Lily Floral Installation
Marigold + Fay Branding Shoot
Photo booths
The Floral Design Sketch
This is where everything starts after collaborating with our clients for wedding floral designs, event design and larger floral installation collaborations. Sketching out the branding floral design guides the vision between client and myself into the physical world. As you know I like structure and a plan…I always love having a plan for any wedding day, event or branding photoshoot. This shows me where I want the lines to flow. It’s nothing rigid but a place to start and to work from when I begin with that scary blank palette.
The Process of working with Lilies:
I purchased 15 bunches of white lilies from Mayesh in Los Angeles. They were able to source all the bunches from two separate local farms in the area. When they arrived at my door the flowers were closed tight, green and had no sign of opening up any day soon. Thanks to my floral friends, I was given guidance and a timeline on how these beautiful flowers can open up to what you see in pictures.
1) Make sure you have enough buckets to keep all the stems separate. Once they start getting intertwined they will easily break with the flowers start opening.
2) Replace the water every few days. I recut the stems each time I switched the water, which was 3 times within a weeks times. This helps the stems rehydrate and not let the water get gross and potentially have the flowers die early from bacteria.
3) If you don’t have a flower cooler, which I do not at this point, keep the flowers in a dark, cool space. Do not put the flowers in the fridge. There is not enough humidity and it will kill the flowers - that is a lesson I learned the hard way.
4) Once the flowers open, remove the pollen immediately. There are 6 filaments that hold the pollen, you can’t miss them. The pollen initially will be hard and once the flower matures, which could be hours after the flower opens, the pollen softens and becomes messy. If this gets on the petals or the center stigma, the middle piece of the flower, it will die at a more rapid rate. This is because the flower will put all it’s energy where the pollen hits. Sad, I know, but from this experience of removing the pollen, the flowers have been lasting and beautiful days after the photo shoot.
5) Be gentle. The petals are super sensitive if handled aggressively. They will break off. Treat them with respect and love.
Installation Day at Nicole Midwest:
Mechanics:
1) (2) Metal bases that hold 2 x 4
2) A LOT of chicken/poultry wire
3) Birdcages with chicken wire inside
4) Fresh Moss to hide the bright 2 x 4s
5) Hairpin Flower Frogs from Floral Genius
Once I arrived and setup the base mechanics it took about 3 hours to install. If I add time adding mechanics to the 2 x 4s, packing up, and departure - I would say closer to 4 - 4 1/2 hours.
This project was the first big install Botanica Floristry was a part of for a branding shoot. I look forward to many more branding shoots, commercial floral installations and unique floral designs for weddings/events.
