Pretty Pretty.

From Chandra Abel Designs

And so begins my foray into color boards.

As wedding season approaches, it seems as though I am spending a lot of my time dreaming up color schemes (partly because its my job, but mostly because I wonder what I would choose for my big day, but I digress). I have to say I'm pretty darn good at this process, and so I thought I'd share. Whenever I ask a bride her color scheme, nine times out of ten, she will limit herself to two colors. Why just two? I LOVE color, so when my wedding day comes, I don't think I'll be able to limit myself to just a pair from the rainbow. How about three? Or even four? Here is my first color board of the season: plum, buttery yellow, and grey. Quite appropriate for an early spring bride; yellows representing the early days of spring, and grey to tie in the winter we are leaving behind. And of course some eggplant purple to add some contrast and a little boldness to your big day.

From Chandra Abel Designs

Bridesmaid's dress by Thread, floral designs by yours truly.

Tyler & Becky

From Chandra Abel Designs

Here is the photo story to go with that ginormous bouquet I posted over the weekend. It was so much fun for me to do Tyler and Becky's personal flowers. Their theme was succulents, and Becky loves peonies, so the juxtaposition for me was obvious. Even I was excited to see how they were going to turn out. The flowergirls' bouquets however, are probably one of my most favorite bouquet designs ever (see photo in blog header). We combined spray roses in pale pink and green (so great for little ones' bouquets because of their miniature size) and blushing bride (some fun irony - even if I'm the only one that gets it). The wedding was beautiful (I always cry at weddings) and the reception was so much fun, they even served It's-Its for dessert! A Big Congratulations to Becky and Tyler, thank you for letting me be a part of your day!

Best of Orange County Nomination!

I found out a few days ago that Chandra Abel Designs was nominated for FOX's Orange County Hot List for Best Flowers! How exciting! I'm so thrilled to be nominated, now I just need your votes! So would you mind? Here's the link.

Becky's Bouquet

A few months ago a good friend of my man's got married, and she asked me to do her personal flowers and a few other floral related things for their big day. Here's a couple photos of her bouquet, which was MASSIVE, as you can tell by the poor flower girl who's trying to hold the darn thing up. I did love this bouquet though, despite its mountainous proportions. The combination of the feathery peonies and the hardy succulents is a pretty tough one to beat in my book. I'll do a more detailed photo story of this wedding later on this week. Photos by Melissa Slater of Slater Studios.

A Family Affair.

So in August of last year, my beautiful niece got married, and I happily did the personal flowers for her and her man. The wedding was in my brother's backyard, of which the whole family put weeks (if not months) of work into transforming their miniature canyon into the perfect venue for a summer wedding. Her colors were grey and white, so I was so excited to come across the last bit of dusty miller (the velvety, grey leaves) at the LA Flower Market to include in her bouquet. I also used leucadrendrons, and striped off all of the leaves and used the button at the center (grey acorn-lookin' things) to get some grey for her girls' bouquets. I wanted to include some green for contrast, and she really loves kale, so you'll see that in her bouquet and in the maids' too. As for the white, we used the trusty ol' mini callas and hydrangea, and threw some miniature cymbidiums in there to gussy it up a bit. The maids also had freesia in theirs to set them apart from Lea's bouquet. The photos show Lea being walked down the aisle by her dad (my half-bro), plus you'll see her coming back from getting her hair done and discovering the bouquets in her dressing room.

Pretty in Pink.

Sweet and simple. Just hot pink peonies and spray roses. Photographed by the always amazing Melissa Fuller.