Arrangement in a vase

One of my friend's dads requested a bouquet to give to someone at his work who was leaving. He also bought her a vase, then decided he wanted the arrangement in the vase. This was a bit more tricky than a usual hand tied bouquet, as there had to be enough flower material to ensure the arrangement didn't lose its shape in the vase. The vase was also really large so I had to enlist my sister's help to wrap it in the cellophane!

Mother's Day orders

I'm still training as a florist, so for big occasions like Valentines and Mother's Day I don't expect to receive any orders. However, for this Mother's Day I did receive a few orders so I was very pleased with that! And one was even a repeat customer - I made a teacup arrangement last week and she liked it so much that she asked me to make another one! I also made another teacup and a bouquet.

The girl who ordered the bouquet - her mum is a florist so I really wanted to impress with that! She gave them to her early and apparently she loved them, so that's pretty great.

I was also struggling to find a way to transport the teacup arrangements, but I had some of these bags for putting bouquets in and they're the perfect size to carry a teacup!

Mum's birthday

It was my mum's birthday on Friday and my dad requested some flowers for her - I put more into them that I would usually and my mum loved them!

The Secret Garden window display

I've just finished the first part of the window display unit at college. We split into groups and chose a theme to base our display round, and my group chose "The Secret Garden" as our theme. We made five arrangements for the display - a twig pot arrangement, a topiary tree, a jam jar trio posy, a heart wreath and a hand tied. We got a distinction for our display so we must have a done a good job, and I certainly think we did!

The last photo shows my group - me, Rebecca, Amy and Louise.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana

This week at college we had an orange theme! We made two arrangements again - a hostess bouquet and a hand tied arrangement using just one flower. One is practice for an assessment in a couple of weeks and the other is for the portfolio.

I'm quickly learning that the packaging really makes the bouquet - you can make even the smallest of arrangements look even more impressive with good packaging.

First college assessment

I had my first assessment at college this week - and I got a distinction! We had 15 minutes to make the bouquet from start to finish but I was done in less than 10. The first photo is the cone wrap I made for the assessment. My tutor said it was "very commercial work showing excellent wrapping techniques, neat construction". Pretty good feedback I'd say!

The second photo shows what we made in the afternoon - a tied sheaf. This piece is for our portfolios.

College bouquets

We had a practical day at college today, and here are the two bouquets I made. We had to recycle the flowers which was a bit different, but much cheaper than having to buy two lots! We have a timed assessment on the first bouquet next week - eek! We have to make it from start to finish, including stripping the stems, wrapping and making the bow in 15 minutes. Looks like I'll be practicing a lot this week!

My first wedding!

I did the flowers for my first wedding today! The bride is a woman from work who knew I was doing a floristry course and asked me a couple of months ago if I would do her flowers. She only had a really small wedding, so just needed three bouquets and two buttonholes. But for my first wedding it was the perfect amount!

She was so pleased with the flowers and I was too, I'm really proud of myself for how they came out. Lots of people at work complimented me on them which was nice, and will hopefully lead to more jobs!

I had a few spare flowers and I didn't want to waste them so I made a centrepiece as well with handmade bunting. The bride Steph really liked this as well and I believe she took it with her even though they didn't really have a formal sit down dinner.

The wedding party pulled up outside the office on the way to the wedding so we all got to see them (which is how everyone at work knew I had done the flowers!) Steph looked beautiful and it was really nice to see the flowers in action because I don't think you really see that as a florist.