New blog, new website!

Great news for Petalena, our website and our blog are now all one happy virtual roof!

Moving forward, please visit www.petalena.com for the latest floral creations and inspirations.

Photo by Matt Hakola

xo- Petalena 

 

Lovely, lovely at the Boston Public Library

We wanted to share some of the beautiful photographs of photographer Kelly Dillon of a wedding we did together in May at the Boston Public Library. My favorite color palette so far this season – what can I say? I am spring girl at heart!

Centerpieces for this lovely wedding were in a color palette of soft apricot and coral with greens and soft beiges to neutralize and soften the palette. The couple found lots of beautiful antique books and personalized each one with an inscription to each wedding guest.

Centerpiece with personalized books and brown mercury glass. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Tulips and peonies in a bronze footed urn. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

'Coral Charm' peony with tulips. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

The ridiculously huge beautiful flower in this photo – a variety of peony called “Coral Charm” might be my all-time favorite flower. When it first opens, it is a lovely bright coral-pink color but as it opens over a few days it softens so apricot and then pale, pale yellow before dying.

Pretty vingette. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Room view at the Boston Public Library. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Bouquets were in a slightly softer color palette (none of the coral touches) with a bit more apricot from parrot tulips and soft pink with Sarah Bernheart pale pink peonies. Just loved making these bouquets with the colors and textures…

Bouquets all in a row. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Bridal bouquet. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Bouquet, detail. Photo by Kelly Dillon.

Floral and Table Design by Petalena

Photography by Kelly Dillon

 

Sneak peak at vintage style at the BPL

We’ve got loads of pretty flower photos to go through from this and last weekends’ wedding but I wanted to do a quick post of this centerpiece design we did for a wonderful couple who were married at the Boston Public Library last weekend.

Vintage Elegance. Petalena, 2011.

More soon, we promise!

Photos and Flowers by Petalena.

 

A little more springtime pretty

Seriously folks, even though the weather isn’t the most stellar in New England from say, February through even much of May (case in point this week, no?), it is beyond a magnificent time of year for les fleurs!

Wish the photo quality was better on these lush and tumble-y arrangements we did for a petite wedding at Hampshire House two weekends ago, but you get the gist. Gorgeous spring blooms, I’m not sure there is anything better…

Photo and design by Petalena, 2011.

Photo and Design by Petalena, 2011.

Petalena, 2011.

Photos and design by Petalena.

 

Flowers for MSPCA

Over Mother’s Day Weekend, Apryl created some gorgeous arrangements for donation to the MSPCA’s Flower and Plant Sale. All the proceeds went to the Animal Care and Adoption Center. Apryl and I are both huge animal lovers so when event planner Alison Quill of Elegant Aura Events invited us to participate, we were happy to!

Photographer friend and fellow animal love, Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio, came by to snap a few lovely photos with her great eye.

Flowers by Petalena. Photo by Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio.

Flowers by Petalena. Photo by Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio.

Flowers by Petalena. Photo by Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio.

Flowers by Petalena. Photo by Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio.

Thanks again to Alison for the invitation and to Li for her wonderful photographs!

Petalena

 

Orchid Glam at the Taj, Part I

Whilst everyone was tuned to the Royal Wedding on the 29th Apryl and I were working away on a wedding downtown at the Taj. Set on their roofdeck with beautiful views of the city up across the Public Garden and around the other way, up all of Back Bay and overlooking the Charles.

White phalenopsis orchids with silver, glass, white, and black. Photo by Petalena.

I think many a couple has been a bit confounded by what to do for flowers and decor in this space with its bold black and white floor and metal-exposed ceiling. Our fantastic client decided to embrace the black and white, so we carried the theme throughout with gorgeous long arching stems of white phalenposis placed in tall vases and surrounded by mercury glass stemmed candleware. Although we were tired and ready to go by the end of our set-up, I wish we could have seen how glow-tastic everything looked in the evening.

Table detail. Photo by Petalena.

We’re pretty huge fans of basically any kind of orchid. Period. But these long arching stems of huge pure white phalenopsis were just so gorgeous, so chic, such an elegant look…

Roofdeck, Room View. Photo by Petalena.

I have a few other pretty pics of the ceremony but the colors are all lovely pinks, so I’ll do another post on that shortly.

Whooo-hooo, 2011 wedding season, here we come!

Floral Design and Photos by Petalena

 

Plum, Burgundy, and Silver

We have another pretty wedding to share from late summer (with another gorgeous color palette too). Our last post highlighted pales hues of late spring apricots and ivories punctuated with deep color. This wedding, was saturated with late summer colors all the way through!

Bride's Bouquet. Meghann Gregory Photography.

Apryl created this gorgeous bouquet using late summer purple clematis, pink and white-tipped dahlias, burgundy dahlias, purple-black scabiosa, and dusty purple-pink hellebore. We’re also super psyched because this lovely photo by Meghann Gregory Photography of the bouquet is going to be part of a bouquet feature in Bride’s Boston Spring/Summer issue!

The happy couple at Willowdale. Meghann Gregory Photography.

Meghann took this wonderful photo of the couple – all of the photos of the two of them are like this – so happy, loving, and excited to be there together.

Groom's boutonniere. Meghann Gregory Photography.

I love this photo of the groom’s boutonniere because it really shows the play of the color palette, different tonal purples, silvers, and burgundy. We loved these little pincushion style dahlias, just perfect size-wise for a boutonniere.

Entry Arrangement. Meghann Gregory Photography.

Above is the arrangement for the entry at Willowdale. We found a lovely large mercury glass vase (they can be a little difficult to find sometimes!) and filled it with long arching branches of seeded eucalyptus, ornamental grasses, purple smokebush, silvery antique purple-green hydrangea, sterling roses, burgundy dahlias, and pink dahlias. A fun, slightly wild arrangement!

Petite bud vase. Meghann Gregory Photography.

Meghann captured a lot of photos of the small little details, which we love! Here one of the small bud vases on the cocktail tables, filled with a dahlia, clematis buds, and privet berry.

Placecard Table and Blossoms. Meghann Gregory Photography.

This is a pretty and simple option for couples who want a bit of decoration on a place card table but might not have room for a whole large arrangement. It works particularly well here because of the pin-tucked pewter table linen and beautifully handmade placecards.

Table design. Meghann Gregory Photography.

The tables in the tent at Willowdale feature two styles of decor. Seen above at Table 1 is a lantern and bud vase style. Square dark pewter lanterns were surrounded by three tall  mercury glass bud vases and five mercury glass votive for a super glow-y look.  This photo also gives a nice view of the couple’s create table numbers: each number corresponded with photos of the couple when they were that age.  Subtle touches like giving the photos a black and white, sepia-toned treatment softens the photos and helped them blend stylistically with the table design.

Centerpiece design. Meghann Gregory Photography.

The other table design featured a low pewter urn filled with silvery antique lavender hydrangea, burgundy dahlias, and touches of pink and deep purple. Purple napkins gave an extra accent of color.

Bud vase. Meghann Gregory Photography.

Our final photo to share, again of a sweet little bud vase. Thank you to Meghann for all of these lovely details and to Amy and Phil for letting us help create something beautiful for your day!

Florals & Decor by Petalena

Photography by Meghann Gregory Photography

Venue & Catering by Willowdale Estate

 

Wintertime and thinking green…

We wanted to share a few pics from our fall wedding featured in the last two blog posts but this time of the place card arrangement we did. Completely unconventional and very much with the look of bringing the outside in. Live orchids, ferns, and plants designed with moss and barks we hunted for during the summer.

Woodland Placecard Design. Petalena, 2010.

We absolutely love doing these kind of designs, they feel more like wild art installations than anything else. So much fun to create, lucky, lucky us.

Another view of Woodland Placecard Installation. Petalena, 2010.

What we like about these designs too is that virtually all of the material can be saved and turned into potted containers by our clients or the venue.

Photos & Design by Petalena

 

 

 

Pretty little details

I finally off-loaded the last of our fall 2010 weddings from le snazzy camera onto the  laptop, so let the photos commence! These are two pretty details of the bouquet featured in our last post. I love the light and the feathery maidenhair ferns that edge the bouquet…

Bouquet detail - dahlias and hellebore. Petalena, 2010.

Bouquet detail. Petalena, 2010.

Petalena

 

Purple, Green, and Silver: An Elegant Farm Wedding

Just a few lovely photos by Ciras Photography from a wedding we did in October with a great couple who wanted elegantly organic wedding flowers at the Warren Center in Massachusetts. With a color palette of purples, green, and silver – we were able to pull in a lot of gorgeous purple blooms and green foliage to create the design.

Bouquets of burgundy, pinks, and purples. Photo by Ciras Photography.

Our bride’s bouquet was lovely affair with large purple dahlias and hydrangea for the big flower forms, and lovely French ranunculus with fantastic green tufts at their centers. Hellebore, a favorite bloom of ours, comes back into season in the fall and we love using it for it’s pretty arching shape that lends a looser or natural look to a bouquet.  Purple-pink astrantia is another very petite and unique bloom,  reminds me a bit of allium, with its slightly spiky and sculptural look that is great for texture.

Groom's Boutonniere. Photo by Ciras Photography.

A boutonniere for the groom (above) was just a perfect little pom-pom style dahlia paired scented geranium foliage and a fiddlehead.

Bridesmaid and Bouquets. Photography by Ciras Photography.

Bouquets for the bridesmaids were smaller scale than the brides with a bit less of the deep pink touches, and bit more of the purples. The tonal purple bouquets against the deep pewter color of the dresses was striking and dramatic.

For the ceremony, we dressed up a white garden trellis with pears, persimmons, amaranthus, and hydrangea in tonal purple, ochre, and green hues.

Ceremony Arch. Photo by Ciras Photography.

Photo by Ciras Photography.

The reception, inside the Warren Center, was festive and colorful with napkins in purple and green, gorgeous table numbers, and our flowers too.

Table Flowers and Card. Photo by Ciras Photography.

Table numbers. Photography by Ciras Photography.

Our heartfelt thanks to Joyce and Andrew for having us help create such a special day for them, congratulations!

Thanks to Ciras Photography for sharing all their wonderful photos with us!

Florals by Petalena