Ravishing Red Wedding Flowers

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping my friend Carissa put together some wedding flowers for a friend of hers. Carissa asked me to make six pomanders so that she could concentrate on doing the bride's and bridesmaids' bouquets. The pomanders were made of ravishing red carnations.
They were so easy, but the result was stunning! We hung them from Carissa's mom's chandelier to wait for their ride to the ceremony site. I couldn't stop looking at them! I wanted to take one home with me, carry it like a purse and then sleep with it (weird much?).
Carissa is an excellent florist. This is the second wedding that I've gotten to help her with, and I did her wedding flowers, so I think the feelings of talent are mutual. Anyway, here's a bridesmaid's bouquet that she made for yesterday.

And the bride's bouquet. I know I don't generally apologize for bad pictures, but I'm going to apologize for these. They don't do justice to Carissa's work. And I didn't know the couple getting married, so of course I didn't go to the wedding where all the flowers could be seen in their full glory. But I heard the bride was thrilled. Good. That's always what a florist wants to hear.
There were some red roses and carnations leftover (always best to order too many than too few), so I got to take some home and make my own arrangement.
One of my greatest pleasures in life is working with flowers, and having them around. I truly believe that they are a manifestation of God's love, glory, creativity, and beauty.

Isn't there something just spectacular about a rose?

The More the Merrier

What's Blooming? IV

On Sunday, even though it was chilly and overcast, Husband and I decided to make a trip to the Botanic Gardens. We were so glad we did! It was a gorgeous day, and there were so many more flowers blooming this time.

Lots of tulips blooming...

And it's been raining a lot in Denver over the passed week,

so everything was covered with ethereal droplets of water.

The lilacs were completely delightful in their profusion...

And I'm not sure what this is, but I love it!

There were irises everywhere!
(Be thankful I'm not posting all my iris pictures)

And lastly, I was intrigued by all the "black" flowers.
I'd never seen so many different kinds in one place.

And of course, there were lots of these guys honking around...

New Dress for an Old Jar

Pansies are my favorite flower (along with about 5 others).
If I had a yard, they would be everywhere.
Instead, we have two pots of them sitting on the table on our deck.
They've finally started blooming profusely
(much to my heart's delight)
so I picked a few.

I didn't have a vase small enough for their short stems,
so I dressed up a glass spice jar using paper and twine.
It was still a little too large,
so I filled it with decorative stones before adding the flowers.

Now it's a dainty center piece for our small table.
Incidentally, I always keep our table partially set.
Otherwise it turns into an out of control catchall.

Here's a close-up of what I did with paper and twine.

And a couple of gratuitous pansy pictures,
because they're just so pretty.

I hope your day is filled with beauty.

This post is linked up to Sassy Site's Trash to Treasure Tuesday.

My Wedding Flowers

In honor of the royal wedding about to take place, Laura from Decor to Adore, has invited her readers to share their own bits of royalty. So here I go...

I work with flowers every chance I get, which includes doing wedding flowers (I'm up to 10 weddings!). However, when it came time for my own wedding, I didn't want to do my own. I knew I could, but I didn't want the stress. I also knew my mom would do a beautiful job, but I didn't want her to have to stress either. I didn't know what to do. Our budget was small, and we weren't having a fancy wedding anyway...but I did want beautiful flowers. That's when a couple of heroic family members stepped in and offered to pay to have my flowers done professionally. I was ecstatic! I hurried myself down to what I think is the prettiest flower shop (Sturtz and Copland) in the Boulder area, and met with a lovely woman named Rebecca. All I can say is that she was fabulous to work with, and did a fabulous job. I was so pleased with everything!

I'm still totally in love with my bouquet.
And this picture fills me with joy every time I look at it.
It looks like it could be from a magazine.

Rebecca also did a fabulous job with my husband's boutonniere.
His main request was for cool-looking orchids.
Looked great with his tie.

We had an outdoor wedding in the mountains,
which meant that there were plenty of wildflowers too.
Husband and I both loved our wedding so much.

What's Blooming? II

Yesterday afternoon, Husband and I went back to the Botanic Gardens. We're members. We can't stay away. And we can't leave our cameras at home. I make no claims of being a great photographer, but I can't go there and not take pictures.
The thing we love about being members is that we can go pretty much every week, and there are always new blooms to see. And we're both avid gardeners...with no yard to call our own.

There were lots more pansies this week, which thrilled my heart.

And tulips have started making appearances.
I think there will be a lot more next week.

This guy was just nonchalantly wandering the pathways,
as if enjoying the flowers and the gorgeous day.

What's Blooming?

Yesterday Husband and I took our first spring trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens. I'm really loving my first Denver spring. For the passed three years we've lived in the mountains, at nearly 9,000', where spring doesn't happen until the middle of June. It's so nice to have flowers in April again.

The prairie crocus has special meaning for us because they were always the first flowers to bloom where we lived in the mountains. At the end of May we would go for hikes just to look for them. When we found them, we knew spring really was coming...even if it was June.

My favorite flowers are probably pansies.

Beautiful, no?

So naturally, we had to stop at Home Depot on the way home to buy some pansies of our own. We don't have a yard (which makes us sad...someday we will have a beautiful one!) We had a lovely time potting them, and they look super cute sitting on our table on our deck.