Preparing for an Ojai Valley Inn Wedding

Let us set the scene: Ojai Valley, Beautiful Resort, Rustic Barn Setting, Wildflowers, Mason Jars, Pryor Events, and a beautiful Bride. This weekend we are creating a beautiful, natural, and charming wedding at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. The wedding will take place at the Barn site where each table will be set with simple and beautiful varying mason jars filled with natural wildflowers. Here is a sneak peak to get you intrigued... more photos to follow next week!

The Resort
The Barn
The Flowers
* from the sample meeting*

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Spago Beverly Hills Knows How to Party!

If you haven't considered Spago Beverly Hills for a party, now is the time! Along with the talented team from Mindy Weiss, we bedazzled the restaurant beautiful on Saturday, and the staff could not have been more helpful and accommodating *plus, the food is amazing*. The neutral setting with both patio and indoor space set the perfect tone for this vibrant and colorful Bat Mitzvah luncheon. Each table was set with an eclectic mix of various vases filled with lush flowers in all royal blue, vibrant purple, rich magenta, and lime green with long streamers of ribbons to match the flowers. The best part of all, each guest got to take their very own arrangement home with them at the end of the party. We, personally, loved the D.I.O. *do it ourselves* ribbon wall that was used to hold the guests escort cards as they entered the party. With lots of colorful ribbon, a wood frame and a staple gun we created a beautiful backdrop that had passerby's ooohing & ahhhing! Take a look:

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

"Fall" in Love at Il Cielo

To welcome the Fall season, we thought we should share this beautiful and elegant wedding from one of the most romantic wedding spots in town, Il Cielo. The fall, Tuscan tones of tangerine, orange, rust, celedone green, and bugundy looked absolutely stunning. Adding in textures such as drippy greenery, whimsical branches and berries really add to a fall feeling. We can't wait to see all the pumpkins, fall leaves, and rich textures make their way in to The Hidden Garden. Thank you Tracey Landworth Photography for the beautiful pictures!

Rancho Valencia Wedding in Del Mar

As we always say, it's so nice to get the professional pictures back from our talented photographers after an event! We always snap some shots as we're setting up and before we leave, but our state of the art digital camera phones will never compare to the quality and artistry of the professional photographer. Hot off the press, here are some pictures from a wedding we did with Jowy Productions at Rancho Valencia in Del Mar. For starters, the hotel is absolutely beautiful! Just driving there for the walk through was breathtaking! The bride and groom chose a very traditional, elegant, and classy look for the wedding; incorporating soft tones of ivory, green, and blush pink with gold accents. The bride loved peonies as you'll see with her all blush pink peony bouquet (one of favorites, too!). The centerpieces were in gold antique candelabras with subtle hanging crystals that lit up the already glamorous tent style reception.
Thank you Jennifer Dery Photography for making us look good!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Beautiful House Flowers

It's everyone's dream to be able to have seasonal fresh flowers in their home every day. Here at The Hidden Garden, we may be around fresh flowers everyday, but rarely do we bring a bouquet of fresh blooms home to our own houses. However, we do have the opportunity to liven up the homes of some very special clients of ours as they entertain their guests, or just to merely brighten up their homes. Here are some pictures from a house we recently decorated with fresh flowers. Our client was hosting some of her friends and wanted to make sure it looked lovely for them while they were there. Most importantly, this time, she wanted to make sure what we did on her indoor dining table was able to be moved to her outdoor dining table for the weekend's festivities. It's looks great, if I say so myself! Love love the different shades of purple!

Indoor Dining Table
Transformed to....

Outdoor Dining Table

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Santa Monica Beach Wedding

As summer is coming to a slow close, we thought we would share a simple yet beautiful wedding held at one of our favorite hotels, Shutters on the Beach. Shutters offers a beautiful terrace with an amazing view of the ocean for your ceremony to take place while sail boats are passing in the background. With this type of setting you can go as simple or over the top as you want. You just have to keep in mind, the more you do, the more distraction you will create from why you are there: the ocean. This couple chose a simple beachy ceremony with soft flowing fabric and small seashell accents to compliment the setting and the Cape Cod feel of the hotel. The perfect place to seal your vows...

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Glamorous Wedding at The Century Plaza

What do you get when you take a sophisticated & down to earth bride & groom, 550 of their closest friends and family, a famous hotel, and a love story? A beautiful, glamorous, modern wedding celebration at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City.

To start the celebration, the bride entered down a long, dramatic all white runway to the chuppah that was completely made from clear Lucite adorned with hanging sparking crystals. Flowers on each Lucite column consisted of white roses, white hydrangea, and white orchids with compact displays of roses and hydrangea going across the top beams of the chuppah. The family talit (a special Jewish prayer cloth) was suspended over the couple for the ceremony.

"Wow!" is all you can say about the reception held in the main ballroom. There was a mix of long, oval, and round tables each with their own elegant look to keep an variety of interests in the large room. The bride and groom wanted their wedding to be elegant and a bit modern with special detailed touches and lots of candle light to create a romantic setting. The long table has a mix of tall glass vases filled with white phaneonopsis orchids and paves' of white hydrangea. While the oval tables had 4 various vases filled with grouped roses, hydangea, and orchids with long pave strands of white hydrangea. The round tables had amazing gold crystal lampshades with a mix low and lush arrangements on the table at eye level. Each table was filled with a mix of floating candles and gold embellished votives. The whole room sparkled!

Round Tables

Oval Tables

Long Tables

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Delicious Baby Girl Shower

Take warning! You are about to see pictures of one of the most beautiful and delicious baby girl showers that have ever existed. If you think the pictures are gorgeous, you should have seen the event in person. The combination of the flowers, furniture, linens, chair covers, chandeliers and details were exquisite. It's no wonder that the coordinator, Nikki Kahn's, company name is Exquisite Events! We used a delish mix of lavender & blush pink roses & hydrangea with subtle accents of white phaleonopsis orchids. Here are there, you will notice the delicate details of butterflies that complimented the theme of the shower. The sweet linens and chair covers by Wildflowers Linens finished the whole look. Everyone did an amazing job to welcome this new baby girl to the world!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

DIY Flowers in Minnesota

While I was visiting Minnesota one of my girlfriends was hosting a small gathering and looking for a little help with the floral arrangements for the buffet table. Even though I was visiting I couldn't resist helping her with the flowers. We didn't want to go into a flowershop and purchase pre-made bouquets since i was in town and would gladly help design them for her. We opted for a bouquets of loose flowers from Breyers Grocery Store so we could create our own.

We took a side trip to Joann's Fabrics to purchase some cute black pales for our containers , hot pink & green ribbon trim and glue gun (it holds it all together!).

The amazing foliage growing in Minnesota was perfect to add to our bouquets of fresh blooms we purchased at the grocery store. I absolutely LOVED the lamb's ear that was growing in abundance in my girlfriend's backyard. We'd pay top dollar for this in Los Angeles and it was literally growing like a "weed" in the yard! I couldn't believe my luck!

Once we got home from the stores, trimmed a few pieces of greenery from the yard...we came up with these adorable pales of flowers for the tables and a few mini clusters for the appetizer trays. Not to bad...if i do say so myself!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Baby Shower at Il Cielo

The Hidden Garden loves putting together the little details of any event. It's the "little" things that make the entire affair come together. A baby shower is the perfect place to add in the special touches to make the day extra special.

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of designing the florals for Maryam's (Delicate Details) baby shower at Il Cielo. If you haven't been to Il Cielo, well let's just say it might be one of the most charming locations in Los Angeles. Its ambiance can set the mood for any occasion.

Maryam loved the soft pastel color palette with just a hint of raspberry. Our floral selection for her day was just what she was looking for: amazing Cafe Au Lait Dahlias, sweet peas, fluffy ranunculus, open roses, hydrangea, hanging amaranthus and a pop of raspberry dahlias.

Each napkin was tied with an ivory french satin ribbon knot, long trailing tails and a small cluster of delicate sweet peas.

Thanks to Maryam for letting us help decorate her special day....we were honored...

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email