Yesterday one of my favorite bouquets I’ve ever created was featured on Style Me Pretty, along with a whole other slew of talented ladies who love to create beautiful blooms, with beautiful hearts. It was a reminder of spring, of the vibrancy, the color and the much needed refresh we all need in our life after a long, cold winter.
Flowers have intrigued me for as long as I can remember, although it wasn’t with the passion for education and growth that they do now. When I was a little girl, I remember planting wildflower seeds around the perimeter of our above ground pool and waiting for them to bloom. The poppies always stand out in my memory the most. While it takes a while for those sprouts to grown, if you never plant the seeds, you will never see the fruits of your labor.
Kelly Perry, the creator of the Team Flower workshop, also shared our flowers on the Team Flower blog. It’s funny how two blogs can share the same content but connect with the subjects in a whole different way. To one, they’re just a bunch of beautifully captured images which audiences love to see. To another, they’re a story, a conquest and a beginning.
I was thinking about this beginning, the way we start our creations. Sometimes it can be paralyzing to start. We always want to put our best foot forward and aim for perfection, but like Kelly mentioned, it’s risky. It’s comforting to know that someone else also just starts arranging, not really knowing where the results will lead. And we can’t please everyone.
When I stepped off the plane to attend this workshop, I didn’t know where I was headed. I didn’t know who I would meet. I didn’t even know the girl I had agreed to spend the next 2 hours of my life carpooling with (she was awesome, by the way). And beyond this, I didn’t know where this workshop would lead me and the ways it would unleash a passion that was bottled up within, held hostage by fear.
Then I started to create this bouquet. Rows and rows of beautiful blooms were placed in front of me and I was told to go, create. It’s hard to know where to begin, I didn’t have a vision in mind. I didn’t have any limits or parameters. All I knew is that I wanted to make something gorgeous.
I remember seeing that big, beautiful fuchsia peony and I held it in my hand as it spoke to me. It was a starting point. I found some quirky little kumquats and a softer pink tree peony, which also called to me. This was the base, the inspiration. I continued to build upon this, grabbing ingredients that I liked and some that just felt like they belonged – they connected the colors, the story.
Every time I gather flowers for an event I seek to recreate this feeling that I had in that moment. I squeal with excitement when flower orders arrive at my doorstep. And I want to tell your tale while creating your bridal bouquet. It might sound a little deep but I can’t just cluster flowers together and call it a day. I’ve remade bouquets 4 and 5 times, until they’re accurately depicting the account of your celebration and worthy of being held in your hands. And sometimes that’s scary, sometimes I wonder where I’ll find the time or how I’ll ever conquer perfection but I know I have to start somewhere and my amazing clients are trusting me to take that first step.
So when I feel that pressure start to build up and that fear starts to creep in, I have to remind myself to take a step back, let the flowers do the talking and just create.
Photography: Heather Payne Photography
