My Best Advice For You Brides!

After years of working in the wedding industry, I've compiled a list of suggestions for my brides, and I’m happy to share them with you!

1.) Choose your color palate. It’s important that you do this first, as it will effect all of your decisions, the dresses, flowers, favors, cake, invitations, etc.

2.) Don’t be afraid of color! I find that most brides choose white, beige, silver and gold because they believe those colors are safer choices. Believe me, unless those colors truly represent you, there’s nothing more generic and bland than those colors at a wedding. They all end up looking the same, and over time, those weddings aren’t distinguishable from other weddings you've attended. Fortunately, color is very popular right now, so go for it! Some of the most popular colors with my brides are chocolate and sage, chocolate and orange, pink and mauve, earth tones-oranges, reds, and yellows, or bold color combinations like red and aqua, mustard and black. Just think about what colors represent you, and go for it!

3.) Choose your wedding theme and style. Is your event going to be formal, funky, retro, art deco, beach casual, earthy and organic, tropical, zen, rustic, wine country chic, the possibilities are endless!

4.) Choose your venue and make adjustments to your color palate and theme as needed.

5.) Choose your invitations. Make sure your colors and theme are represented. These invitations are making the first impression guests will have of your wedding so to speak. Again, go for it, don’t fall back on traditional designs because they’re safer. Be you!

6.) Choose the dresses, and again, incorporate your colors and style. For instance, choose something less formal for a beach wedding, or a funkier shoe and head piece for an avaunt guard wedding.

7.) Work with a floral designer and design flowers that work with your colors, style, theme, and budget. Remember, be unique. For instance, for a wine country wedding, incorporate grapes, vines, leaves, and other elements. Maybe use corks for hold the place cards. Or, for a beach themed wedding, use sea urchins for place card holders, and incorporate shells into the bouquets and centerpieces. Again, the possibilities are endless. Be creative and work with a designer that understands your vision.

8.) I'm a BIG fan of colored linens and contrasting napkins. If your budget allows it, definitely go for it. It goes a long way in delivering and reinforcing your colors and theme.

9.) When you're selecting your place cards, favors, and cake, remember your colors and theme. Be creative and keep your theme consistent throughout the entire event.

10.) Most importantly--have fun! Choose vendors that you feel comfortable with and trust. Give clear and specific instructions, provide a timeline if you have one, and then, let them have at it.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or need assistance. Happy planning!

If You're Going To Do It, Do It Right!

Designer Tips for those of you who want more than mediocre flowers available from most vendors. Hope it helps!

1.) Choose your colors carefully. If you look at a color wheel, your colors should either be adjacent to each other; or if using two colors, on opposite ends of the color wheel; or if you're using three colors, your colors should form a equilateral triangle when you're looking at the color wheel.











2.) Choose your container carefully. Please be creative, use a bowl, a mug, a teapot, but please, please, please, don't limit yourself to those generic glass vases. Be creative, and take some risks! You are sure to have something at your house that will work wonderfully!

3.) If you're using floral foam, don't hold it under the tap or forcibly submerge it under water! You must fill a vessel with water and float the foam on it in order to ensure that there are no air pockets. I know, I know, this is a total pain, and even I must admit to wanting to cut corner here. But, please don't, it will really make a significant difference to the longevity of your flowers. Also, if you're going to add floral preservative, please dissolve it in the water prior to soaking the foam.

4.) Make sure you have adequate foliage. You're always going to need more than you think! No need to run out and spend money here, simply scan your back yard and see if there's anything that you can use. Remember, you want the foliage to look good with your color palate!

5.) Pick the shape of your arrangement, i.e., tall, round, oval, eclipse, asymmetrical, etc., and green in your foliage to give a rough outline of that shape. The tallest peak of your flowers should be at least the same height of the container, if not more.

6.) Now you can start placing your flowers. Use a sharp knife, like a swiss army knife and cut your flowers at an angle so that they can take up more water.

7.) Very important--put larger headed flowers lower in the arrangement, and smaller headed flowers higher in the arrangement.

8.) Also very important--put darker flowers lower in the arrangement, and lighter flowers higher in the arrangement.

I hope your inner designer shines! Best of luck!

Fleur De Vie Sponsors The Great Bridal Expo!

So, a couple of months ago, Fleur De Vie was the sponsor florist for the Great Bridal Expo at the San Jose Fairmont. Being new to the whole bridal show circuit, we were surprised by the traffic that we experienced. The response and feedback was also overwhelming and positive, and we enjoyed being able to meet with brides face-to-face, as opposed to the usual email or phone conversation.

As the sponsor florist, Fleur De Vie was asked to provide white and pink bouquets for the fashion show. Needless to say, white and pink flowers are not commonly requested by our clients, who are often times less traditional. We decided to take our colors and work with them so that the designs were still unique and representative of what we do, but new and different. For the white bouquets, we decided to make them funky and organic, using green and chocolate as accenting colors. We used white orchids, roses, chamomile, monkey tails, and even daisies to make it fun, yet funky. To accent our flowers, we set up a sample table with linens, plates, chargers, flatware, and chairs, graciously provided by Classic Party Rentals. OMG, the end look tied in so well together, I loved the chargers and even the flatware had monkey tails on them, which tied in so nicely with our flowers. Our visitors loved the look, and we received numerous requests for price quotes.

For the pink flowers, we decided to go tropical and highlight the phaleonopsis orchid. We used green anthurium, monkey tails, dates, bamboo, and orange mokara orchids. To make the centerpiece unique and funky, we used four baby watermelon as the base, and designed the flowers coming out of it. We know, we know, watermelon?!?! Well, it turns out, it wasn't suck a bad idea after all. The design came together very nicely, and receive lots of compliments. Unfortunately, what you don't see is the cocktail table mini arrangement that we made out of a grapefruit. That piece was so admired that it must have been picked up at least a hundred times. We referred to it as the molested grapefruit.

Please have a look at some pictures! And, we're going to be sponsoring the next bridal show in San Jose on May 3, 2009, at the San Jose Fairmont. Please email us and let us know if you need tickets. We have a limited number of complimentary tickets we'd be happy to hand out.

Hope to see some of you then!

Welcome Fleur De Vie's Blog!

Yeaaaah! Fleur De Vie's first blog posting. Finally, a venue where we can really share pictures, ideas, designs, and concepts without complicated changes to our website. Thanks for checking in and we look forward to sharing our thoughts and ideas with you!