by Tara McHugh | Oct 24, 2018 | Boutonniere, bridal bouquet, farm wedding, salt spring island, spring flowers, styled shoot, trailing ribbon, Uncategorized, Wedding Venue
I’m very excited to finally share a blog post featuring this “sophisticated farm wedding” styled shoot I was apart of last spring. We were very lucky to have it published in the September issue of Today’s Bride Magazine this past summer. It took place at Stowel Lake Farm which is a magical organic farm, retreat center, and wedding venue on the south end of Salt Spring Island. This venue is for couples looking to have their dream farm wedding all in one location, enjoying the land and eating incredible seasonal organic food prepared onsite by their own in house caterer Haidee Hart. They have accommodations for friends and family, a big beautiful wooden barn with gorgeous high ceilings for the reception and dancing, along with lovely perennial gardens and forests to wonder through. Spring is such and incredible time for flowers and one of my favorite seasons. I sourced many of the blooms for this shoot from local farms on the island, they include the ranunculus, the various daffodils, tulips, Icelandic poppies and the anemones. The palette of peachy/oranges with touches of yellow and navy is so refreshing and vibrant and really pops against the natural backgrounds. So many talented vendors contributed to this shoot and I would like to thank them all! Photography – Kari Burgess Eternal Reflections Photography Venue – Stowel Lake Farm Floral Design – Tara McHugh Flora Concept, planning + coordination – Angie Allen Weddings + Events Styling + Decor Design – Bezaire Event Design Cake – Cobble Hill Cake Co. Stationary – Tickle Tree Stationary and Design Hair: Samantha Harron of Hemp House Hair...
by Tara McHugh | Sep 12, 2018 | Boutonniere, bridal bouquet, farm wedding, salt spring island, silk ribbon, spring flowers, Wedding
In all my nine years in business I have never worked with a couple that was truly eloping! And when I say “truly eloping” I mean it! It was just the couple, the officiant, and the photographer, who also doubled as the witness. They planned every detail and had no one else’s opinion to worry about, and just did it their way. Even their parents didn’t know they were getting married that weekend!! The bride had found me on instagram and was a fellow flower lover who wanted to stay true to local Salt Spring Island flowers which I loved. Working for people who love flowers as much as I do is a complete joy, and more rare than you might think. It was a spring elopement and beautifully happened to fall right in peony season. I was thrilled to find the most amazing and huge yellow peonies from Hey Day Farm, a local farm just down the road from me. They had a gorgeous burgundy center and were also beautifully scented! Along with mixed greens I included in the bride’s bouquet yellow columbine, yellow loosestrife and one of my favorite foliages, copper beech. It makes me so happy when all the colors come together, and in this case I didn’t even know the groom was wearing burgundy pants. As the bride said “it was kismet”. The couple had a special place in their heart for Duck Creek Farm as they had been coming to Salt Spring for years and staying there. For their wedding weekend they stayed in a magical “tiny home” bus on the farm and had...
by Tara McHugh | Feb 21, 2018 | Boutonniere, Bridal, bridal bouquet, farm wedding, garden flowers, local flowers, spring flowers, Victoria, Wedding, Wedding Venue
This wedding at the Sea Cider Farm on Vancouver Island was such a pleasure to work on. The bride gave me a lot of creative freedom which I am always thankful for. When creating these wedding day florals I was mostly inspired by the words in one of her first emails ” branches, vines and botanical things make me happy”. My favorite part of this spring wedding was the bouquet! Well, and the local ranunculus and lilacs from Nine Bark Farm. The bride really wanted lots of greenery used throughout the whole wedding, the harvest tables had runners of three different types of eucalyptus, the ceremony barrels were filled with large rustic branches and her bouquet was mostly various shades of greenery. Originally the bride had requested an all greenery bouquet with some thistle, but seeing as this was a May wedding and I knew a very sweet woman in my neighbourhood who grew the most amazing peonies I just knew a simple white peony was the way to go. At first her initial response was “no peonies” but after a little back and forth she agreed. And I think in retrospect she was glad she did. A couple months after the wedding she sent me a thank you card that mentioned she loved her bouquet so much that she now has a picture framed in her house. All the photos in the post are by the talented Kelly...
by Tara McHugh | Apr 22, 2015 | DIY, garden flowers, spring flowers
It is lilac season!! It doesn’t last long so NOW is the time to make this bouquet. I have mixed $10.00 worth of grocery store flowers that are readily available in spring with some fresh garden lilacs and hosta leaves. What you will need for this arrangement is the following: – one bunch of purple tulips (any shade will work) – one bunch of white alstroemeria (I love when the freckles coordinate with the palette) – 3 to 5 stems of lilacs (depending on how many blooms are on each branch) – 2 hosta leaves (the bright green variegated ones from my garden really pop) After you have chosen a vase, start by placing all the lilacs in first. Next add the hosta leaves. Then two or three alstroemeria stems. There are usually five in a bunch so you will have some left over. Or at the end feel free to add more and make a larger arrangement. And finally the tulips. Here I used a very deep purple parrot tulip which sometimes can cost slightly more than regular tulips but totally worth the splurge! When they open they are magnificent! I find it most effective to clump the tulips in twos and threes instead of as singles which you may be more inclined to do. As soon as I finished this arrangement, I remembered I have a gorgeous purple footed glass vase from my grandmother. I don’t have any purple in my house but I have started to use this vase every spring. I will forever think of my grandmother every spring as I fill it with aromatic...
by Tara McHugh | Apr 17, 2015 | flowers, spring flowers, Uncategorized
Do you feel like you have been seeing a lot more ranunculus these days? They are giving garden roses a run for their money if you ask me. The size of some of the ranunculus we are seeing from Japan and Italy are incredible! They come in a whole rainbow of beautiful colors. When buying a bunch of ranunculus the exciting thing to me, is that sometimes there is a lot of color variation within the one bunch. And this is what makes a floral arrangement more interesting. So many other flowers come as a solid color, and it is much more restricting design wise. They have a very long vase life and actually get more beautiful as they age. They just keep opening and their ruffled petals are like the finest tissue paper. They are a costly flower compared to more standard grocery store flowers many people are used to seeing. But so worth every dollar!! (all photos by Spark and Whimsy Photography) I haven’t experimented much with growing them yet but this may be my year! If you have any tips about growing ranunculus in your backyard please share in the comments below. We would all love to learn...
