New Blog Post For Inside Weddings; Holiday Wedding Ideas!

I love the Holidays and I especially love decorating my home, my clients' homes and businesses. The tree, the wreaths, the garlands, the bows, and all the poinsettias provide endless amounts of inspiration. If a couple is getting married during the holidays, however, incorporating all of these elements might make their wedding feel like just another Holiday party. In this week's post for Inside Weddings I give tips on how to create a festive Holiday wedding without it seeming like the Griswald's were the wedding planners! Check it out here and feel free to leave your festive ideas as a comment.

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Winter Greens

We thought we would do something a little different today, we usually feature gorgeous florals of all shapes, sizes and colors, but today we thought we would focus on a more crisp and fresh look with Winter GREENS.

They can be used both outdoors and inside your home. For outdoors, you can take a basket (like the one above) that has a rustic outdoorsy feel to it and fill it with evergreens. The finishing touch, that really makes a statement, is the use of Christmas ornaments in the same hues as the plants. You can also have the feeling present with planters and pots that can line the entrance to your home. By using evergreens, you don't have to as concerned with the fragility that comes with using flowers.





Pictures compliments of Better Homes & Gardens December 2009




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Holiday Arrangements 2009

As you can see our customers are keeping us busy with Holiday orders left and right. Take a look at some of the arrangements that went out over the past weekend.

The beautiful golden vase and the tall golden candlabra arrangement is one of three that were featured at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. The smaller arrangement incorporates red Christmas ball ornaments in between the roses and instead of the usual fresh greens we used forest droppings (greenery with baby pine cones) from Oregon. It was a gorgeous holiday display for a corporate function.

We love the unique elements & textures we incorporate into our designs during the holidays. Taking a simple pine cone and spray painting it in a silver or gold sheen adds an extra sparkle to an everyday arrangement. Elements or ribbon or small ornament balls add a festive touch to an everyday design.

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New Blog Post For Inside Weddings; Favorite Books for Brides!

All this cold weather and all the holiday shopping I've been doing inspired this week's post for Inside Weddings - Favorite Books for Brides! I like to think of Preston Baily, Jeff Leatham, Mindy Weiss and Colin Cowie's books as "the classics" for brides. No bride should walk down the aisle without reading at least one of them. They also make great gifts for the brides- to-be in your life. Check out the complete post here and if you have a book to add to the list leave a comment, I'm always looking for a great read.

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Christmas Decorating

The Holiday season rages on at the Hidden Garden. Every day it's a new home or business our team is setting up for. When you get to the front door of this home you are greeted by a fragrant wreath made of scented noble, incense cedar, juniper berries, pine cones and pepper berries.

On the kitchen island we placed a beautiful oversized Poinsettia plant in a rich vibrant tone of red. It wouldn't be the holidays without poinsettias, pine cones and ribbon, with sprigs of berries popping out for dramatic effect. This arrangement was placed in a container that looks like a present.

The tree to the left is a 9-10 foot noble fir tree with over two thousand lights! It took our team of three almost four hours to adorn this tree with beautiful ornaments and ribbon accents (some of the ornaments belong to the client, but often we supplement with our own.)

More often than not, you get to see the end result of a gorgeous grandiose tree in the lobby of a local business or in the comfort of someone's home, but you would never imagine the work involved in making a tree look so good.

The fireplace mantle was draped with a fresh and fragrant garland that was covered with hundreds of white lights. Then it was adorned with large rich gold ribbon. The stark white of the fireplace was a nice contrasting backdrop for this rich arrangement.

We look forward to decorating more homes and business, who knows it might be your decor we feature on our blog next time!!!

Keep an eye out for more holiday decor coming your way.

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HGUniversity-Flowers 101

A few weeks ago we hosted a great group of ladies in one of our floral design classes. We host these classes throughout the year by client request. Some groups decide to book a private floral design class for a bridal shower or just a fun girls night out.

With all the holiday entertaining this month, this would be a wonderful time to learn to arrange some flowers for your home or as a nice gift for a loved one.

Here is a quote from one of the ladies who recently attended a class:

We absolutely loved our class! Everything was perfect. Amy and Trisha were well organized and gave the perfect amount of help. Our arrangements turned out beautiful! Amy gave us a nice little education about how to know if flowers were fresh, and how to keep arrangements fresh. We are ready for our next session!!!

Bring your friends and nurture your creative side with a flower arrangement class with one of our expert designers. Classes have an eight person minimum and the cost is $75/person. Each "student" gets to take home their floral creation at the end of the class.

We look forward to seeing you in class!

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Christmas Fireplace Mantles

Photos courtesy of Sunset Living and Veranda

One of the first places we think of decorating in our homes for the holiday season are fireplaces. As you can see the possibilities are endless. The way you decorate your fireplace should match your own personal style and coordinate with the other holiday decor around the house. You can choose to go with the simple and whimsical or the traditional and elegant.

A bold statement could be made by using the same flower in different colors, sizes and containers as done with the poinsettias above.

If you chose to take the traditional route with garland the possibilities are unlimited. You can use one type of flower for a simple approach, or you could go wild with several types of flowers and adding pine cones and ribbon for texture and color.

You don't always have to use flowers or garland in your fireplace decor either. Take an idea from the metallic lime green inspired fire place mantle above. Filling jars with christmas ornaments in a monochromatic color scheme makes an equally bold statement.

Whatever style you chose, you are only limited by your imagination!

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New Blog Post For Inside Weddings; Let Your Flowers Tell Your Love Story!

Maybe being around friends and family for the holidays inspired me to write my latest post for Inside Weddings. It's all about having a couple's décor and wedding flowers speak to their past, present and future. I am constantly amidst beautiful weddings, but the ones that truly stand out are those that use personal touches and make me feel like I've known the couple for years. Be sure and read a few of my ideas here and leave a comment because I'd love to know how you told, or are going to tell, your love story.

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Poinsettias Trends!

Photos courtesy of Better Homes and Garden and Sunset Living

Poinsettias are almost synonymous with the Holiday Season. They are in fact the Christmas flower. At The Hidden Garden we can find them in a variety of colors at the LA Flower Market. From cream, christmas red, marble burgundy and pink. From 4 in pots to topiary tree style...this popular christmas plant graces the home of almost everyone during the holiday season.

Most often we see poinsettias in their own planter growing as cheerfully as can be, but this season we are seeing a trend in how to decorate with poinsettias as a cut bloom.

* A single poinsettia stem makes quite a bold statement by itself. One idea is to use several small clear or silver vases and place a single stem in each one and then group them together to make a cluster of different variety of poinsettias.

*Another option is to clip a single poinsettia and let it float in a shallow water vase lined with a monochromatic colored river stones. This makes a simple, affordable, yet stunning centerpiece for a small table.

* A twist on the classic poinsettia in a pot idea is to have a simple single or double stem gently tied together with a simple ribbon, evocative of the year round orchid plant.

* Silk or Water tubed poinsettia blooms in your Christmas tree or fireplace mantle is both simple and classic.

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Welcome Christmas Season!!

The Holiday Season is in full swing here at the Hidden Garden. You wouldn't believe Thanksgiving was just a week ago if you were to see all the Christmas Decor we have been working on this past week!!

These pictures are from the beautiful holiday decor we did at The Four Seasons Westlake, where we recently opened The Hidden Garden Westlake location. The Four Seasons hotels are known for their attention to detail and exquisite taste. We wanted the decor to reflect that very same classic standard.

The Christmas trees were first covered in hundreds of miniature white lights followed by elegant ribbons and bows in cream, gold and red colors. For texture, we added sprigs of berries and exquisite feathers in vibrant rich colors. The Christmas tree in the restaurant was adorned with Santa Clause figurines, trumpets and horns. The base of the tree was lined with plush stuffed teddy bears and flanked by two large nut cracker statues. The staircase was adorned with beautiful lush garland accented with gold ribbon bows and red and gold Christmas balls.

We love the blank slate a Christmas tree has to offer. We can take any tree and customize it to compliment a company or a home's unique style. We look forward to showing you what else we will be working on in the weeks to come.

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Wedding Filled with Emotion at Skirball

One of our favorite Photographers (David Michael Photography - Michael Branigan) just sent us over a slide show from a wedding The Hidden Garden designed for Danielle & Alejandro's at Skirball Cultural Center. The slideshow is amazing....Michael captured not only our beautiful floral designs but so much emotion in all the photos. I just love it! Enjoy!

http://www.davidmichaelphoto.com/data/slideshow/215/Umansky/index.html

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How did you Adorn your Thanksgiving Table?

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We had an amazing weekend with family and friends. A great time to look back on the year and be thankful for all that we have....most importantly each other.
As casual as a home cooked meal with loved ones can be - I still had to "dress" the table with all the little details that we do for our clients (you!). From the centerpiece to the candles to the napkin treatment...even I adorned my table!
I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving....and The Hidden Garden is so thankful to have you in our lives.

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Hidden Garden In LA Times "Love In Bloom" Article!

I was so excited to be interviewed for Debra Beyer's "Love in Bloom" article that appeared in the Sunday, November 15th edition of the L.A. Times. The article is about winter bridal bouquets and what influences their design; is it the season, fashion, or the bride's personal style? The answer is all of the above!

A bridal bouquet can be thought of as an accessory. How a girl accessorizes an outfit changes seasonally - in the fall/winter months who can resist a knitted scarf whereas in the summer a cotton scarf is a much more popular choice and the pattern and colors of the scarf a girl chooses in fall, winter, or summer, can all be chalked up to trends and personal style! The same is true of flowers. A-line dresses are hot right now and so are looser bouquets. Signature pieces of jewelry never go out of style and more and more brides are incorporating heritage pieces of jewelry into their bouquets in order to personalize them. Check out my advice and also wonderful advice from other talented L.A. florists interviewed for the piece: Yifat Oren, Gilly, Krislyn Komarov and Eddie Zaratsian.

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This Thanksgiving we are thankful for the wonderful year of business we have experienced here at the The Hidden Garden.

When you allow us to bring your visions into reality our staff is given the opportunity to use their creativity and talent on a daily basis.

We appreciate your continued business over the last ten years and wish you and your loved ones the best of Thanksgiving meals and the best of company today.

Here is a sneak at some of the work your patronage has allowed us to create this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Dressing up your Napkins for Thanksgiving!

One more day until Thanksgiving and you are probably busy pulling all the details together. We came up with a few creative ideas to help you dress each place setting in Thanksgiving style.

You can use pumpkins as a name card holder by cutting a thin slit on the stem of a mini pumpkin. For a little more pizzazz, try spray painting mini-pumpkins in a gold color to place as an accent on top of the napkin. Don't forget to bring the outdoors in, just take a step outside and pick some leaves add some dry wheat for texture as well. Combining rich satin ribbon to bright colored napkins makes for a splash of color as well.

Whatever you do, just let your creativity run wild and remember to enjoy the process as much as the end product.
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