Fresh flowers are gorgeous. You can't beat the smells, textures, and colors of beautiful blooms. Sure we'd love to have them in our homes all the time, but lets face it, they can be expensive and of course they only last so long. I've worked with Afloral on a few projects before, like this colorful table setting I styled, and wedding arch, and if you want to be surrounded by flowers all the time faux should be considered as a great alternative. Today I'm going to show you how to create a beautiful modern moody floral arrangement using faux blooms.
This post has been moved. Please find it now on my new baby and kid focused blog, Hazel & Ollie. There I'll be sharing all kinds of inspiration from nursery decor, kids fashion, maternity and new born shoots and more!
I hope you caught the Modern Spring Decor Inspiration Shoot from earlier this week. Today I'm going to share with you the step by step DIY for creating this lovely ceremony arch (along with a video!). I partnered up with Afloral on this project, and had such a great time doing it. I wanted to create a design that was fresh, modern, and just a bit whimsical. So let's get started!
I'm a more is more kind of girl. Meaning I can definitely appreciate simple, un-cluttered design, but for the most part I thrive when I'm surrounded by color, texture, patterns, and lots of layers. I partnered up with afloral.com to create this lovely head table decor, along with some of my favorite local Kansas City wedding vendors. And for this post I'm not just sharing the finishing shots, but also some behind the scenes images of how the table came together.
Much like everyone else in the midwest, I love fall. It's those few months of the year that we get a break from the blazing heat of summer, and bitter cold of winter. So obviously I absolutely had to plan a fall/halloween themed floral workshop. And what says fall more than making floral arrangements in pumpkins? Nothing that I can think of!
My blog has absolutely been packed with beautiful collaborations lately, and that's exactly the way I like it. Working with other creatives really fuels my fire, and my monthly collab with Nickel and Suede has been no exception. Fall is officially here (at least on the calendar), and it's my very favorite time of year. The rich colors, lots of layers, and crispness in the air. All of those things and the beautiful rose bronze* earrings inspired Septembers shoot.
I absolutely love a good collaboration, in fact it's what I'm all about, so I was thrilled when the lovely Caitlin, stylist and blogger extraordinaire, invited me to take part in the Fall Into Confidence workshop, coming up September 19th. I'll be presenting with four other women, and we'll be talking all about style and confidence building!
(images above by Becca Blake Photography)
I first met Caitlin in 2014 at the Pepperologie Brunch, put on by Style and Pepper. Jessie had asked me to speak about how to take a grocery store bouquet from boring to beautiful, and I was happy to oblige. It's one of my favorite topics! Caitlin also attended my Flowers 101 workshop this spring with The Bloom Academy. Needless to say she's now got some awesome floral knowledge under her belt., and she wanted me to share it with you all. The Fall Into Confidence workshop is an event where women could learn how to feel their best everyday, and do it all in once by learning about a six different topics related to style.
(image by Cornerstone Photography)
So how does floral design fit in with a workshop about style and confidence? Good question, and it's really the reason why I started The Bloom Academy. People would often say to me "I could never do what you do" or "When I arrange flowers they look awful". But here's the thing, everyone can create beautiful flowers, it's really not that hard. What people don't have is knowledge about floral design, and that's where I come in. I think that, much like anything in this world, armed with information and a little bit of practice anyone can have the confidence and style to create amazing things with blooms. Flowers are such an easy way to make any occasion special, give as a gift, or just to add a touch of lovely to everyday life. It's absolutely an essential tool that anyone should have in their style arsenal.
(photo by Cornerstone Photography)
I hope that you guys will join me, Caitlin, and a bevy of other awesome women for this beautiful workshop opportunity. Purchase your tickets here, or you can enter to win a free ticket to the workshop. How you ask? Pop on over to my Instagram @emmy-ray for more details. Good luck!*
I recently had the absolute pleasure of partnering up with The Coveted Home for a beautiful late summer floral design workshop. If you haven't been to The Coveted Home you are missing out. It's a gorgeously curated home decor store on the Country Club Plaza. Filled with amazing furniture, rugs, prints, lamps, and so, so much more, plus beautiful accessories like jewelry and bags. I love just going in and looking at all these amazing things. Owner Jaclyn is also an incredible interior designer. (Above is the awesome Coveted Home team with their flowers).
When Jaclyn said she'd love to host a workshop I was so thrilled. The night was full of gorgeous flowers of course, as well as a delicious summer sangria from The Garnish Co., bites by Moxie Catering, and Coveted Home provided all the attendees with a beautiful vessel from Convivial Production to arrange their flowers in. The talented Sarah Sweeney was on hand to capture all of it for us.
It was such a wonderful evening, and I have to say a huge thank you of course to all of my lovely vendors, but also to the ladies that attended and showed their support. I feel truly blessed and grateful to be able to share my love of flowers with others, and I hope that all of my students feel the same. So thanks guys for making it a success! Can't wait for the next one.
When I heard that Kilee, owner of Nickel & Suede was looking for bloggers to work with, I assumed she meant style bloggers. However I started formulating something unique in my head. I love her business, and the simple, beautifully hand made (not to mention feather weight) suede earrings they create. I wanted to work with her, even though Handmaker of Things is not about fashion. I brainstormed and came up with an idea. A series of blog posts and projects inspired by Nickel & Suede's earring of the month.
August's earring of the month was olive green, a total no brainer. Greenery has been a huge trend in floral design in the last few years, much the same as the color olive green has in fashion. This was the perfect opportunity to embrace all things lush and green. I had so much fun styling these images, and playing around with different combinations of succulents and greenery.
Also as a bonus each month I'll not only be sharing these styled images, but also a DIY project or floral recipe that I've created, each inspired by the Nickel & Suede earring of the month.
I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see part two of this lovely collaboration and check out the simple DIY I've got in store (it's one I think everyone should know how to do).
xo - Emily
(this post is created in collaboration with Nickel & Suede)
I love collaborations, they're pretty much my jam. When Gwen from one of my favorite local blogs, The Makerista, contacted me about creating some florals for her sweet girls Swan Lake birthday party, of course I said yes. Gwen wanted lush, romantic florals, in pastel and ivory, but with a touch of moodiness to them. We added in dark plum and maroon, with some textural elements to accomplish just that, and kept things classic with silver mercury glass containers.
She's got such a beautiful eye, and curated all the other details of the decor so perfectly to match the parties theme. I'm sharing just a few of the florals here, but you absolutely have to head on over to her blog to see the rest of the gorgeousness from the event. (all photos shared in this post were taken by Gwen).
And here's a few pics of how she styled them post party. Swoon right? Her house is pretty much amazing.
Thank you so much Gwen for letting me take part in your little girls special day. I can't wait to collaborate again!
