Evolve 2015 “Winter Nights”

We were honored to be the official florist of Evolve 2015 at the Little Rock Marriott Saturday, January 24th.

The event was put on by the Centers for Youth and Families. This year’s theme, Winter nights, included centerpieces with ivory branches and gorgeous white hydrangeas accented with hanging candles.

The Center for Youth and Families in Little Rock provides assistance and care for at-risk families and troubled children.

2015 Woman of the Year Gala

We were honored to be the official florist of the 2015 Woman of the Year Gala. Not only were we able to put together some beautiful centerpieces, but the fruit was donated after the event!

The board of Women & Children First, the state’s largest shelter for survivors of domestic violence, held the gala Jan. 17 in the Little Rock Marriott Grand Ballroom downtown.

See the full album here.

Jenny Harper | Little Rock Wedding

Winner of “Best Overall Wedding Decor” in Arkansas Bride
Jenny Harper, originally from Oakdale, La., met the man of her dreams, Adam Dunaway (you might know him as Pool Boy on Alice 107.7 FM) of Little Rock, while volunteering for the Children’s Protection Center; she just didn’t know it yet. It took a lot of Adam asking and a lot of Jenny rejecting before she finally agreed to go on a date with him.

Fast forward to Jenny and Adam on the beach with his family. When he asked her to go for a walk on the beach, she had no idea that he was about to pop the question, or that her family was in a condo a few blocks away, waiting to celebrate the wonderful news together.

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The Palm Springs flavor of the Dunaway wedding is clear from the first stunning glance. Jenny looked to the garden ambiance of the Viceroy Hotel as a touchstone, as well as Jil Sander’s spring runway for luscious florals.

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Personal and unique touches reigned supreme with Jenny. She scoured places like vintage stores and Craigslist for much of the décor. Acrylic boxes meant for displaying dolls were filled with flowers, and they made tiny disco ball drink stirrers to match the giant ones over the dance floor.

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See the full feature on Arkansas Bride here.

 

Modern Bouquet

The second in a series of three wedding-bouquet tutorials.
Chris Norwood, AIFD and VP of Tipton Hurst, creates a “modern” bouquet that focuses on the concept of “color blocking.”
Next in the series: a bit of a twist on the “traditional” bouquet.

Diary of a Bridal Bouquet

Generic BouquetHave you ever wondered what goes into creating a beautiful bridal bouquet?  We recently followed one bouquet designed by Tipton Hurst’s Chris Norwood, AIFD, from the cooler to the photoshoot.

“It’s great to give your florist guidelines and inspiration photos, but let the experts be the designers so that you get the freshest flowers arranged in the most artful way for your special day,” suggests Chris.  “Our bride wanted all white flowers with one caveat, no roses.  Those are perimeters I can certainly work with!”

Chris peruses the assorted white flowers available, looking for the right textures and color contrasts.  Lilies, carnations, mums, daisies… so much to choose from!  That’s be beauty of the Tipton Hurst cooler.  Our wonderful Ms. Freda keeps it stocked with all the good stuff.  Chris selects creamy white hydrangeas, peonies, lisianthus, and white orchids.

Cooler white

Hydrangea BaseIf you’ve never seen Chris work, try to catch him on one of his live TV segments on KATV or KATV.com or one of his great video blogs here at tiptonhurst.com.  He is fast!  Quickly assembling a base of hydrangeas into a round mound, he has the form for his bouquet.

“I like to start with a hydrangea base on round, clutch style bouquets because it gives you a structure for supporting the rest of the blooms,” Chris explains as he works away bringing the bouquet to life.

The designer then adds in peonies, a favorite of our bride.  These peonies are in various stages of bloom so the ones that are fully blown out are frilly and show faint hints of pink inside while the ones that are still tight look more ball-like, giving a completely different contrast to the white hydrangeas.

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Opening DoorThe lisianthus also benefits various stages of bloom.  The tighter the bloom the more green you can see in the flower, but the more open ones have an ivory tone to them that’s charming.  Bright white orchids are plucked individually off the stems and wired and wrapped.  Orchids are long lasting blooms and are lovely in an arrangement such as this white-on-white textural mix.

Chris finishes with a collar of greenery and an ivory ribbon wrap before the bouquet is loaded in the delivery truck and taken to the salon where the bride is having her hair done before her photoshoot.

Moved to tears, the bride receives the bouquet and expresses her delight.  Thumbs up!Thumbs Up!

Then it’s off to the photoshoot (and no, we’re not giving the dress style away).

Only a few days left until this young lady’s big day and Tipton Hurst is so proud to be a part of her wedding.

 

Bouquet Photoshoot