Verbena Floral Design – Bloom to Bucket to Bouquet

Creative. Fun. Sweet. HILARIOUS. Artists.  These are just a few of the words I would use to describe Vanessa and Jenny who are the owners and creative vision that is Verbena Floral Design.  Jenny and Vanessa have a true talent for creating bouquets that are unique, timeless, romantic and completely stylish.  I am always excited to hear that a wedding client of mine will be working with them as I know the florals will be drop dead gorgeous and a dream to photograph.

For those of you that already know these two I don’t need to tell you how their wicked sense of humour can have tears rolling down your cheeks in a moments time.  Or how they may possibly be the only two other people on earth who love cupcakes as much as I do.  When we were first planning this session Vanessa asked if I wanted to start the day by having a cupcake lunch at Crumsby’s Cupcake Cafe.  Ummmm, are you freaking kidding me?!  Is this some sort of mean trick? But soon I realized that she was … SERIOUS!  I wondered if perhaps we were long lost siblings who were separated at birth.  She was definitely speaking my language and I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  She had me at cupcake.

Sidenote – but if you are a cupcake lover like myself and have yet to try Crumsbys, you need to!  It is possibly the cutest cafe ever and its decor is perfect for kids. Win, win, win!

I had the pleasure of working with these lovely ladies in a two part session that they so cleverly named, “Bloom to Bucket to Bouquet.”  Our goal for these sessions was to create a shoot that would tell a little bit of their story.  A sort of behind the scenes glimpse into their world of floral design if you will.  One that often starts with a ‘vision board’ complete with paint swatches, sketches, magazine clippings and ideas related to creating the perfect wedding floral design for their clients.  I LOVED this idea!   Being a visual person myself, I could really see how a client would truly appreciate seeing their vision come to life on this board.   Being a photographer most of the work I do takes place leading up to and after the session or wedding has actually occurred.  So I thought it was really neat that Jenny and Vanessa wanted to showcase a bit of this part of their job for their clients.

For session one we decided that it would be neat to pay a visit the flower wholesaler that they use, Mt. Newton Greenhouses.  The Stubbs’ family who have owned and operated this wonderful company since 1980, warmly welcomed us and allowed me to shoot all sorts of their gorgeous blooms.  And as this session took place right before Mother’s Day, there were flowers from floor to ceiling, literally.  I was in heaven!  I have always loved flowers and seeing an operation like this, I was in my glory.  The peonies and succulents were my favourites by far and they had them galore.

Vanessa and Jenny were looking for specific flowers on this trip as they were recreating Carrie’s stunning bouquet from the first Sex and the City movie for one of their lucky brides …. remember this one?   As I wandered around shooting vibrant roses, perfect irises, colourful ranunculus, and romantic peonies, Jenny and Vanessa scouted the perfect flowers for their special bouquet.  They were a wee bit camera shy for this shoot, but promised me that for part two I would be able to get them and their amazing creations in front of my camera.

I hope you enjoy part one of this fun session!