Totally digging the Vogue (US July) cover

Marion Cotillard is the beautiful woman gracing the cover. Now this is a look I understand. I love her hair, her makeup, the dress. It's all so womanly and gorgeous.

Can't wait to pick up this issue. In fact I may take out a subscription to Vogue if it continues in this mode. Love it....

Flower dislikes: "overly coiffed bouquets"

That was how one of our brides' described a look she did not want for her wedding.

A very sassy, stylish young woman she knew precisely the ambiance she wanted to create for her guests.

Our brief: Imagine an elegant, easy going affair with loose, seasonal flowers. The wedding was happening in the city so "please steer clear of that country or just picked from the garden feel". However, she requested that we work with flowers available at this time of year - delphiniums, peonies, sweet peas, wild carrot and astilbe - classic country blooms.

Our plan: To keep the look urban and chic, we opted for curvy glass vases with a slightly retro, feminine vibe to complement our soft flowers. We chose a limited yet sophisticated colour palette - gun metal grey, lavender, purple, very soft greens with hints of the palest shell pinks.

I think we succeeded. Have a look.

Would do you think ?

Romantic rainy weddings

Personally, I love the rain. Mind you, I wouldn't want an entire season of it, but I do love the moody nature of it all. The sound of a light drizzle hitting the roof makes me want to get all cozy - make tea, delve into a great book or just while away some hours with my favourite magazines and perhaps a wonderful glass of something. Even a dramatic burst of thunder followed by a heavy downpour brings out the kid (or TOAST model) in me. I suppose it's the element of surprise and the unexpected pursuit of suddenly running for cover and giddily laughing along the way. Blame it on TOAST, my childhood, whatever.

Anyway, despite what some grumpy Brits (that would be my relatives by the way) might think about their own weather system, I happen to find it rather romantic.

Brides nearly always want a perfect sunny day for their wedding and worry about inclement weather imposing on planned events. Particularily an outdoor wedding. We try to reassure them that a rainy day wedding is far from being a spoiler. For one thing, it's a known fact that photography is best on an overcast or rainy day. And in some cultures rain on your wedding day is a sign of good luck. Ok maybe that's a stretch.......Well maybe it is, who knows !

We've certainly had our share of rainy weddings. But you know what ? They were really lovely. Here's a few snapshots we took.......

Miller Lash House, an Arts and Crafts manor in Highland Creek (Toronto)

I love this house. It is sooo gorgeous. Even the rain doesn't distract from its beauty. In fact I think it only adds to the romance of the place. It has such lovely paths and is surrounded by incredible lush greenery and huge evergreens. The landscape has a slight rolling hilliness about it.

It was a tented affair in the garden. We did simple, lush peony bouquets for centrepieces. I actually loved the sound of the rain gently falling on the tent. Everyone just quietely worked away at setting up.

Snapshot of peony bouquet at the studio.

The bridal flowers

This garden wedding took place at the bride's family home located in a gorgeous neighbourhood in Toronto known as Hoggs Hollow. It's a little hidden Eden in the north part of town and has the some of the loveliest homes and gardens.

The home (though you don't see it in the picture) has a charming white picket fence and you're only seeing a very small portion of the front garden. It was so lush and green (wet summer). That's me pointing my finger somewhere towards the house.The sky was overcast and yes, it did rain that evening.

The back garden had a pool that had to be covered over to accomodate the guest tables, the band and bar. The tenting was quite lovely.

The company that erected the tent allowed for the

Japanese Maples and other foliages to be part of the setting. Isn't it pretty ?

The flowers included hydrangeas, dahlias, roses and orchids with ivy tendrils.

A bouquet of dahlias and ivy wrap with black silk ribbon.

All photographs taken by David Evans

NYC street style meets sophisticated southern wedding style.........

And it's beautiful. Come and have a look........

This is the chicest wedding I have seen in a while. I love the bride's style and taste. Her dress is a gorgeous, ethereal creation in the softest grey by J Mendel.

Taylor Tomasi Hill, an editor at Marie Claire magazine, lives and works in NYC. However, she is a southern gal and chose to have her wedding back home in Dallas, Texas.

Her style is wonderfully eclectic; a fabulous mixture of bold and daring, classic and elegant.

A very pretty redhead who has a great way with clothes, mashing up her looks, yet always looking chic and pulled together.

Her wedding ? Divine .........

Taylor wanted to infuse a 1920's vibe to her nuptials and successfully combined romantic and modern elements .....my idea of a perfect wedding.

I love her hair....... a finger waved 1920's style, finished in a classic low chignon. The metallic clutch is by Chanel; the running shoes Superga. Taylor is known for running about town in her sneakers.

Her shoes are from Azzedine Alaia.....at the same time modern and vintage, yet totally sexy !

The bouquet: a romantic mix of peonies, freesia, lily of the valley, anemones and other deliciously sweet flowers.

The reception flowers: dreamy, tumbling bouquets of peonies, french tulips and lilacs.

A contemporary garden setting, two extra long and extra wide tables with simple flowers.

Mmmm, I would love to have been a guest at this relaxed, sophisticated celebration.

What a cake....five tiers !

A beautiful bride.

Photo credits: the wedding: martha stewart weddings; street style: refinery 29

Flowers for Helen

Just a quick post to let you know how thrilled we are that Helen Mirren loved the flowers we did for her scenes and the large Christmas wreath we did for the front door of her hotel. Fingers crossed they don't cut the scenes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet her but heard back that she was incredibly lovely. Apparently she walked into the production offices and casually introduced herself around. How sweet !

Sorry I don't have pics for this post. My house is under complete renovation and I don't really have proper access to the computer. So I am writing this from my laptop.

Really can't wait to catch up with all of my favourite blog pals. Things are just all over the place at the moment.

Having fun with the movies...

We've been working on flowers for a real live major motion picture filming here in Toronto.

RED....(you heard it here first) starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and most importantly........the lovely, extremely talented Ms. Helen Mirren. I'm so excited. Mainly about Helen of course. And we have been hired to provide quite a few of the florals for certain scenes. We've already done a huge ballroom scene complete with a floral homage to the American flag. A beautiful flag by the way.

While I don't know the complete story, I understand it is a political spoof and Helen plays a former CIA big shot who has now retired and runs an exquisite B&B (I'm sure) in the country. Sooo, we will be putting together some very pretty floral arrangements for the lovely hotel run by the ever so chic Helen Mirren (don't know her character's name).

The spec is "very Martha Stewart". No problem. As well one of the scenes calls for Helen's character to be arranging flowers for guest's rooms and around the hotel and we'll be providing the flowers for her. We've been working with the set decorators and buyers and I have to tell you this has been a delightful project to work on.

And I've been told that Helen is a dream to work with. Talk about six degrees of separation. Yikes !!!

Sorry !!! Just wanted to share this with you.

Just thinking.....

I know I haven't posted much this year. Actually.....once. But it's not from lack of desire or interest in doing so.

You see I've been doing a lot of thinking about and organizing a whole bunch of other matters; the flower business, the house renos, what to do about the back garden this spring as well as what kinds of topics to blog about this year.

For starters, we're in the midst of updating our website which I am very excited about. Some final tweaking and we'll be ready to take orders online and show more of our wedding and events work. And as soon as it goes live I will post it here and keep my fingers crossed that you'll visit and like what you see.

Another new endeavour this year will be the introduction of flower classes. We have done them in the past but very sporadically. However, this year we'll be hosting regular classes with a special focus. Our first class will coincide with Mother's Day where we are inviting mothers and daughters (and sons if they are so inclined) to join us at our studio for a few hours of flower arranging Wild thyme style! Naturally there will be tea, coffee and pastries and also a glass of bubbly to celebrate. Future classes will range from learning to make a hand tied bouquet to tips on flowers for your wedding.

The house renos ? Well, the kitchen's almost finished; the new windows have been installed throughout, David continues to knock out walls (what's with men and demolition work - must make them feel like a kid again or something). But I'm told within about a month things will be back to semi-normal. One lives in hope.

Oh and by the way Pamela Terry, David's ok with a little bit of tufting on the couch. As long as we keep the colour manly with not too many tufts. However, his very weathered beaten up leather chair stays. Ugggh! We'll cover it with a lovely suzani fabric or something just as pretty for when guests come round.

The back garden ? Dreaming of a secret garden ....an urban paradise........but will settle for neat and tidy (at least this year).

As for blogging ? As always, I love to share things I find inspiring, beautiful, fun or whatever strikes my fancy. It works best that way. But I think you're more likely to see a few more flower posts thrown in.

Sorry about the long post, but looking forward to finally catching up with all my favourite blogs. I know I've missed lots.

Picture: Photographer unknown. Borrowed from Abigail Ahern's blog 'cause I just thought it was real purty. LOVE Abigail Ahern's blog.