Lemon Yellow Wedding Flowers

I'm an unabashed lover of pink. Truly. When women around me start talking about how they're not "pink" women, I just nod my head in understanding and secretly fantasize about the pink Madeline Weinrib Tibetan rug I'm saving for. The man I married wore a hot pink shirt and tie at our wedding and is seen in pink on the regular. That's the thing with pink, if you can get over it's "girliness", it's really one of the most universally flattering colors. And it's just so pretty. But I digress... This post is about how sick I currently am of pink. I know it won't last long, but it feels like every shoot I've done lately has been pink and I'm ready for something new. So when I got the chance to do something different, I jumped on it. This little yellow shoot was such a wonderful breather for me. No real direction, just something  beautiful with a dash of Anthropologie and NOT PINK. (Although in this same shoot we did a pink number that got rave reviews from everyone, the yellow was the pink's poor stepsister. But not to me. I prefer this shoot over the pink myself. Although maybe that's because I needed a break from it - because it was really pretty.)

Enjoy these stunning photographs from Kamee June Photography. There was a little bit of magic happening the day of the shoot and I think it shows in Kamee's photos. And the location... I could do a whole post just on that. I literally dreamed of the space days after being there. Another fantasy of mine is buying old, historic property and fixing it up. This house would be perfect. Another thing I'm saving for - come on Lotto!

Our beautiful bride's hair and make-up was done by Jessica Hale Frederick.

I kept calling this bouquet a "pretty little girl". I think I heard that from something Megan of Honey & Poppies said on Facebook and it fits so perfectly I'm using the term myself now. The bouquet included garden roses, ranunculus, standard tulips, peony tulips, lilac, fritillaria, and scented geranium.

The windows in this room were the inspiration behind my color direction. I knew I wanted this set-up in this exact location and it turned out just as beautiful as I imagined. I took the yellow from the windows for the flowers and then found chairs in my parents house that worked perfectly with it. Then added this antique table (from my parents as well) and I was done.

The vase arrangement was made of garden roses, ranunculus, standard tulips, peony tulips, white lilac, fritillaria, seriously gorgeous clematis, and scented geranium. I designed it in an antique footed cut crystal bowl that was my great grandmothers.

I thought some additional accents would be nice with this so I bought a bag full of lemon and made lemon bars. Kamee's detail shots of them are so gorgeous.

I hope you enjoyed this refreshing color direction today. I had so much fun designing all of this and I'm happy that I now have yellow to add to my portfolio. I feel bad that I bagged on one of my fave colors like I did, but you'll see soon that pink is good to me. I love it, just needed a break. Isn't that how you keep relationships healthy?

Come back next week for what else? Most likely something pink!! 

Cheers!

The Wedding Chicks + O & the O + Lane Dittoe Fine Art Photography

There are times when I start on a bridal bouquet and something just feels right. It's like the stars have aligned, I've had the right amount of coffee, the songs on Pandora fit the mood, and it's as though the flowers I carefully chose at market grew in nature like they were meant to ultimately be in this particular bouquet, on this particular day. It reminds me a lot of painting. There were days when I would walk in my studio and it felt right in this inexplicable way. The paint mixed perfectly, the graphite on the canvas smeared just as I wanted it to without any effort, etc. This bouquet (directly below) was like that. Lane and Amy asked me how long it took me to make it (because you can't see it in scale, but that sucker was big) and I told them about 15 minutes. And during an "on" day, that's about what it takes. The flowers just fit with each other, nestling in like a couple that have been together for years and know exactly where their "nook" is.

When Amy of The Wedding Chicks - an incredibly impressive and kick a** woman - asked me to create a bouquet for their bouquet recipe series, I excitedly responded with when, where, and what color scheme? Amy said, "Why don't we do peach?". And here we are... The peach bouquet that put Oak & the Owl on the map, or at least is the beginning of having my work recognized. Lane Dittoe's photos are so gorgeous that they somehow, impossibly, make flowers more beautiful. His work is seriously so good that when I got these photos in my inbox I had to walk out of the room because I couldn't keep my language clean in front of Bass. ;-)

Now that all 3 of the peach bouquets have been posted on The Wedding Chicks blog, I thought I would share them all together. Here's the first one that has been "pinned" on The Wedding Chicks site alone, more than 24,000 times.

Below are the individual shots of each flower.

And these last two shots are the front and back of the bouquet. I asked Lane to photograph the back because it had it's own charm with the directional movement. I think the two side by side are really cool together. It's also a great way to show how I try to not force flowers to do something they don't want to do. These flowers came together this way because of their individual shape which I think is a really beautiful alternative to the typical perfectly round bouquet. But... I like those too as you will see below.

This (below) is the second of the bouquet series. Amy saw those balsa wood flowers and lotus pods sticking out of my kit and thought they'd look cool with some of the other smaller headed flowers. She asked if I could whip something up, and I did. She also asked for something smaller, that a more petite bride would/could hold, and with more of a rounded shape. It took me about 10-15 minutes to make and when I was done, I laid out the individuals for Lane to shoot and then we finished with the bouquet. It was actually a lot of fun laying out the flowers. A tiny bit of perfectionistic styling. Right up my alley. You can go to The Wedding Chicks to read their full post on it.

Below are some shots of the back. It's a little more wild. I guess like a mullet?

And here is the last of the 3 peach bouquets. I really love this one. There's something so sweet about it. We decided to do one last bouquet with the peonies, because you must employ peonies (especially coral charm peonies) to their fullest extent. I kept it a bit more contained than the first one and used fewer flowers. You can read The Wedding Chicks post on it too.

I hope you enjoyed seeing them all together. It was such a treat to go to The Wedding Chicks office and create these for them. And to have Lane Dittoe photograph them was the unexpected icing on an already amazing cake. Who knew a quick email and an under-utilized color direction would result in something with such appeal for brides. Well, Amy knew, because she's good like that. She and Jocey know what brides want, which is why The Wedding Chicks is so successful. I feel so lucky to be a part of their vendor family. This week they put me on as one of their "Hand Picked Vendors"! It was such an honor to be included with the amazing talent they have on their lists, I am beyond thrilled.

The first 3 months of Oak & the Owl have been a whirlwind and I'm excited to see what's next. (I wrote that last night, waiting to publish this post today. About an hour later I received the most incredible and unexpected opportunity for Oak & the Owl in my inbox. I cannot wait to share where we are going to be featured next!!! It was a serious "somebody's got to pinch me because I must be dreaming" moment.)

Thanks for visiting today! Check back next week for some more beauty.

Cheers!!

Pink Garden Rose Bouquet

Today I'm sharing the pink bouquet I made a couple weeks ago for a new friend and amazing photographer, Tonya Goettsche of Tonya Joy Photography. I keep having to pinch myself that I get the opportunity to work with so many wonderful photographers, and the fact that they're all great people who I enjoy spending time with. Southern CA has really been a treasure trove for me. Wonderful vendors, wonderful materials, and people that want to create constantly. Even if the hours of running to the market at 2am are slowly killing me, at least I'm having fun while dying. (Although I have to find an alternative to the 2am run... it is truly grueling.)

Tonya was teaching a photography workshop and wanted a simple bouquet for the other photographers to shoot (along with the models). Since it was a small order I managed to avoid a trip to market and sourced the materials at, believe it or not, Trader Joe's, and neighborhood gardens. Now... when I say neighborhood gardens, I either cut from public property or I knock on people's doors and ask them for permission to cut if I pay them. I've actually met some very nice neighbors this way and most of them laugh off the offer of payment and just tell me to cut as much as I want. I LOVE those responses. ;-)

So, from Trader Joe's I bought the snowball viburnum and pink tulips. From gardens I picked the pink and white roses and the honeysuckle. And here are Tonya's seriously beautiful photos... Enjoy!

I consider the next 5 photos to be the flowers beauty shots. ;-)

Isn't this chair cool? Tonya and her daughters decoupaged it themselves.

And now we have the series with the models. A very attractive couple that are married in real life.

I think this shot (above) is my favorite of the bouquet. The model is holding it perfectly (which you wouldn't think is an issue, but it always is) and the light is soooo pretty.

So, a BIG thank you to Tonya Joy for these stunning photographs. I have some new beauties to add to my portfolio and an awesome new colleague to continue working with on all these fun ideas. We have a fantastic shoot scheduled for this week, which will be my last big one of the season. Then the real deal wedding season starts for me! 

This bouquet was also featured on The Wedding Chicks as one of their "Bouquet Recipes"! I love working with Amy and Jocey and it's an honor to be featured on their site. I'm excited to share our most recent collaboration with you soon.

This is a super busy week for Oak & the Owl so I'll be posting again next week!
Cheers!!

Vendor Details

Styling/Shoot Concept: Tonya Joy 

Hair/Makeup: Leslie Cordero

Florals: Oak and Owl

Models: Kelly & Garreth