Daisy Rose Floral Design - Sonoma, Napa, Wine Country Wedding Flowers and Flower Delivery

Save Dough for Cake

Daisy Rose — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 01:50:18 +0000

Sometimes clients come to me with tight budgets for large events. This is when a little creativity can go a long way. Here are a few methods I recommend to keep your flowers within budget.

Suggestion 1 – Use seasonal, local flowers - Saving money and being environmentally responsible is a win win situation!! Here’s an example of a wedding that used all local, organic and seasonal flowers from a single farm in Glen Ellen. Choosing all your flowers from one farm may restrict your options, but if this doesn’t say, “Hello, informal, wine country chic!” what does? Photos: Diana Rothery Photography

Suggestion 2 – Colorful minimalism – Focus on bold shapes, and color, rather than lushness. This centerpiece required minimal dollars but still looked intentional and stylish. Grouping a set of containers of varying heights together quickly adds interest while the bold colors in the flowers mean they don’t have to be expensive to get noticed.

Photo credit: Jessamyn Harris Photography

Suggestion 3 – Keep the good stuff for yourself! – Splash out on your bouquet and keep everything else simple. You have to be careful with this option – the result can be underwhelming if your linens and attire are also plain Jane. You’ve been warned.

Photo credit: The Marin Studio

Suggestion 4 – Tell your florist to do whatever she wants! - This one is my favorite. Pick a florist who you like, give them a budget, suggest a couple of flower and color preferences and let them run with it. You can’t go wrong. Most of my best work has been done for the client who gave me free creative reign. Photo credit: Zanne Photography

Photo credit: Sasha Photography

Our Newest Floral Mascot

Daisy Rose — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:12:52 +0000

We have a new mascot! – to share the position with (Special Agent) Cooper – ‘Dr. Hey, Zeus’. He’s a rescue dog, from the Newfoundland Health and Rescue Organization. When they got him he was covered in fleas and had lots of uncomfortable skin problems due to neglect. He’s with us now and is having fun, as you can see. He’s laying low, so more on him later. Now all I have to do is train them to make bouquets.

New Delivery Taxi

Daisy Rose — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:27:53 +0000

Stardate April 23rd, 2012. Embark on voyage of epic proportions, um, to Oxnard, to collect London taxi – chrome black, iconic, diesel. We leave the homestead at 4:45am. The sun is not yet brave enough to have risen in the sky. We are a bit grumpy. The road is empty and stuff.

Four hundred weeks later (seemingly), having passed through some monumentally beautiful springtime countryside (and some boring stretches, let’s face it), we arrive, finally. Jim checks oil, gas, battery, turbo flaps, etc., and refers to diagram to ensure steering wheel is comfortingly on wrong side.

Less than an hour later – and some minor scares about impounding or even destroying the vehicle (as happened to 2 other cars) – we set off, into the endless sunset of happiness and joy. Jim drove the taxi, since he has English experience, what with actually being English, and I followed behind, doing the important part: snapping photos and ferrying Cooper the dog.

After two days – about 20 hours of driving – we made it home. Cooper wakes up. Barks a bit. And the taxi is safe and sound, resting in the garage, waiting for it’s next adventure – flower delivery!

And bish, bash, bosh, as Jamie Oliver might say, Bob’s your uncle.

Bouquets to Art

Daisy Rose — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:27:53 +0000

In the unlikely event that you were remiss enough to pass by the ‘Bouquets to Art’ exhibition at the De Young Museum this year, here’s a summary: Awesome good fun! Don’t miss it next year!! Incredible floral interpretations of the art on display. Which is better? The original or the floral? What does it mean? Is it literal? What is Impressionistic? Is that a hat?

For my work – a representation of William Stanley Haseltine’s ‘Indian Rock’ (see above) – I hoped to encapsulate the feeling of the painting, the texture and the energy, but stay true to the image. I avoided all foam (not sea foam. Ho ho), plastics and artificial materials (as always, unless impossible) – just flowers, water and (ceramic) containers. Here’s mine and a few, rather good, others..

No spot the dog prizes this week, but can you see me and my husband in there? (Still no prize. Stop calling.)

Spring already?

Daisy Rose — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:27:53 +0000

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where the birdies is.
They say the birds is on the wing.
Ain’t that absurd?
I always thought the wing was on the bird.

Farm-to-Table, The Organic Life

Daisy Rose — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 20:27:53 +0000

This past 3rd of March I played a very small part in a fundraiser for a documentary in progress entitled “The Organic Life”. It chronicles one year of life on a farm in Sonoma. Since I love that type of thing (anything involving food), when Josette from Lavender contacted me to work with her on the floral donations I jumped at the chance.

The event coordinator, Melanie King, of Dreamers and Heroes, wanted us to keep the look casual, wild and loose, like the flowers were plucked from the garden minutes earlier. The result was very sweet and very Sonoma. The Girl and the Fig catered the farm-to-table event, which took place at Jack London State Park in the House of Happy Walls.

P.S. Jack London was a cool, cool dude.

Modern Luxury at the Ritz

Daisy Rose — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:56:34 +0000

Wow! What a day at the Modern Luxury Wedding Fair at the Ritz. Blue sparkling wine, wedding cake popsicles, ornate blancmange dresses, mini-cupcakes, maxi-cupcakes, pre-nups, pin-ups, gift bags and favors, jewellery (real and sherbet), fancy invitations and billions of brides, their mums, their friends, their mums’ friends… a couple of bewildered men and, let’s be fair, a few men who were really enjoying themselves!

We really wanted to give the flowers a context so, instead of the all too familiar white cloth draped table that was provided, we brought in some saucy antique furniture to give the flowers a bijou chic country wedding setting.

We met a lot of wonderful brides to be (and regular people) all having so much fun, and got non-stop positive feedback throughout the day. People especially seemed to appreciate the vision behind the arrangements, and were very excited by the use of succulents. We even had people asking after the antiques and the crockery! One of the more colorful comments: “These are all so gorgeous, and they look so REAL!”. Don’t they just?! (Hint: They are.)

In short, we had a blast!

Recognize that table? We blogged about its renovation in a previous post, here.

Thanks to all the lovely brides, we had a fantastic time meeting you!

Flower Studio – Before pictures

Daisy Rose — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:19:13 +0000

Right now I work from a garage, but have plans to convert a funky (bad) old shed into a funky (good) flower studio/office. We want to put in fantastic lighting, old fixtures, lots of windows and one of those snazzy concrete floors that will be forgiving of organic clippings and moisture. It should look like an old barn on the outside and a stylish retreat on the inside.

Spot the dog (no prizes).

Obviously, there is some work to be done…. Not by him, though. He has more of a supervisory capacity.

Can you see our vision through the many layers of grime and neglect? If not, the “after” pictures will come along one day and this space will be full of flowers and other lovely things! Stay tuned.

Farm Table Renovation

Daisy Rose — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:45:52 +0000

My husband is renovating a gorgeous oak table we found in a yard sale, so I can use it in an upcoming event. It was hiding among old vacuum cleaners and pots, covered in some sort of dark, undesirable ick that defies description. Spot the puppy. He likes to help. Maybe we’ll start giving prizes away for puppy spotting.

Is that perspective or is he actually bigger than the table? Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product.

Old fashioned inspiration

Daisy Rose — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:03:15 +0000

So we headed out East to Nevada City for post Thanksgiving quality ‘us’ time. The National, in the center of town, is the place to stay. That’s what people say – If you don’t mind turn of the century (not this last century just gone by. I’m not saying, “Oh dahhhling it was sooooo 1999.” I’m saying, “Oh dahhling, it’s so 1899.) bed, blankets, carpets, wallpaper etc., unchanged since they were first thrown on. Built in 1852, it feels as if ghosts might seep out of the woodwork: You feel gap tooth gold diggers and bustier-wearing flouncy skirted prostitutes bouncing off the walls around you. A couple of fellas down the hall with a bottle of the strong stuff, determined to make a party out of it, and a mind to find out ‘where Carlos is’ until the small hours were all the spooks we got. But then again… where is Carlos???!!!

The town is cute as a button, authentically old and filled with inspiration. It makes me want to do a turn of the century themed wedding with bustled dressed, whiskey-based drinks and old-fashioned, fluffy flowers, stem-wrapped in lace.