Pennsylvania Flowers Issue 1 by Taken by Sarah Photography

PENNSYLVANIA FLOWERS VOLUME 1

CONTENTS

Introduction to Flutter Social......Page 7 A Creative Way to Photograph Your Arrangements......Page 8 3 Tips for Growing Your Own Flowers from Farm and Garden Flowers........Page 10 Tropical Bridal Editorial by RAM Floral........Page 14 Flower Farming in Suburbia with Laughing Lady Flower Farm........Page 22 A Refreshing Floral Getaway with Design Sanctuary........Page 28 Flower Arch Inspiration with Splints and Daisies.......Page 46

FOR THE LOVE

Sarah Collier | Taken by Sarah Photography

Photo by Jessica Cooper

love flowers! That might even be a bit of an understatement. I’ve been making bouquets for as long as I can remember, starting with dandelions and queen anne’s lace from my yard as a child. My career path has so far led to my other love, photography, and it’s been an incredible joy for me to be able to pursue my two favorite things in life together.

among our creative industries, something I’ve set out to change in at least some small way both in the wedding floral and photography industries. There are so many talented designers and hard working flower farmers who need to be celebrated whether they have large followings on social media or not, and that’s what this magazine is all about. Instagram, for instance, is a wonderful way to show off what we’re up to on a daily basis, but it isn’t the end-all-be-all meter for who is and is not talented. I hope this publication will encourage you to recognize and celebrate talent in your fellow floral designers and continue to bring your industry to new heights as you inspire each other.

first met some of the amazing florists featured in this issue at a floral conference in Maryland last year, and immediately became intrigued by the incredible amount of floral design talent bursting out of Philadelphia and surrounding areas. I’ve worked with florists all around the country and have not seen this much talent in one place anywhere else. I’ve also seen a level of support among the florists and flower farmers in this area that seems to be a rarity in any creative industry. I want to showcase all of this talent in a way that can hopefully inspire and bring joy to the floral industry in the Philly area. These days there’s an awful lot of focus on “instafame”

his is the first of many magazines, and I want to feature YOUR work next! If you’re interested in being featured in an upcoming magazine, please contact me to set up a shoot at takenbysarah@gmail.com. I’m excited to see where this goes and I can’t wait to meet more of you! 4

FLUTTER SOCIAL MARCIE REILLY & KALEIGH GALLAGHER

f you haven’t met Marcie and Kaleigh of Flutter Social yet, I suggest you get a meeting on your calendar immediately! They started this beautiful and comprehensive website to connect local wedding professionals with their dream clients, and it is growing fast. I asked them to describe a little bit about Flutter Social in their own words below.

lutter Social is the social network for couples and wedding professionals. We believe a wedding is about community coming together to celebrate your unique love. Deciding what wedding professionals to work with largely comes down to relationships and style. When you join the Flutter Social community, we help you navigate the local wedding scene by delivering the most relevant real wedding inspiration specific to you, based on your network and interests. It’s wedding inspiration for the modern couple that is local and actionable.

e are honored to work the talented professionals featured in this publication and invite you to follow them and their real weddings on fluttersocial.com. Here’s how it works:

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Follow members to see what weddings they share and what local vendors were a part of those weddings. The more Members you follow, the more real weddings you’ll see when you login under “My Inspiration”. Check out the real weddings page to get inspired and stay current on who’s making beautiful things happen in the Philadelphia wedding scene. Every feature is a local wedding and includes photos and videos showcasing the wedding from start to finish. Each feature is also actionable since it’s tagged with the vendors that created the event.

Engage with the community; show some love by liking or commenting on photos you enjoy or send a private message to members.

lutter Social is the perfect place to network, gain inspiration, and meet your next client. We hope to see you there!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP P

hotographing your own flowers can be challenging, especially when you don’t have a space that’s large and blank to put your arrangements in front of. Here’s a little example of how I solved that problem when spending some time at a friend’s small flower farm recently. She had several vintage chairs and old tables on the porch of her farm building, so I flipped the table over to cut down on the clutter in the background and used it as a partial backdrop while keeping some of the chairs in the frame for interest and context. If I took this photo with a phone rather than a professional camera, I wouldn’t have the blurring in the background that gives the nice look to these photos, but I would at least have some isolation of the arrangement in front of the table. I’ve put my pro camera photos on the left and my phone photos on the right so you can see the difference. I would edit the phone photos before posting them on Instagram. I used this same trick at a floral workshop I photographed recently and it worked wonderfully.

lways remember to take the photo on the same level as the arrangement or bouquet, not from above or below. You want to give the sense that the arrangement is three dimensional, which is best seen from an even eye level view.

learing clutter and finding a blank space to isolate your arrangement is key to taking a photo that really shows off your design and is great for sharing on social media. I see a lot of photos on social media of bouquets held against brick walls, which is a great start, but challenge yourself to look around next time you want to take a photo and see what you have on hand to make an interesting and simple surrounding for your arrangement. You might be surprised what you can come up with! If you do post a photo as a result of this tip, please tag me in it, I’d love to see it! @takenbysarah

FARM AND GARDEN FLOWERS MADELINE FRANKEL | WEST CHESTER

he drive down Madeline and Jay’s driveway transports you to a tranquil and beautiful place, starting with a pond at the beginning of the driveway. The property meanders up and down hills and boasts impressively mature, well cared for forest patches. Just after the pond near the entrance, the creek runs by large woodland patches of hellebore and daffodils, then continues on past an orchard on a hill farther into the property. A bit of a hike up the hill behind the house brings you to the biggest flower fields that are surrounded by meadow and forest, a truly lovely spot that feels like it’s totally isolated. The farm totals eighteen acres of woods, pasture, stream and buildings. Around two acres are used for growing forty-five different varieties of flowers in addition to many shrubs.

adeline says their short term goals every year are simply to grow more and better flowers. Their long term goal is to grow more flowers for wedding and event florists as most of their flowers being grown now are used for bouquets sold to grocery stores, and their needs are quite different from wedding florists. Madeline would also like to see the barn being used for more events and workshops in the future.

rowing flowers is no easy task and it comes with many challenges, not the least of which is the uncontrollable and ever changing weather. Getting the timing just right for putting seeds or seedlings into the ground is one of the biggest challenges Madeline faces. The plants need to be able to take advantage of optimal day and night temperatures as well as the length of daylight hours, and the slightest variations can affect size of the flowers, quantity of blooms per plant, and length of stems.

here is a big difference between growing a garden for your own pleasure, and growing flowers to sell commercially, Madeline says. Scaling up takes a few years of learning, and an investment in equipment such as a tractor, tiller and truck. Some of her basic tips for growing include: Take a soil sample and have it analyzed to find out the pH level of your soil, and what nutrients need to be added to increase your growing success.

Do some research to find out the best flowers to grow in the location you have. Some things to take into consideration are shade versus full sun, the drainage of the soil (moist or dry), the amount of space available. Give plants support as they grow. You can have beautiful upright plants that one strong rainstorm will flatten to the ground. It’s important to use trellising, netting or stakes and twine for any tall plants.

t’s obvious that Madeline and Jay truly enjoy being flowers farmers. “I think the greatest joy comes from producing a really high quality flower that our customers want. When the soil, weather, timing and growing techniques all come together and the flowers are perfect, that’s a terrific feeling of success. Picking a big bucket of beautiful flowers for a customer is very satisfying” Madeline said. The perfect summary of a beautiful job!.

RAM FLORAL Rebecca Anne Mulholland | Philadelphia

“

I love each of my clients individually, they are all special and unique in their own ways and I’ve had so many positive experiences with loving and excited couples. I always love showing them their custom design presentations and seeing their eyes light up!”

calling in life with flowers and enjoys every aspect of her job, from designing to meeting with clients.

his styled shoot took place at a hair salon with a very unique wall used as the centerpiece of the shoot. Becky wanted to highlight the uniqueness of the space and let it drive her inspiration. She thought of Hawaii while designing to keep her inspiration in a tropical theme to go with the flamingo painting. The peonies were the real flower show stopper here!

ecky has the most beautiful way of making you feel like you’ve known her for years the moment you meet her. She has infectious energy and is a gifted encourager. Her floral design style matches her radiant personality, full of life and color and bursting with beauty. She’s been quietly designing for a few years, easing into building her business in a practical and stress free way while connecting with other florists through freelancing and attending floral workshops. She truly loves her clients and invests her energy into making them feel special and cared for. She feels strongly that she has found her true

Collaborators:

Tribe Beauty | Sara Rea Design | La Linea Desserts Harry Merrill | Lovely Bride | Delighted Calligraphy

LAUGHING LADY FLOWER FARM Kate Sparks | Doylestown

ate’s son used to call her the Laughing Lady, and thus her business name was born. She farms in a suburban neighborhood on a plot of just three and a half acres, two and a half of which she uses for growing flowers. She’s been growing flowers for fifteen years and had no competition in the area when she started. She truly loves what she does and finds it difficult to pinpoint her favorite aspect. In the winter and spring she enjoys seeding in the greenouses, especially if it’s snowing. The first flowers of spring bring a special joy to Kate and she enjoys weeding as a therapeutic way to clear her mind. She harvests in the early mornings before the neighborhood lawmowers and weed whackers get too loud, and she loves to take her wedding clients on a tour of the farm when possible.

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Work for a minimum of two years on a flower farm with someone who is a willing mentor. Find a farm within an hours drive of a large metropolitan area.

esticides are not used on any of Kate’s flowers, and she specializes in some heirloom and hard to find varieties that are sought after by florists. Kate also runs a local CSA, rents her studio to designers, and allows brides to DIY their weddings by choosing flowers at the farm to arrange themselves. She is also a talented designer and provides full service design services.

ong term goals for Kate involve retiring to Mexico to grow roses and dahlias and give workshops in floral arranging and cut flower gardening. She currently enjoys giving workshops, though finds that she is often short on time because of the work required to keep the farm running. She has plans to hire more help next season so that she can devote more of her time to teaching about design and farming. Kate’s trusty and loyal dog Shakes says he’ll be the project manager.

rowing flowers is easy as a hobby. The business of flower farming is far more complicated. Selling flowers is the hard part, Kate says. She finds her biggest challenge to be keeping a variety of flowers that sell well. Keeping up with current wedding floral and color trends can be difficult, and it can be risky choosing which flowers to grow because an entire crop might not sell if it isn’t on trend. She has two tips for aspiring flower farmers:

DESIGN SANCTUARY SUSAN DAVIS & SHANNON WELLINGTON | WEST CHESTER

n the new age of workshops and collaboration, Susan Davis and Shannon Wellington wanted to created an event more like a retreat that drew florists and photographers together simply to enjoy each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company and create beautiful things together. Creatives in the wedding industry can often become burnt out with a feast or famine schedule that is dictated by an ever changing industry and the whims of clients. The beautiful space at Farm and Garden Flowers provided a relaxing and unique space for attendees to recharge before entering into their 2017 wedding seasons.

ince it was unseasonably warm during the two days of Design Sanctuary, two of the teams chose to set up in the creek, while the third used an old barn room. The results were very different and all incredibly lush. The workshop ended with the pieces the designers made for each installation decorating the barn for a magical farewell dinner. Several photographers and a videographer documented every detail so attendees would have photos for their portfolios.

usan plans to take Design Sanctuary around the country and would love to see this concept grow. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interested in working with flower farmers again and is looking towards the Southeast to hold the next Design Sanctuary.

ttendees were broken into three teams and given a color palette of flowers to design whatever they wanted wherever they wanted on the farm. Each team worked together to create a table design, bouquet, and wedding ceremony installation that was photographed by photographers assigned to their teams. Designers were able to pull from the incredible amount of flowers provided to make their designs as lush as they wanted.

SPLINTS AND DAISIES TARA FOLKER | LANCASTER

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ever one to shy away from a challenge and known for creating live floral skirts and wild wedding installations, Tara Folker wanted to do something totally different than usual for this elopement inspiration shoot at The Farm at Eagles Ridge. Her simple but impactful teepee flower “arch” design would be perfect for a small summer field wedding or an elopment for a couple who doesn’t want to plan a full wedding but still wants amazing photos. Tara loves working with color and combining unique textures, and she often forages to augment her designs both for inspiration shoots and real weddings. Tara’s niece and her highschool sweetheart were our models for this shoot at The Farm at Eagles Ridge.

nspiration shoots can be an important part of a floral designer’s business since so many clients look to Pinterest and Instagram for their inspiration, and as we all know, often meet with their wedding creatives with absolutely no idea of what they want their wedding to look like. Showing clients a creative or new way to design their wedding, whether they copy it exactly or not, gives them the ability to visualize what they might want and allows you to break them out of a design rut when the only thought they might have is to simply copy the last five weddings they went to.

Collaborators

The Bonafide Ginger | Delighted Calligraphy | The Farm at Eagles Ridge

I WANT YOUR INPUT! If you want to be part of an upcoming issue or you know of someone who would be perfect for it, email me at takenbysarah@gmail.com and share this magazine with your friends. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to see this grow and evolve and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to meet you!