And Then, Mother's Day

The rest of the arrangements went out before I could snap photos, but here are some I made for the mothers in my life. They featured lots of flowers from the garden (both ours and that of the aforementioned friend of the bride's family, who very kindly let me snip a few sweet peas and white avalanche roses for my own purposes : ), as well as some "show ready" tulips that opened too white to be included in the colors-only wedding. After deliveries I spent the afternoon at my grandparents' house, feeling all the world like the luckiest little floral designer in the world and celebrating my grandfather's birthday, Mother's Day, and Cinco De Mayo all in one glorious fell swoop.

A Home Grown Wedding

 

 

It is difficult to even begin to describe the joy that was designing the flowers for F&N's beautiful wedding; I was just totally blown away by the kindness and positive energy of everyone involved. A close friend of the bride's family lovingly grew the majority of the flowers for the celebration in her hillside garden overlooking the Valley (above), which I supplemented with some locally grown delphinium, peonies, ranunculus, and tulips. The result was a happy explosion of color, just as F&N wanted. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Have Woodland Meadow, Will Travel

Last Friday, Silverado Vineyards hosted one of the four "distinctive, multi-vintner, multi-course dinners", to mark the beginning of the Stags Leap District's V2V Weekend. Prepared by Chef Sarah Scott, co-author with Connie Green of The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Foods and Recipes, the meal featured foraged Napa ingredients such as elderflowers, chanterelles, fennel and black walnuts.  (It smelled amazing . . . I suspect butter was also involved.)

I had the pleasure of designing appropriately wild centerpieces to match, which incorporated calla lilies, maidenhair fern, thistle, and oak from Napa, foxgloves and passion vine from Petaluma, lilac from Stockton, and Icelandic poppies and sweet peas from Half Moon Bay. Right. Up. My. Alley.

 Here's trusty Buck, packed to the gills with flowers- a veritable woodland meadow on wheels.