Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
(bridal bouquet by 7 Lily)
February weddings don’t have it easy. While its past the tail-end of the wedding peak season in the Philippines which is around December/January, it’s the time of the year when prices of blossoms soar to all-time-high due to huge demand in time for Valentine’s Day. And it’s not just the prices that’s the problem, the anxiety over the quality and quantity of stocks become also become major concern. The Dangwa Flower Market in Manila is so chaotic around this time that it feels like there’s a mad fiesta!
With this in mind, we have invited some of the wedding industry’s finest florists to participate in a fun challenge: to make a bridal bouquet without using any flowers. It sounds crazy but these floral artisans immediately agreed the moment we presented them the idea.
It is not our first time to involve suppliers in this kind of undertaking. In 2006, we asked the make-up artists for a Diva-to-Diva Makeover; and the designers, to sketch a Bridal Gown for P20k. In 2008, we had a Wedding Planners’ Challenge: How Low Can You Go? wherein detailed budget breakdown of the most affordable wedding they could muster good for 100 guests. While the price quotes in these previous challenges may now be obsolete, the basic essence remains: that wedding professionals rise up to any challenge and deliver what is expected of them.
For our florists challenge, we asked Mimi + Karl to capture the images of the florists’ unique creations. Their photography tandem are known for the beautiful shoots of wedding details so they were a shoo-in for a project like this. We set our sights for an afternoon shoot at Fernwood Gardens to serve an appropriate backdrop for our (un)floral subjects. On the day of the shoot, the table where all the bouquet were laid down practically looked like cornucopia were fruits and vegetables abound. Felt like harvest time!
Participating in this fun challenge are (in alphanumeric order): 7 Lily, 2171 Floral Creations, April & Karen Yu, Henry Pascual, Jun Hen, Robert Blancaflor, and Teddy Manuel. What they came up with are as colorful as conventional bridal bouquet, except these weren’t conventional at all. Far from it, actually. We even saw some that would be a perfect accent for themed weddings.
Each of us in the shoot has our own favorite, but we are not telling. We’ll let you decide. 
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