Winding down of wedding season...

What a season, what a GREAT season this has been - I've had the pleasure of working with the most wonderful brides & mothers of brides!! I have so many lovely images from extremely talented photographers to share with you. I'm getting busy with posting those images in the coming weeks. I do have a handful of weddings to design for in October but I did limit the amount since I have so many projects going on with Flirty Fleurs and my book: Bella Bouquets.

Bella Bouquets updates:
I have a book signing in San Francisco on October 18th at:
Blu Bungalow
2068 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
6:30-9:30pm

Flirty Fleurs updates:
We have a few floral designing classes in the works, including bringing the amazing Francoise Weeks to Denver. Please email us at info@flirtyfleurs.com for more information on classes.

The summer did go by so quickly, didn't it? A few photos I snapped w/ my phone of installations we've done.
These two photos show a display I did at Studio 12 Gallery in Denver. I had just returned from Paris and was inspired by all the displays I had seen there when creating this:



At the beginning of the season I made a deal with myself, I'd take a week off middle of July and go home to California - that's where I refresh & relax best. I had a great time with my family. There's something so perfect about picking peaches off the tree in the backyard and baking a fresh pie! Spending time with this sweetheart and teaching her floral design is beyond words perfect:


A huge arch we installed a client's private home, Mindy is decorating the top with vines and white flowers. To give you an idea of the size - it's 3 sections at 10' wide each and reached about 10' off the ground.. largest arch we've installed!


some of the other beauties that graced our studio this season:





and the parting shot, there are two babies who think they spent way too much time at the studio...

Bella Bouquets !!

I'm very excited to share this news with all of you! I'm releasing my first book Bella Bouquets in August, 2011!!!



Perfect peonies, gorgeous garden roses and sweetest sweet peas are a few of the flowers shown on these pages, affectionately designed into a variety of bridal & bridesmaids bouquets.

Bella Bouquets showcases vibrant full-color photographs of over 100 stylish bouquets. Offering a wide variety of designs including elegant, modern, rustic, traditional, dramatic & romantic.

This has been a labor of love, something I have dreamed of doing for some years. Thank you to Kim for working on the design & layout, thank you to Revert Photo for the fabulous image shown on the cover. Thank you to all the photographers who's beautiful photographs are shown on these pages, the brides who agreed to be featured and to the friends who have listened to me talk about this project for the past year!

xoxo!
~Alicia

PS - we have a few book signings in the works, will post the info as soon as those are finalized!

You may reserve a copy on the Bella Bouquets Website.

Amsterdam & Paris

I'm back from a fabulous trip to Amsterdam & Paris. It was a great and much needed vacation, perfect for feeling refreshed before wedding season hits!
I'm posting about the daily experiences + lots of photos on the Flirty Fleurs blog.
I'll post a few photos here just to give you an idea of what we saw:

Hydrangea at Aalsmeer flower auction:


Clematis, oh how I love thee:


Tulips, tulips, tulips:


Paris flower shops:


Fields of daffodils in Amsterdam:


If you liked those five photos you'll definitely want to check out the flirty fleurs blog!

Shop News :: What's Happening at Bella Fiori

Hello my dear friends!
I hope you have enjoyed your summer and are now looking forward to fall. I love fall! It's amazing in Colorado how on September 1st it's as if someone flicks a weather switch here. We suddenly go from 90+ days for the past two months to more comfortable temps in the 70s & 80s and every morning greets us with a crispness in the air. Although, I know the first snow is looming... I hope it takes its sweet time arriving.

As for Bella Fiori & Bella Rents it has been a busy summer and looks to be a busy fall.

A few highlights:
We designed the flowers for The Knot event. I will be posting beautiful photos from Jensen Sutta. Meanwhile, you can see a recap on the StudioWed Blog.

We've been invited onto the preferred vendor list for the brand new Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Denver. It's a beautiful property which will open in October.

I've been surfing the net, with the help of Google Alerts, to find any write ups including photographs of our work. I came across these:
A Realistic Wedding
Alisa Benay - Wedding Dress Photoshoot
Jensen Sutta - 10 Mile Station
Jensen Sutta - Crooked Willow Farm
Weddings By Tanya
Polyvore

That's just a few tid-bits for now. I have quite a few photos from weddings to post and will be doing that in the coming weeks.
Wishing you a fabulous weekend!

Shop News :: What's happening at Bella Fiori

Would you like to take a guess at what is happening at Bella Fiori? If you guessed we are busy with wedding season you are completely correct! Sorry, you don't win a prize, I think it was too simple of a question. :)

My obsession with the camera continues and I've purchased another lens to work with. Some of the photos I snapped with it:


Johann loves to have his photo taken. And yes, just two puppy pictures. I'm up to something with the flower pictures.. so can't post them right now. :)

Coming soon... flower photos from my photographer friends!
However, right now - off to run some errands & enjoy the rest of my Tuesday. Tomorrow all the flowers arrive again at the shop, time to prep for a fabulous weekend!

Shop News :: Featured on Style Me Pretty

I love it when the subject line says: Featured on Style Me Pretty! Today is one of those fabulous days where we are featured once again!! Check out the divine photoshoot Autumn Burke & I designed at Crooked Willow Farms in Larkspur, Colorado:

Style Me Pretty: Rustic Romance

Autumn and I had so much fun with our Rustic Romance Concept and we pulled together an amazing team of vendors. A HUGE thank you to all of them for participating in our shoot:
Crooked Willow Farms
Autumn Burke Photography
Intricate Icings (Wedding Cake)
JS Design Custom (Menus, Placecards, Invitations)
Alisa Benay (Wedding Dresses)
Girls & Curls (Makeup and Hair Styling)
All Well Rents (Place Settings)
Chair Covers & Linens (Table Linens)
Bella Rents (Chiavari Chairs)

Flower Arrangements for Deliveries

I've realized lately that many of our event clients and vendor friends don't know that we provide flowers for all occasions, not just wedding & special event flowers.
We do offer flowers for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, thinking of you and get-well wishes. These arrangements can be delivered and start at $50 each.
Here's a sample of one of our get-well arrangements which recently went out the door:


We do offer Sympathy Arrangements - including the sprays displayed on easels & casket sprays. Here is a lovely display we just delivered recently using lilies, hydrangea & peonies:


Orders can be placed over the phone at : 303-233-5566 or placed online thru our website
Also, we are members of bbrooks fine flowers & can send flowers worldwide through them.

Featured on The Sweetest Occasion

Thrilled to see we are featured along with A Touch of Bliss, Makeup by Janine, Hilary Hackney and Revert Photo on ::
The Sweetest Occasion Blog!!

Job Opening :: Designer Assistant

Bella Fiori currently has a part time job opening. We are looking for a “Designer Assistant”.
Candidate will work closely with the lead designers, helping to prepare containers, props, processing flowers and general shop help.
Could be a fun position for someone that likes to be “crafty”.
Hours/days are Wednesday, Thursday & Friday from 9-2.
Some Saturdays & Sundays will be necessary to help us setup events on site.
Compensation dependant on experience and ability.
Applicant must like dogs & country music.
Please send an email with an explanation of why you’d like to work for us & attach your resume.
Please send resumes to Alicia@bellafiori-events.com

Shop News :: Where did May go??

Ok, I feel a theme coming on this year .. where are the months going and why are they going by so quickly??
May was busy & fun, definitely kicked off the wedding season!
At the shop - Raquel is having a great time at Bella Fiori, she has adjusted quite easily to studio life and isn't missing the life she knew working in walk-in flower shops.
Michelle & Ian welcomed their second child, Charlotte Rose was born on May 22 - the family is doing great! Congratulations to them & might I mention I love the name?? :)
Chad is extremely busy with Bella Rents, you can see him cruising around town with his team in this cool truck:


We participated in the NACE event which took place at Chair Covers & Linens shop at 6265 East Evans Avenue in Denver. I'll be posting all our designs from that event in a separate blog post. Bella Fiori provided all of the floral design, Bella Rents provided the chairs, tables, cab tables and canopies plus chandeliers.

Oh, we secured a new website for Bella Fiori - we now can be found at bellafiori.com (Bella Rents can still be found at bellarents.com )

Two shots from my iPhone of one of the latest weddings.. can't wait to see the professional shots from this wedding - I just adore lilacs, peonies and garden roses!
This gorgeous wedding took place in Silverthorne on Memorial Day weekend, gorgeous weather! In addition to the flowers we provided the chairs for the ceremony by the river. We had a great time working with Ashley from Table 6 Productions.



As for me, I can usually be found at the shop blogging on flirtyfleurs.com and/or designing flowers with the help of Johann:


And right now .. I'm off to the wholesalers to pick up flowers for this weekend's fabulous events!
Love to you all, thanks for supporting Bella Fiori & Bella Rents!

Shop News :: We have a new Website!!

Just released on April 1, 2010 - a shiny, brand new website!

Check it out and let us know what you think!!::
Bella Fiori - bellafiori-events.com

My extremely talented cousin designed the site, you can find out more about her graphic artist services at:
Kimberly Schwede - kimberlyschwede.com

Apparently, artistic & self-employed women run in the Schwede family. :)

~ New on the site - you can now order individual arrangements for delivery throughout the Denver Metro Area! Plus, all new floral galleries!

Shop News :: Where did March go?

Here we are at the end of March and all I can ask myself is.. where did this month go?
Ok, ok so I was busy AND out of town quite a bit. I managed to squeeze in two trips to CA in the past month. The first trip to Orange County - I just really need some sunshine, green grass and the blue ocean, plus time w/ girlfriends is always wonderful:

The next trip was to northern California, a few days w/ my parents, friends AND attending an amazing conference in San Francisco - more about that in a moment. Oh & yes, we worked on a few beautiful weddings this month!

The highlights -

One of our weddings was featured on Style Me Pretty :


Our studio was featured on Brooklyn Bride Blog in February:


I had the privilege of working on a few photoshoots recently - unfortunately, I cannot post those photos just yet.. waiting for them to be revealed in various magazines and blogs. I'll keep ya posted when they appear!!

One of the highlights of March was attending Wedding 360 in San Francisco. I'm so glad I attending this conference where I heard David Beahm of David Beahm Design, Grace Ormonde of Wedding Style Magazine, Sean Low of The Business of Being Creative, Rebecca Grinnals of Engaging Concepts, Todd Fiscus of Todd Events, and Tara Guerard of Soiree by Tara Guerard all speak!
I also got to meet Holly Chapple of Virginia, Holly & I became friends over Twitter. I'm so glad that Wedding 360 brought us together in person & I'm glad Holly got to spend time in my hometown (ok, I'm from San Mateo, but that is just minutes away from San Francisco). Here's a photo of Holly w/ Nicole of Swank Stems & myself:

If you'd like to read more about Wedding 360 be sure to check out Holly's blog, she did an amazing recap.

And tomorrow our newest team member will start, I'm excited to have Raquel join us. She comes to Bella Fiori with many years of floral design experience.
Bella Fiori turned 7 in March and I feel like we've had a great month of celebrations!

Hello 2010!!!

Good morning 2010! I look forward to see what you bring us this year!

We start off the new year with a Hot Pink wedding tomorrow - Jan. 2, 2010 - I love the thought of a hot pink wedding to start off the year, so bright & cheery!

What I'm looking forward to in 2010:
~In a few weeks Chad & I head to New Orleans to attend The Special Event . We'll be shopping for new rental equipment for Bella Rents ~ I can hardly wait!
~I'm looking forward to designing fantasy tables for the annual weddings how at ISES! This is our fourth year participating and by far my favorite ISES meeting of the year!
~In March I'll be attending Weddings 360 in San Francisco, CA. The Academy will provide a wide range of in-depth, ‘how-to’ classes, taught by nationally recognized leaders in the wedding industry. I'm excited to learn from the bests in the event industry.

That's just a bit of what we have lined up. I'm excited for the weddings which we have booked for this coming year -- lots of beautiful flowers on the horizon.
We wish everyone a wonderful, prosperous, adventurous and exciting 2010! :)

Good-bye 2009

What a year... what a year. 2009 had the extreme ups & downs that occur from time to time. Let's reflect on some of the highlights of this past year:

~ In January I was awarded a scholarship through ISES to attend The Special Event in San Diego, CA.
~ In January Devon to Harrison's wedding was featured in Premier Bride magazine.
~ In September we were featured with Julie Gambrell of Classic Creations in Bride & Bloom magazine. I love this magazine and being part of it means the world to me!
~ Bella Rents launched in October!
~ In December two of our weddings were featured in The Knot Colorado - Anna & Sam and Iris & Jeff.
~ We are ending the year today with a sultry red wedding, lots of candles, lots of roses, lots of petals. I'm glad to be ending the year with such a beautiful wedding!

I can't put a date on it but, one of the highlights of this year was joining twitter. Yes, twitter! How could a social media website be a highlight of my year? I've met so many amazing people here in Denver and from West Coast to East Coast and Internationally! You can follow me at: bellafiorievent

We had the extreme pleasure of work on many amazing weddings this year - with very amazing brides & grooms. Thank you for letting us be part of your special day!
Here are just a few of my favorites:
Krystal & Ben
Stacey & Chris
Jen & Dan
Kate & Drew

And, well, I don't care to focus on the not so great parts of 2009, so those we'll just let rest. However, I do feel it is important to mention that it is time to bid adieu to Sarah as today marks her last day with Bella Fiori. Sarah has been with us for almost 2 years and it is time for her to spread her wings and move on. We'll miss her terribly. :(

Bella Fiori chatter

More websites & blogs that mention Bella Fiori - we really appreciate our vendor friends!

With This Ring Blog

La Dolce Vita Weddings

Dunafon Castle

Chic Floral

Revert Photo

Sapphire Celebrations

Jason G Photography

The Knot Magazine - Iris & Jeff

Michelle & I were surprised to see Iris & Jeff's wedding in the latest issue of The Knot. As I mentioned yesterday, I knew that Anna & Sam were going to be featured, I had no idea Iris & Jeff's wedding would also be shown! Michelle was the lead designer on Iris & Jeff's wedding and she was tickled pink when she saw this spread.
Here's the article:


For more photos from this wedding click here.

Bella Fiori chatter

Isn't it fun to google your own name and see what you find?
This is what I found today:

The Knot - Devil's Thumb Ranch

The Knot - JW Marriott

The Knot - Ft. Collins

Jared Wilson Photography - Ten Mile Station

Jared Wilson Photography - Bride & Bloom Magazine

Jared Wilson Photography - Kate & Drew's wedding

Cooley Photography - Hudson Gardens

Dave Russell Photography - The Ritz, Denver

a.h.p. Photos - Denver Art Museum

a.h.p. Photos - Hudson Gardens

a.h.p. Photos - Intricate Icings

Style Me Pretty feature - Beano's Cabin, Beaver Creek

Calluna Events - Anna & Sam's wedding, Beano's Cabin, Beaver Creek

Inspired By This blog - Kate & Drew's wedding in Boulder

Sparkliatti Blog - ISES event

Ok, I think that is enough for one post - we'll try this again someday soon and see what we find. :)

Bride & Bloom Magazine

Bride & Bloom magazine is an amazing publication, I wait patiently for each issue - knowing that when it arrives I will be mesmerized with all its beautiful ideas. Now, imagine the thrill I felt when my friend Julie Gambrell of Classic Creations called to ask if I'd like to work with her on a feature?! Absolutely!!
So here we go:

Our fantasy table with lovely details "Rustic Luxuries":

Upclose of a bouquet I designed with dahlias, green hypericum berries, chocolate cosmos, pincushion protea, sunflowers and croton leaves:


Vendors:
Julie Gambrell of Classic Creations, Wedding Planner
The Makery, Cake Baker
Julie Sandusky of JS Design, Invitations & Favors
Wildflower Linens, Table Linens
Jared Wilson, Photographer
Villa Parker, Event Site

La Tavola Linens, Napa, California

I was so fortunate on my last trip to Northern California to be able to attend a open-house event at La Tavola Linens in Napa.

La Tavola's boutique is so beautiful, fresh and lovely. I was amazed by the variety of linens they offer and equally amazed by all the florals they had on display.
I'm pleased to share these photos with you - hope you feel equally inspired!
This arrangement was the first one I saw when entering their showroom. The base of the vase is lined with celery! A full & lush arrangement of viburnum.

Here's a unique green linen, so fresh. Cool arrangement with pheasant feathers.









An beautiful and more traditionally set table for a wedding.

Here is my favorite table! I love the tall, wrought iron stand with all the glass globes hanging. The florist attached mokara orchids to the glass globes. Around the base were tons of bud vases filled with yellow peonies. Very unique!



I feel like La Tavola placed one of the best tables in a slightly hidden space in their showroom - like a little surprise for their guests that kept exploring the space. Check this one out!



Here are two beautiful cocktail table linen options:



Two more settings:



One of the lovely meeting spaces at La Tavola:


Racks of linens:


And now for the coolest moment of attending the event ... my mentor was there! I didn't expect to see her and was tickled pink when Arlene walked through the door. I ran over to hug her and chat!! Arlene owns Violetta Flowers in San Francisco.


Please note these amazing vendors that participated in the open house:
Hors d’oeuvres from Caridwyn & Sons Catering
Champagne from Schramsberg Vineyards

Participating florists:
Anne Appleman Flowers & Plants
Flaxx Floral Design | Flowers Claire Marie
La Fleuriste | Lush Floral Design
Michael Holmes | Montbretia
Valerie Arelt Design