Sunday, August 16, 2009

Kathryn is a pearl!

This past week, we also created flowers for a downtown bride. Kathryn decided to get married at the Armory in the Pearl District in Portland, a industrial chic venue perfect for a young bride. Her flowers were reflective of that chic style with anthurium, roses, calla lilies, cymbidum orchids and fern curls.


This young bride decided to have us create a whimsical toss bouquet for her reception of dollar bills and lottery tickets since most of her party was "grown-up and married off already"...isn't that a fun way to honor your guests? I hope nobody lost an eye trying to catch that bouquet!

Karla's Cascade...

It's been a whirlwind of wedding activity this last couple weeks! One of our weddings was a casual simple one for Karla. Although her bouquet was beautifully elaborate! With starfighter lilies, fuschia roses, freesia aspidistra foliage and lily grass, this cascading bouquet is full and wonderful! Erik has never created such a large and fragrant bouquet for a bride! She loved it! SUCCESS!

Cheers to Cindy!

Last week, Julie created a stunning look for Cindy, a beautiful bride that chose the most sensational vibrant summer colors. Cindy left the details to us in creating a beautiful late summer wedding of her dreams. Many of the flowers were grown by the groom's mother which made the wedding ever more special. Sunflowers, dahlias, lilies, crocosmia, roses, callas, berries, and grasses to name a few of the great flowers utilized!


Here a melange of summer flowers nestled into a red tin container, with a heart carved out in the face of a sunflowers. A whimsical detail that fit Cindy's personality perfectly!

Cindy's bouquet of everything wonderful included gloriosa lilies, dahlias, berries, sunflowers, brown gerbera daisies, and rudbeckia pods. STUNNING!

Even the cake had a casual wonderful look about it with petals strewn about the table.

A beautiful arbor of flowers was created of sunflowers, roses, dahlias and much more for the ceremony site.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Best Wishes Brooke and Jeremy!

This last weekend, we had the great opportunity to create beautiful flower for a beautiful bride named Brooke. Her colors were crimson and burnt orange...We used orchids, roses, summer dahlias, lilies, amaranthus, crocosmia, and much more to create this fantastic wedding! From towering flowers on silver candelabras, to dahlias down the head table, this wedding was incredibly opulent!



Brooke's bouquet of rust lilies, and cymbidum orchids was really stunning and dramatic. The girls carried clutch bouquets of cymbidum orchids.

For this outdoor ceremony we created a monogram of rose petals for Jeremy and Brooke. When she walked the aisle, the petals would travel down the aisle beneath her beautiful train.



At the reception, stunning centerpieces atop silver candelabras splashed upward into the vaulted tent!

The head table had vases of dahlias traveling down the table with silver mint julep cups for the girls to place their bouquets in for the evening of remaining festivities.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Aloha to the Hawaiian Festival!

Each year the hawaiian festival is held in Esther Short park. Over 8,000 visitors sway to the rhythm as hula dancers. Portland, Taiko, Native Tribal dancers, and Polynesian singers fill the park with the heartbeat of their cultures. Arts, Crafts, and food vendors round out this two day long outdoor festival which is now considered the third largest annual event at Esther Short Park.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
We would like to take the opportunity to extend a very special thank you to Mel and Sari Aho and Aho Construction for their love and support to our company throughout the years. Without their trust and create freedom, we would not be able to create such fun and wonderful designs!


This year we created a giant pineapple of sunflowers that stood 7 feet tall! What a way to welcome in the festival!


Accompanying this wonderful design we created a 9 foot tall tropical structure of bamboo, heliconia, hala foliage and oncidium orchids. It's dynamic presence really finished off the display!



Up close, you can really get a feel for the intersecting lines of foliage and flowers. It's really fun!

As you say in Hawaii...MAHOLA NUI! (Thank you very much!)

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Sky's the Limit!

This past week, Erik Witcraft had the wonderful opportunity to attend the prestigious nationally recognized AIFD (American Institute of Floral Designers) symposium in Kansas City, Missouri. Not only is this a chance to get inspired by some of the world greatest floral designers, but it is also a chance to get certified as a world-wide recognized master of floral design. Erik tested among 120 other applicants from around the world. He will find out if he passed the certification testing within about 4 weeks.



This table design swirls with excitement formed from a curly willow amature. Grasses, reeds, flowers and fruit complete this contemporary centerpiece design.


This pocket square boutonniere is fun and light. Erik created this as one of his five challenges in the AES evaluation process.
Below are just some of the designs that were featured at this year's symposium. From super contemporary designs to lavish overflowing romantic designs, this symposium had it all!
This wall sculpture of ti leaves in mass created a fantastic background for a cascading design of orchids, calla lilies and string of pearls.

This tall design of twigs, bits and bamboo supported roses, orchids, calla lilies and peacock feathers!


This cylindrical design had pretty much all of the callas in Missouri in it! Roses, gloriosa lilies, and anthurium created the vibrant orange stripe through the middle!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Melissa + Marriage


We did a very casual wedding this last weekend for a local bride and groom getting married outside. Melissa's bouquet consisted of peonies, garden roses, dahlias, lavender, lady's mantle, fever few and garden foliage. Beautiful and casual for a perfect late spring bride!

Monday, June 22, 2009

To Our Beloved Becky Baker!

After over 2 years, our beloved Becky Baker has decided to stay home for her kids. For those of you that had the privilege to meet her, you know how hard this really is for all of us. She was an amazing asset to our team. She delivered flowers all across the county, as well and being an awesome person to help people in the store. She also did all of our roses and a lot of extra design help during production time! She was a hard-working, do-it-all kind of gal...She will be dearly missed. We hope she will join us again in the future, but we wish her all the time with her kids she needs! We love you Beck!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Congrats to Nicole!


This past weekend, we sent another blushing bride down the aisle with a beautiful bouquet of roses, hydrangeas, orchids, callas, and veronica in various jewel tones. A touch of heuchera foliage added a fun garden style texture to the mix.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Memorializing a Golfer


This last week was anything but quiet at Flowers Washougal! We had several projects on the burner, one of which was a special memorial for a local man, Merrill Alexander. We had the gracious opportunity to create flowers in a beautiful tablescape for his celebration of life.
He was a golfer. He played often, and well. That became the focus of our design. It's what he was all about. It seemed fitting to his son and family. We created a beautiful colorful collection of flowers incorporating all of his favorite golfing things...Shoes, clubs, his bag, his plaque of family competitions had...It really reflected a wonderful memory of his life.

Pather Pride!


This last Saturday, Washougal High School seniors graduated in style. As part of the celebration we created the two wonderful windwhirls of flowers in orange and black...their school colors! We love doing fabulous designs for the highschool. It's our way of supporting our local community!


With an industrial flair, we created these suspended designs with orchids, naranga roses, anthurium and peonies...all incorporating items found at the hardware store!





Congratulations Class of 2009! You did it! Here's a list of the top ten students graduating this year! Congrats everyone!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Madeline gets married!

Madeline came in and selected a beautiful mix of soft cream to peach roses, chocolate cosmos and peach colored hypericum berries. With beautiful wire detailing and pearl pin studding on the stems, her bouquet had an old-fashioned look with a contemporary twist.


Congratulations Joy!

A beautiful Saturday was spent at The Viewpoint Inn in Corbett, setting up a wedding for Joy's incredible day. With luscious flowers in soft hues of cream and pink and touches of lavendar, this is one of our favorite weddings so far this year! Peonies, roses, hydrangeas, sweetpeas, calla lilies and more...this girly girl got a princess wedding she has always wanted. Special thanks to Becky for her help with this extensive setup!



Her bouquet consisted of cream peonies, and helga piaget roses in a simple clutch style. Simply beautiful!


The attendant's bouquets were comprised of peonies, sweetpeas, freesia, and old fashioned roses. Lusciously fragrant!

Orbs of hydrangea, roses and soft foliage hung from sheppard's hooks down the aisle to luscious bouquets atop rustic pedestals. (both available for rental)



Lavish bouquets with sweetpeas, roses, hydrangeas, peonies and calla lilies flanked the bride and groom at the front serving as an awesome focal point; beyond a beautiful view of the Columbia Gorge.



Overfilled bubblebowls of the same romantic flowers travelled down a long table. The hanging flower orbs were to be added to the mix after the ceremony was over.


Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Check out our June Newsletter!

We send out a newsletter every month...We would love to add you if you are interested in receiving it. In each edition are great offers, ideas, and information segments relating to that month. It's a great way to keep up on all we do at Flowers Washougal! You can also subscibe to receive our emails here... http://www.flowerswashougal.com/info.html

Monday, May 11, 2009

A Great Big Thanks!


We are truly fortunate to have such great customers that understand the importance of shopping local. Without the support of our customers, we would not be where we are today! Thank you to everyone that helped make our Mother's Day successful! We appreciate you all!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Check out our May Newsletter!


We send out a newsletter every month...We would love to add you if you are interested in receiving it. In each edition are great offers, ideas, and information segments relating to that month. It's a great way to keep up on all we do at Flowers Washougal! You can also subscibe to receive our emails here...
http://www.flowerswashougal.com/info.html

Friday, April 17, 2009

Buy Flowers for Your Admin...


In this day and age, companies and corporations are making cuts right and left. Understandably, due to budget issues, corporate layoffs, and the plain and simple economic status of our country. I mean lets face it, some companies can barely make ends meet, and are trying to hold on for dear life!

Does that mean these people should skip over Administrative Professional's Day this year? We think it an ever important year to value the employees you do have. Consider a simple but beautiful desktop plant or flowers for them this year. With little investment you will create a happy work environment where there may be worry and concern. Yes, you can take them to lunch, but flowers or a plant for their desk will last longer!

Flowers do amazing things for morale and attitude. BUY FLOWERS FOR YOUR ADMIN!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Two bouquets & two people become one...


Recently, Julie did a wedding for a local gal that wanted two bouquets for her mom's to carry down the aisle. When they all got down to the altar, she put those two bouquets together and it became one beautiful bouquet. With sweetpeas, anemones, tulips, freesia and more, this stunning purple bouquet unifies as one great bouquet! With a simple wrap around cuff on her bouquet, she was then set for a day of celebration!


Yes, we do bouquets of all shapes and sizes, and kinds, if you have a special idea or challenge, we surely can handle it, in fact we live for it.

Monday, March 30, 2009

We'll leave the cookie cutting to Bakeries!

Exclusive Design by Flowers Washougal

Any florist can have a "picture book" website with a catalog of photos professionally made by a wire services such as as FTD or Teleflora. These companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on photography to create the "perfect photo."

A Bouquet by FTD

However you must know the designs are also made one-sided to trick the customer into thinking there are more flowers in the arrangement. When these flower bouquets are actually made by a floral designer, they need to be seen from all sides, which means the front side that you view in photo online, is not as full looking as the finished actual product made by the florist.

At Flowers Washougal, all of our floral designs are exclusively ours. How do you know what kind of work a florist is capable of doing if they don't show their own photos? You don't, until you see the product in person. There are a lot of florists websites on the internet who may show you the prettiest pictures in the world , yet they cannot create the bouquets that they have available online.

You may be asking yourself if we offer out of town delivery. Yes, of course we do, however not being an affiliate of a wire service allows us complete control of our orders heading out of town. We personally call every order to the receiving florist, and screen to make certain they will fulfill our customer's needs, wants and desires.

We will leave the "cookie cutters" to do their thing. However, we feel providing unique designs that are exclusively Flowers Washougal, sets us apart. If you would like to order one of our exclusive designs, contact us today and check out our website, You won’t be disappointed.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Check out our April Email Newsletter!

We send out a newsletter every month...We would love to add you if you are interested in receiving it. In each edition are great offers, ideas, and information segments relating to that month. It's a great way to keep up on all we do at Flowers Washougal!

You can also subscibe to receive our emails here...
http://www.flowerswashougal.com/info.html

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A Celebration of Life


From those of you that know and love Julie, you know she creates the most beautiful vegetive style northwest designs. Here is a show-stopper piece that she created for a celebration of life last month. It's really breathtaking and colorful.

Weddings - Spring 2009

This time of year can be so fun for wedding work! There are great flowers available, and the brides are choosing them! These pictures are from a couple weddings that we did early this wedding season. Special thanks to Megan Riser and Shannon Selfridge for choosing such fabulous wedding flowers. ENJOY!