Petalena: Creative Designs for Weddings and Special Events

After our post yesterday featuring a bridal bouquet with beautiful hellebores, I took a peek at the ones I have planted at my house in Boston. Sure enough, such an early spring bloomer, the hellebores are out and in bloom!

Spring hellebores in the garden

It’s just amazing how sturdy these plants are – perfectly comfortable in 30 degree weather, I just adore them!

Another view of the hellebores in the garden

Hellebores are also referred to as the “Christmas Rose” or “Lenten Rose” since they really are the highlight of late winter or early spring gardens (depending on where you live). Without a lot of light needs, most gardens have a nice little spot for them with a mix of sun and shade.

We love using the flower in bouquets, they have such a gentle arching habit to their form and the flowers themselves are so lovely and simple.

Apryl and I are both taking a few days off before the busy season begins, but I hope to post a few photos from my travels in Philadelphia and D.C. – the Cherry Blossom Festival is this week. Somehow despite the fact that I visit D.C. 2-3 times year, I’ve never seen the trees in bloom so I am really looking forward to it!

Petalena

I was looking through some photos from last fall and came across this photo of a bouquet we did for a photo shoot with our friend (and the very talented!), Claire Folger. There’s a lovely blend of textures in this bouquet – something I think both Apryl and I would say – is a mark of our “Petalena style” design. Slightly loose, a touch slightly wild, movement, texture, and nuance.

Pretty Wild Bouquet

Bouquet includes hellebores, wheat, angel vine, sedum, snowberry, ivory roses, and lemon leaves. Isn’t the light glorious?

Photo by the lovely Claire Folger
Design by Petalena

Apryl and I did some design work this morning for “Stuff Boston” magazine (aka and formally known as “Stuff @ Night”) for their new “Reside” column. I’m really liking the new online face of “Stuff Boston” – more well-rounded, focused on style, food, AND cool stuff to do. Highly recommend checking it out.

Anyhoo, we’re doing flowers for a few of their featured interiors thanks to the freelance stylist we worked with on a Boston Globe piece for January, Marni Katz of Style Carrot (also a very fab blog to check out).

Anemones and Lavender Petite Bouquet

For this interior, which has a “European feel with a vintage touch,” we decided to do some beautiful spring flowers. Note, photos on this post are taken in my dining room in the city before delivery, not of the actual interior but we’ll link to photos of those soon!

Anemones and lavender bouquet on my antique French sofa

We did two arrangements, one for a beside table and one for the living room. For the bedroom we did the arrangement above. Sweet and petite, personal feeling so it fits naturally within the interior. I did the arrangement in a cool olive-colored goblet we picked up on major sale at Anthropologie, just perfect for small little bouquets! I keep one of these at my house and use it all the time.

Fruitillaria, tulips, and fiddlehead bouquet

For the living room, which has fun Kelly green walls and rust orange sofa, we worked with gorgeous and dramatic fruitillaria. Fruitillaria is such an incredible flower with so many different colors and sizes, it’s really a spring treasure. For the bouquet, we paired two kinds of fruitillaria with deep salmon colored tulips and dark brown fiddleheads.

And a detail of the bouquet:

Yellow fruitillaria up-close

Apryl arranging one of the bouquets

Happy spring!

Floral Design by Petalena

Just a few pretty spring boutonnieres we did this month: petite little peach tulips and white narcissus, wrapped with green raffia for a simple, natural look:

Pretty Spring Boutonnieres

Because the guys need something stylie too, right?

Photo and Design by Petalena

A few photos from the design work we did for the art opening at Stel:

Sweet Peas on the Studio Window Sill

Darling sweet peas in bud vases for the bar and restrooms at the party

Clementine boxes are great for flower transport! Plus, it's good to reuse!

Apryl with orange juice and sweet peas

And now onto the bigger arrangement with the gorgeous plum branches:

Plum Branch Arrangement on Studio Chair

And some detail shots, because as anyone know who reads this blog, I LOVE up close pics of flowers!:

Detail of Plum Blossoms

French Tulips, just starting open

And lastly, in situ at Stel on Newbury:

Photos and Design: Petalena
Event Planning:  Stone Event Planning
Location: Stil, Newbury Street, Boston

Wednesday is a big day at the Boston Flower Market – big flower shipments come in from France, Holland, and California on this day so floral designers across New England converge on the market to pick out beautiful things for their shops and studios in preparation for upcoming weekend events.

Here are a few quick pictures I took from early this morning:

Bunches and Bunches of Daffodils

And below, a few of the things we picked out for an event we’re doing on Friday:
(Note, the yellow daffodils are mine. They make me so happy!)

Jasmine Vine and Daffodils

Plum Tree Branches

We have a fashion/art event coming up on Friday night at Stil on Newbury Street so we picked out some lovely things that would evoke signs of spring: plum tree flowering branches in a beautiful violet-pink color, yellow-cream French tulips, and jasmine vine.

Spring flowers are so wonderful – there needs to be more spring weddings! I know, I know, March is a bit gloomy here in New England but what could be better than a beautiful wedding with tons of flowering branches and hopeful spring flowers?

The thing is, all the flowering branches that brides love are available during this time of year (cherry, plum, peach, apple, and quince) along with tulips, daffodils, ranunculas, and anemones. Some of these flowers do come back in during the fall (like tulips and ranunculas) but the flowering branches are truly a fleeting thing to be treasured.

We’ll post more photos of the Stil event over the weekend~

Petalena

Purple Dahlia in a Venetian Glass Bud Vase

The light was so interesting; we were on a side porch at the Commandant’s House in Charlestown, just out of the sun, so the tone of this photo is very, very cool. I love how magnetic the purple looks here, complemented by the ruffled geranium leaf and silver dusty miller.

Purple and silver work so beautifully together – a virtually season-less combination!

Photo and Design by Petalena

Plum colored ranunculas are some of our favorite flowers – ruffley and soft like a garden rose but a bit smaller and more delicate. Because they are so intensely petaled, even a few can make a strong impact – here, collected loosely in an antique glass:

Ranunculas Bouquet

Detail of Ranunculas

Petalena