Rachiepalooza's Wedding!

This spring, I got a unique opportunity to shop for whatever flowers struck my fancy and arrange them in any crazy way I chose... that's right, I created the flowers for my own wedding!

While I'm not sure if I would recommend "DIY" flowers to another florist, I'm absolutely so glad I did! I had a crazy vision for my flowers & couldn't find a single photo or similar inspiration to help communicate what I wanted, so I knew the only way to get my dream flowers would be creating them myself. I was able to spend some quality time with my mom & mother-in-law, who helped me process flowers for hours. The night before the wedding, my bridesmaids kept me sane as I finished up all the boutonnieres and corsages (many many thanks to J, who did the un-glamorous prep work for 20-something personal flowers. I have the best best-friends!)

Super-saturated colors and unusual blooms, including "heart" roses (the petals form a heart shape in the center of the flower), red aranthera orchids, blue and aubergine anemones, fragrant purple sweet peas, and purplish agonis foliage.

Our church home, Wooddale, holds around 2,000 people and is home to the 47th largest pipe organ in the USA. How do you decorate a larger-than-life church? With huge floral sprays attached to an "arch" of red-twig dogwood cut at my parents farm! (How do you get these huge pieces from farm to church? A friend's motorcycle trailer, of course!)

 
Final touches on the bridal bouquet before getting dressed.

More photos coming soon...

Fabulous Farmers' Market Finds

This June event gave me the opportunity to shop at some of my very favorite places - all the wonderful farmers markets in our area! The bride wanted to incorporate flowers grown in her father's garden, supplemented by farmers' market finds and botanicals from our wholesalers.
Photography by the wonderful Keely Joy of Minneapolis.

 Alstromeria, roses, and unique accent flowers made these boutonnieres and corsages stand out.

 The bride chose the most muted shades of creamy yellow, blush pink, salmon, and peach for herself, and saved bright yellows, pinks, and oranges for the exuberant reception.

Hello 2012!

Yikes - it's been how many months since my last post?

There have been some big changes since that post in the fall! I got married, we built a house, the Rachiepalooza studio moved from Rochester to Apple Valley (not necessarily in that order)... needless to say, we've been keeping busy! Though I haven't been posting, I have been blessed to work on some amazing events - weddings, fundraisers, and the occasional corporate event. While we wait on the official photos, here's a few snapped by myself and my lovely assistants...

In between those events, we've been working on landscaping around the studio. Each flower that successfully blooms before being squashed by hail, eaten, washed out, or dessicated by the heat is celebrated as a small victory! It's pretty sparse in its current state, but hopefully over the next 2 years we'll be able to establish a gorgeous native wildflower prairie that will require little maintenance and provide us with unique homegrown flowers for our events.

Last but not least, our website is undergoing a total overhaul. I'm excited for an update & something NEW! Hooray!

A Celebration of Life

This April, we had the opportunity to participate in a fundraiser for a very special lady. Mary is my (Rachel's) aunt and has always been a source of smiles, laughs, and encouragement for our family. She was one of the first outside my immediate family to tell me I "really have a knack for this" when I brought floral arrangements to family gatherings!

Mary was diagnosed with MDS (see below) in 2010, which began a year-long fight involving chemo, a life-saving bone marrow transplant from her sister Amy, and nearly 7 months total in the hospital. While the transplant stopped the MDS, unfortunately the side effects - and associated medical costs - continue. So in April, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Mary, Amy, and LIFE at a concert, meal, and silent auction benefiting Mary & her family.  We were honored to provide almost a dozen items, ranging from small vased nosegays to avant-garde centerpieces to a gorgeous crystal vase. 

 Kale as a spring flower? Sure, why not!

MDS stands for Myelodysplastic Syndrome. It is a pre-cancerous condition that affects bone marrow, which causes anemia, low blood counts, and often (but not always) leads to acute myelogenous leukemia quite rapidly. The most concise explanation I've heard is that MDS is to Leukemia what HIV is to AIDS.

Read more about MDS here and consider becoming part of the National Marrow Donor Program's bone marrow registry. YOU can save a life!

Photos largely stolen from cousins' Facebook profiles... thanks guys!

Read more about MDS here and consider becoming part of the National Marrow Donor Program's bone marrow registry. YOU can save a life!