August 2013 Newsletter

Floral Design Lecture on August 11, 2013 at South Coast Botanic Garden

Flower Duet will demon­strate how to design flow­ers in a large scale arrange­ment at the South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Flower Duet appears as guest lec­tur­ers at our local botan­i­cal gar­den where we’ll talk about how to choose fresh flow­ers from the mar­ket or gar­den, how to con­di­tion them, make them last a long time in a vase and how to com­bine dif­fer­ent flow­ers of the sea­son. Con­tact them to sign up: The South Coast Botan­ic Garden

When: Sun­day, August 11, 2013

Time: 1:00 — 3:00 p.m.

Loca­tion: 26300 Cren­shaw Boulevard
Palos Verdes Penin­su­la, CA 90274

Phone: (310) 544‑1948

Cost: $25 mem­bers / $35 non-members

All-in-One Wedding Venues in Palos Verdes

by Flower Duet

The Palos Verdes Penin­su­la locat­ed in the South Bay of Los Ange­les is home to some of the loveli­est wed­ding venues in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. We love cre­at­ing flow­ers and dec­o­ra­tions for wed­dings right here in our own back­yard. All of these venues offer ser­vices to host the cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion togeth­er. Not only is it handy for us, it is nice for your guests too.

La Venta Inn

Over­look­ing the South Bay coast­line high on the hill in Palos Verdes Estates is La Ven­ta Inn. With views of San­ta Mon­i­ca Bay and its coastal cities, this is a top-notch wed­ding and pri­vate event venue oper­at­ed by New York Food Com­pa­ny. It has his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, too! As one of the first build­ings on the Palos Verdes Penin­su­la, it became a famous black-tie restau­rant in the 1920s and in the 1930s, a week­end tourist retreat for such notable peo­ple as Tyrone Pow­er, Cary Grant and Glo­ria Swan­son. Dur­ing World War II, La Ven­ta’s tow­er was uti­lized as a look­out for the US Coast Guard.

We can attest that the food is won­der­ful, ser­vice is love­ly and each wed­ding pack­age includes cater­ing, valet park­ing and dress­ing rooms for the bridal par­ty. Kit was mar­ried here, so we have a spe­cial bond with this place. Con­tact La Ven­ta Inn for details.

Above are pho­tos of one of the many wed­dings we’ve pro­vid­ed flo­rals for at La Ven­ta Inn in Palos Verdes Estates. We used Gar­den Ros­es, Ama­ran­thus, Mums, Lisianthus, Ros­es, Spray Ros­es and more for these designs.

South Coast Botanic Garden

In Rolling Hills Estates, the South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den fea­tures two wide expans­es of lawn and gar­dens with gaze­bos for wed­dings and gar­den recep­tions. After doing many wed­dings there as flo­ral ven­dors, we are pleased to be flo­ral design instruc­tors for their edu­ca­tion work­shops. This month, on August 11, we’ll be lec­tur­ing and demon­strat­ing sum­mer flo­ral designs and in the fall we’ll offer two more sea­son­al class­es for the gar­den flo­ral design­er as well as the aspir­ing florist. NOTE: Cater­ing must be hired sep­a­rate­ly to set up at this venue which would include tables, chairs, linens, food, and bev­er­ages. Con­tact South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den for details.

Below are two dif­fer­ent wed­dings where we pro­vid­ed the flo­ral designs at the South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den in Palos Verdes. The top wed­ding was a wild­flower wed­ding and the last pho­to fea­tured suc­cu­lent plants in all the designs.

The Pacific Ridge

Over­look­ing the Pacif­ic Ocean and canyons of Palos Verdes, The Pacif­ic Ridge’s beau­ti­ful grounds and facil­i­ties are a gor­geous set­ting for your wed­ding or oth­er cel­e­bra­tion. Their facil­i­ties can be set up to suit your taste and needs. In addi­tion to wed­dings, they offer space for com­mit­ment cer­e­monies, recitals and per­for­mances, meet­ings, retreats, memo­ri­als, par­ties and more. NOTE: Clients for this venue must pro­vide their own cater­ing. Com­pa­nies are rec­om­mend­ed by the venue. Flower Duet can also offer a num­ber of wed­ding plan­ners who can help. Con­tact Pacif­ic Ridge for more information.

The Pacif­ic Ridge has a gor­geous view and offers a warm embrace to any­one look­ing to have a com­mit­ment cer­e­mo­ny or wed­ding. Not pic­tured here is a love­ly Med­i­ta­tion Gar­den with an unbeat­able view that is per­fect for small and medi­um-sized ceremonies.

Palos Verdes Golf Club

Nes­tled with­in the city of Palos Verdes Estates is an 18-hole golf course and the his­tor­i­cal Palos Verdes Golf Club. Its club­house is open for non-mem­bers to hold pri­vate events and offers a love­ly wed­ding lawn and gaze­bo with views of the golf course and ocean. The club­house is also open to the pub­lic for most meals so you can check it out as a pos­si­ble venue for your event. Con­tact the event man­ag­er at the Palos Verdes Golf Club for more information.









Found­ed in 1924, this Mediter­ranean style club­house gem in Palos Verdes Estates is the sec­ond old­est buidling next to La Ven­ta Inn. It under­went an $11,000,000 ren­o­va­tion in 2007 restor­ing it to its 1924 design with an under­stat­ed yet ele­gant­ly appoint­ed ear­ly Cal­i­for­nia inte­ri­or. For the wed­ding fea­tured in these pho­tos, we used Gar­den Ros­es, Ros­es, Ama­ran­thus and Chi­na Mums.

Terranea Resort

Along the coast on the site of the for­mer Marineland of the Pacif­ic is Ter­ranea, a sprawl­ing lux­u­ry resort on the cliffs of the ocean. Cov­er­ing 102 acres, the resort offers over 500 rooms, includ­ing bun­ga­lows, casitas and vil­las. The resort also fea­tures an award-win­ning, 9‑hole par 3 golf course, a spa, three ocean-view pools and numer­ous cozy restau­rants, bars, cafés and lounges.

There are many dif­fer­ent beau­ti­ful wed­ding areas on the prop­er­ty for you and your guests. There are full-ser­vice ball­rooms as well as inti­mate din­ing areas and pri­vate ter­races for small­er par­ties. Learn more from the cater­ing man­agers at Ter­ranea Resort.

Pic­tured above are some amaz­ing shots of Ter­ranea and its vis­tas. The bot­tom pho­to shows the set­up for a recent wed­ding rehearsal din­ner. The groom’s moth­er want­ed all Sun­flower cen­ter­pieces. We added some Seed­ed Euca­lyp­tus and Sol­ida­go to each design. Each 6x6 inch cube held an Aspi­destra leaf, 15 Sun­flow­ers, 6–8 Sol­ida­go and 1 stem of Euca­lyp­tus which was divid­ed to round out the design.

Point Vicente Interpretive Center

The Point Vicente Inter­pre­tive Cen­ter is so much more than a place to watch whales, learn about the his­to­ry of the PV penin­su­la and Marineland of the Pacif­ic. It’s an unknown venue that is open to the pub­lic dur­ing the day, but can be all yours at night.

NOTE: Clients for this venue must pro­vide their own cater­ing. Com­pa­nies are rec­om­mend­ed by the venue. Flower Duet can also offer a num­ber of wed­ding plan­ners who can help. Here is their facil­i­ty rental infor­ma­tion brochure.

We’ve had many recent wed­dings here and can rec­om­mend it for those who want a nat­ur­al set­ting to them­selves. Here are some pho­tos from a wed­ding we did last October.

Los Verdes Golf Club

The Los Verdes Golf Course offers breath­tak­ing ocean views of Catali­na Island and a full-ser­vice oper­a­tion for the cer­e­mo­ny and reception.

We did one of our first wed­dings here that had over 250 guests back in the year 2000! The bride’s moth­er threw a flower par­ty for her daugh­ter’s brides­maids, aunts, grand­moth­ers and fam­i­ly friends. We instruct­ed them to make the cen­ter­pieces for the wed­ding, then deliv­ered them to Los Verdes. At the wed­ding, all the ladies came up to Kit and swore they she had “fixed” them before plac­ing them on each table (because they all looked so good). But, truth be told, we had no time for that.

Learn more from Los Verdes Event Ser­vices.

Los Verdes is very spa­cious and offers won­der­ful ocean and golf course views for recep­tions and ceremonies.

Rolling Hills Country Club

Pho­to from Rolling Hills Coun­try Club
Locat­ed in Rolling Hills Estates, the exclu­sive Rolling Hills Coun­try Club is well-locat­ed on beau­ti­ful green hills and sur­round­ed by white rail fences that reflects the near­by horse trails.

Ele­gance. Sophis­ti­ca­tion. Style. Rolling Hills offers its venue for more than just wed­dings! From engage­ment par­ty to a bridal show­er, rehearsal din­ner to the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion, and each hap­py anniver­sary and mile­stone moment that fol­lows, they offer a unique expe­ri­ence for each event.

Learn more from Rolling Hills Coun­try Club Cater­ing at 310–326-4343, ext.233.

Pho­to from Rolling Hills Coun­try Club

Rolling Hills Coun­try Club is a hide­away locat­ed with­in the city of Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The Seasonal Bouquet Project LIVE | 10.21 & 10.22 | Philadelphia

Last month we fea­tured flower schools of the world. This month, we’d like to fea­ture a flo­ral work­shop to be held on the East Coast this fall. The August work­shop on the West Coast is sold out.

From the Sea­son­al Bou­quet web­site: theseasonalbouquetproject.com

“What start­ed as a fair­ly sim­ple cre­ative chal­lenge between two friends has become a tremen­dous­ly pop­u­lar flo­ral design blog ded­i­cat­ed to show­cas­ing art­ful, sea­son­al designs craft­ed exclu­sive­ly with local­ly-grown materials.

Now it’s time to take the show on the road!

Join Jen­nie Love and Erin Ben­za­kein for two incred­i­ble, flower-filled days in his­toric Philadel­phia this autumn. Immerse your­self into all-things sea­son­al and share your pas­sion with oth­er flower die-hards. Jen­nie and Erin will dish all the dirt and answer all the ques­tions you’ve ever want­ed to ask. You’ll walk away empow­ered to make smart deci­sions for your busi­ness and your life.”

Book Recommendation: Succulents Simplified: Growing, Designing, and Crafting with 100 Easy-Care Varieties

Flower Duet is pleased to be fea­tured in Debra Lee Bald­win’s new book, Suc­cu­lents Sim­pli­fied. A few years ago, Debra con­tact­ed us about some of our suc­cu­lent and flo­ral designs we had fea­tured on our site and now we are part of her new book!

Debra has so much to share with her read­ers and shows how to choose which suc­cu­lent vari­eties are easy to grow and how to arrange them into liv­ing art designs.

Suc­cu­lents take on a life of their own when they are com­bined togeth­er in liv­ing tapes­tries and mosaics in Debra’s book. Be inspired by her many step-by-step projects inside the book.

From Ama­zon: “Suc­cu­lents Sim­pli­fied is a com­plete primer on choos­ing, grow­ing and design­ing with suc­cu­lents. Along with gor­geous pho­tos packed with design ideas, Debra offers her top 100 plant picks and explains how to grow and care for suc­cu­lents no mat­ter where you live. Step-by-step projects, includ­ing a cake-stand cen­ter­piece, spe­cial-occa­sion bou­quets, a ver­ti­cal gar­den, and a suc­cu­lent top­i­ary sphere, will inspire you to express your indi­vid­ual style.”

Floral Design Tool: Bud Vase Transport Idea

Pic­tured above is a col­lec­tion of bud vas­es we made for a wed­ding recep­tion on the cam­pus of UCLA. We made over 100 bud bases for this wed­ding and there were five on each table with Del­phini­um, Sun­flower, Spray Ros­es, Mums and Lisianthus.

Flower Duet has been deliv­er­ing bud vas­es with fresh flow­ers to a local restau­rant for a cou­ple of years. It sounds sim­ple enough until you break down the logis­tics of swap­ping out 20 vas­es. Each swap includes clean­ing vas­es, pitch­ing old flow­ers, fill­ing with new ones, many trips from the car and time in the restau­rant ser­vice area which can be rather tight and busy. So… we sim­pli­fied the process.

First, we have twice as many vas­es as we need so we are able to swap out the old with the new quick­ly. The trou­ble was try­ing to find the best way to trans­port 20 vas­es. Cart­ing four at a time from the car takes too much time.

This orga­niz­ing tool for socks for draw­ers is a per­fect fit! We popped it into a stack­ing orga­niz­ing bin and cre­at­ed a water­proof, all-in-one car­ri­er and “no-fall-over” hold­er for vases.

Where to pur­chase: Amazon.com