Luminaire Images Blog • by Molly Ann

Groovin’ on this image from yesterday’s wedding.

“Tuesday with the Pros” is an ongoing blog series featuring experts in the wedding and event industry. Today’s authority is Clover Chadwick, owner and lead designer of the floral company Dandelion Ranch.

LI: How would you describe your job?
Clover: I design specialized flower arrangements for events and restaurants.

LI: What would you say makes Dandelion Ranch unique from other floral design companies?
Clover: We approach flowers differently in general, I think.  Each arrangement is a little homage to nature, like little masterpieces, little gardens in their own right.  We focus on a lot of greens, and instead of using greens as filler like many other companies do, we use them to create lines and texture, and allow the flowers to design themselves.  Everything we create is really inspired and selected by how they grow in the wild.

LI: What inspired you to become a floral designer?
Clover: I used to live in Napa, and the restaurants there value their floral designs very highly and encourage a lot of creativity, so I would often get really inspired looking at their arrangements.  When I myself became a restaurant manager, I began doing arrangements as part of my managerial duties and was able to style my designs using inspirations from Napa restaurants.  By the time I started Dandelion Ranch I already had quite a few contacts in the restaurant business and was able to start somewhere instead of entirely from scratch.

LI: What are some of your favorite things about your line of work?
Clover: I love working with my talented associates, and the atmosphere that we have here in our studio. I also love going to the LA Flower Market in the morning…I go every day!  It’s fun to be around all the growers and learn new things from them.

LI: What would be a dream event for Dandelion Ranch to design?
Clover: Something with an “Alice in Wonderland” theme, or “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  It would be SO much fun, because it would just be endless ideas and designs!

LI: What would you recommend to clientele looking to save money on their florals?
Clover: Trust your floral designer for a beautiful and professional look, and buy local and seasonal.  If you’re shopping in the height of any flower’s season, it’ll be be less expensive and gorgeous.

LI: Do you have anything exciting coming up?
Clover: We have the NBC/Universal television award luncheon coming up at the end of this month. Those are always fun because they’re themed and dramatic—they host them at a Phantom of the Opera theater and we create an absolutely enormous urn arrangement!  We also have this great wedding that I’m looking forward to, with a Country Fair theme.  I am going to arrange baskets of vegetables and flowers for the tables, it’ll be so fun!

LI: What is your favorite flower?
Clover: I really love ranunculus, and matricarias.

LI: What would be your pro advice to clients for a fun, stress-free event?
Clover: Don’t plan too far ahead. There’s never any less stress three months out from an event whether you had two years to plan it or six months.  You should probably only plan really far ahead if you need to save up for it, then it’s understandable.

For more on Clover and Dandelion Ranch, visit:
Dandelion Ranch’s official website
The Dandelion Ranch Facebook Page

Our photographs of Kevin and Jessica’s wedding are featured on Rock-n-Roll Bride this week, because they were such a rock-n-roll couple.  Check it out!

There’s so much about Kevin and Jessica that just makes you go, “what?”  They’re unique, sarcastic, not afraid to be themselves, and of course…perfect for each other.

Venue: Tivoli Hacienda (Santa Ana, CA)
Flowers by This Old Garden Gallery
Entertainment by Luis Ayala at Your Special Night Entertainment

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, etc. you’ve already caught a glimpse of Jessica’s fantastic purple shoes

Their glasses crack me up. It’s like a “his” and “hers” version.

Groomsmen photo by Matt

Kevin: “I’d like a groomsmen photo where we’re all stepping out.  You know, like the Troggs.”   Heh, the TROGGS?!?!  LOL. Musicians.

For the sake of daylight, we set up a “First Look” so they could have a special moment to see each other before their ceremony.

I LOVED Jessica’s hairstyle

Kevin insisted on a tux with tails! Trendsetter.

Gotta love that pout.

Images by Matt

I love this image. It seems to capture their personalities as a couple so well.

Congrats, guys!

Coming soon!

Tuesday with the Pros is an ongoing blog series featuring experts in the wedding and event industry.  Today’s authority is Betty, event planner and owner of Type A Planning.

LI: So what is your job?
Betty: I do event and wedding planning, and my role is anything from planning birthday parties to helping a wedding couple find the venue, to just day-of wedding coordination.  Destination clients are primarily full planning, which is recommended—the wedding can still be hands-on for the couple, but destination planning is a lot more work, so it’s easier to hand it off to someone else who knows what they’re doing and has done it before.

LI: What sort of destinations do you normally work with?
Betty: I frequently help plan a lot of wine country weddings, up in Santa Barbara and Napa Valley.  Napa is where I myself was married!

LI: How is Type A Planning unique from other planning services?
Betty: My demeanor is very laid-back and flexible, and my style revolves around simple elegance. Brides tend to appreciate my low-key approach to designing events for them that have classy looks but a casual air.  I think it helps absorb some of their stress.

LI: What inspired you to start planning events?
Betty: When I was in high school back in Massachusetts, my younger middle-school-aged siblings had a lot of friends who were having bar and bat mitzvahs and hosting special parties when they turned thirteen.  Even though we aren’t Jewish, my parents decided to try the same thing, sort of like a “Sweet-Thirteen” party, so my brother and sister wouldn’t feel left out.  We rented a room at a local country club, hired a DJ, entertainment, et cetera, and helping put those together really turned me on to large-scale event planning.  You can imagine by the time I planned my own wedding, it was like a second nature to me!

LI: What are some of your favorite things about event planning?
Betty: I really love helping people, and I just get a really good feeling from seeing the final product. It’s so fun to put together this vision that the client has in their head, and use my expertise to flesh it out. I like coming up with little ideas that I can tweak to fit the bride and make the event they dreamed of really happen for them—it’s great when we have chemistry and the concepts just “click!”

LI: What kind of profile do most of your clients fall under?
Betty: Obviously I can work with anybody, but it seems like I meet a lot of young professionals who need a planner to help them handle details that they don’t have a lot of time to deal with, particularly for destination events.

LI: What would be a dream event to plan?
Betty: Something off-the-wall, like recreating a miniature city inside the reception venue, or a putting together a full set for the event.  And of course a client with the budget to pull it off!  I also really love wine-centric events, which is maybe why I’m so drawn to wine country weddings.  Wine is like my second passion, so it would be amazing to do a wedding in a legendary wine location like Bordeaux, France.

LI: Do you have any advice for people out there who are looking to save money on their event?
Betty: I know it sounds self-serving and maybe event a little counter-intuitive because it costs money, but in fact a good event planner can save you money; they have resources not available to the general public, as well as a network of vendors who will work for lesser rates for them. It’s sometimes hard to grasp in an era where so much self-service is possible that hiring someone to do something that you can do yourself will decrease the overall cost of the event, but it’s true.  Especially when your time is worth more than what you pay your planner, because planning can eat up weeks of time!

I also recommend prioritizing what’s important to you. Hire and pay for the aspects of the event that you value the highest FIRST, so that way if the budget starts getting tight near the end of the process you’re not stuck compromising on things that are of the utmost importance to you.

LI: Do you have any exciting events coming up?
Betty: My parents’ 40th Anniversary party, because it’s going to be a fun, special, personal project for me.  They had a very modest wedding when they got married 40 years ago, and I want to give them the fancy event they didn’t have due to their means back then.  As a planner, I have resources and expertise that my family can use for this event, so it’s going to be a big deal…because 40 years of marriage is a big deal!

LI: How do you help your clients select vendors?
Betty: I try to get a good sense of the clients’ style and recommend to them vendors who I think would be a good artistic and personality match.  It’s not about me and who my buddies are…it’s about the client and who in my network of professionals would work best with them and their style.  This kind of customized, objective recommendation based on really knowing the client is something you can’t get by searching online for vendors.

LI: What would be your professional suggestion(s) for a festive, stress-free event?
Betty: Keep it simple, keep it light.  If you’re obsessed with the font on the dance floor gobo or the exact, perfect color roses, then you’re not really going to have much fun, especially if something falls short of your high expectations.  If your vendors are professionals and you trust them to deliver something you like, then understand that they’re going to try their best to please you, and really that’s all anyone could ask for from their wedding plans!

FOR MORE ON BETTY…
Type A Planning website
Betty’s Blog
Type A Planning Facebook
Betty’s Twitter