Happy New Year!
Was your holiday season as crazy as mine?
Winter is considered the “off-season” in the wedding world, and we floral designers usually take the opportunity to catch up on emails, blogs and proposals— all that fun admin stuff. December for me, however, was not so laid back.
As alluded to in my last post, I got swept away into the world of wreath making this winter season. Remember, this was an entirely new avenue for me. Wedding wreaths: been there, done that. Door wreaths: a whole new world. So, using the mechanics and techniques I’ve been trained in, I tried a few then posted the pictures on Instagram.
And that’s when the orders started to come in.
Some were Christmas-themed. Others were meant to last the entirety of winter. Some were fresh. And some were dried. It was fun to see the versatility of interests from customers, then translate what they wanted into a signature design.
I’m pretty excited to share with you a sampling of what I created in the last two month. As always, I wish I had stopped long enough to capture an image of each wreath that left the table in my little studio before sending it out into the hands of my customers. But alas, it’s hard to slow down sometimes and snap a quality picture.
So here’s a smattering of what I did manage to shoot:
This was the wreath that started it all. Using mostly yellow cedar and a bit of silver dollar eucalyptus, this square wreath was full and heavy. It was the first time I'd ever tried using a wreath clamp, and I can see the value in them for those dense, heavy wreaths. A big shout-out to Casablanca Floral for sharing their clamp with me.
This beauty was my favorite of the entire season. All dried, it's meant to last through the entire winter, with the potential of another whole season, if cared for well enough. I'm not the biggest fan of baby's breath, but it seemed so fitting to the winter theme. And I loved the idea of a few feathers so I threw in a couple turkey feathers at the bottom. I was legitimately sad I couldn't keep this one for myself.
After several wreaths under my belt I got my first request for one with fake greenery. It was fun and easy enough, but I think I prefer the real stuff, if I had to choose. If only real berries where that vibrant!
This order was for a customer with a very dark door. She said most wreaths were hard to see from the street if they were too dark, so she asked for something that would stand out against the dark paint, so no greens, and still represent winter. This is what I came up with.
This little miss was fun to make. The customer requested plenty of red built in. I did just that within a traditional wreath-style, using a few pinecones and cotton for an accent.
Here was my interpretation for a wild and organic Christmas wreath. I filled this puppy up with all sorts of pines and evergreens. With a curly willow accent and a few sprigs of holly berry poking through, I was inspired by something I had seen at Pike Place Market, of all places. And just to be sure this had enough of that "organic" look, I threw in a few stems of cotton. (No surprise.)
Well there they are. The sampling I promised. You’ll notice I used quite a bit of dried cotton this season. It’s rarely available in the Pacific Northwest, as it gets shipped in from the Midwest. And I just couldn’t help myself in using it as often as possible. It adds such an organic feel to everything it’s paired with. And that organic look is so vogue right now!
As fun as this new avenue was to explore, I think I'll stow my wreath frames and shipping boxes for the rest of the season. It's time to settle in and prepare for the exciting year that lays ahead.
Happy 2017 everyone!