Floral Forum II

Entering into another conversation about florists and flowers with my mother, she wisely asked what my vision was, knowing full-well I don't know two things about flowers. That's why I called her. After all, she used to work at a nursery.

On the topic of centerpieces -

Me: "Something short and sprawly and lush! Lots of green, with red flowers interspersed!"

Mom:"Are we still after that tropical feel?"

Me: "Yes, but not beach tropical. More like, rain forest tropical. Prehistoric. FERNS! Oh, let's have some ferns!"

Mom: "What kind of ferns? There's many kinds. What kind do they have in Hawaii?"

Me: "Oh, I don't know, we'll just go to home depot once we're there and find out. And then afterwards we cans eat them!"

(Click images for sources, as always)

Consider the conversation effectively over.

In any case, I think I really do want some ferns.

A big leafy fern (there's only a million bajillion different species!) in a short pot
(A Maidenhair fern..so cute and delicate!)

(The E.T. Fern...so prehistoric!)

(The Lemon Button Fern...Also pretty cute!)


Maybe a few fiddle-head ferns thrown in



Then interspersed with some red flowers

(Some adorable baby red wax ginger)

Simple and effective? It's hard to say without putting something together first. And I still don't want to make my own, but maybe this is something easy (and cheap?) for a florist to do?

Oh, and the best part about using potted plants - The Hawaii guests can take the ferns home afterwards, and eat them with their cats! (No joke - you CAN eat ferns.)

(I wonder what they taste like?)

Are you using a floral centerpiece? What kind of flowers/plants are you using?

Lotus Love

Since the glass double-happiness tealight holders are too fragile to make the trip to Hawaii, we needed a suitable alternative. What can go through the mail (or the airport), undamaged and in a relatively small amount of space?

Paper!

Sak, as many know, is a master of origami. One of his many talents, and one that unfortunately goes unappreciated most of the time.

Sak: Look, I made a dodecahedron-geometrical-ball-shape from 78 pieces of your expensive engineering paper!*

Penga: Great, like what am I going to do with that? *tosses*

*not a direct quotation, of course

Well, surprisingly, my sentiments towards the paper craft have changed dramatically now that I am finding uses for them!

A quick online search of "origami flowers" popped up exactly what I was looking for (click picture for source):

Origami Lotus Flowers!

The perfect tealight holder!

I found some instructions here, and set Sak to the task of recreating them.

He made three flowers to experiment with...

First with only one sheet of paper...(fail)

Then with some sheets of plain white printing paper...Looks like a good size!


Finally with that expensive red washi paper!

...Just open the petals up a bit, and voila!

Just 59 more to go! I know paper flowers are an *in* thing at the moment, anyone else using an origami version?

This little light of mine...

Elaborate flashes of color uplighting a lush topiary or architectural feature? Tiny yellow flares sprinkled across a venue like a magical fairy land or distant galaxy? Lighting can sure create an atmosphere, transforming even the dullest of spaces into a breathtaking dreamscape.

Unfortunately for us, interesting lighting is on the the list of 'would be nice, but...' ideas. So no elaborate lighting? Fair enough, but we can still do something simple, right?

Tealights. Perhaps the most commonly used, these little candles are cheap and efficient, bringing instant table-side glow. But we're going to cheat a little.

LED tealights. Much more expensive, I know. But the price difference is worth the peace of mine that come with the small electronics. It's worth it to know that there's no way your 19 year old brother can set himself on fire, or that your fiance himself won't burn something down. Bored budding pyros and open flames don't mix. Not that I think anyone would be bored, but you never know.

So Saka and I flopped over to Big Lots and picked up about 60 of these little guys.


Now what should we put them in? Here's what they look like in the Ross glass holders:

They look better in person..the LED's flicker, so it's hard to take a picture with them all on at the same time! Unfortunately, they are too fragile to make it to Hawaii, so these will only be for the California reception. So what else could we use? Maybe origami holders? a little ribbon? Beads?

Are you using tealights or votives? What are you putting them in?

Double Happiness

So while Sak and I twiddled our thumbs and wondered what to make of an impending ceremony venue issue (more to come..), Mom-Penga was out doing some planning of her own:


They're 6x9" glass tealight candle holders bought from Ross, with the Chinese double-happiness character on the front (commonly used for weddings). Aren't they pretty? She thought they'd be perfect accents to our tablescapes, and I agree.

The only problem is that they are super fragile, so we may not be able to ship them to Hawaii.

However, in the case where we can't ship them, we can still use them for our second, at-home reception in my hometown of Salinas.

Destination wedding planners, did you ever find yourself limited by what you could reasonably ship to your location?