Flower Duet Co-Sponsors #CabanaBoss at Terranea Resort

By Kit Wertz

Flower Duet is a mem­ber of a wed­ding and event ven­dor think tank called the Wed­ding & Event Heroes who meets to edu­cate each oth­er and our peers, to net­work with col­leagues and devel­op pro­fes­sion­al relationships.

We held our 4th Annu­al “Hero” Event called #Caban­a­Boss on May 15, 2017 at Ter­ranea Resort in Ran­cho Palos Verdes, Calif., and here are a few images from the day. If you want to read more, see our #Caban­a­Boss blog post about it with more love­ly pho­tos by Miki & Son­ja Photography.

We made the hash­tag sign using wood­en let­ters and Galax leaves. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Mem­bers of the VIPs Enter­tain­ment live music com­pa­ny float­ed in Ter­ranea’s Cielo Point pool and ser­e­nad­ed our guests dur­ing the brunch and net­work­ing hour. Pho­to by Miki & Son­ja Photography.

Local­ly grown orange pin­cush­ion pro­tea looked fan­tas­tic with the turquoise and orange decor by the pool. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Miki & Son­ja Photography.

Buf­fet flow­ers need to be neat and tidy so they don’t get in the way of the food plat­ters. We stacked small wood­en cubes to give height to this petite flo­ral design with ros­es, berries, and pro­tea. Image by Kit Wertz

Yel­low and orange were the high­light col­ors for this pool­side event and these orange flow­ers look great against the back­drop. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Miki & Son­ja Photography

Casey gets ready to float some flo­rals at our #caban­a­boss event at Ter­ranea. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

These float­ing flow­ers were thought up by Casey using inflat­able drink cozies. They were fun, whim­si­cal and eye-catch­ing. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Kit is speak­ing about how to make the right impact with your busi­ness web­site dur­ing the Brand­ing pan­el of our #Caban­a­Boss Lead­er­ship Sum­mit we co-spon­sored at Ter­ranea on May 15, 2017. Pho­to by Miki & Son­ja Photography.

Some of the men and women who attend­ed our 4th annu­al event at Ter­ranea! Pho­to by Miki and Son­ja Photography

Rose Water’s Seductive Side — Elixer or Youth Serum?

By Kit Wertz

H2ROSE water promis­es a more youth­ful com­plex­ion! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

When a bot­tle of water tells you to “Drink and Be Beau­ti­ful,” it’s hard not to look twice. So I did and read that it was a rose water drink and then, of course, being a flo­ral design­er, I had to try it.

H2Rose is a drink made with rose water and oth­er fla­vors like Man­go, Apple, and Peach. The pack­ag­ing promis­es that if you drink it, you’ll be more youthful.

Burt’s Bees claims that its Rose­wa­ter Ton­er is: “Lux­u­ri­ous­ly gen­tle, Rose Water is dis­tilled from fresh flow­ers and the essen­tial oil of ros­es. It’s a mild astrin­gent with a tru­ly beau­ti­ful aroma.”

Since ancient times, ros­es have been used med­i­c­i­nal­ly, nutri­tion­al­ly, and as a source of per­fume. Accord­ing to Wikipedia, ancient Greeks, Romans, and Phoeni­cians con­sid­ered large pub­lic rose gar­dens to be as impor­tant as crop­lands for fruit and grains.

Here is what the mak­ers of H2Rose promise:

“H2ROSE is a spe­cial­ty bev­er­age unique­ly made of rose water, saf­fron and oth­er nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents. Rose water was ini­tial­ly cre­at­ed exclu­sive­ly for roy­al­ty. As time passed, rose water became a healthy bev­er­age used by an increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple around the world. The scent of rose water is beau­ti­ful and offers a num­ber of sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly proven ther­a­peu­tic ben­e­fits. It has also been used for cen­turies in cui­sine and in skin care as the ulti­mate foun­tain of youth.

Just as rose water is com­mon­ly used to cleanse the skin as a top­i­cal skin ton­er that tight­ens pores, drink­ing rose water also puri­fies the body thanks to the flavonoids, tan­nins and oth­er essen­tial vit­a­mins it con­tains (e.g. A, C, D, E and B3).

Rose water helps to enhance your mood; it aids with the relief of occa­sion­al ner­vous ten­sions and soothes the mind. Thanks to its de-stress­ing qual­i­ties, rose water is also known to help with a bet­ter qual­i­ty sleep.

Saf­fron which also dates back to ancient times is anoth­er nat­ur­al rem­e­dy that sup­ports many func­tions. Saf­fron eas­es diges­tion, soothes irri­tat­ed stom­achs, enhances your mood, reduces occa­sion­al anx­i­ety and com­pul­sive desires to eat.”

The Man­go fla­vored H2ROSE water I drank tast­ed very good and when I fin­ished it, I looked in the mir­ror to see if my crows feet had sub­sided. Nope! But, it was a very nice way to sip my way through the afternoon.

Flower Duet Finalist for 2017 Best Florist in Los Angeles by California Wedding Day Magazine

We were delight­ed to learn in March that our peers had vot­ed for us to be final­ists for the best florist in Los Ange­les by Cal­i­for­nia Wed­ding Day mag­a­zine. We attend­ed the #cwdbestof2017 awards din­ner and net­work­ing event at Vib­iana on May 23, 2017.  It was a love­ly evening filled with beau­ti­ful designs by the spon­sors, incred­i­ble food and cheers by our fel­low indus­try ven­dors to the win­ners in each category.

Con­grat­u­la­tions went to Eddie Zarat­sian in our LA Florist cat­e­go­ry who was also a spon­sor for the evening. Here is a list of all the win­ners in each cat­e­go­ry. Kudos to every­one who came from San Luis Obis­po who showed immense sup­port for all of their local ven­dor win­ners. Thank you for all of your sup­port if you vot­ed us to be finalists!!!

Here are a few images from the evening out where we were guests of honor!

Here is the out­door court­yard of Vib­iana before the awards were announced by the edi­tor and pub­lish­er of Cal­i­for­nia Wed­ding Day mag­a­zine. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Casey and Kit at the awards for #cwdbestof2017!

pho­tog­ra­phy by LUCAS ROSSI PHOTOGRAPHY

A cen­ter­piece for the Cal­i­for­nia Wed­ding Day Best of 2017 Par­ty. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Here is a cute video made from the pho­to booth spon­sor — fotospark:

A Surprising Solution for Racking Ribbons

By Casey Schwartz

Ah…ribbons.

As wed­ding design­ers, we use a lot of rib­bon in a mul­ti­tude of col­ors to com­ple­ment every­thing from bridal bou­quets to vas­es and flower girl bas­kets. Our rib­bon col­lec­tion has always been large, but recent­ly a for­mer stu­dent donat­ed her entire col­lec­tion to us and we knew we need­ed a bet­ter way to store them for easy access and inven­to­ry control.

After try­ing out two dif­fer­ent com­mer­cial solu­tions for hold­ing rib­bons that did not work very well, I decid­ed to make my own rib­bon rack. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

I went to the hard­ware store to see what might work as a new type of rib­bon rack and when I walked into the gut­ter (no pun intend­ed) sec­tion, I hit pay dirt. The white plas­tic gut­ter would be the per­fect addi­tion to a stu­dio wall and hold lots of rib­bon spools. I bought a 10-foot sec­tion and drove gid­di­ly back to the stu­dio to install it!

Some­times the best place to find solu­tions to stor­age prob­lems is in an unlike­ly place like our local hard­ware sup­ply. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

I drilled the gut­ter direct­ly into the wall above our col­lec­tion of bins that holds oth­er sup­plies like cor­sage pins, nitrile gloves, cut­ters, knives, and glue.

This gut­ter holds tons of rib­bon! So hap­py with our solu­tion! Pho­to by Kit Wertz

This is a per­fect solu­tion to dis­play­ing too many spools of beau­ti­ful rib­bon. I hope it helps you!

Botanical Book Recommendation for Summer

by Ingrid Carozzi (Author), Eva Nyqvist (Author), Paul Briss­man (Pho­tog­ra­ph­er)

I found this amaz­ing flo­ral design­er while perus­ing Google Images a few years ago when I was look­ing for some inspi­ra­tion on com­pote designs. Yes, we Google for inspi­ra­tion from oth­er design­ers, too — as well as to make sure we aren’t doing some­thing too similar.

The author, Ingrid Carozzi, is the own­er and design­er of Tin Can Stu­dios in Brook­lyn, N.Y. I love and admire the stylings of Tin Can Stu­dios and hope to vis­it someday.

From Ama­zon:

“Brook­lyn-based florist Ingrid Carozzi reveals her secrets for cre­at­ing flower arrange­ments that are mod­ern, orig­i­nal, and organ­ic in style. Orga­nized by sea­son, the book presents sim­ple step-by-step instruc­tion (how to mea­sure, cut, and place each bloom) for mak­ing more than 35 arrange­ments. Whether you want to learn how to work with chick­en wire and tape to cre­ate a sim­ple frame­work or try your hand at arrang­ing del­i­cate and over­size blooms, Carozzi offers a detailed tuto­r­i­al on her tricks of the trade. Read­ers are encour­aged to source, make, or upcy­cle unex­pect­ed con­tain­ers, such as rough-hewn wood­en crates or vin­tage pots, jars, and vas­es. Full of nat­ur­al flo­ral com­po­si­tions that mar­ry the mod­ern with the rus­tic, Hand­picked is a lush­ly pho­tographed, prac­ti­cal guide to cre­at­ing your own excep­tion­al flower arrange­ments at home.”

3rd Annual American Flowers Week Includes a Slow Flowers Summit in Seattle on July 2nd, 2017 and a Feature in Florists’ Review Magazine

American Flowers Week ~ June 28 to July 4, 2017: Celebrating American Grown Flowers in all 50 States

American Flowers Week

Here is an excerpt from Florists’ Review with cred­its below.

Sub­scribe to Florists’ Review, click here.

Mod­el: Alexan­der Brooks
Make­up: Yessie Lib­by, Yessie Make­up Artistry, Seattle
Pho­tog­ra­phy: Mary Grace Long, Mary Grace Long Pho­tog­ra­phy, Seattle
Loca­tion: Mary Grace Long Stu­dio and Dis­cov­ery Park, Seattle

More in the cur­rent issue! Don’t miss it!

Slow Flowers Summit — July 2, 2017 — Seattle, Washington

Report by Kit Wertz

Devel­oped and pro­duced by Debra Prinz­ing and Slow Flow­ers LLC, the Inau­gur­al SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT might be dubbed the “TED Talk for Flower Lovers.”

The SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT promis­es to “stim­u­late your curios­i­ty by inquir­ing, inform­ing, includ­ing, insti­gat­ing and inspir­ing con­ven­tion­al assump­tions as we explore con­scious and eth­i­cal prac­tices in the flo­ral indus­try.” So, if you don’t have plans and love flow­ers, why not book a trip to Seat­tle for July 2nd and learn some­thing new about this very old industry.

WHO: While attend­ing, you will hear from mod­ern icons of the flo­ral indus­try includ­ing James Baggett, Gar­den­ing Edi­tor at Bet­ter Homes & Gar­dens, Amy Stew­art, author of the best­selling book, Flower Con­fi­den­tial.

Chan­tal Aida Gor­don of TheHorticult.com will be the pan­el mod­er­a­tor for ask­ing “Where’s the diver­si­ty in flo­ral design and hor­ti­cul­ture?” with pan­elists Leslie Ben­nett of Pine House Edi­ble Gar­dens, Riz Reyes of RHR Hor­ti­cul­ture and flo­ral artist Nicole Cordier Wahlquist.

Guest speak­ers appear­ing dur­ing the star-packed sum­mit are Tere­sa Sabankaya of Bon­ny Doon Gar­den Co (whom Casey and I have both met and feel is tru­ly love­ly). Emi­ly Ellen Ander­son of Lola Cre­ative who is inspir­ing. And final­ly, the amaz­ing design­er behind Detroit’s The Flower House, Lisa Waud of Pot + Box who will lead a con­ver­sa­tion dur­ing dinner.

The even­t’s media spon­sors are Florists’ Review and Coun­try Gar­dens.

Details on date, time and tickets:
WHEN: Sun, July 2, 2017, 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM PDT
WHERE: SURF Incu­ba­tor Event Space, 999 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, Seat­tle, WA 98104
TICKETS: $135-$175 — PURCHASE AT EVENTBRITE

Flower Duet’s Summer Flower Classes

Learn how to work with Pro­tea and Celosia in our July flower arrang­ing workshop!

Sign up today for our sum­mer flo­ral design class­es! Our June class fea­tur­ing ros­es is SOLD OUT, but you can still join us for the Bou­quet and Bou­ton­niere work­shop on June 21st and design with Pro­teas in July. We hope to see you soon at our stu­dio for a fun sum­mer of flo­ral designs.

July’s class will fea­ture Pro­teas like these in this design we made for a char­i­ty event at Vib­iana in May. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

June 17, 2017 — Field to Vase with Ros­es — SOLD OUT
June 21, 2017 — Bou­quet & Boutonniere
July 12, 2017 — Wed­ding Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents
July 15, 2017 — Pro­lif­ic Proteas
August 19, 2017 — Field to Vase with Dahlias
Sep­tem­ber 16, 2017 — Hap­py Hydrangeas
Sep­tem­ber 20, 2017 — Bou­quet & Boutonniere

Sign up online through our shop­ping pages. We offer a guid­ed tour of the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict before our Sat­ur­day morn­ing work­shops as an added option.

A View from a Flower Designer — Selections from May Events by Flower Duet

Chanel No 16? We made 16 per­fect pink rose cubes for Chanel in May. Pret­ty in Pink indeed. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

We made this ele­gant gar­land and swag com­bo to frame the cer­e­mo­ny space for the hip LA City Club high above down­town Los Ange­les. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Every once in a while we like to shoot our flower set ups before we work. This is mid-way through an event cre­ation in May. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

A sim­ply ele­gant yel­low and green Hol­ly­wood-themed wed­ding in May. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Astilbe and peonies worked well in this hot pink and light pink bridal bou­quet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Orange is a col­or to use to join peo­ple togeth­er. These ros­es, ranun­cu­lus, pro­tea and celosia look great togeth­er for an event for the LA Library Foun­da­tion. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

We part­nered with Made By Meg Cater­ing for the Man­hat­tan Beach Rotary lun­cheon in May with tall cen­ter­pieces in lush white hydrangea with green and orange accents. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Pret­ty Peony cen­ter­pieces lined up ready for place­ment. Some­times we need to wait until the linens are down on the tables to place the flow­ers. This was one of those times…so it was a per­fect pho­to opp! Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

It’s our 7th year spon­sor­ing the flow­ers for the Redon­do Beach Edu­ca­tion Fundrais­er and this year we went tall and low with pur­ple and green cen­ter­pieces com­ple­ment­ed by low green gar­lands and flo­rals. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

It was an 80s Scot­tish High­lander themed wed­ding request to cre­ate fluffy green bou­quets for the round tables at Los Verdes. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

The end of school brings a week of teacher and staff appre­ci­a­tion from the PTA. We cre­at­ed bun­dles of ros­es for the teach­ers to take home and the flow­ers sure looked snazzy on this super­hero-themed table run­ner. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Flower Duet has been a spon­sor for Teen Line for many years and this year’s theme was Empa­thy. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.