SAIPUA

This is a tarot card from the Tarot de Marseille (the standard from which many contemporary tarot card designs originated.) Marseille was, in the 19th century, an international center of playing card manufactures. The thirteenth trump in the deck is often referred to as the unnamed card, or La Mort (death).

This has very little to do with why I am here tonight, which is to share some things about this wedding business we have found ourselves enjoying recently. It does have something to do with the halloween plans we have for the redhook Saipua!!

So does this little number, which I just found on ebay:

So we've had a busy fall wedding season. We've worked with five really amazing couples - all of whom have been really laid back and enthusiastic about their wedding flowers. With a few minor exceptions we've been able to keep all of our flowers local to the north east which means we have been working with a lot of dahlias, scabiosa (pincushion flowers), nigella, and lots and lots of hydrangea - here are three bouquets that where hydrangea were the focus:
We've learned so much! I can now confidently spell boutonniere (derived from the french bouton, meaning button.), and Eric has reached new heights in packing filled vases for transport utilizing the shredded paper/newspaper combination box method.


We also learned how to build lots of different wedding flower props like this trellis:

...and these driftwood "sculptures" for a wedding down at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook:

We've learned that like anything else, wedding flowers follow trends - the wrist corsage seems to conjure unnecessary memories of the 80's prom night. This was a pin-on we made last month with lisianthus, jasmine and seeded eucalyptus:

More pics from this fall here.
Heading upstate now to thrift and hopefully collect some bittersweet and grapevines for wreaths...