1. It makes a statement. A beautiful red bouquet against a white or ivory dress is always stunning. Always.

2. There are way more varieties of flowers that can be used. If you’re sold on using only white, it becomes hard to match whites so things can look a little bit off. But if you want shades of yellow or green, there are plenty of different things that can be used all in one bouquet.

3. A bright and bold bouquet is the quintessential summer bouquet. In our minds, if you’re getting married in summer, we want you to throw in some bold hues!

4. Just because you’re using lots of colour doesn’t mean your flowers won’t suit your style – bright corals and pinks still look romantic, while deep reds will always give a classic look.

5. On a tight budget? There are plenty of colourful blooms that are way more cost-effective than your classic white flowers. Plus, a small cluster of bright flowers will create a way bigger impact than a few white flowers – you can go for a smaller bouquet and get away with it!

Here’s one of our favourite bright, bold bouquets that we did for our bride Stacie last summer (photo by Ramona Garbald Photography). We LOVED designing this bouquet because we got to play with a lot of texture and colour – what do you think?

Looking for some bright blooms? Academy Florist can help! We’d love for you to join us on our new weddings facebook page or give us a call to set up an appointment: 488.4822. Happy Planning!

That’s right. Your secretary, your assistant, your right-hand employee. Or maybe it’s a whole team of people who keep your business running smoothly. Give them something special to show them just how special they are to you. Flowers always make a great gift. They never fail to make someone smile and feel appreciated.

And today is the day to show your appreciation. We can help you do that. Head right on over to our Administrative Professional’s shopping page on Academy-Florist.com, and we’ll set you up with the perfect floral delivery for you and your most-appreciated staff member. Even better? You can order online, in-store, or over the phone. We’ve got you covered.

admin-prof - Academy Florists

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and to celebrate the mothers in OUR lives, we thought it would be fun to throw a little contest and see what all of you have to say about YOUR mothers! So here’s the details!

Prize:
One deserving mother will win a fresh bouquet of flowers once a month for 6 MONTHS!

How To Enter:
Head over to our Facebook page and find our contest post. Comment on the post by telling us why your mom deserves these flowers. Then, ask your friends and family to “like” your post – the entry with the most likes will win flowers for your mom!

Our winning mother will be chosen on May 8 and the winning mom will receive her first bouquet of flowers on May 10!

Want to get ahead? Pre-order your mother’s day flowers online today! Every pre-ordered Mother’s Day arrangement or bouquet will receive a crystal nail file from the fabulous Epsilon Creations! Note: Offer for online orders only.

Remember, head on over to our Facebook page to enter the contest right away!

Admin Professionals - Academy Florist

Here are some of our top picks, all of which are perfect for a desk – and all can be ordered online!

Thank-You! ~ Can it be any more obvious? Your message will come across loud and clear with this brightly coloured and fresh arrangement in a fitting Thank You themed vase. $49.95

Top Notch ~ Say thank you for a job well done with this modern, tropical inspired arrangement of birds of paradise. $29.95

Asian Sunrise ~ For something a bit different and bit dramatic, we always recommend our FAVOURITE – orchids! We can’t get enough of this arrangement style, with a full stem of orchids in a modern style. $55

Floral Fantasia ~ If you have a staff member who is always going above and beyond, knows the answer toe very question, and keeps the office running, then it’s time to show your gratitude in a bigger and better way. Floral Fantasia is a lush, colourful bouquet that will really get the point across! $159.50

Remember to mark your calendars and get your delivery orders in soon! Administrative Professional’s Week is April 22 – 27!

Look 1: Beach Haze
Madeline’s wanted a sea-inspired look, so to go with their colour scheme we thought it would be fun to start off with a non-floral centrepiece (even though we’re florists…. we can do other things too!!). We created a terrarium style bowl filled with sand, cylinder vases filled with blue tinted water, and added in seashells and floating candles. To finish the look we scattered sea shells around the table as well as mini votives with blue water.

Look 2: Classic Glamour
For a classic red and black look with a bit of a sexy twist, we knew we had to use red roses and black lace, with lots of candlelight. We chose three different height cylinder vases, wrapped them in black lace, and topped them with a hand tied bouquet of red roses. Next we added shorter cylinders with submerged red rose petals and topped these with a floating candle. The overall look is very sophisticated, but keep in mind that this look is so easy to customize with different coloured roses and lace, bling additions, and minimizing the style to include just one vase or even the submerged rose petals for a different look altogether.

Classic Glamour - Academy Florist

Classic Glamour - Academy Florist

Look 3: Old Hollywood
To show off their damask linens, Madeline’s chose a black and white colour scheme. We selected a tall jet black lacquer vase and filled with large white ostrich feathers. We also added a few black vases at the base with tight bunches of white carnations.

Old Hollywood - Academy Florist

Look 4: Purple and Green Fiesta
For a fun, fresh style using purple and green linens and funky detailed stationery, we decided to buck tradition and use some fruit in our centrepieces. This look features 3 cube vases (although it could easily be just 1 for a simpler take!) that are lined with sliced limes and topped with an amazing bouquet of green hydrangea and spider mums, green dianthus, purple mokara orchids and deep eggplant mini calla lilies, as well as green mini cymbidium orchids and scabiosa pods for texture. We also added a single purple mokara bloom to each of the favours (mini jars of honey!) as the perfect finishing touch.

Purple and Green Fiesta - Academy Florist

Look 5: Head Table
Typically for head tables, the bride and bridesmaids will line their bouquets along the head table in glass vases (which we provide to all of our brides). But for something a little bit different, we like to do a similar arrangement to the bouquets but in a lower vase, giving more visual impact. This white ceramic cube vase really popped off the bright red linens Madeline’s chose, and we filled it with a lush green and red arrangement that doesn’t look Christmas-y!

Head Table - Academy Florist

Look 6: Vintage Romance
For a vintage look that incorporates pink and silver tones, we knew we had the perfect vases. We LOVE our mercury glass vases (which we have is several different sizes and shapes) and they were ideal for a simple bouquet that we would place on this table. Madeline’s used grey and pink linens as well as lined the table in paper doilies to give a lace vibe. We created three hand tied bouquets of quicksand roses and placed them in our mercury glass bouquet vases – again, one bouquet would work equally as well, surrounded by mini mercury glass votives (which we also have)!

Vintage Romance

Look 7: Garden Style
With a palette of coral and charcoal, we decided to do something a bit different. Using a faux manzanita tree, we created a lush floral wreath to place at the base and really bring the focus of the design to the table, and not to the ceilings like some tall arrangements do. This wreath was one of our favourite designs, using garden roses, spray roses, lisianthus, wax flower, and lots of greenery. For another twist, we’re doing a similar wreath for a bride this summer but switching out the branches for cylinder vases with floating candles. Love!

Garden Style - Academy Florist

Looking for more inspiration? Check out our Facebook page, which we are constantly updating with new photos!

First up are our bouquets! We created 5 beautiful bouquets all inspired by pink. The bouquet pictures are courtesy of the amazing Michelle Zerr Photography.

1) Loose and Romantic: This bouquet is perfect for the bride who wants a very romantic, garden-style affair and looks for her bouquets a bit looser with lots of texture. It features an array of pink and purple tones, thanks to hydrangeas, lisianthus, O’Hara garden roses, and wax flower, and added in dusty miller and seeded eucalyptus for greenery. We love the loose shape and all of the lush textures.

Loose and Romantic - Academy Florist

2) Classic and Simple: This clean hand tied bouquet is composed of our favourite quicksand roses – sometimes pinky, sometimes ivory, sometimes sand hued, the rose has a stunning bloom and soft petal. We wrapped it up in dusty miller and added a big beautiful bow to it.

Classic and Simple - Academy Florists

3) Pink and White and A Little Glam: Hot pink roses mingle with white roses and white hydrangeas. We added in oversized faux crystals to the mix for a little extra glam.

Pink and White and a Little Glam - Academy Florist

4) Garden Luxury: This style is another bouquet perfect for a luxurious garden-inspired wedding. A base of white hydrangea and pink O’Hara garden roses is accented with scabiosa pods and white phalaenopsis orchid blooms. The overall feel is very lush and fresh.

Garden Luxury - Academy Florist

5) Simple Romance: We love our garden roses! Here we used pink garden roses (but the style can be replicated with any shade) and packed them together to create a dense cluster of ruffly petals. We added in beautiful crystal-accented pins for a little sparkle.

Simple Romance - Academy Florist

We also did up a little centrepiece that corresponded beautifully with our bouquets. This is something that could be used on every table, on either side of the head table, or at the altar. It’s in our beautiful clarinet vase, with white hydrangea, white and pink garden roses, trailing seeded eucalyptus, and long stems of white dendrobium orchids. Love this look!

Centrepiece - Academy Florist

Centrepiece - Academy Florist

Get ready, because there’s more to come – amazing centrepiece designs! Part 2 will be hitting up the blog tomorrow! Our last peek is of our wedding consultant Lauren modelling some of our bouquets!

Modelling Bouquets - Academy Florist

Academy Florists will donate $2 from every daffodil arrangement purchased in the month of April to the Canadian Cancer Society. Join the fight by buying your flowers today! Buy them online at Academy-Florists.com – here’s a peek at our special Cancer Society daffodil arrangement!

Every 3 minutes, cancer picks another fight with a Canadian. Wear a daffodil and let them know they’re not alone. Donate and receive a daffodil pin at any of store locations today! Share this post to help us achieve our goal and FIGHT BACK!

How to Personalize Your Wedding Bouquet
Academy Florist

With wedding season coming up, it’s likely that you’re getting married and will be a guest at one or two (or more!) weddings all in the same year. Being a guest at other weddings means you’re likely going to be comparing your own wedding to those of your friends, which means you’ll be looking for ways for your big day to stand apart. And when it comes to flowers, there are lots of ways to stand out. Check out Academy Florist’s favourite ways to personalize your bouquet with pictures from local weddings that we’ve done!

Blingy bride? Lucky for you, your style is all the rage right now. Diamante ribbon is a popular way to wrap the handle of your bouquet, or we could add diamond pins or over-sized crystals into your bouquet to give it a little glimmer. Check out this bling ribbon (photo by luckygirl photography) and some diamond pins in action (photo by Jeremy Hiebert Photography).

Winter wedding? One of our favourite ways to personalize a winter bouquet is wrapping the handle in a warm wool—it’s like a mitten for your flowers! This can be done in any colour you want, and it’s all about the texture of the wool that works beautifully for the winter. Other touches that are easily used are pine cone and gold or silver sprayed wicker accents or pods, like in this winter white bouquet photographed by blfStudios or this pinecone bouquet photographed by Tinholt Photography.

Going for a classic style to perfect your day? The traditional white/ivory bouquet is always beautiful, but to make it a bit more special, why not add in some pearls? Whether they’re oversized single pearls or a strand entwined with flowers, this is a simple and sweet way to add a little bit of elegance. This bouquet, from one of our wedding designer’s own wedding, includes oversized pearls along with tulle and lace flowers. (photo by Artography by Jodee Pedersen)

It’s all about the ribbon… or not! This year, we’re seeing a lot of brides getting creative with the way their bouquet handle is wrapped—and we are EXCITED about it! Big floppy bows in a dramatic colour, adding a brooch or heirloom piece, using lace or twine accents, buttons, or vintage handkerchiefs are all finding their places on wedding bouquets. Here, bride Jill asked us to create rosettes out of the ribbon on her handle to bring in a different element (photo by Moore Photography).

Other special touches? Feathers are still going strong, non-floral elements like paper and fabric flowers are being handmade and inserted into bouquets, and shells and fruits are being added into the mix along with flowers. Wire accents (or a wire cage, like this bouquet we did for bride Michelle, photo by Ramona Garbald Photography) are also popular, and are a great accent for boutonnieres as well.

Top Tip From Academy Florist? If you really want your bouquet to stand apart, it doesn’t need to be hard. Spend some time thinking about unique touches that you like, and ask your florist to incorporate it—while most brides are going for the typical ribbon, one little touch can make your bouquet memorable.

Looking for wedding flowers and some unique ideas? Call Lauren at Academy Florist to book your free consultation, at 488-4822 and check us out online at academy-florists.com.

http://www.academy-florists.com/index.cfm?cat_id=47

And don’t forget to mark those calendars for upcoming dates you’ll need flowers for!
Palm Sunday: April 1
Good Friday: April 6
Passover: April 7
Easter: April 8
Professional Secretary’s Week: April 22 – 17
Professional Secretary’s Day: April 25
National Teacher Day: May 8
Mother’s Day: May 13