Quick Guide to Flowers for Your Wedding

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from Brides: What flowers are in season during the month of my wedding?
The second most frequently asked question on flowers: What does a (insert flower name) look like?

SO, I'm going to share my secret weapon with you. There is a website called Sierra Flower Finder that I often use throughout the design process to communicate with my clients.



The website allows you to view flowers by their name with the various breeds and colors each flower comes in. There is a detailed description of each flower. I also love the fact that they showcase each of their growers and breeders.

Just keep in mind that you can request a flower you find on this site but the specific color/breed may not be available to all designers. Use it as a guide to help you out and have fun doing it!

Happy designing!

Ecofficiency Speaker Series at the The Camp - Greening Your Home Part 2

Happy Monday!

I'm sure you're excited to read about Speaker #2 from last week's Ecofficiency meeting. Meet the Building Doctors. Yeah, I was a bit puzzled too when James approached the stage wearing a set of blue scrubs. But I appreciate the humor! This company specializes in home energy audits and upgrades. And just as a doctor assesses a persons symptoms to determine a plan of health action, so do the Building Doctors for the home.

If you are interested in improving the efficiency of your home, this is a great place to start. Believe it or not, America's largest source of carbon emissions stem from our homes NOT our cars. Surprising, eh?

To start, a home's performance is determined not through its individual units or systems but as a whole. Part of the process of building auditing includes analyzing the various fundamentals in the home (such as air sealing, lighting, etc) and major systems (such as heating, air conditioning, ventilation). Once the problem areas are found, a treatment plan in drawn up. And the retrofitting begins. Interestingly enough, a common source of energy inefficiency? Gaping holes in duct pipes.

Once all is said and done, the performance of the home is tested again for quality assurance purposes. As for costs, that was never covered. But I would imagine that your utility costs would diminish over time as the efficiency of your home improves.

For more information about the Building Doctors, you can visit their website here.

Cheers!

Ecofficiency Speaker Series at the The Camp - Greening Your Home Part 1

As you probably know by now, Ecofficiency holds a monthly meeting at The Camp focusing on specific topics of everyday sustainability. This last Tuesday's meeting covered Greening Your Home. We were lucky enough to have 3 different speakers address various topics to assist us in making our home healthier to live in. Because each topic was so extensive, I will be spreading this meeting out over 2 blog posts.

The first speakers of the evening were Lisa and Ron Beres, a husband and wife team who co-authored Just Green It and pioneered Greennest.com. Both are building biologists who have dedicated their efforts to educating people on reducing the toxins in their home. Believe it or not, you can develop something called Sick Building Syndrome if toxins in your house reach a level that your body can no longer handle. So, here are a few tips for you to creating a a healthier living environment. Use your 5 sense and follow along!

1) Smell - Create better indoor air quality via increasing ventilation, replacing furnace filters, using HEPA vacuums and air purifiers, checking for lead paint, painting the walls with low or zero VOC paints, using non-toxic cleaning products.
2) Taste - Filter your drinking waters through reverse osmosis, carbon-based filters, distillation and shower-head filters. Avoid toxic plastic containers that contain BPA and/or are plastic #3, #6 #7. Use stainless steel water bottles and/or plastic #1, #2, #4, #5.
3) Sound - Reduce electro-pollutions that cause sleep deprivation and interfere with the body's immune system. Move your cell phone, cell phone charger, LCD tv and Plasma tv away from you sleeping areas.
4) Touch - Be conscious of the fabrics you sleep on as many are treated with formaldehyde and pesticides. Eliminate toxic flooring and pesticides.
5) Sight - Have a vision for your green life!

I hope this was insightful to you! Feel free to browse the Green Nest website here for more information on how to green your home. The Beres' book is a great place to start in case you need a manual to green living in your home.

PS - There is a book that I use regularly called Haley's Hints Green Edition that gives you great household tips from cooking to cleaning and everything in between. This is where I learned to create my own cleaning solutions with safe products such as vinegar, baking soda and toothpaste. Truthfully, I didn't care about having chemicals in my house until I had children. Just the thought of them getting into dangerous chemicals gives me chills but now I don't have to worry about it!

Cheers to green living!

Chocolate Inpsired Floral Arrangements by Floral Sense Featured on Green Wedding Shoes

Floral Sense recently had the privilege of having our florals featured on the amazing Green Wedding Shoes! This is the yummiest photoshoot that we have participated in so far and I have chocolate cravings each time I look at these photos. Here's a snapshot directly from the Green Wedding Shoes blog post.



The masterminds behind this photoshoot were Leila of Be Inspired PR and Gianna of Chic Celebrations. The FAB photographer, Lane Dittoe, captured these images with film! And the chocolates - OMG - they were delish!!

Check out the blog post for more pictures and info of the amazing vendors involved. Just be prepared to have some chocolate handy to fulfill your cravings.

The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA

Every year, I like to make a trip down to The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA to soak in the yummy colorful rows of ranunculus. Pictures truly do no justice to the beauty of experiencing the floral blooms in person. Here are just a few shots from their website:



The best part of this year is that the fields will be open to the public until May 15th! Check out the The Flower Field website here for more info.

It'll cost $10 per adult and $5 per child to get in. And it is totally worth it!

Venue: Hotel Maya - A Doubletree Hotel in Long Beach, CA

Recall the last photoshoot of our bouquets that was featured on Style Unveiled? Well, the fabulous Kelly Mendoza of True Bliss Photography introduced me to this gem of a venue in Long Beach called Hotel Maya for that photoshoot. I got a chance to scan through some photos before heading over there. But seeing the location in person made me want to throw my own wedding here! The hotel's design is incredibly unique. I found myself looking forward to the next room and hallway to see what was in store. And I was never disappointed at each turn. Check out some of the images I was able to capture via my iphone.






Here are some photos from Hotel Maya's Facebook page:




This is the one element that I keep thinking about - this 10 foot hand-carved door.


For more information on this gorgeous venue, feel free to visit their Facebook Page here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Press: Style Unveiled Feature of Bridal Dress Bouquets

Several weeks ago, Style Unveiled invited me to be a part of their Bridal Dress Bouquet Challenge. I was presented with 7 different gorgeous bridal gowns and I chose 2 of them to design from. I let the dresses do the talking for my inspiration and came up with 2 completely different looks! You can view the original post on Style Unveiled here.


And, they loved the Vera Wang inspired bouquet so much that they featured it again all by its pretty self. You can view the original post for that one here.


Hope you were inspired to find that one-of-a-kind wedding dress for you!

PS - The fab photographer behind these images is Kelly Mendoza of True Bliss Photography. She is truly amazing!