For over thirty years, the Fiesta Florist shop in Santa Ana (operating for the last four years as Fiesta Florist by Two Jens and Me) has been serving Orange County and surrounding areas, creating unique designs to reflect their customers’ personalities and needs. Jen Linton, who currently co-owns the store with Jen Hatfield and Tanya Pustelnik, has seen many trends in wedding floral design come and go. Here she offers her perspective on what’s currently hot.
KEEPING YOUR CENTERPIECE DELICIOUS AND NUTRICIOUS
“Right now we’re seeing a lot of vivid, rich colors such as tangerine, raspberry and chocolate,” Linton says. “People are incorporating nature in new ways, using fresh fruits like lemons, limes, grapes, or kumquats, using herbs like rosemary and lavender, and even incorporating fresh vegetables like artichokes, broccoli, and asparagus, along with various leaves and branches. People are wrapping bouquets in fancy ribbons, and you see candles, candles, candles, whether they are incorporated into the centerpiece or hanging with ribbon from branches.”
According to Linton, certain floral elements that were once ubiquitous at weddings have now become outdated.
“We never use carnations anymore, unless we use them to make floral spheres or in floralscapes,” she says. “Baby’s breaths and tulle are really played out right now, and we’re also not seeing much fern leaf anymore… You know, the kind of stuff your grandma likes.”
TURNING THE TABLES
The crew of Fiesta Florist also stays on top of the latest trends in other aspects of wedding décor.
“Certain colors will be very in for a while,” Linton says, “but then they fall out of favor and people are into something else. We actually take a lot of our cues from the fashion industry, as well as the bridal magazines: Elegant Bride, Martha Stewart, Sunset Weddings, etc. Right now the big colors are chocolate brown and kind of a robin’s egg blue. Fancy linens are especially popular, with so many beautiful fabrics to choose from, such as silks and beaded overlays. We’re also seeing more sequins and vintage lace and even some things that you wouldn’t usually associate with a wedding, like leather or fur. Anything with texture or sparkle: wood, metal, grass, beads, berries.”
According to Linton, even table shape can be subject to the whims of fashion.
“For a long time we were mostly using round tables, but now the trend is more for square tables, or maybe a group of long, rectangular tables in a garden area that are arranged in a U shape, so that the guests will be facing each other. A lot of brides today don’t necessarily want to see everything perfectly consistent on all of the tables. Centerpieces are becoming much more eclectic, using different vases to create a different look for each table or wrapping containers with fabric. Or the tables themselves might be different sizes, with the bride and groom seated at a sweetheart table.”
GOING WITH THE PROS
Many of us have a friend with an artistic flair or a green thumb, and if they offer to help out by throwing together some floral arrangements on the cheap, it can of course be very tempting. But according to Linton, giving in to these temptations can all too often lead to disaster.
“I’d strongly advise against hiring a friend or a relative,” she says, “either as your wedding planner or your florist or caterer. Maybe it sounds like a good idea at first, but it can lead to a lot of tension and wasted time. In the end it won’t look like you want and you’ll have paid as much or more as you would have by bringing in a professional. There are plenty of jobs for your friends and family. For instance, you’ll need somebody there that you trust who will stay sober and know how to tactfully escort the best man offstage if he’s had a few too many and his speech starts to ramble.”
So, when it comes to hiring professionals for your nuptials, how can you be sure that you’re hiring the right people?
“References,” Linton says emphatically. “Get references for everybody, absolutely. And be on the lookout if they say they want to be paid upfront, that’s a potential red flag.”
Putting your wedding together can be a daunting task, but Linton offers clients many suggestions for creating a romantic ambiance on a real world budget.
“Instead of a vase full of roses on every table – which can get rather expensive – maybe you could have one rose per table, surrounded by less expensive flowers with a similar color, look and feel. Instead of having flowers absolutely everywhere, you can scale down and arrange flowers more strategically. I always say that clients should go for the world, be as ambitious as they like when they tell us what they want, and we’ll always find a way to deliver something that will dazzle them.”
