We’re the Tops! Alltop said so! Got the little doohickey to prove it!

Image representing Alltop as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

The aforementioned doohickey, red and round, bestowed by the blog-spotlighting site Alltop, is proudly displayed to the right of our blog text. In interwebs parlance it is actually called a badge.  So although the blog they noted us for was our “we don’t need no stinkin’ matches” entry, My Little Flower Shop sure is proud of our non-stinkin’ badge.*

Home base - the reason we have a blog at all. Come let us make your wedding beautiful!

Here’s how Alltop describes themselves:

The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good to answer a question like, “How many people live in China?” However, it has a much harder time answering the question, “What’s happening in China?” That’s the kind of question that we answer.

We do this by collecting the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic…Ultimately, our goal is to enhance your online reading by displaying stories from sources that you’re already visiting plus helping you discover sources that you didn’t know existed.

On how they choose what they list they write:

If you’ve gotten the impression that Alltop is not based on computer algorithms or popular voting, you’d be right. We are highly subjective and judgmental.

So now a lot more people know MLFS exsists, because we were evaluated and chosen to be among the Top by highly selective people.  Which is awesome! We wear our badge with pride.  Thanks Alltop!

*For those of you who have always wondered what the heck people are talking about when they quote this line or something that sounds like it- it’s a piece of overwrought dialogue from the classic film “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”  Somehow it became goofy insider comedy shorthand – I blame Mel Brooks.

What Brides (and Event/Wedding Planners) can Learn from Extreme Cage Fighting

Chuck Liddell facing off against Rich Franklin...
Image via Wikipedia

What’s the one thing everybody knows about cage fighting? No holds barred. No rules. Can that apply to the bridal design world? Read on. And if you got to this blog by googling “cage fighting bride?” you have got to email me. Because that’s awesome. Etiquette books contain mountains of good advice- and we owe the people who write them a great debt of gratitude. Receiving line order and invitation wording – couldn’t do it without them. People notice sometimes though, that we don’t keep a lot of wedding planning books around the store. Happy to share why: we believe in the “Ultimate Fighting” school of wedding design. We operate by nobody’s rules but our own, and as far as we’re concerned, there are no rules.  That works for us on a few levels.

1)  There are no rules for us in the way we design.  Nothing is off the table, and so all our pieces are developed as individual ideas. We don’t do the cookie-cutter follow the trend thing.

2)  There are no fashion or style rules.  If a bride loves and wants a baby blue and pale yellow theme for her December wedding, we aren’t going to talk her into more “seasonal” colors. Velvet in summer, rhinestones in the morning, snowflakes in July…we color outside the lines.

"out of the box" Prom entryway display - La Quinta prom 2011

3)  There are no rules for who our clientele will be. We would never turn away a wedding for being too small.  Everyone’s celebration is important, and deserves beautiful wedding flowers. We take a budget, work out what can be done, and make it beautiful.

4)  Since we allow our ideas to develop from the ground up, it passes on the “no rules” ethos to our brides and quinceaneras.  They can tell us what they truly dreamed- not just what they think we can do or what the girl next door had at her event. We really listen – we don’t impose a vision of how things “should” be.

So as you plan (your wedding, or your client’s), make sure you’re following your instincts, your dreams and your heart.  Don’t bother so much with rules.  And the only holding that matters, is that of hands, and hearts.

bride and groom in gazebo

Flower Power: the not-so-secret succulent.

A very unique succulent boutonniere - perfect for a groom who's flower-averse

Yep – every so often our fascinating and compelling content will indeed be about floral design.  Today we’re talking about succulents, something we’ve alluded to probably in a few photo descriptions, and perhaps tweets or Facebook updates.  Succulents have been popping up in floral design lately.  What is a succulent?  By Wikipedia’s definition, they are “water retaining plants adapted to arid climates or soil conditions.”  That refers to a lot of plants – we’re talking about the pretty kind.  You probably know them more by sight than by name.
Aeonium arboreum baby Pink-flowered aeonium Succulent spiral Succulent Succulent

The succulent "bloom" in the center of the bouquet on the left blends seamlessly with the flowers, yet adds visual interest and texture

Traditionally, one might not think of them as a decorative element, but that’s where we come in.  Combined with other blooms, succulents in a bouquet subtly evoke the desert at a Palm Springs destination wedding.  A centerpiece composed of a grouping of small succulent varietals adds a unique texture and depth to a tablescape that soothes the eye at a corporate event with a modern and spare decor scheme.  Succulents lining a pathway, or included with other outdoor accent pieces are not only elegant, but as their counterparts in nature do, they tolerate the desert sun without danger of wilting or discoloration.  Elegant, low maintenance home decorating is also a snap. Pick three small succulents you like, and place them in matching containers down the center of your dining table. Widen the space between them, and place a votive candle in the gaps.  Boom!  Instant casual elegance.  You’ll be seeing them in more than desert settings now that you know what to look for.  Succulents aren’t a secret anymore.

A succulent centerpiece at the Korakia Pensione in Palm Springs, CA

Succulent photos by Joey Martoni, Mariane Perdomo,  Duff Axsom, Benjamin Chun and Robyn Jay. Bridal photos by Mellany Miller and Cheryl McPherson