Thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope yours was lovely and that you were surrounded with friends, family, and good food. Here's what I made for my Thanksgiving centerpiece (actually, it turned out too big for our eating tables since we had so many people over, so I put it on the the drinks table to be enjoyed). I was looking around for a cornucopia, but had a hard time finding one, so I just went outside and found some dried up sticks and dried leaves and made a wreath. Then, I used a low wide bowl to make the arrangement in and rested it in the wreath. Hope you like it!

Style Unveiled competition!

We Like Flowers was nominated for a "Local Love Award" for the most adored bridal bouquet! It was the bouquet we did for Kelsey's wedding in San Diego earlier this year. How exciting!

If you want to vote for us, please do so by clicking here to see the entries and to vote at the bottom of the page! Here's a reminder of what you'd be voting for:

Metallic painted clear glass vessels

Mandy and I did some experimentation with some cheap clear glass vases I had, spray painting the insides with gold and copper paint. We think they turned out pretty neat! We like that it hides the stems and floral foam and brings a rich metallic touch to an otherwise basic arrangement. We have a wedding booked for May and the bride wants some copper touches so we'll see what she thinks of these.

I love carnations. I really, really do. Especially when they are 25 for $8.99.

I did a little urban foraging for this bouquet... it's basil that bolted from a few of our gigantic plants. It smells sooo good, and looks pretty cool too I think.

This is one of those ubiquitous crystal bowls that you can find in just about every thrift shop. I think a little silver polish would shine up that rim, but we kind of like the weathered and tarnished look, especially with the copper and contrasted with the fancy looking cut crystal.

Our camellia trees have started blooming, and these guys fell to the ground. Such a pretty color, how lucky to have these already in our backyard when we bought the house!

New website! Sort of...

We Like Flowers just got itself a website! Right now it's just a splash page with our fun new logo that links to this blog, our new email addresses (mandy@welikeflowers.com and liv@welikeflowers.com), and a questionnaire for people interested in us doing their wedding flowers. We will do other events and smaller scale arrangements too of course, but weddings are the complicated shindigs that would necessitate a full questionnaire!

Next up, business cards!

Big THANKS to Matt Groller for designing our logo and Jerod Rasmussen for the website help!

We're back!

We're working on a new website, a few potential gigs, and lovely fall flowers! Mandy and I got together today and made a few fun arrangements with flowers from Trader Joe's and the local Conroy's. All these fall flowers got us scheming about the Thanksgiving cornucopia we plan on making. Exciting!

Here was the first one Mandy made, I like the asymmetrical look she went with:

I made this little butterball in the fishbowl vase:

I copied Mandy's asymmetrical look with this one, which was kind of impossible not to do with that gigantic feathery sunflower on one side. I stuck one of the baby squashes from the garden in it to break up some of the yellow.

Mandy looped the grass pieces and stuck them into the side of this one which I really think added some pizzazz. 

The next two Mandy made with the leftovers, I love them. I'm a fan of little arrangements in ceramic vessels. This white one is from IKEA in the kitchen section (for holding utensils presumably), I think they'd be great for table arrangements at a wedding. Cute, and like $4 each!

And my precious little owl from Anthropologie... With a fall flower hat!

A Texas wedding photo shoot

Here are some more of the beautiful shots done by Katie Neal at the photo shoot we participated in that was just featured on the Southern Weddings blog. So pretty!

Last flower class!

Our last floral arrangement class was tonight, but sadly Mandy couldn't make it. She's in New York for work so guess who took her spot....? JEFF! I was pretty surprised that he wanted to come with me but we had fun and he did so well! We need to start roping him in to help us with future weddings! Now we just need to check out Seth's skills... Here's what we made:

Mine!

And Jeff's! 

Southern Weddings!

The photo shoot we participated in with photographer Katie Neal, coordinator Lindye Galloway, and {found} rentals, just went up on the Southern Weddings blog! Check it out!

Flower class #4

Last night was our second to last flower class... I'm going to miss it! We'll have to take another, or set up our own flower arranging weekly get together. Ooh, that actually sounds like a great idea... wine, food, friends, everyone brings a bunch of random flowers and we see what we can make! I think I just struck oil.

Here's what I made last night! Fun colors.

Check out the calla lilies! I've never seen this variety before, but they are gorgeous. Sort of half leaf, half flower. And you know I love me some succulents...

Mandy, post yours!!

Okay! Here's mine (Mandy's)!

I love you Trader Joe's

Gorgeous pink and white speckled spray roses that I picked up from TJ's this week... such a deal for $5.99!

Country wedding photo shoot on Southern Weddings blog August 9th!

We Like Flowers participated in an awesome photo shoot last month in the Riley Wilderness Park in Ladera Ranch, for a couple that was married in April but wanted some new shots done. It turned out sooo beautifully, I can't wait to see Katie's photographs! The shoot will be featured on the Southern Weddings blog on August 9th so stay tuned for the link when it goes up!

Photo shoot coordinator: Lindye Galloway

Photographer: Katie Neal Photo

Vintage set rentals: {found}

I wish I could post the sneak peak photos but that would be cheating! You gotta wait!

Surprise summer flowers!

I came home from our flower arranging class last night only to find a kitchen full of flowers from my sweet neighbor Sharon! Her garden was overflowing so she cut me a bunch of these great orange beauties and some fragrant lavender. I picked some rosemary and mint from my own garden and put these together for the house. They are so fragrant and fun!

Week 3!

Our homework from last week's floral arrangement class was to bring empty coffee cans to class today. I wasn't sure what we were going to do with my Chock o' Nuts coffee can but I figured it would be a cute little tied arrangement. We started the class by using floral foam glue to attach galax leaves to the outside leaving a little ruffle rim:

Margaret, the teacher, brought really fun field flowers and we were pleased with the results. Here's mine:

And Mandy's!

Flower class!

Mandy and I are taking a series of floral arrangement classes offered through the city of Long Beach for some Tuesday evening fun. We get to play with beautiful flowers and chat with fun ladies every class, and some crazy arrangements come out at the end. Take class #1- Mum and daisy poodles:



Mandy isn't going to be happy I posted this but I think it was cute. In a Clockwork Orange meets the Westminster Dog Show type of way. I defected and made an arrangement using all the other great flowers on hand.


Class #2 was tonight and we did topiary arrangements. Not my favorite but we had fun trying something we wouldn't normally do. Here's mine:


Everything looks cuter placed next to a gold piglet bank. :) We're looking forward to next week- coffee can arrangements!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back to school!

Mandy and I are taking a flower class together this summer starting up on July 13th. We're super excited! Classes are great because there are always techniques to learn and it's a great time to experiment with some crazy arrangements. I've never taken a formal class but Mandy has taken several and I saw what she produced during those so this is going to be fun. I'm a dork, so I plan on taking pictures and tweeting our creations during the classes. Stay tuned!

TWEET!

We're on twitter now! If you too like flowers, follow us on twitter @welikeflowers! Our recent tweets will also show up on the side bar of this blog if you want to hear what we're tweeting but shun social networking sites. We understand.

La Belle Bride

Matt and Jana's wedding was also featured on a wedding website, La Belle Bride, the stylish guide for the swanky bride!

Photographs by the lovely Marianne Wilson...

Photo shoot prep

We're doing the flowers for a "do-over" wedding photo shoot for a couple that were less than thrilled with their original photos, and worked on them tonight. The photo shoot will be this Saturday in Ladera Ranch, and the fabulous Lindye Galloway will be coordinating the shoot. Can't wait to post the professional pictures! In the meantime, here's some of the process...