Last summer there were some weekends that are just a blur now. These images are from an incredible celebration at The University Club, inspired by the couple’s love for France, especially the countryside with it’s sunflower and lavender fields….
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Summer Citrus at The Ivy Room
Absolutely unafraid of color, this beautiful bride chose a sherberty pallette in shades of coral, tangerine, lemon and lime. We employed fresh citrus including limequats in the bouquets and centerpieces as well as dinner plate dahlias and cosmos from our farm. In the gorgeous sanctuary that is the courtyard at The Ivy Room, our designer …
Notes from the Flower Field
Midsummer is here and we are dividing our days between hyper-manicured floral photo shoots and the wild imperfection of our flower farm. Sunstroke can be mildly exciting but today I had my first, “let’s-find-the-car-keys-in-the-field-day”. Thank goodness that game only lasted 15 minutes! We’ve begun battling pests organically and I applied my first super batch of …
Mud madness
Our plants were all knee high by the fourth of July! Some of them were so tall that they were snapping off at the base and a mad staking party in a flooded field was held. We started out with mallets up on ladders, then post drivers and finally figured out that the ground …
Shanghai Terrace
We had the happy luxury of jamming tea tins full of blooms in fluorescent shades on Friday. Exotics like long stemmed Rothschild lilies, Icelandic poppies and parrot tulips mixed well with old-timey bee-balm, begonias and geranium on the Shanghai Terrace at the Pennisula where our spectacular bride greeted guests for cocktails on the eve of …
Slow Flowers
We are living the dream of starting our own flower farm this year. We’ve been growing flowers for ourselves at the Chicago Honey Co-op for a while but this is a whole new scale. Successful farming necessitates super-human amounts of savvy, physical endurance and years of dedication, but our primary aim is just to make …
Song of Spring
It’s suddenly Spring. I, like many Chicagoans, am stumbling around pasty and shell-shocked, blinded by this gigantic alien orb in the sky. This handful of garden greens heralds as a kind of victory flag over this intensive winter. I’ve heard of massive defections from Chicago due to last winter and I’m fine with it. Fare …
Donut vases at the New Modern Wing
We were recently asked to create decor for a donut themed breakfast, and these “clean, elegant” donut vases emerged! After having 300 donuts arrive at the studio in waves over the past few weeks, I learned that donuts are not an everyday food. Finally, I had to tell Kristin to tell me that they were “all” …
Robin Hood Inspired
New kids in town, MatchMade Events chose us to purvey the flowers for their clever Robin Hood concept shoot at the stunning Bishop’s Hall bed and breakfast in Oak Park last fall. I went for a druidic vibe for the bouquet with cascading ferns and cyclamen. Photo by the brilliant Chad Husar. Cafe au lait …
Now forager
Had the great good luck to spend Thanksgiving in the U.P. at a family friend’s 500 acre farm near the wilds of Escanaba. The landscape was so staggeringly gorgeous I was afraid I’d drive the car off the road. An orchard of frozen apples, a field of dried sunflowers, wild clematis puffs…all miraculous to my …