Planning A Baby Shower at The Hidden Garden

I'm in the midst of planning a baby shower for my sister in law. I had so many different ideas running through my head....what color scheme, theme ideas, how are the tables set up, do we want to create keepsake centerpieces. * I can't tell you what I decided to do because she'll read it here on the blog! Photos to come after the shower is complete at the end of the month!*

There are so many unique ideas when it comes to baby shower themes and decor. At The Hidden Garden we have designed floral arrangements for so many baby showers and I've been a part of creating and coming up with ideas to celebrate the birth of a new baby. You won't see plain and unoriginal designs and decorations at most baby showers these days; whether it's a centerpiece arrangement atop a pile of teacups filled with overflowing flowers or a cute "pea in the pod" theme... the arrangements you see at many showers are not just your average floral design. People love to celebrate the arrival of a new baby and what better way to do it than go all out with gorgeous decorations and flowers!

One of our favorites looks is the polka dot box. It's a great keepsake for the baby's room after the shower. The table looks beautiful, chic for the adults but simultaneously cutesy and fun.

Here are some more pictures of interesting but beautiful arrangements we've created for other baby showers. Enjoy!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Deep Red, Rich Romance: A Classic Romantic Wedding

Last month we enjoyed designing the floral arrangements for a beautiful wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles along with event coordinator, Mary Dann. The bride and groom, Missy and Ryan, were looking to do a classic romantic look, so obviously they asked us to create bouquets and centerpieces of deep, rich red roses and burgundy peonies - a staple for a traditional wedding. Missy's bouquet were created with an array of black magic roses (rich velvety petals) with a gorgeous rhinestone flower broche on the handle. Missy walked down a white aisle lined with red rose petals and met her man-to-be under a white fabric structure that we adorned with gorgeous deep red rose nosegays. The combination of gleaming white linens and the romantic deep red flowers made for a beautiful classic wedding.

Here are some pictures that photographer Asgeir captured of the beautiful ceremony, the flowers, and the bride!

Here are some more pictures of the wedding and some of the white arrangements we had:

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Peonies, Peonies, Peonies

It's wedding season and love is in the air. What is a great concern of the brides that will be walking down the aisle? Flowers. Whether it's the flowers that make up their bouquet, the flowers covering the pathway leading to their men-to-be, or the flowers arranged on the tables at the reception, couples spend serious time choosing the flowers that will adorn their ceremony of love. Many brides go for classically beautiful flowers, like roses, while some turn up their noses at the norm and choose crazy and fun arrangements. So which flower seems to be most popular at weddings, chosen across the board by almost all brides? Peonies. Because peonies are such loved and desired flowers for events, and especially for weddings, we decided we'd take the time to do some research and find out more

about the mystery behind what makes this flower so popular.

According to Greek myth, the peony flower is named after Paeon, who was the student of the Greek god of medicine and healing, Asclepius. As the story goes, the teacher became jealous of his student, so in order to save him from the wrath of Asclepius, Zeus changed Paeon into the peony flower.

Moving from myth to reality, peonies are native to Asia, southern Europe, and western North America. There are several different forms of peonies, but they all have at least five outer petals, called guard petals, and they come in just about every color but blue: ranges of pink, mauve, yellow, red, orange, white, and the list goes on.The peony has been used for centuries in ceremonies and has been prized by many cultures, even named the national emblem of China at one point. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I would say virtually all who behold this flower find it beautiful.

As a floral company, we are asked by several of our customers to include peonies in arrangements, especially weddings, and it is our delight to make gorgeous bouquets, etc. for the people who share our love for this flower. Below is a picture of a peony bouquet we made for one of our brides.

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Angels of the Alliance Luncheon

As a premiere floral company, we love to expand our horizons past creating beautiful floral arrangements for our customers and go beyond a florist's everyday work. Today, we accomplished this by attending the Angels Luncheon put on by the Angels of the Alliance sector of the Alliance of the Arts organization in Thousand Oaks, California at The Four Seasons hotel. The Angels are a group of women that work to promote the arts in their community, and the Angels Luncheon is the famed event they put on in support of the organization's founding principle of support for the arts. At the Luncheon, we had the chance to decorate our own table according to a theme we were assigned and compete against other organizations and individuals who also decorated tables according to a variety of themes. The Hidden Garden was lucky enough to design a 'Wedding Garden' themed table, a strength of ours, and we worked hard to create a lavish and ornate table that adhered to the theme with our personal taste and creative details included. We aimed for the first place title with a spherical arrangement of hot pink or vibrant orange roses, green viburnum, green hydrangea, pink peonies and lush green amaranthus. Linens from La Tavola of the same color across the table, with green accents and adorable little cakes sitting at each place setting done by The Four Seasons pastry chef, & vibrant chairs & chargers by Town & Country Event Rentals . We loved seeing all the interesting ideas people came up with for their themes, like 'Angel's' baseball, 'Up' the Disney movie, 'Girl's Night Out', etc.. As a company that constantly calls upon our creative impulses, need for organization, and desire to please our customers with beautiful creations, this was a perfect way to support the Angels' support for the arts and to reach out to members of our community. We had so much fun participating and can't wait until we get to create another beautiful table for the competition next year. Enjoy the pictures!

Here are a few pictures of some of the other tables in the competition...some of these are so crazy they were so fun to look at!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Long Feasting Table Arrangements

Long Tables are a trending decor element for many dinner parties, weddings and social functions. At The Hidden Garden we are often asked how to create the best table scape on long tables. A few things to keep in mind when choosing to design for a long table arrangement:

1. what is the width of the table?

You want to make sure the table is wide enough to incorporate the dinner ware, glassware AND the flowers (or whatever your table centerpiece is) Most long tables come in 32 in widths, 40 inch widths or 48 inch widths. My personal preference is 40 inch wide. This gives the guests ample room for their service ware and the florist ample room for the arrangements without making the table seem too large. Keep it intimate...

2. how full do you want the table scape to be in the center?

This can come down to how many flowers/candles you would like in the center of the table. Should it be a consistent arrangement (as seen in photos below) or do you want a little more "space" between the designs? Are you serving family style so arrangements & food will be incorporated into the center - then your table scape needs to be a little less dense.

3. What is your budget?

Long tables scapes can be much more costly than a traditional single piece for a round table. So be aware that there is more product put into filling the center of your 6 foot or 8 foot table. As you can see in our photos below this is a "lush" design of florals, candles and natural elements so our budget per table is rather high.

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Wedding Before & After- The Four Seasons

Here is a sneak peak at the beautiful deep red wedding we did this weekend at The Four Seasons Beverly Hills. It's amazing to see the before and after on the ceremony & reception, so we thought we would share the transformation with you. You can see the garden at The Four Seasons just as we were starting the set up, and then see the beautiful bridal party takes photos in the ceremony space. Then, you can see the ballroom ready to be decked out, and how amazing the after picture looks!

Ceremony Before & After

Reception Before & After

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Beautiful Dinner Party

We do so many beautiful parties here at The Hidden Garden but sometimes we're really bad at getting the pictures of the events that happen during the week at client's home & restaurants. However, this time, we caught the beauty of the private home dinner party as we were setting up on site. We did a mix of silver mirror containers filled with rich and vibrant yellow and green flowers with roses, hydrangea, orchids, lily grass, & tulips. It was luscious & beautiful!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Have you met The Hidden Garden Crew?

Above: Amy Child Marella
Top Left - Juan, Johnny, Jorge, Sugey, Kathy

Top Right - Trisha

Bottom Left - Sugey

Bottom Right - Kathy

Sometimes the "crew" behind the magic at the Hidden Garden is not what everyone gets to see. I am always so proud of what an amazingly talented staff i have to work with every day. They pull off some of the most breathtaking designs around. Rather than featuring the gorgeous florals we get to create every day i thought i would show you the true talent behind the beauty! This is the team at The Hidden Garden.....they love to create magic just for you!

PS - some of the team weren't present at time of these photos but we'll feature them in another blog post (Tara, Jen, Singrid, Juan M and Yessenia....)

Thanks to Michael Branigan at David Michael Photography for the great shots.
Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by EmailPhotobucket">

Garden Texture

My favorite time of year has always been the spring when it comes to flowers. The soft color palette with the variety of textures the spring flowers have to offer is so visually appealing to me. I am a HUGE lover of roses and hydrangea but the other spring elements that come in to play with so many of our arrangements at The Hidden Garden are found only in the spring time months. Amazing lilac, vibrant viburnum, luscious peonies to name a few.
Enjoy the visual treat of a few arrangements that went out this past week...some or our favorites and hopefully yours too!
Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Prom is Here!

Prom is here at The Hidden Garden! All the moms are calling to order boutonnieres and corsages for their son's and daughter's to wear to their Prom this weekend. We want to make sure we make them look extra pretty for this special occasion. Most of our clients want us to add special and unique touches to make theirs extra special, which we are more than happy to do! Here is a picture of one of the more unique matching boutonniere & corsage wristlets we did today:






















Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Yellow & Gray Wedding

It's the new hot color combo: yellow & gray. For this simple, yet beautiful, wedding held at a private home we used all vibrant yellow flowers & fresh lemons intermixed with gray accents to complete the look. Vases were filled with lemons, pedestals covered in custom gray fabric, and chairs were decked with hanging flowers in specialty fabric cones filled with lush yellow flowers. Flowers included roses, hydrangea, dusty miller, and lemon leaves. Yummy!

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

New Blog Post For Inside Weddings; Napkin Treatments!

New on my blog for Inside Weddings is a post about napkin treatments. It's a small detail, but one that has a big impact! Tabletop décor is all about layers and this is a finishing touch that brides can have a lot of fun with. Get more ideas by reading my post here and enjoy the pictures below!




Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Mothers Day Flower Arrangements

Take a look at some of the arrangements going out the door this week at The Hidden Garden for Mother's Day. From the clean and mononchromatic, to the full and colorful, we can design in any style to suit mom's taste.

It's not too late to place your order, give us a call or order online at www.hiddengardenflowers.com We look forward to designing something beautiful for all those wonderful mom's out there.



Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Flower Market Finds

This morning was quite a delight at the Los Angeles Flower Market. Spring was in the air....and mother nature was sure to provide all her beauty for all our Mom's this weekend. It was filled with the most vibrant colors of floral blooms. From bright green viburnum, to amethyst tones of lilac, aisles of the brightest hydrangea and racks of peonies in shades beyond the imagination (yes that is a yellow peonies above!!) .

With Mother's Day this coming Sunday, we stocked up on beautiful blooming dogwood branches, french tulips and bearded iris for those taller dramatic arrangements. Every arrangement leaving The Hidden Garden will be rich with color and full of gorgeous texture.



Photobucket" border="0">

Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email

Yellow, Purple and Orange... Oh My!

According to the dictionary, the term "monochromatic", means being of one color or of the same tone of color. While some of you may argue that this could be a boring option, we beg to differ. As you can see from the above groupings, monochromatic arrangements are all about texture and abundance! When you use a variety of flowers in one color, you get a very interesting mix of similar hues. So if you aren't a fan already, ask for a monochromatic arrangement next time you place an order and we assure you the recipient will be sure to love the impact of color.


Subscribe to The Secret Life of Flowers by Email