Move Over Martha

(Today I'm over the moon to share a special guest post, my first ever, from one of my favorite ladies, my sis, Anjeli.  Without further ado...)

While browsing design blogs for floral inspiration before my wedding last September, I stumbled upon Saipua…or what I like to call Brooklyn’s floral mavens. For months I drooled over their beautiful, skillful compositions. Their artistic style defied the typical pyramid shapes of old, leaving each arrangement artistically constructed. When I saw that they started The Little Flower School in the back of their beautiful floral shop in Red Hook, Brooklyn, I immediately signed up for the "Hail to the Hellebore" class.

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(Photo NYTimes)

Saipua owner Sarah Ryhanen and Nicolette Owen of Nicolette Camille floral design walked us through the intricacies of the 15-20 flowers and fillers that had been pre-selected for the class. While putting together a sample arrangement, these two lovely ladies provided techniques and helpful hints for choosing, caring for flowers, as well as how to construct our arrangements, like bunching one variety in 2s and 3s and using a keen eye to see how colors relate to the wider arrangement. A key element behind the perfect display is geometry (bet you didn’t think you’d have to use that again after middle school!). Sarah and Nicolette suggested that we think about the arrangement as an obtuse triangle. If you look at their work, you can see this take shape. Then, it was our turn. We ran to the front of the room, selected our flowers and fillers and the mastery got under way!

(That's me in grey!)

Here are the class results. Pretty impressive!

 

Single-session classes, which last almost four hours, cost $250. Students take home the vase and arrangement they make, as well as a handsome pair of clippers. If that's a little rich for your blood and you're a little less impetuous about signing up, you can always become a devotee of their blogs and have this look for less by finding a base flower at the local market, like tulips, and accent them with citrus, herbs or a special variety from your favorite florist (in my case, Saipua!). 

This is my final arrangement – I was so so happy with it. I can’t wait to apply the techniques I learned…watch out Martha Stewart!