Always better with a model...

We take hundreds of pictures every week. Almost nothing is sent out with at least a mini photo shoot. It is just as important to have a lovely portfolio of our paper designs as we use to have for our fresh wedding designs.

If rushed for time we snap our designs in our backrop room with a vintage shabby chic dresser as our back drop.
Mel found the dresser while thrifting and she added a few coats of paint and a bit of glaze to add some distress, giving it the lovely shabby look.

However, we have found the photos Etsy favors are with a model. This meaning, most all of our front page or Etsy newsletter photos have been the ones chosen with a model in them.
So, we do take the time to photograph with Iris as our model. Often a white background is favorable for treasuries, we dress her up in a white dress or pretty blouse and she is off and running for our photos.

This week we were able to wrangle her in for a mini shoot before we hit the post office with our finished orders. She never likes her face to be included .. sometimes it has to be .. for example our halos ! but for these shots we just cut her off at the chin .. so to speak ;)
 Here are a few beauties to share with you.

Enjoy!

Carly's getting married !

Yes, she is!
She will be wed in November but things need to happen on our side a bit quicker because her bouquet will be taking the long journey from Canada to Australia .. boy do we wish we could deliver this in person!

Shipping to Australia is either fast or very, very, very slow. Typically it is over $100.00 USD for your bouquet to arrive in 6 - 10 day's.
We will cover the overage which sometimes happens. If you have some time then shipping will be most likely $55.00 but it can take over 3 months to reach Australia .. which can be painful to wait on !

Here is a little insight .. Carly has sent us images of the 2 gowns she will be choosing from. These gowns are so beautiful they make us want to get married again somewhere tropical so that we can spend a day wearing them!! AHH MAA ZING!!

We vote YES! .. not helpful I know but we really love both!!

She will also be wed on the "Hamilton Island" AUS  and this too looks AHH MAA ZING!!
Here are the links if you want to check it out!
Bear in mind it is a little different then what you will find in Hamilton Ontario :0 but it is fun to think Carly's bouquet will be made in Hamilton Ontario and will be used in Hamilton AUS.

THE LINKS:
Hamilton AUS and here too http://www.hamiltonislandweddings.com.au/

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Poppy & Pearls

   They are finally here!
After much planning we have produced our first full poppy bridal bouquets!
You can shop our Poppy & Pearls bouquet's at our Etsy store.
SHOP ALTERNATIVE BLOOMS 

  Of course we will be combining our poppy with other flowers like we have done in our theatrical "snow white/huntsman" bouquet but our first step with a new product is to create a single variety bouquet.
Iris my bella helped me with the images so that you can see the proportion
 We will be exploring the colour palette of red and Aqua a bit more over the week - we will post pictures of our playfulness - feel free to send us your comments :)

Also, tomorrow we will be spending time working on our ranunculus - hopefully things will move smoothly with those and we can show you a full bouquet by the end of the week.

We will post pictures of the Poppy & Pearl a little later this evening!

Meet:  Scarlet & Ruby from the Poppy & Pearls series

Meet l'Orange :) our Mango & Pumpkin coloured Poppy & Pearls bouquet

Yummy wedding florals !

A whirlwind of activity in the Etsy shop this week.
Sometimes we receive orders right away, sometimes we converse with a bride and it can take a few weeks to find the perfect floral plan and sometimes we write quotes but nothing comes to fruition - and that is all the way things work.
Happly, we have been steadily working on Jolene's wedding florals.
We are totally in love with her vintage romance palette. Her bouquets are all finished and we are just following up with the boutonniere and corsages. Jolene is amazing - we truly adore her!! WE have fallen head of heels in LOVE with this Long Island New Yorker :)

Here are some images of our work so far.
Iris was gracious enough to pose with Jolene bouquet so that we can have a scale photo for Jolene.
pic 1 - palette
pic 2 - bridal bouquet
pic 3 - maids bouquets
pic 4 - wedding party collection


Enjoy!

SHOP ALTERNATIVE BLOOMS

A few projects on the go

Soo, we have a few projects on the go this week.

Faithfully we have been collecting vintage trims and lace for a wedding we are working on. I am happy to say we have all the components and will be assembling the bouquets tomorrow.
Our bride has the most beautiful palette of seafoam green, pale peach, pale pink and vintage creamy tones for her wedding colour plan.  Though the maids bouquets will be more or less neutral with creamy tones and white paper flowers, their bouquets will also feature tea dyed lace.

We spent some time today tea-dying the lace and sun drying it.. it is lovely!!!
Our bride will carry a bouquet of paper flowers mixed with vintage fabric flowers, the base of her bouquet will be creamy white tones and each of her handmade vintage fabric flowers will have details of her colour scheme. You will find tucked into the centre of each flower a vintage lace coloured floret - seafoam green, pale pink and pale peach. For the bridal handle we will be trimming it with tea dyed lace.

On the other spectrum we are also working on a vibrant bouquet of handmade paper ranunculus and poppy.
Earlier in the week we hand cut and dyed the poppy petals in shades of scarlet and pumpkin. They are dry and are ready to be assembled. We are also in the midst of assembling our orange ranunculus.

Here is a sample of the poppy and ranunculus prototype.

Enjoy!

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Jordans Bouquet

We had quoted this week on a Wedding package from Jordan. Jordan had already placed her deposit for her flowers at a fresh wedding florist in her area but she fell in love with our alternative blooms. She inquired about a refund but it seems she would loose her deposit so she has elected to keep her bridesmaids and such with the fresh flowers and go with an Alternative Blooms bouquet for herself!!

We ARE SOOOOO delighted to create her bridal bouquet! It is a great honour to have her choose our design over a fresh bouquet.

We have complete the bouquet and we are sharing some pictures below before we send it Jordan's way.

Jordan will be married in just a few short weeks and we can't wait for her to show off her bouquet!!

Enjoy the photos!

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AB

Poppin up all over!

   Every once in a while we stumble upon someone who has tuned into Alternative Blooms and loves them just as much as we do.
You can find our work featured here on the FABULOUS Valorie Clark Photography blog site.
If you are looking for a US. photographer who shoots "outside the box" Valorie just may be your girl!

This week we will be visiting a new and unique shop in Waterdown, Ontario where we hope to sell some of our home decor items. We have some wedding work on the go and we will be out searching for the perfect Vintage Brooch details.
We will tell you more about the Shop tomorrow!

Enjoy your day!

AB gals

A bushel and a Peck

We had a wonderful afternoon with the family. Dad was is in a great mood and loved our card.
We picked up a musical card which rang out in a vintage voice " I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck" .
My kids were a bit perplexed at first but I knew as soon as I heard that darling vintage voice sing that playful song - DAD would love it!.
I can just imagine Dad as a young boy singing that song as he skipped down the street of Dundas. It is something he may have listened to his Mom sing. My Mom certainly new the words as soon as the melody hit her ears.
Dad smiled when the music started playing and after he closed the card he looked at me and said it was something special.
Dad does not have very many lucid moments anymore but I would consider this a special moment.

YAY for Dads!

We hope you had a lovely day too.

The Alternative Blooms Gals

Vintage flowers ready for shipping

Ready for shipping!

Sarah's flowers are ready for shipping.
She upsized our vintage blooms to work with her vase (see previous post) or West Elm 's link - WEST ELM
We think it will be Amazing!
What do you think?

GREY LIKES US!

Yes! we are excited to be hand picked as one of GREY LIKES WEDDINGS favourite wedding bouquet artists on Etsy!
More on this at a later date but here is the link if you want to see us in her SHOP .
You can find us in the Grey Collective under the link "Artisan & Handmade shops" and follow under bouquets!

GREY LIKES WEDDINGS

Fun and Faith Building

Here we go so - di -o, here we go so - di - o, here we go so - di - o, all night long , to the front, to the back, to the see saw side ...
 That was a song we sang in school, it just came to mind as I sat to write this posting and I wanted to stir your memory to see if you sang it too !

It has been a crazy week but fun and faith testing all the same. I actually had jury duty this week (Mel) - totally interesting   It was really cool to sit in a room full of people who did not know each other, who were forced to take time away from work (many unpaid) or to roll out of bed before 8:00 am BUT still, with smiles on their faces happily chat away and make new friends as we all did our civic duty.  Hamiltonian's are wonderful loving people.

                                                                                            IN THE STUDIO
We have been working away building petal stock for our creamy fabric blooms. We found a FABULOUS vintage sheer fabric with a light stripe pattern to it. I can't wait until we put it together with some vintage lace!

For the rest of the week we will be working on some wedding orders !
Pam has ordered a beautiful bouquet created just for her. It will have a slight bit of colour with organza leaves in grape, olive and pumpkin.
We are also working on all of Jolene's wedding party flowers. She has a lovely palette of sea foam green, pale peach and pale pink along with our vintage creams and tea stained elements.

Sarah's flowers are coming along very well - vintage pale pink fabric blooms custom made to fit in her fabulous honeycomb vase from the awsome "West Elm"  West Elm

ON THE HOME FRONT

I will be spending time with Dad tomorrow afternoon. I have the honour of picking him up from his Day program - The great Saff at St. Joe's Villa have put together an Alzheimer's group where Dad can hang with friends and keep busy - playing cards, games and even shoot some pool (which I heard Dad is pretty good at !! )

Aim is getting ready or the Fathers Day soiree - cleaning house and cooking along with her regular tweeting and treasuring!

Behave!

Mel

Vintage rain

It was the perfect rainy day to spend antique hunting and thrifting! The girls and I spent half the day in 2 huge barns. What treasures they hold! I am certain we will visit again as I spotted many lovely brooches waiting for just the right bouquet!

There is something so special about including a vintage piece - whether it is vintage lace, hankies or jewels.
Vintage pieces add original charm and charter to a design and they become your very own heirloom to pass down. We love to make our flowers from vintage finds, this way your flowers can one day be incorporated into the bouquet of your own daughter or fixed into a boutonniere for your son.

The sun is out  now and the evening is young - we still have more time to play!
Enjoy your weekend!

Blessings,
Aim & Mel

In the studio - June 6

     We finished off Katina's order for a vintage fabric cake topper of 3 flowers.

We have prettied them up with pearls, cameo's and ostrich feathers!

Enjoy these robins egg blue, vintage gold, creamy and hydrangea green beauties!!

Ohh passionate Poppy

It has been an exciting week!
We have presented our new Poppy design for the first time in our shop.
Pictured in single stem and also in our fun theme bouquet, you can see just how lovely the poppy is.

We try our best to stay away from crepe or tissue paper just because we are not fans of anything that may be LESS durable.
When we design a poppy we are using larger petals and less of them so the design needs to be sturdy. IF for instance we were designing a ranunculus we could go with a thinner paper because the design is a dense compact mass in which the petals will support each other.
We know how often you girls pick up and place down your bouquets during your wedding day -
-upon bouquet arrival
- before wedding pictures
- in the limo -
- the last minute hair check before you go down the isle
- passing it off to your maid.. and that is just the first 3 hours of your busy day!!.
Soo the poppy is made with a durable natural paper. We cut, dye and hand shape each one, petal by petal.
For our Images we have used black beaded centres but we are happy to customize the poppy centre with brooches, pearls, stamen or whatever else you can dream up.
We are working on our pumpkin orange variety for you as well.
Stay tuned for those soon!

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Alternative Blooms

What is an Alternative Blooms wedding?

Recently we had the pleasure of creating flowers for Lori's wedding. She is a graphic designer with her own business.
Some of you may know her as Design Twist and some may know her as Invitation Twist.
She is such a sweet heart!
Lori loved the idea of including mixed medium flowers into her wedding plan. She, being a lover of all things paper we decided to go with the paper hydrangea as her main component and accent with the wood roses which her HUBS loved.
Lori's colours were grape and teal mixing in some peacock elements for her table centres.

Here are some images and the lovely words she so kindly sent our way.
Enjoy!!

Mel

Hello Melissa.... my favourite flower girl in the whole wide world!!!!!!

I hope all is well in your world :) Mine’s terrific! 

Brian and I are back from our honeymoon and now trying to get back into the world of normalcy! LOL We got our pictures back from the photographer so I thought “I MUST SEND MEL these pictures because THEY ROCK!!!!!!!”

I gotta tell you from the bottom of my heart… these flowers were one of my favourite parts of the entire wedding (well other than the i do’s HAHAHHA) But in all serious chick… amazing job! They were bright, fun, bold and modern! Everyone was in awe of them and they held up perfectly all day and all night, even with Natalie banging them around LOL. But just an absolutely perfect touch to the theme. Even the guys loved them… guys, loving flowers, who knew!??? LOL

Thank you Sooooooooo much!


Lori
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Shop Alternative Blooms

A Surprise is looming!

   Lot's of great things have been happening in the studio as of late. We are certainly blessed.
Not to spoil a surprise but a certain UK mag has selected one of our bouquets for a Fall photo shoot.! We really hope they use it ( alway's a chance they may not).
We will find out come the end of August when the September/October issue is published and on the stands. It was said we could be in an article called " we heart details" .
In anticipation we are stocking up on our blooms. IF by chance you are thinking about placing an order, please feel free to do so early! From past experience we will have a rush of orders from publication and we loose sleep at the thought of turning clients away .. very stressful for us since we just want the world to be happy!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Mel

Just incase you wanted to know a little more about us...

Here we are!
We are so excited to be apart of the media experience! Etsy has been fab to us and we will often talk about that here. You will find tidbits about our family life and of course about our Dad and the life of an Alzheimer's affected family.
We will also share blogs we love and items we love for ourselves or our homes.

Thanks for coming by!
Visit our shop Alternative Blooms on Etsy!