Flower arrangements with amaranthus

If you love the Secret Garden look when it comes to flowers — you know, sort of like vines everywhere, a little bit wild — then you will probably want to put amaranthus in your floral decorations. Amaranthus looks like a green, but they’re actually flowers, very densely-packed flowers — and this flower also comes in bright, almost magenta, red. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the red variety. Sorry!

This centerpiece, from a wedding show, is a prime example of amaranthus. See how they’re hanging off the arrangement at the top of this silver vase? It’s a great look, not too polished, almost dreamy.

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Big flower arrangements for display

When we decorated weddings, my mom always readied a large display arrangement, usually for the entrance, sometimes to flank the head tables, or to punctuate the buffet table. Here are a few examples of big flower arrangements you can use to wow your guests.

Here is one at the entrance of a wedding reception. These flowers were built onto a three-tiered stand, a very heavy one, so its not like someone could just walk off with it. (This is an important attribute; we used to have lots of problems with people taking home our equipment.) This arrangement contains red and white roses, white Hawaiian orchids, and stargazers. My mom wrapped the poles holding up each tier for an extra pop of color — and to hide any imperfections, of course.

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Spring flowers

Is it just me or are this spring’s flowers particularly spectacular?

Jasmine

Poppies

Snapdragons

Hydrangea

Pansies

This looks like hibiscus, but it didn’t have a long pistil as hibiscus does.

Liatris

Folks who follow me on Instagram have probably had it up to here with all my flower photos. I’ve been snapping them while on my daily walks in the neighborhood near my work. I know the types of flowers of a couple of them, but not all of them. I hope you enjoy!

Orange and purple wedding canopy at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point

Most friends usually pick up the phone and call (or these days, text) when they see something that reminds them of a friend. My friends break out their cameras when they see a wedding.

This wedding took place at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point. It is actually overlooking the ocean, which you can’t see from here — if the photo had been taken with the ocean in the background, the image would be completely washed out.

From what I hear, and as you can see, everyone who came upon this wedding thought the colors were gorgeous and they appear to be quite vibrant. Orange and purple don’t generally come to mind when I think of a traditional wedding — either it was an Indian wedding, or it was simply a very non-traditional bride. Very bright colors like orange and red are often used at Indian weddings, as are the orchid garlands, but Indian weddings also tend to have more wedding accoutrements than a simple canopy.

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Using calla lilies for your wedding

Calla lilies, with their long, elegant trumpet shape and most recognizable in their creamy shade of white are a natural choice for a wedding flower. It also doesn’t hurt that they come in a rainbow of colors and last long — up to 10 days after being cut.

Calla lilies are perfect for tall flower arrangements. If you didn’t cut it, I’ve seen them as long as a yard. But they’re not just for large arrangements — mini calla lilies are even more flexible than the full size ones. I’ve seen calla lilies in everything from small table arrangements to personal flowers to bouquets.

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Fuchsia and white wedding in San Pedro

I have worked with many variations of pink during my time decorating weddings, but this port-side wedding reception in San Pedro, at what appears to be the Doubletree By Hilton Hotel San Pedro now, was probably my favorite because the pink was actually fuchsia.

Fuchsia is so bright and strong on its own, it really doesn’t need an accent color. In fact, what accent color would you try to put with it? White. And white, like the white linens, the white tablecloths and white seat covers, make the fuchsia seat covers pop even more.

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Decorating a 25th anniversary wedding

Getting to five years married is tough enough these days, so making it to 25 years? That’s definitely a milestone that should be celebrated.

This wedding took place in 2004 at Burbank’s Pickwick Gardens. The bride was a friend of my mom’s, so my mom of course pulled out all the stops to decorate this wedding. Quite honestly, I’ve been wanting to post the above picture for years, but didn’t sit down to properly edit it until just recently (the wedding took place in July and it was extremely bright that day). But I was thoroughly impressed with how the ceremony decorations came out here — large arrangements with lavender roses, orchids and pink ginger and lots of ti leaves spray painted silver, on top of silver lamé-draped columns.

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