Unique Centerpiece
Pinterest is an amazing inspiration tool for any kind of event.
Take the inspiration you find, put your spin on it and make it your own.
We've been in this cycling of following inspiration pictures closely because envisioning something different is scary.
This is why being transparent and making suggestions to your clients is vital. Encourage your clients to be different and try new things.
- When you have down time or extra flowers this is your time to practice those unqiue deisgns so you have something to show your clients in the future.
We had never designed something like this before but when our client showed us a picture of it I immediately said "Yes, let's do it!"
Although it was scary to us as we had never done something like that before we encouraged out client to go with it and do it. There were learning curves but we did it and our client loved it!
It was a centerpiece for an event where each table had a unique centerpiece. This design was so different from the others that it stood out and people loved it!
Hanging Arch
I went about this install wrong. I hate to admit it but I did. I had a plan but brought back up supplies just in case. Thank goodness I did.
I though the piece of wood (arch) was secured at the top meaning that the piece of wood wouldn't tilt forward. WRONG.
This was a big mistake as I didn't fully scope out the ceremony space prior. I had worked at the venue a few times prior (never on this hanging arch), seen pictures and knew of the space but didn't think to double check the mechanics of the hanging arch.
This was a large learning lesson not just for me but for my team as well. This install took a little longer as I was asking the girls where they would place stems, what they would do, etc. Even though I was physically designing it my team was making the calls from the ground.
- I was getting started on the install while they were setting the reception space.
We planned for one cage on the left with greenery coming down and greenery going across. Not two cages but I brought an extra just in case. The piece of wood continued to tilt forward therefore I put another cage on the other end thinking it would balance out the weight. WRONG.
I ended up using more zip ties on the back side (behind the cages so you couldn't see it from the front) and pulling the rope together to fasten the two pieces together. This created enough tension to keep it more upright vs. tilted.
- Whoever cut this off probably thought we were crazy with how we had it rigged. Haha
Close up it was tilted a little but from the seats and through the camera lense it looked completely straight. Although this wasn't what we had planned for (at all) we adjusted and made it work. That's what we have to do!
The biggest thing I've learned is that you can not panic. If something doesn't go according to plan take a deep breath, examine the situation and think of a solution. Ask your team what they would do (brainstorming with your team will stir up ideas), call a fellow florist friend or your d
1️⃣ The most requested video is finally here!
A TOUR OF OUR STUDIO! 👏🏻
This little studio of ours has been transformed the past few years and has come so far. I’m proud of what we’ve slowly built and are continuing to build.
I’m a home based wedding and event florist in Texas.
Remember, everyone’s space is different and we do things differently. That’s okay!
If you a have any questions or need a link to something let us know in the comments. 👇🏻 Enjoy!
PS. special thanks to Laurel for being the camera woman. I need to do a bloopers reel. 😂
Specific dahlias mixed with the Texas heat are a no go.
Take these Cafe Au Lait dahlias for example, they’re beautiful but a few hours out of the cooler on the wrong day in Texas and they’ll be gone.
Why am I talking about this?
Because you have to be transparent and honest with your clients about flower choices.
This is a beautiful and expensive flower. If you already know it’s not going to last because of the heat then explain that to your client. Find an alternative option for them! If my client absolutely loved dahlias then maybe we use artifical to ensure they’re going to be perfect all day long.
Same goes for hydrangeas in the Texas heat!
I’d rather be open and honest vs. telling someone what they want to hear and it becoming an issue. That isn’t good for anyone in the long run.
Education in our industry is so important especially because grocery store flowers vs. florists flowers are so different. 🌸
It’s Amy & William’s Wedding Day!
The girls and I went to @gareyhousegtx this morning to set up for A&W’s wedding. Taking both Betty’s and vlogging the day! 🌸
Arch Piece - Cross
These my be my favorite videos to make.
Why?
Because I remember this exact moment even though it was from June of 2023.
Audrey was still with us, we had 5 weddings that weekend, Atyana was filling us in on school drama, I was being critiqued by the team, Laurel and I were talking about Taylor, and so much more.
When I'm designing I'm also multitasking by answering questions, guiding my team with design help, answering the phone, putting out fires and thinking about the 27 other things that need to get done.
The best thing about all of this is that we all do this together. Our team, we help each other when we need it and are not afraid to give input when necessary. There's a high level of respect for every single team member no matter where you are on your floral journey.
Any who, this was a fun one to make! I hope you enjoyed watching it!
If you like this type of video let me know in the comments what type of design I should do next!
Bucket Labels
Buckets are expen*sve! Tust us, we know because we have 150+ of them in our studio!
Our buckets slowly started to disappear so we created labels encouraging people to returned them to us. We've gotten them all back since we put labels on them so it has to work right?
We ordered them from @vistaprint and they're water resistant!
We have 12 different colors of 5 gallon buckets and then matching 2 gallon buckets. That's a lot of buckets!
Why do we have so many?
I've found a method/system for production which is assigning a different color for every wedding or event that we do. Some weeks we only use one color and some weeks we use all twelve colors. THIS method is my number one recommendation that I give peeople.
- You don't have to order the different colors. Grab what you have first and spray paint them, put duct tape on them, etc. Use what you have first then slowly upgrade!
I personally know our clients names, orders, and all the details. My entire team does not. Assigning a color for every wedding/events and calling the color out vs. the clients name has changed everything.
My team can't see a name but they can see a color and that saves an incredible amount of time!
🐪🐫 Happy Wednesday! 🐪🐫
Sharing our processed of designing bouquets on Wednesdays.
Wednesdays: We pull recipes, prep greenery and start designing.
Our system looks similar to this:
🌿 We start with the wedding that is first to occur. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc.
🌿 Someone pulls the flower part of the recipe and preps the flowers. Spins them open, removes guard petals, etc.
🌿 Someone pulls and preps the greenery part of the recipe. Remember to keep all the small pieces and toss them into your prep bucket!
🌿 After both the greenery and flowers are prepped then someone will start to design the bouquets.
🌿 While someone is designing the bouquets the rest of the team is pulling the remaining items of the wedding.
We prep, design, wrap and pack all in one day.
This system has been perfected over the last few years!
We use to pull all the recipes for every wedding and event but found ourselves going in and out of the cooler too much. Now we pull and design as we go. Once the whole wedding is pulled then we’ll assign the line items and everyone starts to design what they were assigned.
Having your supplies pulled on Monday is where this really comes in handy because you go straight into designing and there’s no prep work. You don’t have to foam in lovey dishes, you just soak them and get started. Ribbon is already cut and pins are pulled for the bouquets. It’s the best process for how we design!
This is the system that works for us! How do you divide and conquer for your design days?
Small Dried Floral Organization
Have those small dried florals left over?
Don't throw them away! This is gold for us.
We have individual bins with small dried floral pieces as well as large bins.
When we prep pampas, ruscus, etc. we keep all the extra little pieces. We keep these pieces for corsages, boutonnieres, flower crowns, etc.
Instead of having all those pieces in one big box, we orangized them into seperate bins. This has saved us so much time and money!
We don't waste any dried product by doing this method. That's where the savings come into play. Broken pieces of bunny tail? Add those into your bouts! Small pieces of lunaria? Add those into your corsages. The list is endless!
We use the Sterilite Corporation 7 QT bins. These are the best bins! We have a whole reel dedicated to the bins we use.
Education is a major part of what we do.
Whether it’s our team, fellow vendors, clients, etc. Educating others and continuing education is vital.
I always tell my team if there’s something you see or want to learn how to do then tell me! I’ll take the time to schedule that into our week or month.
If someone on my team is taking the time to voice to me they want to learn and take on more. That’s huge!!
- it means they’re comfortable telling you that.
- it means they want to learn and care about what they’re doing.
Laurel wanted to learn how @everystem_ worked. She’s use to seeing the process from a designers perspective but not building the actual recipes and numbers perspective. She told me one day she was interested to know how to do recipes and how to make the numbers work.
- Now Laurel can do recipes without me which means she’s taking on more and expanding her knowledge of the floral world. For her, this is increasing her chances of a raise because she’s taking on more. For me, this is taking a part of my job off of my plate so that we can expand in a different area.
It took me a long time (way too long) to realize that I can’t grow my company without delegating and letting my team take on more without me. Educating them is how this happens.
You have to take the time to slow down, explain things deeply and empower your team. Remember, without your team you wouldn’t be where you are today!
Team being people in your studio working, people working behind the scenes, people who support you by sharing your posts, people who help educate you, past team members, people who leave you a review and so much more.
There’s many people at Cone Flower who you don’t see that are a part of this team. Without them we wouldn’t have what we have.
Empower your people. Educate your people. Continue to do both and you’ll see a massive difference in their confidence!
My blue floral desk mat is from @elysebreannedesign and a bunch of
Happy Easter! 🐰🐣🐇
This is one of my FAVORITE tools in the studio.
Y’all need this especially if you don’t have a chopper. It was on sale and actually cheaper than the flower chopper!
It’s the best tool for processing flowers and chopping bushes/tree branches.
Big fan of this pruner and big fan of @dewalttough tools!
DM us for the direct link!
Copperas Cove Bulldogs
Come design an arrangement with me before seeing Taylor Swift's Eras Tour movie with my mom, sister, niece and nephew.
We had bud vases left over from the Copperas Cove High School reunion so I decided to make an arrangement for my mom in full glam...at 7:00AM.
Alone time in the studio is where I get to be creative and do my thing. It's normally go go go but the morning time is my quiet or in this case Taylor time. I forgot about this video but am so happy I recorded it as it shows how in my element I am.
We spray painted all the greenery gold to bring in the gold from the school colors. White and blue accents to match. It was a fun and exciting event to do for my mom!
Go BullDOGS! not Bulldawgs 🤣
Spring is Here!
Spring is here and so are all the colors! 🌿🌷🌼
This bright and cheerful bouquet puts me in the best mood.
This bouquet is filled with multiple types of florals and greenery plus a lot of texture. Remember that you can have the same type of flower in different colors.
You don't have to have 20 different types of flowers to create a beautiful look! Keep the varitey of the flower the same and just change the color.
In this bridal bouquet we used hot pink ranunculus and yellow ranunculus. We also used purple stock and white stock. It gives a completely different look even though the flower is the same type.
Add in a few accent colors along with different types of florals and bam! There's your texture and variety but on a budget.
Happy Friday and Happy Easter Weekend!
Foam in a 9 Inch Lomey
FOAM
Such a hot topic in our comments when we show it.
Yes, we use foam.
Yes, I still love the Earth.
It's okay, I promise!
Remember, we can all do things differently and that's okay!
This is how we foam in a 9 inch lomey dish.
- 2 1/2 blocks across the middle.
- 1/2 block on the top and bottom.
- tape from one side to the other then do the same for the other side.
Offset the tape so it doesn't cross in the middle.
- I've found that your natural instinct is to insert stems into the middle of the foam. In doing so, you continually poke into the tape. This helps a lot!
I know people are going to say to wrap the tape all the way around the dish and that works too! Sometimes we do it and sometimes we don't. It really depends on where the design is going.
We prep our foam dry on Monday and then soak them the day we are going to design. THIS SAVES SO MUCH TIME. It also reduces foam waste because there's a set recipe for each design so you can pre-cut the foam and not have to soak extra.
Square Arch
We love when a vision comes to life even more than how we thought it would!
We don't normally work with fabric unless it's already placed but we placed this fabric then designed the arch pieces around it. Just becuase we don't normally do something doesn't mean we won't do it at all. It's not something we specialize in so we leave it to the experts when that occurs.
The fabric & color of it, the choice of flowers and greenery PLUS the layout of the designs made this vision even better than we expected!
We used two, 2/3 cages for the top left then one, 1/3 cage on the right side.
We do recipes per cage, not per install. Not sure if others do that but it helps us create the design a little better and maximize the install!
This is such a popular color palette. I'm not normally a fan of fabric but I think it made this look pop.
- One question we get often is how much fabric to purchase for draping. To be completely honest, I have no idea. I always say more than what you think just to be safe! If someone has a formula for figuring this out please let me know! 😅
The square arch was provided by the venue.
I'm not sure where the fabric came from but it was a few pieces that we put together to create the drape.
Let me know if you have any questions!
