First, where does the boutonniere get placed?  On the left lapel.  On a notched lapel, such as the one shown below, the boutonniere is placed below the notch.  Many suit coats have a buttonhole in the exact area where you want to pin the boutonniere.  Guess what boutonniere means in French?  You guessed it: buttonhole.  That’s why it’s there, though admittedly kind of vestigial.

So let’s get started.  First, I hold up the boutonniere to the lapel, to see where I think it looks right.  I try to center the boutonniere on the lapel from left to right, allowing for a little space from the seam leading to the notch of the lapel.  I like to angle the stems so they follow the narrowing angle of the lapel.  You can see below what my mind is targeting as I size up the lapel.  Equal distances between the left, right, and top of the lapel, stems angled toward the bottom of the lapel.

Now for the hard part.  Bring on the pins!  Basically, you use the pins to make a stitch through the boutonniere stems.  The stitch (or pin) begins and ends on the back side of the lapel, catching the boutonniere stem on the front of the lapel.  Make sense?  By approaching the boutonniere from the back of the lapel, the pins aren’t visible.

I hold the boutonniere in place, then flip the lapel slightly so I can see the back of the lapel.  I put the pin through the back of the lapel, fairly perpendicular to the boutonniere stems.  I like to place the first pin near the top of the stems.  The stems may be wrapped with ribbon or floral tape.  I like to get that first pin through the top of whatever is holding the stems together.  I use a second pin a little lower than the first, to prevent the boutonniere from pivoting.  Or if the boutonniere has a leaf background to it, I’ll use the second pin up higher and go through the leaf.  Below is a photo of two pins behind the lapel and through the boutonniere stems.

And the final product:

I’ve seen many different ways of pinning boutonnieres, but I find this technique to work best for me.

What?  Too many words to read?  Okay, okay.  See the video here!

Thanks to the model, Matt Gassman of The Traveling Photo Booth!

With many couples getting engaged between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, these months are busy for wedding professionals.  ”Booking season” is full of tasks like responding to inquiries, meeting for consultations, and writing proposals.  I expand my meeting hours during these months to accommodate the influx of inquiries, so just like during the wedding season, I’m still working into the evenings.  I’m doing something right–I’ve been meeting with awesome couples, and happy to report that we’re working with many of them, too!

Knowing how wedding peeps’ schedules work, those planning networking events for the wedding industry often schedule those events for January through March.  Thursday Therapy has become a popular year-round opportunity for wedding vendors to hang out in a relaxed atmosphere, and we were happy to participate in February’s Wild West themed event at the colorful and quirky Catalyst Ranch.  Pollen provided the flowers, while fellow members of the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance provided food, drinks, photography, bakery items, etc.  Other participating vendors included Cage + Aquarium, Goose Island Catering, Heather DeCamp Photography, Luscious Layers, Nimble Well, and Spilled Ink Press.

photo by Heather DeCamp Photography
http://www.heatherdecampphotography.com/

This is also a popular time for wedding shows, to connect wedding vendors with the recently engaged.  We keep our wedding show participation pretty streamlined.  We were excited to participate in Indie Wed and Committed this winter.  The usual wedding shows aren’t our thing, but these two shows attract a little more nontraditional crowd, which we love!

Here’s our display at Indie Wed.  Thanks to Amanda Megan Miller Photography for including us in her Indie Wed recap!

photo by Amanda Megan Miller
http://www.amandameganmiller.com/

Members of the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance gathered at the end of February to display at Committed at Greenhouse Loft.  Check out the recap here.  That’s right, I’m wearing the same dress.  And if I do your wedding flowers, you’ll get to see me in it again on your wedding day!  (It’s my uniform.)

photo by Greenhouse Loft.
http://www.greenhouseloft.com/

And then there are the less-photogenic tasks of the off season.  Bookkeeping catch-up.  Budgeting.  Organizing.  Taxes.  Catching up on all of the things that during wedding season, I tell myself, “I’ll do that in winter.”  Like blogging…

After some instruction and demonstration (and mimosas and bloody marys), the students designed their own arrangements.  I was so impressed by how well they did!

We worked with all locally grown flowers to create a low and lush centerpiece appropriate for a dining table.  The flowers selection included dahlias, zinnias, gomphrena, viburnum berries, lisianthus, cosmos, coxcomb…  Lots of bright and beautiful summer flowers.  I set up an area for students to take photos of their arrangements (then lurked behind them and took some myself).  Check out the students’ arrangements below and on Pollen’s Facebook page, where many of the students have posted photos of their work.

I’m seriously impressed with their work!  If you are a Pollen client and missed it, have no fear, I’ll be doing it again next year.  I had so much fun reconnecting with my clients, meeting their friends and family, and seeing their pride in their new design skills!

If you aren’t a client (or if you are, and can’t wait until the next one exclusive to clients), there will be another workshop in a few short weeks.   Sunday, September 9, 2012, I will be hosting a workshop/fundraiser to help out one of my flower friends with the costs related to his recent cancer diagnosis and treatment.  You may have met my flower friend, Les with The Flower Garden, while buying flowers at the Green City Market.  All ticket sales go toward his medical costs.  This workshop is limited to just 10 people, so sign up quickly!   Get more information about the fundraiser/workshop (open to the public) and buy tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/256572

The bridal bouquet featured some of my very favorite blooms of spring.  Flowering dogwood in a bridal bouquet? Yes, please!  Also, Juliet garden roses, peonies, stock, dusty miller, and lily of the valley.  Colleen loved lily of the valley, and I was so excited when the season cooperated and I was able to snag locally grown lily of the valley for her bouquet and Onur’s boutonniere.  The season for it is so very brief, but we got it!

The bridesmaids’ bouquets had a bit more color to them, and they contained spray roses, Juliet garden roses, peonies, dahlias, scabiosa, and stock.  I love the color scheme, or lack thereof.

The centerpieces were low and sprawling displays in recycled glass containers.

Congratulations to Collen and Onur!  For more photos of the wedding, visit the post on Dawn E. Roscoe’s blog.

Photographer: Dawn E. Roscoe Photography
Day of Coordination: Five Grain Events
Venue: Bond Chapel and The Quadrangle Club, University of Chicago

photo by Colin Lyons Photography
cake by Molly’s Cupcakes

cake by Flour

photo by Amanda Hein Photography
cake by Tipsy Cake

photo by Dawn E. Roscoe Photography
cake by Cream Cake Co.

cake by Flour

Sunday, September 9, 2012
11AM – 1PM
Pollen
3717 N. Ravenswood Ave. #237
Chicago, IL 60613

REGISTER HERE

The introductory two-hour class, taught at Pollen’s floral design studio in the Ravenswood Corridor, will cover:
- flower selection,
- cut flower care, and
- the basics of floral design.

Instruction will have an emphasis on working with late summer, locally grown flowers to create a low and lush centerpiece suitable for a dining room table.  After some instruction and demonstration, each student will design a centerpiece of flowers from The Flower Garden to take home.

We’ll work with seasonal flowers such as dahlias, lisianthus, coxcomb, zinnias, gomphrena, and billy balls.  Students are encouraged to bring their own vase, and we recommend bringing a vase roughly 5″ tall and 5″ in diameter.  Vases will also be available for purchase.

To offer the most interactive instruction possible, the class is limited to 10 people.  Registration is required, and at $100 per person includes instruction, flowers, the use of tools, and refreshments.  All ticket sales help pay for Les’ cancer treatment.

REGISTER HERE

The class will have an emphasis on designing a low and lush arrangement with seasonal farmers market flowers.  After some instruction and demonstration, each student will design a floral arrangement to take home.  Students are encouraged to bring the vase they use most often, but please only bring vases that are under 6″ tall and with openings under 5″ wide.  5″ x 5″ clear glass cylinder vases will also be available for purchase.

To offer the most interactive instruction possible, the class is limited to 15 people, and therefore clients are limited to one additional guest.  Registration is $15 per person, and includes instruction, flowers, and the use of tools.

REGISTER HERE

*Not a Pollen client, and want to take the class? You’re in luck! We’ve just added another class as a fundraiser for a flower friend. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/256572

Avoiding Floral Foam:
This is a biggie.  We have nearly entirely eliminated our use of floral foam, and yesterday’s wedding was another step toward foam-freedom.  Why avoid floral foam?  It’s a petroleum product, and we don’t need more reasons to be digging around for oil, do we?  Floral foam doesn’t biodegrade.  And it contains formaldehyde.  When cut while dry, it creates a dust that the person cutting it can’t help but inhale.  My fellow florists can attest to the evidence of this inhalation, seen when one blows his or her nose after cutting dry floral foam.  Gross, yes, but illustrative, no?

There are just a few applications left that I haven’t yet been able to figure out how to avoid using floral foam.  One of those was to decorate structures, such as chuppahs.  What to do?  I went old school: chicken wire.  I bundled up some chicken wire, secured it to the chuppah, and added the foliage and flowers on site.

Another application requiring some trial and error in order to avoid floral foam was in designing tall centerpieces.  Usually those are designed in floral foam that is taped to a tray, then the tray then is set on top of the tall vase.  Instead of going this route, I’ve been using a tall vase and designing directly in the vase, with the stems in water.  Getting a perfect sphere of flowers is tricky with this technique, but most of my clients are looking for a looser outline, which works out perfectly!

And yet another challenge is when designing in low bowls.   In this case, I went old school again and used floral frogs in the containers.  Floral frogs come in a few different forms, including glass ones with holes in them and metal ones that look like a bunch of pins sticking up.  I used the latter in these low glass bowls, then put in some small rocks to camouflage the frog.

Below you can see a low centerpiece, as well as the tall centerpieces in the background.

On the table, we provided soy wax candles to provide soft light once the sun set.  We also lined the window ledges with votive candles.  Speaking of our candles…

Thoughtful Candles
The clients chose Pollen to provide the candles because we offer soy wax votive candles, which we have refilled by Bright Endeavors.  Most candles are made from paraffin wax.  You guessed it: another petroleum product.   Soy wax votives burn cleaner and are plant-derived.

Many times after weddings and events, the votive candles simply get thrown out.  It’s cheaper to buy new ones than the cost of having someone remove the stubborn paraffin wax from spent candles.  Soy wax, on the other hand, is quite easy to remove.   Pollen partners with Bright Endeavors, a social enterprise that provides job skills training to women at risk for poverty while producing eco-friendly bath and candle products.  Bright Endeavors offers a votive refill program that allows us to bring back our spent votives again and again to be refilled with soy wax.

Even for our clients that don’t prioritize sustainability in their wedding planning, we’re working in ways that minimize waste in our business, and therefore at their weddings.  For those who place value on sustainability, Pollen is the perfect florist to work with to host a greener wedding.

You typically will get better service, quality, and pricing if you avoid national order-gathering companies and work directly with a local florist. Read this article by Florist Chronicles for more information.

Call the local florist prepared with the day you would like the flowers delivered, the name and address of the recipient, the message you would like on the card, your budget, and your credit card number. You will often get better product if you allow the florist some flexibility, rather than picking a numbered or titled bouquet.  Think of descriptions such as “simple, white, and modern” or “wildflowery with lots of pink” instead of “TF105-3.”

And order early. You will get better service and make the florist’s job easier if you place your order sooner rather than later.

Happy Mothers Day, and I’ll be thinking of all of my retail florist friends this week!  Sending you lots of positive energy!  Some of our floral friends, who can help you with Mothers Day orders (in alphabetical order) are:

• Fleur
• Flora
• Flowers Flowers located in Evanston, but also delivers to Chicago and most North Shore burbs
• Larkspur
• Southport Blooms, if you’re looking for a florist in the neighborhood

I was excited to meet some vendors with whom I have been hoping to cross paths.  And I got to see some friends’ new(ish) businesses, such as Plate, Crafty Broads, and Pink Cottage Pastry.  Kudos for taking the leap!

Thanks to friend/floral designer/interior designer Paul, who was at my side while putting together the display and on the day of Indie Wed.  Here’s the final display:

A couple of weeks prior to Indie Wed, Paul and I scoured The ReBuilding Exchange for inspiration, without too much of an idea of what we would do for the display.  We picked up some folding doors and somehow came up with the idea of attaching pussy willow branches to the doors.  The overall effect of the pussy willow was of a somewhat random pattern… neutral but natural.  We went with Pollen’s colors of dark brown, mossy green, and raspberry (picked up in the flowers).

I wanted to use furniture from the studio so that the display “felt” like Pollen.  The pedestals were locally made a few years back by my talented carpenter friends Carson and Dave.  The table was a craiglist find (with a little revamping to change the tabletop from orange to white and expose the layers of plywood).  And the chair is one of four Heywood Wakefield school chairs I picked up at the Kane County Flea Market.  (Have you been?  You must go!)

The display showcased our favored naturalistic style.  On display were a bouquet, a floral centerpiece, a planted centerpiece, a boutonniere, and a showier piece, like might be used at the guest book table or bar at a wedding.  The flowers all went together, but weren’t too matchy-matchy.

The designs kept with our eco-friendly focus, eschewing floral foam (a non-biodegradable petroleum product).  The focal arrangement was designed in a recycled glass vase.  The smaller floral centerpiece was designed in a vintage glass container.  While our first choice is to work with locally grown product, during Chicago’s winters that just isn’t possible.  So we hand-selected a combination of sustainable, domestic, and Dutch floral product.

photo by Lily Red Studio (©Lily Red Studio 2012)

The bouquet was loose and sprawling, and wrapped with a plant-based ribbon.

photo by Lily Red Studio (©Lily Red Studio 2012)

The planted centerpiece, a low container of succulents, showed an example of a centerpiece that can have a life beyond the day of the wedding.

The flowers used included the following:

• from California, acacia, scabiosa, blackberries, and viburnum;
• from the Netherlands, kale, anemone, muscari hyacinth, cymbidium orchids, snowball viburnum, ranunculus, hellebores, and bullet allium; and
• from a certified sustainable grower in South America, blue thistle and hydroponically grown roses.

Paul “person”-ed the booth while I joined fellow Green Wedding Alliance members Nina from Tweedle Press and Molly from FIG Catering to give a short workshop on green wedding tips.

Thanks to all who came out to Indie Wed and stopped by to say “hi.”  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!