Ultra Chic Baby Shower

After all the talk about my sister in law's baby shower inspiration I can finally show you how all the cute ideas The Hidden Garden provided for the big day! It was a huge hit... everyone loved all the elements from the color pallettes, flower choices, to little monkey touches. The candy buffet and dessert table could not have been more popular, thanks to the amazing Pastry Chef at Four Seasons Westlake for making such delicious treats!

Our guests dined in the CHLI Dining Room at The Four Seasons Westlake. It is such a bright and open space and perfect setting for a luncheon. The Robin's Egg geometric linens (thanks to La Tavola) and white chivare chairs provided a very modern element to the decor. Rather than doing the "cutesy" baby theme we were hoping to provide a little more of a chic appeal with touches of "cute"

Our little "monkey" was an accent piece throughout the decor...how cute is he!?

Our "mommy to be" wrote each of the guests a little note expressing how excited she is for Baby Eric to arrive and how thankful she is for everyone who attended the shower to celebrate with her. A few baby photos of the Mommy & Daddy when they were kids were our extra special touch...and got a few laughs!

The dessert table, decked out with jars of gummies, yogurt pretzels, chocolates, flavored taffy and trays of delicious desserts provided by The Four Season's Westlake. We took on a little do it yourself project (a la Amy Atlas) for the dessert table. I scoured her site for ideas....so thanks Amy!! i hope we did you justice! I think i am missing her adorable back drops though? :)

Each of the guests were invited to write the Mommy to Be a "wish" for her new adventure in life. The cute blue note papers we hand stamped with white blossoms for an extra sweet touch. Once the wishes were made, each tag was hung on the wishing tree. It was fun to read each guests "wish". So adorable, and so easy to do yourself!

we are ready for the next baby shower project...who's game?

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Lisianthus

I've enjoyed dedicating blog posts to a specific flower type to teach you more about them and also bring to attention flowers that often go under the radar. My favorite this week is the popular lisianthus, or what some people call Texas bluebell, Prairie Gentian, Tulip Gentian, or just bluebell It often ends up being a "filler" type of flower that is looking gorgeous right about now.

Lisianthus flowers grow in warm regions and are found most predominantly in the southern United States, Caribbean, Mexico, and the northern region of South America. You'll often see them in potted plants and as ornamentals once they're cut but they grow in grasslands and areas where the ground is disturbed. If you spot a bell-shaped flower with ruffled petals of white, pink, purple, or bluish color, its very possible you have spotted a lisianthus. They come in both single and double forms; many people mistake the single forms for tulips or poppies and the double forms for roses or peonies. Below are some pictures of the gorgeous lisianthus.

*information for this post came from http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/growingflowers/flowersandseasons/lisianthus

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Casa Del Mar....Candle Light Romance

This past weekend we had back to back weddings at Casa Del Mar
in Santa Monica. We were kind of working at our "home away from home" since we are there so often. Love the hotel, love the staff, love the beach....it's a win win for The Hidden Garden crew.

I can't wait to receive the professional photos but in the meantime we'll share some of our not so professional shots. The room was so filled with candle light so i have to admit the photos were a little challenging to shoot...but overall i think the setting was quite romantic.
A little taste of the "making" of the chuppa just to see what we start off with and the top photo showing the end result. Imagine, a simple iron frame can become so romantic!
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Baby Shower Inspiration

I'm in the midst of planning my sister in law's baby shower and I've been in search of cute ideas that aren't the typical "baby theme" variety. One of the blogs I love, Style Me Pretty, dedicates an entire section of its site to helping its users create inspiration boards using the photos from their website. For RJ's baby shower I'm using robins egg blue, white, and green so I decided to go onto Style Me Pretty and create an inspiration board to get the ideas flowing. It's funny because usually people create inspiration boards for weddings but I found some cool pictures that may give me, and anyone else who needs it, inspiration to organize an adorable and memorable baby shower (or even a bridal shower).

Here is the link that will show you the inspiration board I made.... I chose pictures that are cute for the theme and tie in the colors I'm using. The themes and designs don't necessarily go together but I thought making a mosaic of pictures can give people a view of different ideas to use.

http://circle.stylemepretty.com/members/thehiddengarden/inspirations/edit/13622

I already started shopping around for cute decorations for the upcoming shower and I set up a a little photo shoot with some of the products will be using. I can't wait to share with you next week the final product!

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Inspired Wedding Bouquet

While peaking around at all the amazing wedding, photography, and floral blogs out there... I came across this beautiful bridal bouquet. Just love it! The photography is amazing, too. There are so many talented people out there, and here is the work of just a couple of them:

Flowers: A Simple Ceremony
Photography: Kuperberg

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What's Going on at The Hidden Garden?

Here are some arrangements that we just sent out the door. I thought you'd enjoy a little glimpse of some of the "beauty" that leaves the Hidden Garden on a daily basis. Enjoy!

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A Wedding at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa

Last weekend was a busy day for the Hidden Garden crew. We had to split up our staff between two weddings in two different locations. I rounded up the troops early Saturday morning and we headed over to the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa to set up the arrangements and make sure everything was in order for Becky & Shane's wedding with Pryor Events.

It's always a couple hours of getting things "organized" before the event starts to take shape. I love seeing the before and after of each job. Here are some "before" pictures of a few of the Hidden Garden staff setting up for the event:

We created arrangements for the reception tables of all different colored flowers and greenery, and designed a grassy setting for the place cards. Here are some pictures featuring the reception arrangements after we were done setting up!

These are the bouquets we created for the bride and her bridesmaids....I love the pink calla lilies and white peonies!

There's nothing like a summer wedding in June and this Ojai Valley Inn wedding encompassed all that is summer: bright and vibrant colors and flowers and a very romantic wildflower feel. The ceremony itself was adorned with purple flowers in arrangements on crooks lining the aisle and purple petals were scattered to make a pathway. It made for a gorgeous, summery wedding!

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Alliums and Eremurus

You must be thinking, "huh?" after reading the title of this post.... today I thought we would talk about two of the funkiest flowers in season right now. For those of you who saw the title and recognized the words, we're going to take a more in depth look at these flowers that spark so much wonder.

Alliums are an interesting flower; they grow just about anywhere and in any climate. You can find alliums in moist soils of Asia, the deserts of Africa, or even by the swamps and waters of Central America, yet they are most predominant in moist soils of the Northern hemisphere. They grow on tunicate bulbs that grow and push out old bulbs each year to replace them. A weird fact about alliums is that most of the time they smell and taste like onions.

Eremurus, also known as foxtail lilies or desert candles, have tall stems with flowers on all sides and basically look like bottlebrushes. They come in a variety of colors, like snow white, yellow, pink, copper, and more, and the colors range from bright shades to pastels. They're native to western and central Asia and are known for growing extremely tall.

Until next time,

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Four Seasons Westlake Wedding

This past weekend The Hidden Garden had the opportunity to design the floral pieces for two gorgeous weddings. One of these weddings took place at the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village. At the Waterfall Lawn, which is one of my favorite spots on the property, the chuppa was adorned with white flowing chiffon and pastel roses & hydrangea. The lovely bridesmaids' bouquets were made up of ohara light pink garden roses and lavender ocean song roses and white hydrangea. Our gorgeous bride, Lauren, walked down the aisle holding a bouquet of white hydrangea, roses and peonies.

We designed high and low arrangements for the dinner reception. Still one of my favorite choices when it comes to centerpieces. It gives a sense of "movement" for the eye as guests enter the ballroom since all the flowers aren't at the same level. It's also a great "budget" option!

Overall this wedding was a pastel dream and we loved helping make this couple's day brighter.

This is photographer Michael Brannigan of David Michael Photography in action shooting photos of the wedding...can't wait until we receive the professional photos he took that day (they are always so much better than the ones we take!).

Until next time,

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Hydrangeas, Hydrangeas

For the love of hydrangea....and at The Hidden Garden - we love hydrangea! .

Many of us spotted them out in the garden growing up and quickly fell in love in love with the fluffy bloom. They are popular flowers both for growing at home in gardens and used in cut arrangements.

Hydrangeas originated in eastern Asia but are also found in North and South America and have been introduced to new areas, like Europe, so people all around the world get to enjoy them. They come in a variety of breathtaking colors, including dark and light purple, pink, dark blue/light blue, antiqued red , white, and a variety of "dyed" colors (which are actually really pretty). An interesting fact about hydrangeas is that they change colors according to the elements of the soil they grow in. That means you can start out with purple hydrangeas, for example, and if something changes in the soil you can end up with blue hydrangeas, or even a blend of multiple colors!

Here is a photo of some of the beautiful variations of color found in hydrangeas:

Hydrangeas are recognized and loved by many....just don't take a nibble off one, they're considered to be somewhat toxic!

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What goes into Making your Arrangements Gorgeous?

It's Friday, the last day of a very busy week here at the Hidden Garden Floral Studio and I thought you might want an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes in order to get the weekend events ready to go! It takes a village to get the flowers looking pretty for your daily orders and parties. It all starts weeks before with a simple flower order. The order is placed with our growers (from all over the world!), flowers get picked up at the market, driven to The Hidden Garden, processed so they "drink" (you can imagine how dehydrated a flower gets from it's travels), containers are prepped, recipes for each arrangement are discussed, and the designers are off to the races....

Beautiful pastel flowers in arrangements waiting to be sent to The Four Seasons Westlake for Lauren & Mike.

A behind the scenes look at our crew working on getting flowers process, arrangements designed and delivered. It takes an army....teamwork!

Our cooler and hallways are always filled with flowers ready to get used...thank goodness we have a large facility to house our flowers.

Our beautiful bridesmaids' bouquets ready to go to our beautiful girls in the morning.

We can't wait to send these flowers off to our clients' events this weekend and make their celebrations beautiful. Next weeks blog....the gorgeous finished "weddings" from Four Seasons Westlake and Ojai Valley Inn!

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