October Wedding in Loose Park

When I blog about one of my weddings, I always make notes first about special things I want to include. Every wedding I do is special to me, and there are always little details that stand out. This wedding was no exception!

Jessica and Tyson were married on October 23, 2021 in one of my favorite places, Loose Park in Kansas City, Missouri. In fact I considered this whole area my neighborhood at one time. I worked just blocks away as a chemist for MRI Global. I played in Loose Park on weekends with my husband because it was free entertainment and we had no money! The reception at the Grand Street Cafe was next door to my favorite chocolate malt place, Winsteads. So many memories!

(All photographs are by A.Lane Photography)

But that’s only one of the special things about this wedding. For instance, I have known the groom’s family for a very long time. Like way back. And I know the bride’s sister because I did her wedding as well! These are the things that bring a wedding story together for me. It really inspires me to create a floral vision when I have so many little stories and memories to piece together about a couple.

Flower girl with crown

Hand-tied cascade bridal bouquet

Groom's Boutonniere

Bridesmaids' bouquets with hydrangea and eucalyptus

The bride wanted a big flowy bouquet, all white with lots of greenery. I used white roses and ranunculus, snapdragons, stock and hydrangea, with several types of eucalyptus including seeded. There was a pretty severe flower shortage in 2021, especially with white flowers, but with enough perseverance I was able to get most of what I wanted to use.

The sweetest thing Jessica told me during our consultation was that she wanted her bridesmaids’ bouquets to feel special and look bigger, not small and unimportant. I don’t usually hear that from brides, and I think you can tell by this picture that the outcome was stunning!

Another picture of Jessica’s bouquet so you can see the hand-tied cascade. Also her dress was so beautiful!

Sisters!

The Kansas City Skyline and all the wedding PARTY vibes

So romantic! The couple wanted their wedding to be simple, elegant and classic and I think this picture sums it all up nicely. Jessica and Tyson, thank you so much for asking me to be your wedding florist, and best wishes for many happy married years.

When should you book a wedding florist?

I am finally finished with weddings for 2021! I had a happy, busy fall wedding season and towards the end I had a sneaky feeling that I may be closing in on a career milestone of 100 weddings for Clover and Honey. When I finally sat down to add things up over the last nine years, I realized I had already done it. Somewhere in 2021, someone’s wedding was my 100th! To be honest, I was just too lazy to figure out exactly which wedding it was, so here are my favorite bouquets from this year and I’ll just celebrate all of them as my milestone. Thank you to everyone who trusted me with their dreams, and for all my future couples, just know that I have a lot of wisdom and experience to share with you from the weddings that came before yours. 

Is there a best time to book your wedding florist?  There isn’t a specific timeline though I suggest 6-12 months. With the reschedules from 2020, things were kind of crazy this year, and even in to 2022, so it’s best to ask early.

Do you need to have all the details figured out before you contact me? No! It’s helpful to know your color preferences, the overall style or vibe you’re going for, in addition to the number in your wedding party and a rough estimate of the number of guests invited. 

Do you need to have an exact floral budget? It’s helpful to have a general idea of your overall wedding budget as well as the main goals or focus of your wedding.  Just know that your wedding day team makes your dream come true! Make sure you bring professional people on board who you trust to execute your vision with care and excellence. 

It’s easy to get started:

• First fill out the wedding questionnaire here and share some details about your wedding with me. I will get back to you asap.

• Then we will set up a phone consultation. (Ideally we hit it off and decide we’re a good match.)

• Next, I put together a preliminary proposal for you to make sure we’re on the same page in terms of style and budget before signing a contract.

• Finally, if you decide you’d like to move forward, a signed contract and deposit will secure your date and you can officially cross “find florist” off of your to-do list!

Absolutely amazing! Jennifer was an absolute delight to work with. She helped put my wedding floral dreams to life. Our wedding was postponed due to COVID and she was so flexible and understanding which we so much appreciated. She also traveled to our venue and set everything up in the most gorgeous way. Our wedding day was so perfect and it wouldn’t have been possible without Clover and Honey flowers. Thank you so much Jennifer, you are an angel and I l loved working with you!

~Makenzie, review from WeddingWire

Our Process…

I bring your vision to life so that your flowers are not only beautiful, but perfect for you! I want to take your floral designs to the next level.

• I listen and interpret your style so I can pull together the best parts of your ideas to create a cohesive look.

• I hand-select your flowers, inspecting for quality so they are the freshest available.

• I advise you on details that fall outside the realm of flowers to ensure design consistency.

• You’ll find it easy to reach me when you have questions or need advice.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

How It's Made- Wedding Flowers Edition

I wonder if you’ve wondered what goes on in my floral studio the week before a wedding? I thought I would share some photos that explain my job as a wedding florist and give you some insight into what happens behind the scenes. Never a dull moment!

It starts out pretty calm. My studio is relatively clean and organized. The trash is empty and the flower buckets are all clean. I love this feeling. This is Monday. 

On Tuesday I pre-fill all the buckets with water and flower food so I am ready for flower delivery on Wednesday. I also check all my supplies- tape, wire, floral glue, ribbon, vases. I will not have time to run to town and purchase these things anytime later this week!

Wednesday is the big day! My wholesaler delivers all the flowers I spent so much time choosing for your wedding, and puts them in my cooler. The next step for me is to make sure I got everything I ordered, in the right colors and quantities. Seems like that should not be a problem, but I work with Mother Nature. Sometimes flowers are smaller than I expected due to extreme weather where they were grown. Sometimes the wholesaler will substitute for something else that may be way too pink when I needed blush. Sometimes the flowers looked fine in their protective wrap but are in bad condition when I open them up. Luckily I work with some great growers and wholesalers that help me get everything I need even if they have to come back on Thursday!

Designing with flowers

Red roses

Eucalyptus greenery

Thursday and Friday are my work days. I need to prioritize from your order what can be made two days before the wedding and what will need to be made the day before. In general, bouquets are made Thursday because I want them to have the very best flowers from each bunch, and because they are stored in vases with water so they will last longer. Boutonnieres and corsages need to be made on Friday because they do not have a water source. 

As you can see by these photos, it’s at this point my whole studio looks like a flower explosion. I’m not neat or careful about where the stems and leaves end up. I have little piles of greenery and flowers everywhere, and I’m constantly moving buckets of flowers in and out of the cooler. Controlled chaos.

When I have the bride’s bouquet done, I “try it on”.  If you look you can see my arm in this photo. I stand in front of the mirror with it and look at it the way a photographer would, looking for holes or things that just don’t sit right.  

When the corsages and boutonnieres are done, they all get bagged and labeled. I have learned over the years to triple check everything I do. I get the names of everyone receiving flowers from the bride, make the labels, and check the list against the actual order, just to make sure nothing gets overlooked. 

And then it’s wedding day! For an average wedding, it takes about 45 minutes to load my vehicle. The bouquets are in vases loaded in special crates. Everything else is packed strategically so nothing gets crushed. (It should be noted here that strategically packing a car is not my forte’ but I’m getting better!) In the summer, I have the AC on full blast. In the winter, I have to make sure everything is covered in plastic. And then I drive like my grandma the whole way to the wedding! I am always so happy and relieved to empty my vehicle and get positive feedback on my work. The anxiety that has built up over the last week is all gone when the bride tells me how much she loves her bouquet.

Here are the top five things that motivate me during wedding week:

1.) Country Music on Alexa while I work. (Weirdly this is the only time in my life that I listen to country music).

2.) LaCroix

3.) Dot’s Pretzels

4.) Friends that help me on big weddings. (It’s lonely working alone).

5.) The music I’ve been listening to as I deliver the flowers: Jason Mraz, Classic Rock, and Hamilton the musical!

I really love wedding flowers! Please refer me to all your friends- wedding weekends are filling up for 2022!

The light at the end of the tunnel!

It’s here! Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2021 and it is actually two colors. Illuminating which is a sunny yellow, and Ultimate Gray which needs no explanation. Pantone chooses colors late each year that will be trending in the coming year. According to this New York Times article these colors very clearly represent “the light at the end of the tunnel”. Maybe “A Tale of Two Years”? “Out with the old, in with the new”? The difference between 2020 and 2021?

Ultimate Gray and Illuminating

In my world of Kansas weddings, could this be the year of the sunflower?

Let me know what you think. Is yellow an option for your wedding? There are some beautiful natural yellow flowers that can be used as a soft contrast with many other colors. And honestly, gray and yellow are beautiful together. Click here for more bouquet photos with yellow accents.

Ashton and Dustin at Cider Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas

The notes from my first consult with Ashton about her wedding flowers still make me smile. Dusty blush, bronze, berries, grasses, vermilion, rust, textural. She was definitely speaking to my heart as a florist with all the artistic elements she pictured for her wedding. It was a joy to work with her and her ideas! (all photos by Clay and Maggie Swanson, @clay_and_maggie)

The wedding was August 22, 2020 and the colors Ashton and Dustin chose for their wedding were rust/vermilion, navy and mixed greenery. I used magnolia leaves, olive branch, agonis, ruscus and eucalyptus to get the color and texture we were looking for.

Here are some of the detail pieces: The hexagon backdrop (made by her dad) with mixed flowers, agonis, kangaroo paw and lots of Italian Ruscus, a lantern with rust mums and viburnum berries, and the cake with Toffee roses and eucalyptus.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Something about ring bearers and flower girls! Her sweet flower crown was made with Brown Sugar spray roses on a plumosus crown.

Just another picture of the bouquet and the bridesmaids so we can gush over the color of those dresses!

When I get the opportunity to do wedding flowers for a family I know it somehow makes my job easier. My connection to Ashton was many things- church, 4H, family friends, and her grandmother and I are Master Gardeners together in Lyon County. I feel like I have some helpful insight, and even more important, I like picturing what they will think when they see the flowers for the first time. I am thinking of all those connections when I’m designing.

Ashton’s bouquet was a mix of all the things I’ve already mentioned and a few blessings from my garden like millet, ninebark and Russian sage. It was a lovely day at a lovely venue with a lovely couple. I wish them many happy days and happy memories in their new life together!

November Wedding in Bonner Springs, Kansas

This was the weekend before Thanksgiving and the weather was beautiful for Jenn and Dalton’s wedding. The wedding was held at The Farms at Woodend Springs in Bonner Springs, Kansas. With a huge porch and big beautiful windows, it is a lovely venue for any event.

The guys wore navy, the girls wore sage green, and the bride wanted touches of apricot in her bouquet. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see this color combination come to life and it was so pretty. If you have ever read any of my blogs, you know I love greenery. But a November wedding is extra-special because I can add winter greens like cedar, pine and balsam fir to my regular mix of seeded, baby blue and willow eucalyptus.

Jenn used a lot of natural elements like wood accents throughout the venue, from the arch for the ceremony to the farm table for the head table to the wood slice under the cake.

The bride’s bouquet included white dahlias, white roses, stock, feverfew and veronica along with peach spray roses, apricot hypericum berry, and orange waxflower. And lots of mixed greenery!

Jenn’s flower crown with spray roses and berries made the perfect finishing touch for a beautiful bride. There’s just something about wearing a crown…

This is just the perfect picture of happiness. I don’t get to spend much time getting to know my brides and grooms but I FEEL like I know them by the time I deliver a wedding. Jenn’s fall schedule was very busy so she was thankful that planning wedding flowers could mostly be done by email. My goal is always to make the process easy, deliver exactly what the couple wanted, with amazing service and attention to detail. It makes me happy to see them so happy!

Spring, is that you?

I admit I’ve been hibernating/hermitting for the last few weeks. Everything is strange and weird and different and I like things to stay the same. Not my best quality. All my 2020 customers are dealing with hard decisions every day and I don’t feel like I have any good advice or insight to share. Our whole floral industry is on hold- from the growers, to the shippers, to the wholesalers. No one knows the answers to any of the hard questions. So I just kept quiet. But then I decided to get some fresh air/fresh perspective and pull some weeds. And guess what? Spring came in the middle of a global pandemic! Some things do stay the same and I couldn’t be more grateful! So here are some pictures of better things to come, especially in my little flower garden world. These are all things I have used in your bouquets and will again for all my future brides. Happy Spring!

This one is new from late last summer and I can’t wait to use it. Stairway to Heaven- Jacob’s Ladder.

Sweet little fine foliage plant that turns silver gray as it grows into a mound- Silver Mound Artemisia.

I know it’s hard to tell but this shrub’s leaves will turn dark burgundy as they grow. The perfect bouquet accent for fall weddings.

This is a peony! I am so excited to watch this grow and bloom. One of my favorites!

Purple Hyacinth- I don’t get to use this flower very often as it blooms in early spring when I don’t have many weddings. But it blooms with many flowers on a stalk and smells heavenly.

And of course Tomato plants! I don’t have a huge garden anymore but I always plant at least a few tomatoes in my flower beds.

I know that to others these might just be pictures of dirt and leaves, but I see more. Gardening is a hopeful hobby. In my mind, I can always see the great things to come. So I walk through my spring flowers every day looking forward to what summer will bring. I am hopeful for summer and fall weddings and I will be ready to help you plan your wedding flowers, or make changes and updates when you need to. Hopeful, faithful, positive and optimistic. These are the words I use most when things are hard and they definitely apply to gardening and pandemics!

Katie and Adam at Magnolia Venue and Urban Garden, August 17, 2019 →

This story starts in the year 2001 for Katie and me. She was my daughter’s best friend in 5th grade and that was the year they talked their parents into letting them join a traveling summer softball league. So many long weekends and so much fun. And here we are in 2019 with Maryann standing up with Katie in her wedding to Adam. Good friends last a lifetime.

Photos by Brittyn Elizabeth Photography

The wedding colors were classic with dusty blue dresses, charcoal suits, creamy white flowers, and mixed greenery including several types of eucalyptus as well as magnolia leaves.

Katie’s bouquet included white Mondial roses, white garden roses, brunia, waxflower, stock and lisianthus.

It was a perfectly perfect day with lots of sunshine and lots of laughs. I was honored to be a part of this wedding and wish Katie and Adam all the love and happiness they deserve!

Photo by Brittyn Elizabeth Photography