September 4, 2009

It's been a busy long week at work, sometimes very stressful, but I am always looking forward to doing a little blogging in the evening, no matter how tired I am. Today is Mother's birthday and she is here visiting with us for her special day. The weather is giving us a break with slightly cooler temperatures, and we hope that the rain will stay away long enough to go to the beach for a while tomorrow.

One of my favorite royal wedding pics is to the left. A wonderful informal moment caught of Princess Diana and her bridesmaids, and the bonus of Her Majesty the Queen in attendance. I am surmising that this picture was taken after the ceremony on the return to Buckingham Palace just prior to the wedding breakfast. I truly love the combination and color of the bridesmaids flowers. They are pink, pale blue, and yellow. From studying this picture over the years, I see pink miniature carnations, yellow freesia, light blue bella donna, English Ivy and baby's breath. So many floral designers these days see baby's breath as a very lowly filler flower that belongs in the '70's. Yes, I agree that it was over used for many years. But, it really works in these arrangements to add the delicate aspect of the bouquets. David Longman knew what he was doing when he put this floral design look together for this wedding. The light and delicate arrangements of gentle colors really compliments the Victorian era attire of the bridesmaids. Once for a wedding I was doing in San Francisco, I had a bride ask for delicate pastel colored flowers. This bride wasn't picky, so, I decided to replicate these arrangements almost exactly. The wedding I was doing also had all young children as attendants, and I decided to give the youngest of the attendants flower baskets with fixed arrangements inside. A co-worker was very vocal in saying that I was taking a chance using the baby's breath as we all considered it out-dated and "cheap" looking. But, once the arrangements were finished they looks so lovely and sophisticated, that my wary co-worker agreed that it was a chance well taken.

Let me know what flowers you have an aversion to, and what flowers are your favorites for use in arrangements that will be carried by younger attendants. It was great remembering back to my SF floral days, I did so many weddings there, that I have many stories to tell of my wedding design work in San Francisco.

Thanks for checking in on my blog. Terry.

Royal Wedding Tidbit for the day... Lady Sarah Snowdon, daughter of Princess Margaret and niece of Queen Elizabeth II, was Princess Diana's maid of honor. Lady Sarah carried a nose gay of pink carnations and pink roses, yellow freesia, blue bella donna, ivy, and gypsophilia (baby's breath)... all the other female attendants carried the same floral combination, but arranged in baskets. All of the attendants wore floral crowns made up of the same flowers. It was a great, classic look, designed by David Longman of Longmans Ltd. of London.