I love Cornell Farms Nursery!  They have an incredibly fine tuned selection of annuals and perennials to choose from as well as amazing potted planters!  Sometimes when I'm needing a little inspiration (or just the need to get my hands in some dirt!) I'll go wander around on the premises, smell the flowers, touch the leaves and find myself a few little obscure plants to bring home.  

Well, I was just looking for some info and found their site on-line.  Why had I never thought of looking for that before?! Anyway, the best thing I think about the site is the forum section.  If you're a gardener (master, novice or anything in between) you can ask them a question on-line and they'll respond with a professional answer.  Despite my label as florist my thumbs are certainly NOT green so I think this service may be my saving grace during the upcoming vegetable planting months!!

Check it out!  www.cornellfarms.com

The cakes on this page were created by the incredibly talented teams at Dreamcakes by Judy Reece, Beaverton Bakery, La Jaconde and Saint Cupcake. Images were provided by Valls Photographic, Artistique Photographie, Eric Cable, Benjamin Edwards, Serena Davidson, Lauren Brooks and Erin Grace.

"The seeming simplicity of a masterpiece is sure proof of its grace.” — Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel

Every year I try to make it to at least one flower festival. My love affair with farm festivals began as a little girl when I'd take Spring trips with my mom to the tulip festival in Woodburn, or the lilac festival in Spokane, or the lavender festival in Seattle... well, you get the idea. I don't know, there's just something about eating an elephant ear surrounded by beautiful plants and nerdy tourists that makes me ridiculously happy.  

Last year I decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of going to the tulip festival in Holland and it was amazing!

In a couple of weeks I'll continue on my flower festival frenzy by hitting up the tulip scene in Istanbul. I'm really, really excited about this one as so many tulips are actually native to the region.  In fact, did you know there are more wild tulips in Iran (turkey's neighbor to the east) than any other country?  Sultan tulips here I come!!  

I'll be sure to post pics from my adventure upon my return! For more info check out the travel Turkey site. http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/tulip_fest.html

From us to you!! And as we have an almost weird love for weird flowers I share this with you... a 21 leaf clover! How's that for luck?!

Janee and Will were married on a very HOT day in July with a ceremony in the Shakespeare Garden at the Rose Gardens and a reception following at Helvetia Winery.  For the decor they wanted to keep the color scheme simple, flowers soft and details personal. 

Janee's Bouquet featured a mix of cream spray roses, chocolate cosmos, chocolate fiddlehead fern curls, green cymbidium orchid blossoms and green hydrangea.  The stems were simply wrapped with ivory dupioni silk.

Guests at the reception were seated at rectangular style tables. We used several styles of centerpieces on the tables for interest.  This style featured three very simple clear glass vases lined with coffee and mounded over with green hydrangea.

Another style of table centerpiece... this time with green hydrangea, white dahlias, cream garden roses, chocolate cosmos, chocolate fiddlehead ferns and green cymbidium orchid blossoms. 

I consider exploring, experiencing and hanging out in cool and beautiful venues in the Northwest to be one of the greatest parts of my job!  We've decorated tiny chapels in Central Oregon, large hotels in downtown Seattle and everything in between.   Over the years we've certainly come to select a few favorites out of the bunch.  One of those favorites is the beautiful View Point Inn in Corbett, Oregon.  The Inn is about 40 minutes from downtown Portland and sits on a bluff overlooking the gorge.  Because of the location it has the gorgeous views but limited wind exposure that so many other venues in the gorge experience.  The venue itself is immaculate with the interior of the building being ALMOST as lovely as the views (I say almost because it possible to beat what I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world??!)  Fortunately for us the owners at the Inn consider us to be a good fit for the aesthetic of the property and as a result we have had the opportunity to provide flowers for dozens of events held there.  Here are a few images from some of our favorites.

There are some outdoor venues that need quite a bit of decor to customize the space.  But with others when the view is the focus I like to keep ceremony decor fairly low to keep the skies open.  Here we provided a simple wreath to surround the unity candle.  I love the "Karmel Antik" roses and green hydrangea combination.  

I think it's so important to be able to get ready on the grounds of the ceremony venue.  It keeps travel to a minimum and lowers the stress of having to "make it on time" since you're already there!  Plus, I think it would be fun to keep an eye on the preparations of the venue while you're getting ready. :-)

This is a view down the sun porch inside the Inn.  Most weddings will seat guests at long tables in this space.  Because the tables are quite narrow one of the most effective ways to add decor is with multiple smaller arrangements.

The images on this post have been taken and generously gifted to us by several talented photographers.

Thank you to Lauren Brooks, Valls Photographic, and Eric Cable.

www.laurenbphoto.com

www.alturastudio.com

www.ericcablephotography.com