The Flavor of Fall

If you ask most people in any state other than Texas when fall starts, I bet the most common answer would be the end of September/beginning of October. Well, when I find myself still breaking a slight sweat walking from my apartment to my car on Halloween it is a little hard to get pumped up about putting on a sweater, pumpkins, changing leaves, and most importantly feasting. But now that November has arrived and finally there seems to be a cool crispness in the air I am finally in the mood for fall and everything that comes with it!

Again, I had the privilege of working with the lovely ladies of the University of Texas chapter of Alpha Chi Omega to put together fall themed arrangements for their Parent's Weekend. Here's how the arrangements turned out....

I also traveled back to my homeland of Dallas this past week to add a splash of fall color to Lawson and Rachel Hopkins' rehearsal dinner. I had a blast working with the Hopkins family and I wish Lawson and Rachel all the best! Here is how everything turned out...



~Molly



Hunt for Red October

Well, I went hunting for a Red October, and I must say I feel like it was a successful expedition! I had the privilege to work with the lovely ladies of Alpha Chi Omega (University of Texas Chapter) to help them let their newest members know just how special they are by designing a total of 70 arrangements for their initiation. Their colors are red and green and their flower is a red carnation, so I chose to incorporate various shades of red and green and an occasional carnation or two in the arrangements.

Here are a couple of pics to give you an idea of how my studio was bursting at the seams with flowers (definitely not a bad thing to be surrounded by dozens of beautiful and fragrant flowers!).

I also did Alpha Chi Omega's Founders Day Dinner, in which they wanted to emphasize their flower, the red carnation, so I chose to go "carnation crazy" and I ended up creating huge pomanders of pure carnations that sat on each table as well as some smaller rose/carnation arrangements. Pomanders are typically seen at weddings suspended in the air, but I thought they would also make a fun and interesting almost Dr. Sues like center piece for this particular event!

Until next time!

~Molly













Halo, halo, halo

I was asked by the fabulous bridal boutique, Unbridaled, to create a whimsical floral halo for one of their photo shoots. I had so much fun creating this look for them, and Sherry Hammonds did such a beautiful job with the photography! I will be posting more pics as soon as they are available....

~Molly



Allow me to Introduce Myself...

I'm sure that at some point in your life, back in the day when the most important thing to you was getting your parents to extend your bedtime, you were asked the question, "And what do you want to be when you grow up?" Well, for as long as I can remember my answer to that question has been "I want to be a florist (see pictures for evidence)." When I said that at the age of 6 adults would politely chuckle and say something like, "That is just adorable."  

Sometime in between wearing big bows in my hair and graduating from college I began to think that my brilliant florist idea was just a silly child's dream, and that I should pursue a career that was just a little bit more, shall we say serious? So I majored in speech communication at Baylor University and then for the first year and a half out of college I had a job in the event planning industry. After a while at that job I  began to realize that I was not completely satisfied with my decision to abandon the floral idea. So I quit my job and that is when my life began to get very interesting (to me at least).....

I first worked at Apples to Zinnias in Dallas, which sells both sophisticated floral arrangements and interior design decor. I learned a lot about how to make everyday arrangements there as well as how an arrangement can really be used to enhance a room, just like a piece of furniture. During the holiday season A to Z really does deck the halls in both homes and hospitals. One of my most memorable experiences there was going to the McKinney Hospital to hang gorgeous garlands and wreaths to hopefully brighten some one's day.

My second floral job was working at Stems of Dallas, which is a wedding/event specific florist, also obviously located in Dallas. It was there that I really discovered what branch of the floral industry that I wanted to be involved in. The reason I decided to go the event route rather than the everyday arrangement route was because to me, the best part about being a florist is seeing the huge smile that appears on the bride's face when she looks at the church that you just spent hours decorating. There are not many jobs that allow you to see the fruits of your labor and I feel so privileged to be involved in one that does happen to have that perk.

After working in the floral industry for a couple of months I knew that I had finally made the right career move. Of course, life can just never be as simple as you want it to be. Even though I was completely satisfied in my work life, I began to have a very strong desire to move away from the city that I had called home for over twenty years. So I decided to leave my comfortable life in Dallas and move to Austin, TX for a floral internship with Posey Floral & Event Design.

I can honestly say that was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life both professionally and personally. Bonni Taylor and Madeleine Myers were gracious enough to take the time to really show me what it takes to do arrangements for both small and large scale events. Another thing about the floral world that I've come to learn is that when you are making arrangements for eight hours a day (sometimes a lot longer than that) you get to know a lot about your coworkers. Bonni and Madeleine took so much of their time to teach me about various design techniques that they learned from different people in their floral background. I will never forget what they did for me, and I only hope that one day I will have the opportunity to teach someone as much about life and floral design as they did for me. 

So at the conclusion of my internship I decided that it was about time that I took a leap of faith and just trust that God would have my back, and that is how Magnolia Design & Events was born! My first event was decorating Pi Beta Phi's dining room with their colors (wine and silver blue) for their bid day dinner at the University of Texas. Here is a look at how everything turned out....





And here are some every day arrangements I did last week.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed getting to know a little bit about how I got into this crazy, yet wonderful business :)

~Molly