Summer Weddings for Two Sisters

What a busy summer for the Dannels family! Catie and Calli both got married, one in July and one in August. I was lucky enough to be the florist for both and enjoyed seeing their different visions come to life.

Catie and her bridesmaids- Photos by Steele House Photography

Calli and her bridesmaids- Photos by Grassroots Studio

Can you see the difference in styles? Catie wanted lilies and roses in white and burgundy with blue accents, and a beautiful cascading bouquet. Calli’s colors were rust and orange with dried elements and her bouquet had a free-flowing, organic feel.

Some of the flowers I used in Catie’s bouquet were white lily, burgundy spray rose, alstromeria, Polar Star rose, astrantia and blue thistle. Calli’s bouquet had Coffee Break rose, Sahara spray rose, white scabiosa, chocolate cosmos, pampas and bunnytail grass.

And finally, I love the tiny details a photographer captures. These are the moments of your wedding you want to remember.

Style Round Up- Bouquets 2022

Color came back to wedding bouquets this year! It brought so much joy into my little studio. Don’t get me wrong- I love a beautiful neutral/blush palette but I find myself ordering the same flowers over and over. With this year’s color combos, my floral cooler was a brand new kaleidoscope every week. Here are just a few of my favorite bouquets from 2022 in no particular order (with flowers identified for you).

This all pink bouquet has ranunculus, roses, spray roses, astilbe and baby’s breath.

Shades of pink from blush to vibrant.

This was my last rescheduled wedding from 2020 and the bride originally thought she wanted all white. By the time we got to 2022, she decided to add in rust and peach. And she loved how the colors tuned out!

Peach ranunculus, freesia, rust mums, hypericum berries, Coffee Break roses and waxflower.

There are so few natural blue flowers, but the ones we do have are beautiful! Hydrangea, delphinium, thistle, and baby blue eucalyptus.

With just enough cream and white to make the true blue pop- snapdragons, callas, and spray roses.

This bouquet feels like Fall in the Flint Hills- burnt orange spray roses, Toffee and Quicksand roses, Agonis grass, pampas grass, leucodendron, and astrantia.

This bouquet is the perfect example of mixing fall colors with lots of texture.

All the colors of Spring! A true rainbow with Coral Charm peonies, larkspur, delphinium, craspedia, butterfly ranunculus, lavender spray roses, feverfew, Kahala roses, sword fern and yellow stock.

It wouldn’t be a Kansas summer without a sunflower bouquet. This one has burgundy dahlias, mums and roses, viking mums, solidago, and Italian ruscus sprayed gold.

I love using local flowers when I can and sunflowers are easily available here in late summer.

This combination of blush and cream flowers- mostly roses- is pure and classic for any wedding. Tried and true!

Blush pink roses, cream roses, white ranunculus, larkspur, mums and stock, with astrantia and waxflower for fillers.

Lavender, sky blue and peach. I loved these colors together. This bouquet has lavender roses, light blue delphinium, peach spray roses, pink waxflower, feverfew, and white phlox.

This bouquet was so elegant in an old world sort of way. So much texture, so many things to see.

A dried King Protea was the focal point, with plum ranunculus and dahlia, lavender lisianthus and butterfly ranunculus, brunia, anemone and mixed dried grasses.

What a fun year it’s been for weddings! Click here if you would like to see more bouquet options. I love designing natural-looking bouquets so if that’s your style please contact me soon!

Part Two: Josie and John’s Magical Wedding Day

I’m so happy to share these professional photos of Josie and John’s wedding day on May 14, 2022 at Clover Cliff Ranch. All photos are by Lifeleak Visuals and they are beautiful!

I loved this combination of flowers. Coral Charm peonies, butterfly ranunculus, larkspur, delphinium, roses, feverfew and white daisies. It was like a fairytale meadow. All the colors of the rainbow.

And this smile!

My favorite part of the professional photos is seeing the wedding come to life with family and guests and all the happy faces. My couples spend so much time dreaming of how all their plans will come together, and I truly love being a part of the process, and seeing the final results.

This last photo is my favorite. This is how I pictured the reception flowers in my mind. This is what I thought Josie was imagining as well. This photo is when I know I did a good job and can put away my anxiety that happens when planning every wedding! Thanks for following along with me on this blog and please know how much I appreciate any referral you want to send my way.

When should you book a wedding florist?

I am finally finished with weddings for 2021! I had a happy, busy fall wedding season and towards the end I had a sneaky feeling that I may be closing in on a career milestone of 100 weddings for Clover and Honey. When I finally sat down to add things up over the last nine years, I realized I had already done it. Somewhere in 2021, someone’s wedding was my 100th! To be honest, I was just too lazy to figure out exactly which wedding it was, so here are my favorite bouquets from this year and I’ll just celebrate all of them as my milestone. Thank you to everyone who trusted me with their dreams, and for all my future couples, just know that I have a lot of wisdom and experience to share with you from the weddings that came before yours. 

Is there a best time to book your wedding florist?  There isn’t a specific timeline though I suggest 6-12 months. With the reschedules from 2020, things were kind of crazy this year, and even in to 2022, so it’s best to ask early.

Do you need to have all the details figured out before you contact me? No! It’s helpful to know your color preferences, the overall style or vibe you’re going for, in addition to the number in your wedding party and a rough estimate of the number of guests invited. 

Do you need to have an exact floral budget? It’s helpful to have a general idea of your overall wedding budget as well as the main goals or focus of your wedding.  Just know that your wedding day team makes your dream come true! Make sure you bring professional people on board who you trust to execute your vision with care and excellence. 

It’s easy to get started:

• First fill out the wedding questionnaire here and share some details about your wedding with me. I will get back to you asap.

• Then we will set up a phone consultation. (Ideally we hit it off and decide we’re a good match.)

• Next, I put together a preliminary proposal for you to make sure we’re on the same page in terms of style and budget before signing a contract.

• Finally, if you decide you’d like to move forward, a signed contract and deposit will secure your date and you can officially cross “find florist” off of your to-do list!

Absolutely amazing! Jennifer was an absolute delight to work with. She helped put my wedding floral dreams to life. Our wedding was postponed due to COVID and she was so flexible and understanding which we so much appreciated. She also traveled to our venue and set everything up in the most gorgeous way. Our wedding day was so perfect and it wouldn’t have been possible without Clover and Honey flowers. Thank you so much Jennifer, you are an angel and I l loved working with you!

~Makenzie, review from WeddingWire

Our Process…

I bring your vision to life so that your flowers are not only beautiful, but perfect for you! I want to take your floral designs to the next level.

• I listen and interpret your style so I can pull together the best parts of your ideas to create a cohesive look.

• I hand-select your flowers, inspecting for quality so they are the freshest available.

• I advise you on details that fall outside the realm of flowers to ensure design consistency.

• You’ll find it easy to reach me when you have questions or need advice.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Makenzie and Jordan at the Historic Post Office

May 1, 2021

Makenzie Harder and Jordan Turner were married on a beautiful spring day in May, exactly 364 days after they originally planned to be married. The venue changed, the guest list changed, the floral order changed slightly, and I’m sure there were many other things I don’t even know about. Like other couples who needed to change their wedding date in 2020, these two had to make adjustments. But through it all, from my perspective, they did it with much grace and compassion for the situation and the vendors they were working with. 

For me this wedding held many firsts. It was my first re-schedule from 2020. It was my first time doing a wedding at the beautiful Historic Post Office in Ottawa, Kansas. And it was the first time I have had to lean on friends and family to help me put a big wedding together, while I was with my husband in the hospital as he was having heart surgery. I couldn’t have done it without help! I didn’t want this couple to know my situation because I knew that could add stress to their perfect day. So from processing all the flowers for me, to designing centerpieces, to delivering and setting up with me, Alice, Gay and Maryann are the reason I was able to keep my anxiety at bay and deliver what I promised to Makenzie. Everything turned out perfectly, including my husband’s heart surgery, and I am so thankful for people I can rely on when things are crazy.

Makenzie’s dream was blush, navy, dusty blue, gray, elegant, formal, peonies and Gerber daisies. We met over coffee way back in 2019 and talked about her favorite flowers and the overall feeling of her wedding. She was one of those brides who trusted me from the beginning and that makes my job so easy.  She was truly a joy to work with. And as another first for me, she was the first bride in 10 years to email me the day after her wedding to tell me how much she loved her flowers!

It’s all in the details when it comes to designing wedding flowers. The centerpieces were sitting on a slice of wood from a family farm. The dusty blue ribbons on the brides bouquet holding her grandmother’s rings. The simplicity of the cake flowers. And the ceremony arch built and stained by her father. (Professional photos by Adam Pane)

I can’t say enough about this beautiful venue. The lighting in the dining room was beautiful and the private courtyard with the big old tree was perfect for the ceremony. From the florist’s perspective delivering two carloads of heavy floral things, the back entry with just a few steps made everything so easy. And the staff was the best, great communication and helpful on wedding day.

I always take a picture of the bride’s bouquet on the same limestone rock near my flower garden, and I use no filters. It helps me to remember the true color of things for future weddings.

And here they are! Makenzie and Jordan, happily married in 2021! I’m sure they would agree it was worth the wait. Thank you for letting me be a part of your magical day!

The light at the end of the tunnel!

It’s here! Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2021 and it is actually two colors. Illuminating which is a sunny yellow, and Ultimate Gray which needs no explanation. Pantone chooses colors late each year that will be trending in the coming year. According to this New York Times article these colors very clearly represent “the light at the end of the tunnel”. Maybe “A Tale of Two Years”? “Out with the old, in with the new”? The difference between 2020 and 2021?

Ultimate Gray and Illuminating

In my world of Kansas weddings, could this be the year of the sunflower?

Let me know what you think. Is yellow an option for your wedding? There are some beautiful natural yellow flowers that can be used as a soft contrast with many other colors. And honestly, gray and yellow are beautiful together. Click here for more bouquet photos with yellow accents.

Ashton and Dustin at Cider Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas

The notes from my first consult with Ashton about her wedding flowers still make me smile. Dusty blush, bronze, berries, grasses, vermilion, rust, textural. She was definitely speaking to my heart as a florist with all the artistic elements she pictured for her wedding. It was a joy to work with her and her ideas! (all photos by Clay and Maggie Swanson, @clay_and_maggie)

The wedding was August 22, 2020 and the colors Ashton and Dustin chose for their wedding were rust/vermilion, navy and mixed greenery. I used magnolia leaves, olive branch, agonis, ruscus and eucalyptus to get the color and texture we were looking for.

Here are some of the detail pieces: The hexagon backdrop (made by her dad) with mixed flowers, agonis, kangaroo paw and lots of Italian Ruscus, a lantern with rust mums and viburnum berries, and the cake with Toffee roses and eucalyptus.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Something about ring bearers and flower girls! Her sweet flower crown was made with Brown Sugar spray roses on a plumosus crown.

Just another picture of the bouquet and the bridesmaids so we can gush over the color of those dresses!

When I get the opportunity to do wedding flowers for a family I know it somehow makes my job easier. My connection to Ashton was many things- church, 4H, family friends, and her grandmother and I are Master Gardeners together in Lyon County. I feel like I have some helpful insight, and even more important, I like picturing what they will think when they see the flowers for the first time. I am thinking of all those connections when I’m designing.

Ashton’s bouquet was a mix of all the things I’ve already mentioned and a few blessings from my garden like millet, ninebark and Russian sage. It was a lovely day at a lovely venue with a lovely couple. I wish them many happy days and happy memories in their new life together!

Larkin and Martha's Wedding

Larkin Bennett and Martha Johnston were married on August 15, 2020. It was sunny. It was warm. It was beautiful! To be fair, I’m biased because Larkin is my son, but it really was a wonderful day.

My sweet new daughter in law Martha was the perfect bride when it came to designing wedding flowers. She told me she loves purple and was fine with whatever flowers I chose to use. What could be more fun for a florist?

Martha’s bouquet was a mix of all shades of purple, and had lots of texture. Ocean Song roses, plum ranunculus, anemone, larkspur, stock, veronica and scabiosa.

This wedding was such a family affair- top to bottom! The photographer for the amazing photos was Hannah Kraus Photography and her husband, Connor, my stepson and daughter in law. My grand daughters were the flower girls, Nora and Eleanor. And Larkin and Martha’s day was complete when they got to take photos with their chocolate labs, Rebel and Hazel.

Our Family- these kind of pictures always make me so happy and thankful.

Larkin and Martha's families

Larkin's Family

One of the best parts of their wedding ceremony was the tree planting. Sort of a unity ceremony that blended their two families together. Larkin is from Kansas, Martha is from Minnesota, and they have made their home, and bought a farm, in Iowa. For the ceremony they each added dirt from their home state to an oak tree that they later planted on their Iowa farm. How cool is that?

Each one of my weddings is special to me. I wouldn’t be in the business of wedding flowers if I didn’t care about each and every wedding I do. But of course this one is extra special. Larkin is my last child to be married, so there is also a sigh of relief!

I saved the best picture for last. The look of pure joy on Larkin and Martha’s faces is exactly how it should be on your wedding day!

What happened in Waco.... →

I just got back from the Team Flower conference in Waco Texas. I signed up in November for what I thought would be a warm spring vacation where I could learn more about wedding floral design. I was wrong twice! Waco had record-breaking cold temperatures last week with lows in the 20s, and I learned much more than floral design!

Ceremony Back Drop

This was a three-day conference and I arrived late. My plan was to drive the eight hours on Sunday, but Kansas had to have one last winter blizzard so I left Monday instead. The first session I attended that afternoon was Large Scale Installations by @bowsandarrows. I watched them install this entire ceremony back drop in 30 minutes!

Poppies and Ranunculus

I also attended sessions on Creativity, Flower Farming, Client Communication, Embracing Change, Hiring and Managing a Team, and Art and Creativity. There were 250 retail florists, studio florists and flower farmers in attendance. 

The last day of the conference we walked in to this amazing flower bar. Buckets and buckets of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen all in one place! This session was about a non-profit organization called Full Bloom @thefull_bloom. They come in after your wedding or event and repurpose all the leftover flowers into vase arrangements for hospitals and care facilities. We made over 300 arrangements to be delivered in Waco and it felt so good to be a part of something like this.

Poppies and Ranunculus

Anemone

Arrangements ready to be delivered

The final event was a design competition by 17 participants who volunteered to share their talents. The shapes, textures, use of colors and design principles were inspiring to say the least.

So what did I learn besides floral design? I learned that I do things differently than a typical retail florist shop and so do the other 249 people who attended the conference. I learned that I am part of a movement among florists to be more intentional about our love of flowers and more attentive to our customers. I like being different and following my heart when it comes to designing. I love following all the old-school design principles and mechanics, but I can do that with tons of energy and creativity in a sustainable way. I love what I do and now I embrace being different!

My Values:

I will always make your wedding flowers customized to you. I will double-check every detail, your likes and dislikes, things that are important to you, to make sure what I deliver is perfect.

I will stay true to my style- natural, garden, organic, original. 

I will recycle, re-use, and reduce waste when possible, and use all resources wisely.

I will use local flowers when possible, and always include something from my garden in your bouquet- a blessing from me to you.

I won’t do any weddings that aren’t a fit for me personally.

I love teaching about flowers- design classes, plant names, color choices, blogs.

I will obsess about flower choices for your beautiful wedding.

And of course I shopped all things Magnolia while I was in Waco!

5 things to think about before your floral consultation

Sometimes wedding consultations become so routine for the professional that we forget this is probably the very first time you have planned a wedding! Everything is new to you and completely unknown, from flower costs to delivery details. The best way to get the most out of your wedding floral consultation is to gather a little information ahead of time. So let’s talk about five things you should know before you meet your florist!

March wedding with tulips, hellebore, scabiosa and roses in blush, cream and burgundy. Photo by K+H Rogg Photo

1.) The estimated size of your wedding. Your florist wants to know approximately how many guests will attend and how many will be in your bridal party.  These numbers give an idea of how many tables will be at the reception and how many personal flowers (bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, etc.) will be needed.

2.) Your colors and the overall feel of your wedding. These things help us to start picturing what you are dreaming about for your beautiful wedding. Pinterest pictures of color palettes and favorite flowers/bouquets are also helpful. Is your theme Romantic or Modern? Vintage or Glamorous? Choosing flowers will be much easier with these details in mind.

3.) Who will be receiving flowers for your wedding? Of course there is the bride’s bouquet but what else? Flower crowns or bouquets for bridesmaids? Boutonnieres for groom and groomsmen? Think about who else you would like to honor with corsages or boutonnieres- moms, dads, grandparents, ushers, hostesses, attendants, flower girl, ring bearer? 

Connor and Hannah Kraus at Woodlawn Farms, Tecumseh KS. Garden bouquet of David Austin roses, stock, dahlia, scabiosa, and celosia designed by Jennifer Bennett. Photo by Hallie Sigwing Photography.

4.) Ceremony and Reception Flowers. There are two parts to most weddings- the ceremony and the reception- and flowers are used to decorate both. Aisle flowers or altar arrangements at the church? An arrangement with the guest book? Flower Arch for the backdrop? And centerpieces for the reception tables, buffet, bathroom, chairs? Flowers for the cake? You don’t need to know all these things before your consultation, but think about the options and bring pictures of both venues if possible.

Winter wedding reception with mixed greenery and candle light, Anderson Building, Emporia, KS. Photo by Holli B Photography

5.) What is your budget? No idea? Because you have never planned a wedding? That’s okay but it is helpful if you have done a little homework before we meet. Your flowers will generally be about 10-15% of your overall budget. My best advice is not to cut costs on your bouquet because it will be in every photo of you, and will probably be the photo sitting on your nightstand in 50 years, reminding you of your beautiful day.

Now you’re ready! Please contact me if you would like to meet to talk about flowers for your beautiful wedding. I can’t wait to see what you are dreaming!

Picking Wedding Colors

Do you know the 2018 Pantone color of the year? Ultra-violet! But what does this mean to you or your wedding? And what is Pantone Color anyway?

Lyon/Pachar Wedding, photo by jennsportraitphotography.com

Pantone Color is a color-matching system used primarily in the printing industry, as well as in the manufacture of paint, fabric and plastics. Each year the company holds secret meetings with representatives from around the world to choose a color of the year that reflects what's going on in the world. This year's color, Ultra Violet, wasn't chosen because it's regal, though it resembles a majestic shade. It was chosen to evoke a counterculture flair, a grab for originality, ingenuity and visionary thinking, according to Pantone Vice President Laurie Pressman.

So what does this have to do with your wedding? Everything and nothing. It will be high-lighted in all the newest blogs and magazines for brides, and everywhere you shop. But the color you choose for your wedding should be something you truly love. Choose a color that makes you happy, has a special meaning to both of you, or the color of your favorite flower. You will never regret making decisions with your heart instead of following the crowd on Pinterest or Pantone.

So what are your wedding colors? I would love to know what you decide!