Last week I spent an entire day with my first official students.  My purpose for this first class was to develop a training manual and to spend some quality time with Amelia and Margaret. Amelia is the pretty strawberry blond, she has been interning here with us all summer. Due to the hectic nature of this studio and the fast pace we keep here, I really wanted Amelia to have just one quiet day with me.  The amazing Margaret is a delightful young lady that I met this summer and she hopes to have her own wedding and event design studio one day. My time with both of these girls was so very special.

First we spent time discussing the different tools, tapes, and glues that I use. Then we headed to the garden. We harvested most of the flowers for this class from our property.

Back inside we started with boutonnieres and corsages.  We even worked on flower girl halos.

After lots of talk and lots of sharing about business we broke for lunch. I should have taken pictures of the lunch Evan made for us. He served us sliced London broil, homemade corn salsa/salad, a garden salad, and nice cheeses and crackers. For dessert we had ice cream.

After lunch we worked on arrangements in foam and arrangements designed directly in water.

First the girls worked on greening out their designs. I call the greening of the design, either the bones of the piece, or the foundation of the design.

The above pictures were taken by my friend the amazing and super talented photographer Genevieve Leiper, from here on out the images are mine, so watch out!!

Look at this design created by Margaret. It is super gorgeous!!!

Miss Amelia hit a home run with this lovely creation.

Margaret’s second piece was created with scented geranium, 3 white astilbe that were leftover from a wedding, and  flowers from our garden.

Amelia’s second piece was created with roses leftover from a photo shoot and then greens and flowers from our gardens. I was truly proud of the designs each of these lovely young ladies created.

Of course I had to take their picture “in the cooler” and in front of our red door.

This was a very special day for me and a surprisingly relaxing day. It has been such a pleasure to get to know both of these women. I must also say having Amelia here this summer has been one of my all time favorite experiences. I keep opening up that big red door and every time I do, I am blessed with the most amazing people. What we are doing here clearly works!!!