What Does A Year Look Like For Florists.

This is how a year in the life of a florists goes by....

January starts a new year with all the excitement of preparing for Valentine's Day and Wedding Season and everything else the year holds. January also is our downtime and relaxing after a very busy Christmas Decorating season. We are tired of Jingle Bells, Decking the Halls and all things Red and Gold.

 Once February hits we get into the Love of all things Spring since we tend to get in the first of the tulips, hyacinth and other beautiful Spring flowers. Valentine's Day brings in some business and often times produces brides to-be.  March is also a month where we get to take a few deep breaths before we hit April and May which is the first lap of Wedding Season. Our brides so far this year have had wonderful taste! They know what they want and make sure every detail is perfect for their big day! Check out some of the photos from this past weekends weddings! So much color!

 

June is the traditional wedding month and 2012 will have many June brides for the Lisa Foster Crew! We can't wait to see the professional photos from this years weddings.  July and August also produce many weddings (not as many as June).  Leading into the fall September and October we as florists start looking forward to the jewel tones of fall weddings and all things harvest. Wheat stalks, pumpkins as centerpieces and sticks all over the place. It may surprise you to know that we sometimes have as many October weddings as June weddings. October in East Tennessee is probably the most beautiful month with all of the colors God provides in nature! Not to mention the crisp fall air and the urge to grab some hot apple cider that has everyone in a festive-fall mood! 

To finish off the year in November and December most of the crew stays out of the shop decorating homes for Christmas. It's a change of pace and is almost an everyday all day endeavor to make Christmas perfect and beautiful. Tons of bow fluffing and light hanging! It's a lot of fun seeing everyone's Christmas decor and creating memories with all of the shop girls. After that it's back to the Start Line with January!

It seems each year seems to fly by so quickly but we have such great times with each other doing what we love to do... take beautiful flowers and create beautiful arrangements.

Elizabeth Miller Wedding - Smithview Pavilion

All of us at Lisa Foster Floral Design just love when girls do things a little different and show off unique style through their weddings! Elizabeth Miller was one of those brides who knew what she wanted and went for it. Every detail of her wedding was well thought out and executed. The ceremony and reception took place at the Smithview Pavilion in Maryville, Tennessee.  A beautiful setting for their vintage-tea party inspired wedding. We love everything that went into the seating chart, cake "table" and pretty much every other detail you could think of. 
The colors worked perfectly and the flowers she wanted to use are some of our favorites! She is one of our girls this year who wanted shades of peach and ivory with touches of ... you guessed it, turquoise! Thankfully, Elizabeth knew how to use the turquoise throughout her wedding with the girls dresses, paper for banners and the backdrop for their photo booth. We will stop rambling on and let you enjoy the photos! Once again JOPHOTO has captured every perfect wedding moment! Great job and keep up the wonderful-amazing-beautiful work.      

Weekend Flower Planting

T . G . I . Flowers, as the weekdays have dwindled into the beloved weekend here are a few ideas of how you can cure your cabin fever and give your tired lawn a facelift!
With the warm weather we've had lately it's a good time to get your hands dirty. Stop by your local nursery and pick up some plants, mulch and a cute pair of gardening gloves (who says getting dirty can't be cute!)
Here are some good ideas of what to pick up and plant this weekend.
First, why not plant some rose bushes! Roses will be in bloom soon and who wouldn't love to stop and smell them? Cut them from the yard and use them in your home! We recommend buying plants from a trusted and local nursery or online greenhouse where they take care of their plants. Something to look for in any plant is the roots and leaves. 
Ask yourself these important questions; are the leaves healthy looking and are the roots established well? If the leaves show signs of spots, yellowing, or brown crunchy areas move on to a healthier looking one. Sounds pretty simple right?! 
Word to the wise... avoid buying plants from the grocery store! Not that they don't care about the flowers but plants aren't their specialty and main priority.  
Plants that are good to plant this time of year would be fruit trees or other flowering trees (dogwoods!). You could be just a few months away from having your own apples! Mmmm apple pie from your backyard orchard! 
Want to plant some Tennessee native plants? Luckily the TVA has a portion of their website that you can browse either the scientific or the common names of local plant life. This might help with knowing what to look for and what would do well in your yard.  A few examples that we love are; bleeding hearts, hydrangeas, viburnum and various kinds of ferns. There are a ton of flowers, green plants and trees listed on the TVA website. Another positive for buying at a local nursery is they will educate you on what would do well and how much water and sun are required for each plant.  
Sounds like a fun Saturday morning to me! Whatever you decide to do this weekend we hope you have a fun and safe one. Enjoy the fresh air and hopefully sunshine. 

Lisa and Abbi Foster planting flowers

 Bleeding Heart

 Cinnamon Fern

Hydrangeas

FLORISTS' REVIEW APRIL 2012 - Honorable Mention

You know when you really love something and think its great, you think everyone else should feel the same way? Then they do feel that way and its awesome! Well, that is exactly how all of the girls of Lisa Foster Floral Design felt about Hannah Roberts Manning wedding on April 9, 2011. To preface the story a little we need to tell you about the wedding and the bride. Hannah didn't want much in the way of flowers or decorations for her Country Chic wedding. In fact it was her dad that wanted to add more flowers to the wedding! Her color scheme was pretty simple; yellow, white, navy and gray. It might sound simple but it made a big impact. We just can't get over the color combo!
Every year we enter a contest for the Florists' Review Magazine Picture Perfect Weddings. In 2011 we won best bouquet with Kelly Kohlbusch Huddleston's bridal bouquet.  For 2012 we may not have won a big door prize or gotten on the cover, Hannah's wedding did receive honorable mention! The article reads;

     It has been several years since we've had a wedding of honorable mention in the 
    "Picture-Perfect Weddings" contest, but we couldn't let this one go unpublished. 
    With its perfectly executed details and 
    simple country elegance, this is the event we all wish we could have attended. 
    And perhaps most interesting is how it came together to fulfill the desired look 
    of the minimalist bride, who at first "really didn't want any flowers at her wedding," 
    florist Lisa Foster reports.

Along with Hannah's wedding we submitted two other 2011 weddings for consideration for the contest. Though they didn't win any awards they did place in other areas of the magazine! Thank you Julie Roberts Solon and Emily Williams Baker for your beautiful and unique ideas that let our creative juices flow! Here are the pages from the magazine, please enjoy them!

It's Not Fair Pinterest, It's Just Not Fair!

Recently we have had an increase of brides wanting flowers in teal/turquoise. Now if you are a Pinterest addict like most of us at Lisa Foster Floral Design then you know Pinterest is the Pandoras box of craft ideas, flower inspiration, food know-how and anything else anyone could ever need to know. The downfall with Pinterest is that sometimes it is hard to figure out what is real and what is not. 
We love and hate it for many reasons. Pinterest helps our brides organize their ideas, get inspiration and learn about what flowers could be available to them for their wedding. We hate Pinterest because sometimes the photos have been altered, flowers have been painted or they are fake. The popularity of the color teal has caused some heartache for brides. Since Lisa likes to say, "God doesn't make teal flowers".  Now where does that leave us? 
Well, unlike the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland we can't paint the roses red...or teal. There is a special paint for flowers but not all flowers look good painted (see calla lilies below). In all honestly, we don't like to do it! Painted flowers look unnatural in most cases. The one flower that does well with floral paint are hydrangeas. They are the only flowers we will tint when the real ones are not available.  The colors that we typically use are soft pink, blue and green. Since Hydrangeas come in those colors naturally then most of the time you can't tell the difference. 
Another way to color flowers is to let them drink colored water... this works with carnations and regular daisies. We normally suggest for girls looking to use the teal/turquoise color to use it in the wrap of the bouquets. It helps to tie in the color without being too much of a good thing. Also, we tell them to keep in mind is that if you have a teal dress you want the flowers to pop, not blend in.  

Example of the colors blending into the dresses photo via Pinterest  

Artificial teal flowers.

Sandals Resort - Grande St. Lucian - St. Lucia

Lisa was in need of some much deserved rest and relaxation so she and her husband Sam headed down to Sandals Grande St. Lucian Resort in St. Lucia. They spent 7 days and 6 nights soaking up the sun! Here are a some details with photos of all the great things you can do at Sandals!

ROOM - concierge service room 24hr room service in all rooms at the Grande St. Lucian
ate breakfast out on the balcony every morning, over looking the Caribbean ocean and swimming pool.
included french toast, bananas, eggs, omelets, fresh juice, fresh coffee, hot chocolate in a pot. every night you put your breakfast request hung on the door and in the morning it arrives promptly.

FOOD - The food was fantastic and you could have anything you wanted whenever you wanted!
Candle light dinner on the beach for Sam and Lisa's early anniversary celebration. There were tiki torches with flower arrangements, the waiter had white gloves and there were waves almost touching the table legs. 5 coarse meal.  Crepe shop! any kind you want. cheese, fruit, chocolate... you name it.

ACTIVITIES - For Lisa's birthday they enjoyed a couples 50 minute massage! She says it was amazing and recommends it for honeymooning (or any) couples! They headed to the pool to enjoy the sun, breeze and get some good reading done for the majority of the trip. The beach is just as you see in the photos white sand and blue water... Lisa wanted to go snorkeling but Sam wouldn't go which is one of the free activities at the Grande St. Lucian. The main pool has a water fall that looks out over the pool bar! Swim up and have your favorite beverage. During dinner there is always entertainment if you decide to eat outside you can really hear the music. Lisa and Sam even got the chance to be guests for a wedding on the beach!!

SERVICE - felt like king and queen all week with the service they don't want you to do anything.

The four poster bed with curtains are huge, soft and comfortable! Amazing views no matter what window you look out of in your room. Wonderful facilities that are clean and well maintained.
The weather was perfect other than a few light sprinkles here and there. Make sure to pack extra sunscreen...

Remember Lisa is a Certified Sandals Representative and can help you plan you perfecto honeymoon or vacation getaway!