Before heading to New York, I researched for floral schools there where I could fit a short course and was so glad to find a 3-day Consultation to Execution course at Flower School New York. The school is founded by Eileen Johnson and has a lot of awesome floral designers holding workshops there, including one of my favorite floral designers, Ariella Chezar.
As for the course, I was very interested in taking this particular one as the course name suggests, students will be taken through the whole process in planning an event. The instructor of the course was David M. Handy, an event planner who had designed some seriously stunning celebrations. Another instructor at the school, Calvert Crary, who taught us about how to condition and arrange flowers.
On Day 1, we were each given a client file and David went through what the consultation process is all about, how to communicate with clients and what to do with quotations.
There were 8 students on the course and each one had to design a table with a different theme, mine was classic elegant wedding. We were then given a list of things we had to arrange and a budget to work with.
There is something which have always intrigued me and that is items for hire to make events more unique. Given I am fan of things that match and having a unified style throughout the whole day, so I have always loved the idea very much and was hyped when I learned that we had a chance to visit a party rental company in the afternoon.
The company has chairs, table clothes, napkins and a full range of tableware for hire. Under the guidance of David and Eileen, we picked out a list of items we wanted for our tables.
Classic silverware.
Tableware to suit different tastes, mood and themes.
Gorgoues selection of plates...
... and table covers and chair cushions in vast range of colours.
I think one of the main reasons weddings in the States can be so grand and memorable is because they pay attention to every detail. Having the choice to pick your own tablecloth, chair covers and tableware make everything so much more personalised. With the items above, there can be hundreds of different combinations and the possibilities are simply endless.
We started Day 2 early with a trip to the flower market on 27th Avenue, Calvert gave us a tour of some of the better wholesalers. It was really overwhelming at first as I wasn’t quite sure where to start. You can see my report on the flower market in the previous post. After running around the market like a mad woman for about 2 hours, I ordered all the flowers for my table and we headed back to the school to start conditioning everything and arranging.
Classic silverware.
Tableware to suit different tastes, mood and themes.
Gorgoues selection of plates...
... and table covers and chair cushions in vast range of colours.
I think one of the main reasons weddings in the States can be so grand and memorable is because they pay attention to every detail. Having the choice to pick your own tablecloth, chair covers and tableware make everything so much more personalised. With the items above, there can be hundreds of different combinations and the possibilities are simply endless.
We started Day 2 early with a trip to the flower market on 27th Avenue, Calvert gave us a tour of some of the better wholesalers. It was really overwhelming at first as I wasn’t quite sure where to start. You can see my report on the flower market in the previous post. After running around the market like a mad woman for about 2 hours, I ordered all the flowers for my table and we headed back to the school to start conditioning everything and arranging.
Then came final Day 3! We had to finish arranging everything by early afternoon and set them up at a park nearby. Afterwards, there was a small charitable party to raise funds for maintenance of the park. Neighbours came to look at our designs and also got to enjoy some wine and cheese.
I wanted the flowers to be the main focus so I wanted the colours of the table and chairs to be simple and compliment the flowers. I picked a blue table cloth and silver plates and wasn't quite sure what chairs I should match them with. David suggested I choose silver chairs and I think they turned out great.
As my theme is classic and elegant, I picked one of the most popular colour palettes for the flowers - light pink, light green and cream/ivory but added a tiny splash of purple. The main flowers included hydrangea, roses, spray roses, stock and a flower that I had wanted to get my hands onto for so long – passiflora, aka passion flower.
My order included a centerpiece, a wedding bouquet, a boutonniere, 2 bridesmaids’ bouquets and flowers for the bar. So tada, here is my table...
The bridal bouquet and boutonniere were a mixture of different varieties of roses. When roses are of such good quality, I think even though it's really simple, it's still gorgeous and will never go out of the style. For the bridesmaids' bouquets, I made smaller versions with the addition of hydrangea.
As my theme is classic and elegant, I picked one of the most popular colour palettes for the flowers - light pink, light green and cream/ivory but added a tiny splash of purple. The main flowers included hydrangea, roses, spray roses, stock and a flower that I had wanted to get my hands onto for so long – passiflora, aka passion flower.
My order included a centerpiece, a wedding bouquet, a boutonniere, 2 bridesmaids’ bouquets and flowers for the bar. So tada, here is my table...
The bridal bouquet and boutonniere were a mixture of different varieties of roses. When roses are of such good quality, I think even though it's really simple, it's still gorgeous and will never go out of the style. For the bridesmaids' bouquets, I made smaller versions with the addition of hydrangea.
Here are the 2 plates that I picked, the charger plate was a clear one with subtle silver pattern and another clear one with a beaded rim as service plate to go with it.
I have always loved urns and found a clear glass one at the school so I designed my centerpiece with it. I wanted the passiflora to take centre stage so I simply draped a stem over the arrangement and also curled another stem inside the vase.
I think the passiflora instantly gave the whole arrangement a more natural garden feel. Just love those curly tendrils!
I was pretty happy overall but unfortunately the table cloth was not the shade that I envisioned as I wanted a more Victorian / Wedgwood greyish kind of blue.
Also had to do flowers for the bar and found a lovely set of vintage looking teapot and teacups at the school to work with.
All in all, I think it was a really great course and I had a lot of fun and also felt very inspired afterwards.
Just had to take the passiflora with me so I could enjoy it for a few more days, so a another closeup pic.
Isn't it absolutely stunning and noticed that the petals are of different colours to the one next to it? Am simply in awe with such refined details of the flower and can't help but to think our Creator is the most wonderful designer.
