Boutonnieres for the Grooms party

We’ve already covered the bride and bridesmaids in previous posts, so let’s talk a little about the groom, groomsmen and ring bearer for your wedding…… Guys in the wedding party wear boutonnieres- small clusters of just one or two flowers/ greenery wired and taped that are then pinned onto their lapels. What we recommend most often is that the groom wears something that is special from the brides’ bouquet and then the groomsmen wear something from the bridesmaids. So if you are having a bouquet of all white flowers including roses, stephanotis and mini callas then the groom might wear either a mini calla or maybe you’d choose a cluster of stephanotis. If the bridesmaids then are carrying posies of say red and burgundy flowers such as hydrangeas with roses and berries then the groomsmen would wear perhaps a small cluster of hydrangea blooms with some berries.

This is a nice way to organize it as the guys are often all wearing the same outfits, including the groom so this will set him apart. It doesn’t always work out so neatly though- perhaps you are carrying all hot pink peonies for example- a peony is first of all much too large to work well as a boutonniere, but you may also come up against some objection to the flower being the colour pink ( believe me- it has come up….many times..) In this instance you would choose something that comes up elsewhere in the wedding to try and tie it all in.

Fairly new to the market are boutonniere magnets-

these handy little gadgets are used within the mechanics of the boutonniere and are really, really strong. We had one of Erin’s friends’ road test them at their wedding and apparently the magnets stayed on all night through much ruckus and dancing.

At Periwinkle we wrap the “stems” of the boutonniere with black ribbon as we feel it gives a nice finished look- I’ve also seen really nice finishes that use decorative wire wrapped around, or snippets of material to match other parts of the wedding.

Ring bearers are usually quite young- Many brides just choose to have them wear a version of the groomsmen’s boutonniere, to make them “one of the guys”. If you are thinking of having the ring bearer actually bear the rings on something, may I suggest a floral “pillow” for maximum adorableness!

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Lovely day for a stroll through the grass.

We had a flat of wheat grass in the store this week, in order to make up a sample for an upcoming Bar Mitzvah. After that appointment we were left with several square feet of lovely fresh green shoots just sitting there, begging to be shown off. So, how about this for a fun centerpiece idea, perhaps for a bat Mitzvah or baby shower?
Or what about this?

Not in the market for a child centric party? Well, there’s always this for a wedding shower or wedding day centerpiece…..


I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I’ve been seriously resisting the urge to take off my shoes and walk all over it!

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Two Toronto weddings

Just a quick post to share with you two adorable weddings from the weekend- One at McLean house here in Toronto, shades of pink with silver grey, full of peonies and other summer loveliness.
This bride was madly in love with all spring flowers, but could only get the venue she wanted at the start of the summer, so we both spent many months praying hard for a cool slow spring ( sorry to all you hot weather lovers, as our hard work seemed to pay off!) to allow her to have her peonies at least.




The second was a downtown affair at the Park Hyatt hotel-


but this bride brought a sweet organic natural vibe to the urban setting which I loved.

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What to tell your florist about your bridesmaids

Continuing from our last post about the brides dress style and colour affecting the flower choice, today we present “the bridesmaids”.

The main thing your florist will want to know about the bridesmaids is what they are wearing and how many.

What they are wearing:
Bridesmaid’s dresses really are such an important part of the wedding colour scheme and theme. This is often where the main colourway is set for the entire wedding, not just the bouquets but the ceremony and the centerpieces too. We’ve been seeing many brides lately that aren’t choosing a colour for their girls, they are going with black. Black is a very strong “colour” but the wonderful thing is that it is also the perfect background for flowers, better even than white. In fact many florists paint the inside of their coolers black to show up the beautiful tones of the flowers! If you do choose to go with a colour, this can guide the florist toward using a certain palette. The bride that chooses bright fuchsia dresses is probably going to be open to some hot Mediterranean colours such as pink, orange, red for the bridesmaids. Softer toned dresses will probably look better with softer pastel tones of colour to avoid them looking washed out.

How many:
Having just two or three girls standing with you generally means you are going to do the same bouquet for each of them, but if you are having a larger bridal party you do have the option of mixing it up. If perhaps several could be categorized as junior bridesmaids for instance you could have them carry something different.
For instance, this would be the brides bouquet:

This would be the bridesmaids bouquets:

And this would be the "junior" bridesmaids:

You can also have each girl carry a variation of a bouquet for a more relaxed look (doing this when you only have a couple of bridesmaids can make it look like someone got forgotten until the last minute and had to take what you could get). More bridesmaids also means more of the budget is going here, so we often suggest to brides on a tighter budget that they go with something simple but effective- the repetition will add to the drama as well. For example you could do a bouquet of just three gerbera daisies for each girl. Here is a great example of this concept-
The bridal bouquet:

The bridesmaids bouquets:

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Wedding flowers 101- First lesson: The bridal bouquet

Jessica from Periwinkle here- Yet another bridal appointment began with the bride to be uttering the words “I don’t have any idea about flowers for my wedding…” This happens often, and has spurred me to this- the Periwinkle guide to what you as a bride need to think about when thinking about your wedding flowers in order to get the perfect mix for you.

First up, let’s do as we at Periwinkle do in our wedding consultations and start from the top with the bride herself. The very first thing we as a florist want to know is what the dress looks like. This always gets the bride talking, which is great and we usually get way more detail than we need. Essentially, what matters is the colour, the style and if there is any ornamentation. So let’s tackle these one by one.

The colour:


Very seldom do we get brides going with an actual colour over a shade of white, but when they do it opens up a world of possibilities for the bouquet. But neutral still reigns for the bridal gown, and so what we need to know is are we talking true white, natural white, off white, ivory, cream….you get my drift here. Because the dress is the background for the bouquet, the flowers need to compliment it while actually showing up in front of it, so if it is a true white and you have your heart set on only the purest white flowers, we will recommend having a greenery collar at least, probably mixing some greenery into the posy itself. This is because if you don’t, all your photos will show you holding basically nothing in your hands as the white flowers will be indistinguishable from the white of your dress. Choosing an off white heading into the creamy tones means we will try to avoid using too much pure white in your bouquet, as this can often make the colour of the dress seem “dirty” or “muddy” against the pureness of the flower colour.


The cut:


Again, we get a lot of detail about this, but what we want to find out is how full the gown is and if it is following a particular era in styling. For example a gown with a full skirt and sleeves will need a fuller fancier bouquet, perhaps getting into a teardrop or cascade even, to balance out the visual weight of the skirt- a delicate posy of lily of the valley would be totally lost. A slender, body skimming fit lends itself more to elegant architectural bouquets, such as three stems of calla lilies left long and simply bound. If the gown has a princess feel we will know you are heading for a different look overall in the wedding than the bride that has chosen the 1930’s art deco gown.


The ornamentation:

Is there some delicate beading around the waist band? Embroidered vines all over the skirting? Your florist needs to know if the dress is calling attention to a particular area so the bouquet doesn’t take away from that- A too full posy will block that beading from view entirely, and we’d want the posy for the embroidered dress to have some echoing of the vines within it, without making it feel like the whole look is overgrown!
Ornamentation can also give some great little details that we can then pull through the rest of the wedding- One Periwinkle bride had a beautiful coloured sash around her waist- this was repeated with similar satin ribbon at the necks of the centerpiece vases and was a wonderful personalization of the event.

You chose your gown because it makes you look how you want people to see you, even if this wasn’t a conscious part of your decision process, so a good florist can glean a lot of information about what your want in flowers from hearing about your dress. Breaking down the elements of colour, cut and ornamentation is a great way to help guide you in your bridal bouquet choice, even if at first you really do feel you have “no idea ” about the flowers.

In my next installment we will tackle the bridesmaids and flower girls so stay tuned!

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Pretty Plum Posies

We are in full swing here at Periwinkle, meeting with brides for summer and fall weddings this year. Something new we are doing is putting together “mood” boards for our brides to help them visualize the colour combinations, as it can certainly be overwhelming during the planning process and when I say purple and yellow that might not look the same in your head as it does in mine! As an example, here is the board I created for one of my most recent brides to be. She is getting married in June this year and has chosen a lovely plum colour for the bridesmaids. We discussed a few different colour combos, starting with the more obvious one of mixing in pinks, but this bride is a little more adventurous and wanted to do something fresher- here’s where we picked up the idea of a soft creamy yellow as a highlight to the plums, purples and blues.

I love it! And it works so well for this bride as she herself is a light blond with pale skin. I can’t wait to work on this one!

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Periwinkle's top tips for where to save on your floral budget

Jess- In these trying times of financial gloom and doom, many brides are feeling they need to tighten the budget somewhere. So with that in mind, here are Periwinkle’s top tips for where to save – yes, you can still have the wedding flowers of your dreams, just with a few minor adjustments!

Tip #1-Cut the number of bridesmaids you plan on having (obviously you can't do this if you already asked the girls, don’t want to cause any friendship rifts here, so see tip two!). The bouquets are second only to the centerpieces in how much of the final budget they take up if you have a large bridal party. Having only a maid of honour stand with you means only two bouquets as opposed to the seven or more it may take to cover all your dearest girlfriends, sisters and future sisters in law.

Tip #2- Alright, so you already asked your Friday night party girls to be there with you. Change your vision of what this gaggle will carry! Paring down can still be elegant, and works well with a larger number because of the repetition effect. Instead of a full bouquet for each girl, try doing a staggered cluster of three flowers, or even a single huge headed bloom such as a rose or peony with some gorgeous ribbon in a contrasting colour. See-that cut the budget and no one got hurt!


Tip #3- Consider not decorating the ceremony area. If you are getting married outside, you don’t really need anything anyway- you can’t beat Mother Nature for background. If you are in a large church or synagogue again, the scope of the building and the architecture may be able to hold its own without any adornment. You need to remember that the typical ceremony is only about an hour long and everyone will be watching you the entire time (don’t get nervous now!) so they are unlikely to notice that you don’t have any florals here. Most florists are also charging you for the delivery, set up and transferal of these pieces, so you will see some savings elsewhere too.

Tip #4-Going back to the number of bridesmaids you have- if you are having more than a couple, use their bouquets to decorate the head table. Periwinkle sets up a line of short simple vases filled with a simple tropical leaf (partly so they look cool before the reception begins but also so no one mistakes them for drinking glasses and chugs the floral water down!) and the bridesmaids just set their bouquets in them as they arrive- instant décor!

Tip #5- Find containers yourself for the centerpieces- scour the dollar stores (seriously!) and large stores such as IKEA that can buy in bulk and offer discounts deeper than a regular florist can. The only very important thing here is that you have to choose a vase that isn’t going to take a fortune to fill- the larger the vases opening the more it will take to fill, so try to find something unusual in shape or structure with a smaller opening. We usually ask our brides to bring one in first before they buy 50 of the wrong thing.

Tip #6- You don’t have to have a full arrangement on the table. If you go with a more unusual design you can often get away with less. Let’s say you can find three glass vases of different heights- you could submerge a different flower in each and space them out on the table for the same visual effect as a full arrangement, but with a nice modern edge to it. Or how about a low ceramic tray you can easily pick up in china town for pennies- have your florist fill it with a “carpet “ effect of deep green moss with a diagonal line of three large rich toned open roses, gerberas or peonies flush with the moss- unusual, but dramatic.




So you see, there are ways to get around a tight budget if you are prepared to change your vision a little, without settling for anything less stylish!

Now of course once this “massive world financial crisis” is over I’m going to post again urging you all to fill the ceremony with swagged garlands of orchids and such, so be prepared, but for now there is still style to be found in a recession!

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Late summer wedding- September 2008, Toronto

Jess- I posted a while back about a wedding in September here in Toronto, showing a little behind the scenes- well, today I received by mail a lovely thank you from the bride along with a cd of flower themed pictures from the day that I though I’d share Here is the gorgeous bridal party- The bride chose an unusual bridesmaids dress colour , that allowed us to bring in some coppery red details with the flowers


Take a look at the centerpieces all set up



I should mention these photos were taken by Brooke and Eric Lagstein for BE creative Photography, based in Wyckoff, NJ.

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Alright, red stay far far away from white please

Jess- Hey Erin- I was putting together our winter window display the other day with our wonderful shop assistant, jess jr, and it got me thinking about colour combinations. What’s your least favourite colour combination when working with flowers for events? The window was black white and red, pretty much my personal very worst colour combo nightmare, but we saved it at the last minute by adding shots of a deep rich purple and some hot pink- and all of a sudden all was ok with the world again!




Erin – I am not overly fond of red and white together. It seems to Christmassy or “I am Canadian” unless that is the look you are going for. I am usually happy when we are using colour to begin with period. It makes everything a little more interesting. One colour I find tricky is blue or purple. There are not a lot of flowers out there that come in these colours and often times a grower will substitute something blue when we asked for something purple or vice versa and we all know there is a big difference between the two when it comes to co-coordinating with bridesmaids gowns. On top of that these colours are hard to see from a distance. This means that if someone is sitting at the back of the church an arrangement of dark blue flowers will not show up as well.



Jess-Hmm, I see what you mean- but blues and purples together is one of my favourite combos, but yes, they can be very tricky to actually make work on the day. Darn Mother Nature (and growers!) and her unpredictability! Interestingly I have discovered this past summer that I really really really don’t like all white as a colour scheme- I know- rather awkward considering its popularity as a bridal flower, but luckily I am a professional and can manage to get through a wedding in all whites without letting on how I really feel! I find it hard to convey much with all white; arrangements just tend to look all the same to me when they are all white. Maybe colour preferences change as we age Erin- do you remember someone telling us something to that effect years ago when we first opened about learning to love pink?

Erin – yes of course. A neighbour of our’s at the store told us that when we hit 20 we would really start to love pink. Little did she know we were already 26. It was quite funny

Jess-Yes, but she was right- I do love pink more now I am older, just look at what you can do with it!

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with apologies and lots of photos

It’s been a very busy wedding season for us at Periwinkle, so much so that we haven’t been able to post as often as we wanted, but to apologize we thought we would share with you a wedding in full- with photos!

Late this summer we worked on a beautiful wedding for a lovely couple here in Toronto. Their reception was at the Design Exchange building on Bay Street. The theme was coppery orange and brick red and we created the bouquets with full open roses, mango callas and mokaru orchids. The wedding preparation begins for us on the Tuesday of the wedding week, when we first receive the product and begin processing and coaxing-



Centerpieces are started on the Thursday. This wedding had three different centerpieces-each in a short pyramid vase (in a nod to the architecturally amazing Design exchange venue we chose something with an unusual shape). The first is mass of leonidas and milva roses, with beargrass swirled inside the vase and small tufts of greenery. The second design was all orange and red dahlias with beargrass in vase again, but no greenery( love love love these) and the final design was all mokaru orchids (again with beargrass in vase and no other greenery-this one was the brides favourite so we made sure this is what sat on the head table)





Friday was spent working on the personal flowers – bouquets for bride and bridesmaids and boutonnieres and corsages for the rest of the wedding party. I really love the boutonniere choices.




Saturday is game day- here’s the truck ready to head out on delivery. First stop is the church at University of Toronto to drop off the bags of boutonnieres and corsages for groom and family (no ceremony pieces for this wedding, but honestly they weren’t needed as the trinity chapel is divine all by itself) and then on to the hotel to drop off bridal bouquets and such. Next stop the venue. The staff here are super helpful and make unloading a breeze. Only the tables are up with linens only but as I work the wait staff are arriving and beginning to prep for the night.



One final check over and after touching base with the event coordinator on site I head out, well ahead of guests.

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