Karla+Patrick

Karla and Patrick were married 10.10.09 at the SLO Mission. Karla is one of those people who had an always flickering sparkle in her eyes! She has been shopping at my shop for years now and came to me when she first was engaged with her ideas. Over time those ideas evolved and turned into her vision you see here. Thank you Karla for trusting us to make the vision come to reality and.....special thanks to Jen Rodriguez (formerly Jen Slot) for sharing these images with us. Although Jen and I have not personally met - just from my phone/e-mail communications with her I can tell she has that same sparkle in her eye!

The making of a succulent garden

It's a succulent kind of day. I'm meeting with my friends Matt and Sarah tomorrow for a floral consultation. They are getting married next fall and LOVE succulents. Coincidentally an order came into the shop today for a succulent garden for delivery! I heart succulents. They are hearty, native, and only require a little bit of water. Here's some pics of the garden I made this afternoon...

Aimee+Alex

Aimee and Alex were married on Sept 19th @ Cypress Ridge! Cypress had a soft romantic feeling to it with the heavy fog and quietness. Aimee chose all sunflowers since these are Alex's favorite flower and I'm glad she did. The bright yellow of the sunflowers popped right off of the gray fog - any other flower or color would have been lost to the wind. Congrats to Aimee and Alex - may your marriage be richly blessed! Thanks to the talented David Pascolla for sharing some of his fabulous images!

Lia+Brian

Lia and Brian were married yesterday @ The Mission! Here's a sneak peak of the flowers we created for them. More pics to come soon!

Fall Centerpieces

Had so much creative juice at the shop this weekend working on many different projects. Here's one that was particularly fun. Mini pumpkins, orchids, succulents, artichokes, sunflowers make up this fun table piece for a dinner party. Mum is not the word here @ April Flowers. We're using fresh and eclectic mixes to keep things well...interesting! Happy Fall!

Kellie+Paul

Kellie and Paul were married a while back at Tiber Canyon Olive Ranch - one of my favorite places! Calm, cool and collected is how I would describe Kellie. Trying to hunt down more photos - stay tuned. Pictures by Jayson Mellom Photography.

Fun with Jonathan @ Bluephoto

I needed a head shot and asked Jonathan @ Bluephoto if he'd be willing. He replied with can I come down to the shop @ 2pm today and I, of course, said great! He came over to the shop and we had a mini shoot right there in the shop. He got right into work mode and away we went...with a lot of fun along the way. Thanks for such a fun afternoon stint Jonathan! Here are some of my favs....

April Flowers gets noticed!

Thanks to Ken @ Ken Kienow Photography and Brooke & Raf for the awesome opportunity to create this bouquet! Snippet and Ink caught wind of the wedding details and featured it on their blog check it out here!

An alternative to mums

I heart succulents. They have so much texture and personality. What a great alternative to a mum plant for fall. Rich greens, browns and eggplant tones offer up the warm colors we all love at this time of year. Succulents are also so resilient! A side story for you...My father-in-law has them growing like weeds in his yard. Last year I had him clip some and bring them up for me to use in a wedding. Not only did they look great after a days worth of travel but I planted the stubby stems that were left and a year later I have my own succulent garden. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

something fun from the shop

So posting all the wedding pics are fun but that kind of leaves you hanging for bouquet photos from the shop eh? Well here's a few for now...

Brooke + Raf

Pics taken by the awesome Ken Kienow

Alyson + Derek

All pictures taken by Vita-Bella Photography.

Venue: Gainey Winery in Santa Ynez

Work in progress...

Friends, my blog is certainly a work in progress. I'm slowly getting the hang of it I think. I've moved onto blogspot rather than posting an internal blog on my website. Sadly, my old comments could not be transferred over...boo. So, feel free to comment again...yay! More (lots more) updates coming soon!

Ashley + Nathaniel

Photos by AMS Photographics

Kari + Kyle

Photos by the very fabulous Jen Slot Photography