This first post in the series will address quality.

Yes, I understand – you can go to Costco or Trader Joe’s and pick up a nice looking bunch of flowers for $5, I get it, but I get much better quality flowers as a professional floral designer and I have incredible access to a wide variety of flowers from all over the world. I know which vendors have the best orchids, which have the best roses, I can go on and on but you get it, and really, you don’t really want the flowers at your wedding to look like they came from the aforementioned retail outlets, do you?

The photos of your wedding day will be in your family forever – make sure that you love your flowers so when you look at those photos of the day with your closest friends, family and loved ones you’re not cringing but smiling.

I’ve also developed relationships with my suppliers and they will call and tell me if something I’ve ordered looks less than perfect so we can make the appropriate substitutions. I had one of my favorite wholesale reps running to the airport to pick up the needed hydrangeas for one of our weddings this past summer. That is worth the money!

The quality of the flowers on your big day also depends so much on how they’ve been processed, stored and transported – we’ll talk more about that in the next two posts.

As a professional floral designer I care about the quality of the flowers and the final design we deliver, every design we do has our name on it.

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite flowers – Bells of Ireland. I think they are perfect to start out this fresh New Year.

My favorite!

They are a striking bloom in many ways – color and shape, many people don’t know that they have a gorgeous, fresh, clean scent, especially when they are really fresh. When I buy flowers for myself they are frequently Bells of Ireland, I just love their striking and lush look all by them selves in a simple vase.

We do use them for weddings – mostly in large arrangements at the ceremony location but the florets can also be used individually in boutonnieres and corsages.

Woodland Wedding with Bells of Ireland

In the language of flowers they represent luck (imagine that!). They are in the mint family. I’ve tried to grow them in my garden a few times with no luck, but I do frequently pick up some locally grown bells at my farmers market. They are available year round as a cut flower and they are extremely long lasting. You get a lot of bang for your buck with Bells of Ireland, they are stunning.

Have a beautiful day!

Oh, we have a brother too. His name is Mark and he’s a nurturer, bossy and fun loving all rolled into one!

We started this business together in 2004. Susan is the sister you’ll see at your initial consultation. Wendy and Beth have decided to focus on other things in their lives for the time being but if you are really lucky they’ll be helping us during installation at your wedding.

The daily business is run by Susan and her nieces; Hillary and Lauren, Beth’s daughters. Hillary is a student at SJSU and she works at Stanford memorial church as well as Three Sisters Flowers. She is our organizer, stickler for detail, IT consultant and a talented floral production team leader. Lauren is also a college student and she works at Trader Joes. She helps us with the floral production and installation. Lauren also loves wedding coordination and has a knack for coordinating transportation schedules.

We love to work together, we laugh a lot, and we love weddings!