Happy Spring!

I hope you all enjoyed beautiful spring weather this past Easter weekend.  We celebrated with some very spring-y flower arrangements - like this one with , and a lone white peony.  Hooray for spring!  

And... we're back!

First wedding of 2014!  So excited for spring, so excited to be back in the studio creating wedding bouquets!  These pieces are for a beautiful spring wedding at Waldenwoods, which will be beautiful by the lake in the sun! I'm often asked what to do for mothers and grandmothers if you don't want a wrist corsage because it can get crushed, or you don't want to worry about a pin-on corsage leaving holes in delicate fabrics.  I love the idea of a petite nosegay for the mothers and grandmothers, like this one - a little something lovely for mom!

The bridesmaids bouquets included  peach juliet garden roses, blush pink romantic antike roses, yellow ranunculus, succulents, and white mathiola.

And these beautiful cherry blossom arrangements - 2 of them on either side of the mantle at Waldenwoods.

Flower subscriptions - floral designs for your home or office

Red Poppy is now offering a floral subscription service, delivering flowers to your home or office in Ann Arbor, once or twice per month.   Each delivery is designed with unique and seasonal elements, with the same attention to design and detail as Red Poppy's wedding and special event flowers.  Contact us if you'd like more information - flower subscriptions are a great gift for the flower lover!  

This week's delivery included blue delphinium, creamy peach trust roses, lavender mums, berzilla berries and magenta thistle.

Flower Class with Bloom

Still enjoying these spring blooms that we designed in a Bloom Florist Collective floral design class a week ago!  I really need the reminder of spring as it's pouring down snow outside my window - boo!  For this class, we used a cheerful and elegant mix of peach juliet garden roses, burgundy snapdragons, yellow tulips, daffodils, and freesia, solidago and pieris japonica.  We have more classes scheduled so you can get your spring on!  www.bloomclass.com  

The Brides Project

Today I donated my sister's wedding dress to The Brides Project Ann Arbor, and I'm so proud that our family can be a part of this excellent cause and organization.  The Brides Project accepts donated wedding dresses and sells them, with all proceeds going to supporting those with cancer.  It's so worthwhile, it overcomes the initial hesitation to donate that dress in your closet that not's really doing anything, but you can't quite part with it.   Great for the environment that this dress gets more than one spin on the dance floor, and another bride is going to get a great deal.  What's not to love?  Thank you, The Brides Project!

Featured in Be Minked!

So proud that our Cottonwood Barn Styled Shoot has been featured in Be Minked!   If you haven't seen it yet, check out Be Minked - it's a beautiful website with luxe wedding ideas and featuring love and creativity, edited by a creative husband and wife photography team.  Very cool, and so honored to be featured!

Cottonwood Barn Partner Vendor

I am so excited to be named a partner vendor for Cottonwood Barn in Dexter, Michigan, just a few minutes from Ann Arbor.  This is really a special place, thoughtfully designed and renovated to be a wedding venue full of character, and it's also practical and modern and all the right ways - a beautiful bridal suite, gorgeous copper bar, and practical things like a beautiful updated bathrooms and a large coatroom.  Wedding guests will feel right at home, and there are lots of options for indoor and outdoor ceremony, reception, and cocktail spaces.   The decor has the right mix of rustic and elegant - the chandelier is amazing!!  

I loved doing this photoshoot with Luna Soiree, Melanie Reyes Photography and Danya Mae Photography at Cottonwood this autumn, and I can't wait to return for some weddings this year!

Designing in California with Chapel Designers

I am so excited to post about my trip to Santa Barbara, California in January to join the Chapel Designers/Florabundance Design Days.  I am so honored to be a part of the Chapel Designers - a group of like-minded, dedicated, independent floral designers who come together to share skills, knowledge, and ideas about the wedding flower industry, and to support each other.   This is an amazingly talented (and fun!) professional group, and I was so honored to join in January.  

We had an amazing time at Sunstone Winery, designing with Chapel Designers founder Holly Chapple, Nancy Liu Chin, Joseph Massie, and Francoise Weeks.  Here's just a few images of two of the individual projects I made - a bouquet filled with textures, berries and branches and a fancy hair piece.  More images to come soon of the fabulous group projects we made when those are available!  A huge thanks you to Diana Marie Photography for these beautiful images and for capturing the whole workshop so beautifully!

We're on Borrowed & Blue!

Red Poppy is so thrilled to be a wedding florist featured in the new Borrowed & Blue Directory for Ann Arbor together with some amazing local vendors!  Borrowed & Blue focusses on locally inspired weddings and provides a truly great list of vendors that focus on Ann Arbor.  I really appreciate that Borrowed & Blue has a dedicated Ann Arbor collection of vendors - I think sometimes it can be confusing when vendor listings include all of metro Detroit - this makes it much easier to see a great listing of folks who work frequently in the Ann Arbor area, so I'll certainly be recommending this resource to my brides!  Thank you, Borrowed & Blue!

Orange tulip inspiration!

It's very busy with proposal writing around here!  And these bright cheery tulips are helping me think spring eventhough it's still pretty grey outside.  Only a few more months and  bright tulips will be popping up for real!  We planted 50 tulip bulbs at our house this past autumn, so can't wait to see them popping up all over!