So many of you may not know this about me but though I’m fairly young, I’ve been in the events business for about 11 years now. As a teenager I worked for a family owned flower shop where I learned all the basics about florals and events, then in college I did an internship at an NYC floral biz called Belle Fleur, and also did flowers as a freelance artist on the side to earn some extra cash!

So when I finally landed at LMP, one of the things I was most excited to do was florals! Over the past few years, I've learned a few tips and tricks that I apply to every arrangement I’m tasked to make so here are some of my faves!

1) Don’t under budget for flowers! People are often surprised on how pricey florals can get, even if you buy them wholesale. If you are on a budget, I recommend going for a greenery based look because greenery such as eucalyptus, lemon leaf, and ruscus can be manipulated to work for almost any type of look and a huge bunch won’t cost you more than $30.

2) Be sure to play with texture! When shopping for flowers, its easy to focus on the focal point stems like roses, peonies, dahlias, etc, but I always like to get a wide variety of stems that are going to make my arrangement look more interesting. One of my favorite types of flowers to accomplish this with is sweat pea because it the detail in the petals is so stunning!

3) Clippers!!!!!!!! Don’t skip on the clippers! A lot of people thinking cutting your stems with a scissor will give you the same result as using a pair of floral clippers, it will NOT. Scissors aren’t made to go through such hard stems, so it will leave your flowers looking very jagged at the end. This will turn your water dirty which is A) aesthetically not pleasing and B) will kill your flowers faster. The key to flower maintenance is clean stems so they can drink more!

4) If you’re looking to make a floral runner, don’t waste your time trying to wire stems together, purchase a pre-made one online! We love working with Pacific Garland for all of our runner needs because they have a huge selection and they arrive fresh at your doorstep whatever day you need!

5) Don’t be afraid of having flowers out of water. Some installations we do, can’t support us tubing every single stem. Flowers like roses, spray roses, and wildflowers will last you hours out of water before starting to wilt.

6) Almost any vessel can be used as a vase. Just make sure reinforce the inside to sustain water, whether that means wrapping the inside with plastic or sticking a cup inside to hold the water!

7) If you’re going for a modern asymmetrical look, be sure to use a flower foam as the base. To secure, use clear floral tape and adhere to each side of your vessel. Floral foams can be purchased at almost any craft store! Once your foam is nice and secure, start at the bottom with greenery to make sure the foam won’t show from any angle, then play with bigger stems to make an impact!

So there you have it! A few of my favorite floral arranging tips. Be sure to head over to our youtube page where we have loads more floral arranging tips!