Inspired by guts, this was the floral brief of my dreams
Just when I thought the start of my Floristry career couldn’t get any better, I got an email from my favourite Toronto Event Planner, Leanna, of Narrative Event Group
Activia - yup the infamous yogurt brand - was coming to Wychwood Barns for an inspiring “You’ve Got Guts Forum” hosted for women of Toronto. With the likes of Jully Black, Coach Carey, and Chloe Wilde making for incredible programming, all they needed were out-of-the-box flowers to match the exceptional day!
Registration tables, food stations and high tops were adorned with bud vases in their signature brand colours: yellow, white, and green.
The floral brief of my dreams
While some might squirm, I may squeal. I absolutely loved the brief: whimsical, squiggly, and inspired by guts. Check, check, check, I had this dream project on lock!
Since joining the wonderful industry of florals (May 2022), I’ve made it a point to keep my approach foam-free and to play as much as I can. That meant using the floral glue for something other than corsages and getting really crafty with my mechanics for the stage pieces that would be the main focal point for the day.
You wouldn’t know it, but mechanics for this piece was a camera tripod and a bundt pan filled with water. Foam free forever! HUGE kudos to my friend Robyn for her incredible design work on the large “guts” fabrication.
A little game I like to play with myself is: can I bring these flowers to the studio via motorcycle or car? This time the bike won.
Studio shots of the first few bud vases.
About a month before the event, I picked up a few bunches of garlic scapes from The Local Flower Collective and hung them upsidedown, and wired in spirals, so they could hold onto their curvy shapes. Using craspedia, aka “billy balls”, I snipped the tops off and secured them with floral glue atop the squiggly shapes to add some playfulness and give a modern take on the traditional bud vase.
Celosia flower couldn’t have been more perfect for this event!
“Everyone couldn’t stop talking about the flowers. You nailed it!
There’s always a learning curve
This is the only shot I have of this giant floral installation that sat atop the right side of the stage. Thankful for my phone camera!
What I completely adore about projects like these is that it’s 100% doable just by me: a mighty team of one. While I do hire freelancers when the project scope calls for it, there’s something so satisfying about doing a project from start to finish all on my own. My biggest takeaway from this project however, was to always take pictures! You never know how many (if any) quality shots you’ll receive from the photographer, and as you can see from my shoddy phone shots, I was relying on the events team to send me a few more quality shots than I received. Next time!
Overall, the project was very well received and a major boost for not only my portfolio, and skills epitoire, but to my confidence too! Working on projects that light you up, challenge you in just the right way and receive 100% satisfaction from the client is a total business win-win!
