Around this time of year, I always get restless. Well, let's be honest. Restlessness sets in as soon as January 1 has come and gone and I'm just good and ready for all the snow to MELT ALREADY. My grandpa used to say, "If I can just make it through January, I'll be just fine." That's how I feel about both January and February. I love living in Winnipeg and I love having 4 distinct seasons, but I could do with a lot less winter. 

Needless to say, I've been craving spring (I know I'm not the only one out here on the prairies feeling that way). And with a desire to get working and get my hands dirty, combined with a particularly stressful week, I headed off to my wholesaler to pick up anything with colour. And so, here we are: the perfect spring wedding flowers. 

I also thought I'd break this down into a few steps, to show you a bit of the behind-the-scenes of how I work! (although, I designed this in my kitchen and my studio is NOT as beautiful as this is, ha!)

Ingredients: green viburnum (yeah baby!), peach spray roses, white lisianthus, skimmia, calcynia, sprengeri fern, peach Icelandic poppies (yeah baby x2!), and soft blue muscari (yeah baby x3!). I also had some hellebore I was hoping to use, but they bit the bullet pretty quickly. There's no telling with those guys if they're going to make it or not!

Layer 1: Greenery and shape. I actually cut this sprengeri fern off a plant that I have! It's nice and light, but sometimes it can be on the thorny side, so I don't use it all that often. The viburnum is my favourite thing. Depending on where you live, you won't see this in green for too long, as the blooms quickly turn white and they look like big, beautiful snowballs. But I do really love the green of the blooms - it's that soft, springy, fresh green that is just perfect.

Layer 2: Texture. Here I added in calcyina for a little bit of pink, and skimmia for interesting texture. I also really like that the skimmia leaves are a bit of a darker green, which adds some nice contrast.

Layer 3: Base flower layer. I added in the peach here with the spray roses, most of which were tucked down pretty deeply for coverage in the vase (speaking of which, I LOVE this concrete vase). White lisianthus is always pretty, and has lovely little buds, and that was added in here as well.

Layer 4: All the good stuff :) This layer is definitely my favourite! I really could have left it at layer 3, but having the chance to use some more special, unique flowers and really letting them shine was too good of an opportunity to pass up here. So, poppies and muscari went in! I've never used this type of poppy before and I don't think they're particularly long lasting, so I'll give these a test and see what happens. I do love their incredible, paper-thin pleated blooms and the way each is a slightly different shade - they're PERFECT for spring wedding bouquets. And the muscari is a delicate little bloom. The blue is a lovely complementary tone of the peach, and adds a little more dimension to the overall palette. 

By the way, I'm now booking for 2018 weddings! I am meeting with quite a few eager brides and grooms over the next two months, so if you want to talk wedding flowers with me, don't hesitate to reach out with more details about your wedding day. Just click the box below!