I just love….how much is….can I have this for July????
These are just a few of the questions we hear every day from our brides. Most of the time we are able to obtain the particular flowers that they’ve found in magazines and on the Web, but some things are just too seasonal.
Spring bulb flowers can be this way, particularly narcissus, daffodils. Late winter and early spring only for these beauties. Muscari – grape hyacinth - along with standard hyacinth, make their best showing in early to mid spring. Some bulb flowers such as tulips and iris have become available for the entire year, though at a premium in off seasons.
Anemones come to mind as one of the types that really only shines for part of the year. Generally available from November until about mid May, this gorgeous flower, with it’s circle of color-saturated petals and a (usually) black center is at it’s best in mid to late spring. At other times, if some becomes available, it is usually smaller than normal (normal is about 1 ½ to 2 in. diam.) and the stems are spindly.
We also have lots of requests for ranunculus, which lately I’ve seen often paired with the anemones in magazines. These wonderfully “petally” flowers are available most of the year now, however, like the anemones they are at their best in the late winter and spring – February until May.
I’ve mainly seen complete bouquets with only these two varieties and some foliage, and they are fabulous, however I’d like to caution you that they are expensive that way. The blossoms are small, averaging about 1 ½ inch across, on both varieties, though if you’re lucky, they may come in about 2 to 2 ½ in across. You would be safe to figure about $2 to $3 per blossom. Your florist has no control over the size, other than to ask for the largest blossoms and then just keep their fingers crossed.
I like to tell the brides that come to me, that if they can’t, or don’t want, to afford a bouquet solely of these flowers, then to use them as accents. Small groupings of the blossoms in either a single area, or several areas of the bouquet really make it pop. Both of these varieties lend wonderful texture, but especially the anemones can lend a hot pop of color too.
I also tell all the brides that visit us to bring along picture that they’ve found on the internet and in magazines. We will price them out and also offer alternatives if need be. I’ve always wished that the magazines would publish some prices for the styles they showcase. Most people would be shocked, and unfortunately some brides are very disappointed to find that what they’ve set their hearts on is certainly out of reach as pictured.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Preservation Resource Center's Holiday Home Tour
Fait accompli! After taking on being a part of the Preservation Resource Center's Holiday Home Tour during the December rush, everything came together beautifully. It seemed like there were thousands touring our home at 2700 Coliseum. Those passing through were surprised to see that the florist/owner chose to decorate without a single flower other than a few orchid plants. With the theory that ostentatious flower arrangements would outshine the architecture and the antiques, a fruit and winter greens approach was taken. Each room featured a different fruit, from pineapples to plums. Far from being the grandest home on the tour, many were complimentary that it seemed people actually live in the house! It was great to share our home with so many enthusiastic people.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Trends in Holiday Decor 2010/2011
Internet nut that I am, I’ve been scanning the web for holiday trends this year. I’ve found a couple of distinctive styles that seem to be winning out, and are seen often.
Opulence, as seen through rich, deep, saturated jewel tones, lots of metallics, and glass are present. Ruby reds, navy to a solid periwinkle, and purples seem to predominate, I haven’t seen many rich greens such as hunter, but accents of lime green, especially in fresh flower accents have been many. I would have thought velvets would work nicely with this, especially with the depth of color, but it seems raw silks to taffeta are the way to go.
Golden glass balls and balls of mercury glass, and all manner of glass vases will play heavily on trees and tables, and again this year, tablescapes will dominate over a single centerpiece. I have found many instances of artificial, metallic toned, evergreen boughs, and gold tinted pine cones tucked among twisted, and nicely plaited, colorful fabrics, and cords. I haven’t noticed berries, which were big, a couple of years ago, but it seems that if it’s lush, it’s in for this style. There’s no fussiness, as with a Victorian look, this is BOLD.
A second trend, if you could call it that, is toward a more natural look. Perhaps the green movement has something to do with this, but rather than the pale-colored austerity that I equate with the “greens” this seems to be nature let loose with wild abandon. Full, brimming arrangements, lush garland and wreaths. Wood, natural and deep stained, and/or carved, stones, especially the darker, smooth river stones, sand, mosses, deeply stained reeds in reds and mahogany. As in the first trend, this wants deeper, richer colors, though will have some lighter tones, such as natural grape vine, or drift wood, and the lightness of sand and perhaps even a few sea shells. Here you’ll find hunter greens and golds, reds – but more along persimmon tones, lime greens, lighter, but bright yellow, pinks, fuchsia, and blues. Flowing patterns, and ethnic patterns will accent the fabrics. Where the other style was bold, I would say this one is LIVELY!
Of course tradition, with it’s own richness, colors everyone’s holiday. You will certainly keep your memorable holiday decorations, but it’s fun to incorporate something new, and I can see where elements of each of these trends will fit in nicely with traditional holiday decor. We will be posting our holiday pictures soon at www.harkinsneworleans.com , please stop by and take a look.
Internet nut that I am, I’ve been scanning the web for holiday trends this year. I’ve found a couple of distinctive styles that seem to be winning out, and are seen often.
Opulence, as seen through rich, deep, saturated jewel tones, lots of metallics, and glass are present. Ruby reds, navy to a solid periwinkle, and purples seem to predominate, I haven’t seen many rich greens such as hunter, but accents of lime green, especially in fresh flower accents have been many. I would have thought velvets would work nicely with this, especially with the depth of color, but it seems raw silks to taffeta are the way to go.
Golden glass balls and balls of mercury glass, and all manner of glass vases will play heavily on trees and tables, and again this year, tablescapes will dominate over a single centerpiece. I have found many instances of artificial, metallic toned, evergreen boughs, and gold tinted pine cones tucked among twisted, and nicely plaited, colorful fabrics, and cords. I haven’t noticed berries, which were big, a couple of years ago, but it seems that if it’s lush, it’s in for this style. There’s no fussiness, as with a Victorian look, this is BOLD.
A second trend, if you could call it that, is toward a more natural look. Perhaps the green movement has something to do with this, but rather than the pale-colored austerity that I equate with the “greens” this seems to be nature let loose with wild abandon. Full, brimming arrangements, lush garland and wreaths. Wood, natural and deep stained, and/or carved, stones, especially the darker, smooth river stones, sand, mosses, deeply stained reeds in reds and mahogany. As in the first trend, this wants deeper, richer colors, though will have some lighter tones, such as natural grape vine, or drift wood, and the lightness of sand and perhaps even a few sea shells. Here you’ll find hunter greens and golds, reds – but more along persimmon tones, lime greens, lighter, but bright yellow, pinks, fuchsia, and blues. Flowing patterns, and ethnic patterns will accent the fabrics. Where the other style was bold, I would say this one is LIVELY!
Of course tradition, with it’s own richness, colors everyone’s holiday. You will certainly keep your memorable holiday decorations, but it’s fun to incorporate something new, and I can see where elements of each of these trends will fit in nicely with traditional holiday decor. We will be posting our holiday pictures soon at www.harkinsneworleans.com , please stop by and take a look.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Destination Weddings in New Orleans!
Unlike many businesses that have seen sales go down as tourism had declined, we have been delighted to witness a growing trend upward, toward destination weddings in New Orleans.
With the use of our website, email, and telephone, we can work beautifully with brides to help create the wedding they’ve always hoped for. Many times we will meet the bride when she is in town taking care of wedding plans, but also there are times when we don’t ever get to see her!
A few tips we like to give brides when they first start planning a destination wedding, is to first of all, relax! We know it can be frustrating when you can’t actually be here to see the flowers in person. I like to tell brides, “they are only flowers, how can anything so beautiful be stressful?” We know flowers, it’s what we love to do, so our brides don’t need to stress over the types, styles, or even colors.
We try to make things as convenient as possible for our brides. We usually start off by asking the bride if she has any preference as to color, style or types of flowers. This is a good time to also ask if there are any flowers or colors that she absolutely can’t stand.
We also ask about the different items she may have in mind. We have, on our Wedding page, on the web site, http://www.harkinsneworleans.com/wedding_checklist.htm a document titled “Wedding Checklist”. This list, originally was created for the few traditional brides that would like to divide the costs of the wedding between the bride’s and groom’s families. We have found that it works wonders in jogging everyone’s mind when trying to list all of their items.
Our Bridal Bouquet page continues to grow, with many different color combinations and different flower types for brides to consider, but the possibilities are endless, so we always ask our brides to look through magazines, and web sites and forward any and all pictures and ideas to us. Often brides will fall in love with certain bouquets they see in magazines, which have very seasonal flowers. I suppose this happens because in the excitement of getting engaged, they immediately start planning months and months ahead of their wedding date, so they are seeing the wrong seasonal flowers. We help out by suggesting substitutes for most of the varieties. One good work-around for this is to visit the library and look at back issues of bridal magazines, for flowers that are showcased around the time of their wedding date.
The wedding magazines are a great source of ideas, though I’ve noticed that since the publications don’t list prices for the flower bouquets, corsages, centerpieces or church décor, most brides are at a loss as to an appropriate flower budget for these items. Many of the floral arrangements shown in the magazines are so lavish, they are out of reach for all but a few brides, but we can help here by offering suitable substitutions, alternate designs, and tips to scale back on many items and still stay true to the spirit of the original design. An old rule of thumb has always been that the flower budget should be about 10 percent of the total wedding budget.
Another area we help out our destination brides, is the reception. Local brides will usually have friends and family take home the centerpieces from the reception as a keepsake. When you have a destination wedding, there usually are no local friends and family. We like to offer our brides the option of renting the containers for their centerpieces so they won’t feel it wasteful to have upscale vases, or many vases, in the case of tablescapes.
Lastly, we love the unique, personal touches that people come up with to make their day so special. We welcome all ideas, so don’t be shy, bring on the wacky and funky, the sentimental and touching, we’re here to bring it all to life!
With the use of our website, email, and telephone, we can work beautifully with brides to help create the wedding they’ve always hoped for. Many times we will meet the bride when she is in town taking care of wedding plans, but also there are times when we don’t ever get to see her!
A few tips we like to give brides when they first start planning a destination wedding, is to first of all, relax! We know it can be frustrating when you can’t actually be here to see the flowers in person. I like to tell brides, “they are only flowers, how can anything so beautiful be stressful?” We know flowers, it’s what we love to do, so our brides don’t need to stress over the types, styles, or even colors.
We try to make things as convenient as possible for our brides. We usually start off by asking the bride if she has any preference as to color, style or types of flowers. This is a good time to also ask if there are any flowers or colors that she absolutely can’t stand.
We also ask about the different items she may have in mind. We have, on our Wedding page, on the web site, http://www.harkinsneworleans.com/wedding_checklist.htm a document titled “Wedding Checklist”. This list, originally was created for the few traditional brides that would like to divide the costs of the wedding between the bride’s and groom’s families. We have found that it works wonders in jogging everyone’s mind when trying to list all of their items.
Our Bridal Bouquet page continues to grow, with many different color combinations and different flower types for brides to consider, but the possibilities are endless, so we always ask our brides to look through magazines, and web sites and forward any and all pictures and ideas to us. Often brides will fall in love with certain bouquets they see in magazines, which have very seasonal flowers. I suppose this happens because in the excitement of getting engaged, they immediately start planning months and months ahead of their wedding date, so they are seeing the wrong seasonal flowers. We help out by suggesting substitutes for most of the varieties. One good work-around for this is to visit the library and look at back issues of bridal magazines, for flowers that are showcased around the time of their wedding date.
The wedding magazines are a great source of ideas, though I’ve noticed that since the publications don’t list prices for the flower bouquets, corsages, centerpieces or church décor, most brides are at a loss as to an appropriate flower budget for these items. Many of the floral arrangements shown in the magazines are so lavish, they are out of reach for all but a few brides, but we can help here by offering suitable substitutions, alternate designs, and tips to scale back on many items and still stay true to the spirit of the original design. An old rule of thumb has always been that the flower budget should be about 10 percent of the total wedding budget.
Another area we help out our destination brides, is the reception. Local brides will usually have friends and family take home the centerpieces from the reception as a keepsake. When you have a destination wedding, there usually are no local friends and family. We like to offer our brides the option of renting the containers for their centerpieces so they won’t feel it wasteful to have upscale vases, or many vases, in the case of tablescapes.
Lastly, we love the unique, personal touches that people come up with to make their day so special. We welcome all ideas, so don’t be shy, bring on the wacky and funky, the sentimental and touching, we’re here to bring it all to life!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Welcome to our first edition!
Welcome to the premier edition of our new blog!
We hope to help keep you informed of all things floral, from the newest seasonal offerings, such as the much awaited Michigan glads which have just arrived, to the latest trends in wedding designs, or even the latest colors for home decor - we've heard that bright orange-red will be one of the hot colors this season.
We'll be adding tips and tricks, from time to time, to help you get the most from your flowers, whether they come from here or your backyard garden, and we'd love to get some feedback from you.
We continue to stay busy with our recycling program. So many people have expressed how pleased they are that something can be done with their old vases - no one likes to throw them out, and by trading them for flower bunches, everyone wins. In case you are new to our program, we offer a pack of daisies, or alstroemeria for every 3, clear, glass vases that you bring in.
We hope to help keep you informed of all things floral, from the newest seasonal offerings, such as the much awaited Michigan glads which have just arrived, to the latest trends in wedding designs, or even the latest colors for home decor - we've heard that bright orange-red will be one of the hot colors this season.
We'll be adding tips and tricks, from time to time, to help you get the most from your flowers, whether they come from here or your backyard garden, and we'd love to get some feedback from you.
We continue to stay busy with our recycling program. So many people have expressed how pleased they are that something can be done with their old vases - no one likes to throw them out, and by trading them for flower bunches, everyone wins. In case you are new to our program, we offer a pack of daisies, or alstroemeria for every 3, clear, glass vases that you bring in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)