Ikebana-Nageire emphasizing Curve Line

material: phaleanopsis, curly willow

As a floral designer, I continue to study ikebana (Sogetsu School). Here is one of my recent creation.

Real Wedding-Pink and Green

A quick preview of Cara and Brian's wedding at the Berkeley Faculty Club. Various shades of pink were used to create Cara's bouquet--the garden roses were gorgeous and luxuriantly fragrant.

Where did the acorns go?

We left some acorn branches we used for last weekend's wedding outside our studio, and noticed that the acorns on the branch have been dwindling since. This morning I caught a glimpse of a neighborhood squirrel in the act--munching on the acorns! By noon, all the acorns are gone.

When it was still intact, the acorn branch makes quite nice of a material to add height and sculptural lines to a centerpiece, as we did for Bridget and Brett's wedding. Above is a sneak preview of it.

Real Wedding--Autumn Colors

Here's a preview of Miriam and John's wedding. Miriam choose flowers in autumn colors to complement her wedding colors--cream and celadon. We collaborated closely and came up with a creative table setting using celadon chair sashes woven together to create a square center, which functioned as a "frame" for the centerpiece, the table focal point. In addition to arrangements in autumn colors, cream carnation pomenders were hung on the four poles of the chuppah, and green carnation pomenders dotted along the aisle.

Ikebana--Freestyle

materials: euphorbia, curly willow

As a floral designer, I continue to study ikebana (Sogetsu School) . Potential and limitation of various materials are explored through the creation of ikebana. Here is a snapshot of one I recently created.

Real Wedding-Orange and Yellow

Here are some snapshots we took of Britt and Tom's wedding at the Limn Gallery. Britt came to see us a while back, and immediately was drawn to our ikebana designs. Britt shared with us that they would have a Buddist ceremony and she liked the color orange but also noted that it's up to us to incorporate the color orange or choose other colors. For the ceremony, we incorporated of a pair of ikebana arrangements using white mitsumata branches with green chestnut branches to be set on a altar table covered with orange iridescent taffeta. The altar set up was designed to show up well against the wooden paneled background. Britt's bouquet was composed of orange vanda orchids, yellow cymbidiums, orange dahlias, and the seed pods from tree of heaven (the seed pods resemble leaves). The table setting included alternate cybidium orchid arrangement and wheatgrass set on a natural straw runner. Segments of the long king table were numbered by using bottles of wine with custom number labels on them.

Real Wedding--White Green and Orange

A sneak preview of Christine and Tom's wedding. The ceremony took place in the Redwood Grove in UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, followed by reception at the Berkeley City Club. The strong verticality of the magnificent redwood was the focal point, and the reason for Christine's choice of the site. We decided that any traditional altar arrangement would compete unsuccessfully, and unnecessary, to the grove. As a result, all personal flowers, Christine's bouquet, bridesmaids' bouquets, and the botanical ring pillow, were decidedly green and white to complement the site. The color orange was chosen for reception flowers. Cake flowers (and the cake of course) were provided by Masse's Pastries