and I can't wait for the chance to do more! Like I said, I'm having withdrawals :P So if you readers need assistance with wedding flowers or know anyone who does, let me know!