Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could not have said it better. The little things ARE infinitely the most important. Many people think of flowers as a “little thing.” Or a luxury. I suppose they could be categorized either way. But whether “little” or “luxury,” they make the world a brighter place. I can’t imagine living without the ability to fashion and cultivate these gorgeous bits of nature into works of art.

Hand-tied bouquets are always my favorite. Always. Without question.

I also love boutonnières, and long for these to come back into vogue for more frequent use than weddings!

But centerpieces, where would we be without centerpieces? They make any dull table gay. They bring the outdoors in. They remind us of the beauty that surrounds us.

Oh sweet fleurs, I adore you. You cheerful red and orange ranunculas, you delightful textured balls of scabiosa pod, you perpetually-blooming stars of bethlehem, and you luscious cedar: yum. Yummy yum yum!

One of my dearest friends is Megan Gonzalez of MaeMae Paperie. I’ve been a big huge fan of Megan’s work for years now, and my move to Colorado finally presented me with an opportunity to commission my very own MaeMae original!

Megan designed these darling cards for us– they were printed as postcards, both front and back, and then we slid them into see-through velum envelopes for a little protection in the mail.

I sent “inspiration” images to Megan of the Rocky Mountains that we drove through on our trek to Denver, and she translated the snowy mountains, green pine trees, and blue, blue skies into these fun, graphic drawings.

Oh Megan, how much do I love your work? Let me count the ways….

If you are as enamored with MaeMae as much as I am, than get thee to the MaeMae Trunk Show! It’s sure to be a day of total fabulousness. It’s Saturday, March 17th at Urbanic Paper Boutique on Abbot Kinney in Venice, California. Put Megan and Audrey together in a room, and I have no doubt there will be MAGIC in the air!!!

It’s been so fun lately to see more emphasis on beautifully designed baby showers and kid’s parties. Weddings aren’t the only big life events that deserve a professional touch, and in some cases, even more attention can be paid to detail for a gathering like a shower or birthday party, since the guest list is almost always smaller than a wedding and allows for a more intimate setting. Thanks to Baby Lifestyles for featuring our chic green and white baby shower! No bunting at this shower- it was a truly elegant soiree! Find out all the details on Baby Lifestyles!

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, here’s a sneak peek of a bouquet I fashioned for a recent collaboration. More on that later. For now, isn’t that ombre effect exhilarating? Hope you’re spending a beautiful day with the one (s) you love!

I feel like every day should be Valentine’s Day, if this is truly a day of celebrating love. Sammy and I were cuddled on the sofa last night, discussing what we should do today. Sammy said something like, “we celebrate our love EVERY day.” And he is so right.

This past year has been the hardest year for our relationship despite 9 years of togetherness. The difficulty mostly had to do with us being separated so much. The cross-country move and my many commitments in L.A. caused us to be apart for a total of nearly two months. Yeah, that time was broken up, but it sure added up. Neither of us had been apart for more than a week or two per year for any of the previous years since we first met during our junior year of college. It was rough. It led me to cut back on the number of destination weddings that I’m willing to commit to each year. And it made us think about how short life is and wonder if there is ANYTHING more important in life than being together?

We think not.

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed;
Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

William Shakespeare
Sonnet 43

Image | Floral Design | Styling by Lauryl Lane.

Every once in a while, I come across an article, some exquisite styling, or some inspiring photography that I want to remember. In this case, it was an article from the March 2011 issue of Vogue Magazine. I clearly didn’t take great shots, you can see wonderful scans here. But I love the feel of each of these images: the locations, the wardrobing, the funky props. Mostly though, all the glorious texture!!!

Winter seems endless. I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. But I’m trying to stay positive and people keep reminding me that spring is just around the corner. I can hardly wait to see the dead landscapes of Colorado transformed into radiant green!

This was one of my favorite weddings of 2011 for two reasons: the bride was an old college friend/sorority sister, and her style was very different from the majority of my clients. Ashley and I were Chi Omegas together at The University of Tulsa and had reconnected in Southern California through the Los Angeles Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter. We didn’t know each other very well in college, but I really enjoyed getting to know Ashley better over the course of her engagement. Our meetings consisted of all the fun stuff associated with wedding floral preparation, along with catching each other up on the lives of our ChiO sisters from college! Ashley also had very strong opinions about what she liked and didn’t like, which was incredibly helpful, and hysterically funny!

Ashley’s style is a combination of elegant/traditional/romantic/preppy. Although I do design a lot of elegant and romantic weddings, I would have to say the majority of my weddings are non-traditional, and I don’t think I’d designed for a preppy bride in about ten years! My challenge was to make these wedding florals and decor totally reflective of Ashley and Tinoush, while also infusing the event with the lush, textural quality that my work is known for. In the end, Ashley & Tinoush’s personal style and my design aesthetic melded beautifully. The wedding was gorgeous in every way, and these images (from the brilliant Victor Sizemore) are the proof!

Ashley’s bouquet consisted of garden roses, traditional roses, spray roses, tulips, lisianthus, bear grass and aspidistra leaves. Her attendents carried bouquets that were smaller versions of her own, minus the pale pink elements. I sourced some exquisite navy and white striped grosgrain ribbon in several different sizes to be used throughout this wedding- and that 4 inch wide version on Ashley’s bouquet is at once both preppy and romantic, no?

Tinoush wore a boutonniere consisting of single tulip, accented with both hot pink and orange spray roses, and bear grass. The navy and white striped grosgrain ribbon used throughout the wedding was tied in a masculine knot over all the boutonnieres.

Ashley’s dress was absolutely stunning and so unexpected! I just love it when a gown looks so simple from the front but has a total wow factor on the back!

Good-looking couple alert!!! Aren’t they handsome? And so in love.

The wedding took place at Verandas, a charming private venue in Manhattan Beach. It has an upstairs room with a lounge and dance floor, which looks out onto the Pacific Ocean. Downstairs is a perfect space for a reception, and the garden, where Ashley and Tinoush’s ceremony took place, feels like a secret enchanted garden, complete with lily pond and tropical landscaping. I absolutely loved working at this venue, and depending on the guest count, I can imagine it being used for a wedding with any number of different layout configurations. It has a very unique feel for a SoCal venue– it’s laid-back, no stuffiness, but still manages to exude some Hampton’s-like East-Coast flair. The white lounge furniture upstairs and the classic gold chaivari chairs provide a wonderful “clean slate” for a designer to come in and make the space personal for the couple getting married.

The garden was lush and green, totally happy in August when this wedding took place, so there was little need for additional decor. I affixed shepherds hooks to the ends of the aisles and hung green kermit mum pomander balls, which defined the space and added a bright pop of color. Truly, nothing else was needed.

Apart from the stripy ribbon, green apples were chosen as the other “preppy” elmement. I used them in the centerpieces and they also served as escort cards. Ashley wrote her guests names and table numbers on navy paper leaves, which my team then affixed to the apples along with hot pink striped grosgrain ribbon.

The centerpieces were a mix of three different styles. All the clear glass vases were treated with the striped navy and white grosgrain ribbon in various widths. The two taller arrangements featured green apples in the base, while the shorter arrangements had green apples placed around them on the table. A “beachy element” of bleached driftwood was also included at the base of the centerpieces along with rose petals, and a single green kermit mum was placed at each place setting for an added pop of color against the white and gray linens.

The tallest centerpieces featured a topper of bright mixed florals and tropical greens.

The medium-height centerpieces had toppers consisting of pink multi-hued hydrangea.

And the short centerpieces featured a collection of three vases, each holding a different flower. In Chi Omega, Ashley and I were in the same “family,” and our family flower was the gerbera daisy. Gerbera daisies are difficult to add to bouquets and arrangements because of their shape and inflexible stems, but Ashley wanted them included as a nod to our ChiO family, so I was able to use them clustered together as part of these low arrangements. Whenever I see a daisy, I’m reminded of Meg Ryan’s character in You’ve Got Mail, when she says “Don’t you think that daisies are the friendliest flowers?”

After dinner, everyone went upstairs and a pretty awesome dance party commenced. Ashley changed into a fabulous little white party dress, and the dancing went on late into the night.

From reconnecting with Ashley, to meeting her wonderful mother Jan, to seeing friends at the wedding whom I hadn’t seen since 2005… well, everything about this wedding was a pleasure. Ashley and Tinoush, you rock. Next time I’m in L.A., let’s play! In the meantime and ever after, I wish you all the best in your marriage and in life!

Thanks to all who have sent messages and tried to alert me that my website was down. It was actually out since Tuesday night due to some major hard-drive failures at the server host. As a result, my email wasn’t working properly either, so I’ve been biting my fingernails the past few days, feeling somewhat at a loss…. you’ve no idea how much I rely on this site and my email for the day-to-day operations of running this business. I told my grandmother about this over the phone yesterday, and about the blizzard we’re currently experiencing here in Denver, and she encouraged me to use the time wisely and consider it a “gift.” I did manage to clean my office after having turned it into a war zone while I was prepping and paying my business taxes… and now that we’re back “online,” I’m excited to jump back into corresponding with my clients, relaying new design ideas, and of course, blogging!

Have a wonderful weekend! Real wedding coming at you on Monday morning!

I arrived home yesterday after being with my family in Cleveland for a week. The “currently reading” post that went up last Tuesday had been scheduled in advance, but otherwise the lack of posting was due to the fact that I was traveling, and grieving. My younger cousin Peter, who had been tormented by mental illness for the past ten years, chose to leave this life in search of something better. I still can’t think of him without crying, but I am comforted by the knowledge that he is finally free.

It is good to be back home with my husband, and back to work. Emails have piled up. Meetings have been rescheduled. Taxes still need to be finished. Work is good, and keeps my mind occupied. Because the truth is, life goes on. I feel like taking a week to grieve with my family may be considered indulgent in this day and age, but the reality of the situation is… I needed it.

Denver is cold and dreary, much like Cleveland was. I do long for a bit of sunshine and some warmer days, to help me shake this melancholy. Fortunately, I have these pictures, taken January 20th, 2011. Just one year ago, this is how green and sunshiny my back patio was in Los Angeles. I had a snack lunch under the shade of my sun umbrella. Tea and toast on a chilly day in Colorado isn’t quite the same, so I am grateful to have these images to bolster my spirits. Life goes on, and we learn to cope as best we are able…

Back to work!