September Career Course - Day 17

Day 17 brought more about the funeral industry... discussing bereavement consultations and designing a casket piece..

Although not an uplifting subject it's vitally important that if as a florist you offer this service that you're sympathetic to the needs of the bereaved, that your flowers are as fresh and as well suited to the deceased as wedding flowers are to a bride...

Here are the casket arrangements in the making and the finished piece..      

A simple vase arrangement suited to a funeral gathering...

   

September Career Course - day 16

The first day of week 4 brought the exciting task of designing and ordering the flowers for the students final interpretation.

Mood boards were put together, quantities worked out and orders placed with our supplier. Here are examples of the mood boards... the final designs will be produced on thursday and friday and we can't wait!

We then turned our attention to bereavement and funeral arrangements and finished the day by producing an example of a letter used in bereavement flowers.

September Career Course - Day 14 and 15!

Day 14 was all about 'freedom with flowers'..... We supplied the flowers but the students decided what they wanted to do with them. After an initial feeling of abandonment (!) they really used the time well to experiment with new ideas as well as revising old ones...

Lydia produced a stunning candelabra in rich reds and purples...  

  
The Tallulah Rose Flower School was invited to take part in a most stylish bridal event, Le Soiree Des Filles, at the Holburne Museum on thursday evening. We asked our students to design bridal bouquets for us to take with us and they rose to the challenge!

We love the vintage carnation (yes you heard correctly!) bridal bouquet... let us know what you think...

A pretty vintage bouquet using the beautiful Amnesia rose....


During the bridal event we demonstrated a spray rose pomander and here it is.....

And here are another couple of designs we had on show! 

We also covered risk assessment, contracts and quotations but not before our students produced some real wow pieces....

Lucie my lovely friend from Lincoln came along to see the school today so the very least we could do was to make here our flower recipient of the day.... enjoy Lucie, hope to see you again very soon X

  

See you next time for more floral fun!






 

September Career Course - Day 11, 12 and 13!

So after two weeks of learning the practical flower techniques we turn our students attention to the business element of the course...

We decided to put the first three days of this week together as although they are vitally important to the business set up, they're not great blogging material!

Marketing Monday kicked off the week with a dose branding thrown in!
We had a visit from Abby at the Bath Life magazine, a great local magazine published by Media Clash. Abby gave our students some great tips on advertising and editorial helping to take away the 'mystique' of magazine culture. Our students said they would feel much more confident contacting local and national press having had the talk from Abby so thank you Abby!

We discussed marketing plans, market research, competitors, branding and logo's, key areas when launching your business. We had a great tutorial showing just how easy it is to build your own website... really!!

Tuesday and Wednesday were all about business plans. A daunting task but one made easier by breaking down each of the planed elements from financing to forecasting we covered it all...
While discussing the services the students could offer we came up with some really innovative ideas.... and no we can't tell you that wouldn't be fair to our students and their new business launch would it?!!


Just so you're not too deprived of an image or two here are the flowers that we gave to Carluccios on there official opening night, last night... good to see Mr Antonio Carluccio there too!

     The manageress of the brand new Carluccios in Milsom Place Bath...

A popping weekend!

Ok so we admit we had a lazy start to the day and instead of a 5am market call we nudged our alarm clock forward an extra hour or so!

We arrived at the school today to meet a lady, local-ish (she moved to Toronto 35 years ago!) who wanted to learn how to spiral a hand-tied bouquet the European way!

Joanne is a trained florist and works in her local florist in Toronto. The hand-tied bouquet is only just starting to become fashionable in Toronto so she thought she'd get ahead of the game and book a one to one session while back in Bath visiting family.

Joanne was pleased with her session and left with a great hand-tied bouquet in hand..... Beautiful hand-tied bouquets heading Toronto's way!

We took our rosebud pomander to Rookery Manor Bridal the latest bridal dress shop to open in Bath.
http://www.rookery-manor.co.uk/bridal-boutique-news
We presented Jayne the store manager with our pomander she was thrilled as you can see!

 

We were extolling the virtues of the carnation to out students this week... we think they have bad press! So to prove that used in the right way, they can be stunning we set about arranging our pretty inexpensive carnations....  Fluffy fun don't you think!  

 

September Career Course - Day 10

We reviewed the students 'mystery shopper' afternoon.... sorry it will have to remain a mystery!

The students then sat back and watched a candelabra demonstration giving them the chance to make notes and photograph the candelabra development step by step.

In the afternoon the students sent about a long and low Oasis arrangement, ideal for banquet style table, alters or ceremony table...

Our students then set about designing their largest arrangement yet, a vintage pail formed the base of their 'pedestal' type arrangement...
They all did a great job, it can be quite daunting to do such a large arrangement for the first time, they took it all in their stride!


Down to business with a large 'pedestal arrangement....

And the finished piece!!



 

September Career Course - Day 9

So day 9 is upon us and the students continue with the wiring techniques they learnt yesterday.
Todays task is the Carmen Rose, a beautiful 'over sized' rose bridal bouquet. It took most of the morning to complete, the images below will show you why...

Three rose heads were taken apart and each rose petal individual wired.... a long job!

Fast forward and here is the finished Carmen Rose... The bouquet takes shape by using one full rose head. Each individually wired rose petal is then placed around the centre rose head overlapping each petal with the next one and so on until all the petals have been used. Leaves are then placed around the rose to support the stems and add a 'frame' to the Carmen Rose. All the students broke the through the pain barrier and produced stunning Carmen Rose bouquets.

The Carmen Rose bouquet styled with our wooden show lasts...

The students then spent the afternoon being 'mystery shoppers' around the florists of Bath with some interesting results!

September Career Course - Day 8

Today was all about the wiring techniques florists use in wedding work... buttonholes, corsages and hair pieces...

It was a relaxed day of learning with some fabulous work produced ......

I'm sure the students will be wiring in their sleep and with more to come tomorrow I'm going to sign off and rest my weary hands!

We'll be back with more tomorrow when it's all about the 'Carmen Rose' bouquet....

Wiring individual rose buds..... a cuppa anyone?!

Avalanche rose with eucalyptus and the popular vintage Astrantia

A wired hair comb for either a bride, bridesmaid or flower girl... very pretty.

Lydia and her beautiful rosebud circlet....

September Career Course - Day 7

T stands for 'Table Centers' and thats exactly what our students produced today..... with bags of style too!!

We began the day by working through the costing formula of the bridal bouquets we made on monday... we all thought that they we're good value at £65.00 for the oasis bouquet and £45.00 for the hand-tied bouquet.

We then moved on to our first practical of the day...
We filled the container with oasis and made the shape with 3 different types of  foliage, we then added flowers and berries for a real touch of 'fall'!

After lunch we changed tact completely and designed a 'flower cake' of grand prix roses...
A table centre with the wow factor!  

We mentioned our bridal pomander yesterday and here it is!
We thought we may just choose a bridal shop here in Bath to give it to.... perhaps they could make good use of it?!

September Career Course - Day 6

We welcomed our students back this morning with the addition of Daisy who has signed up to complete the one week bridal module. We chatted over the areas we covered last week and answered any questions that had arisen over the weekend.

We began the morning by discussing bridal consultations, the do and don'ts along with top tips on how to win a wedding over a competitor!

We then moved on to the practical session of bridal bouquets... the first bouquet was with an oasis holder. By using the oasis holder it allowed the students to add length to their bouquet, very difficult to accomplish using only the hand-tied technique.

All the students created beautiful bouquets and by using the old leather suitcases were able to take some great images for their growing portfolios!

After lunch we then moved on to the most popular of bridal bouquets, the hand-tied. We used soft, seasonal garden flowers for the natural and feminine bouquet, very fashionable at the moment..

All the students were thrilled when they were able to stand their bouquets upright (and walk away!) ... They all seemed a lot more relaxed too which is a great sign... they'll soon be able to do them in their sleep!

Again we styled the bouquets this time using a old vintage look LOVE sign... a great image for a marketing postcard or business we thought...

We then demoed a rosebud pomander.... but more of that tomorrow!

Lydia made a great 'bride' model as well as bridal bouquet maker of course!!

Styling with our vintage look LOVE sign.

Ta da!! A 'free standing' bridal bouquet.. the result of a well balanced bouquet.