People often ask how long a particular arrangement took to make. It's a natural question, and the answer is always more complicated than expected. The physical construction might take an hour. But the thinking behind it — the sourcing decisions, the compositional choices, the understanding of who it's for and what it needs to do — that's been building for years.
We thought it was worth pulling back the curtain a little. Not because the process is mysterious, but because understanding it might help you work with us more effectively — and because we think the way we think about flowers is part of what makes working with us different.
It Starts With the Source
Before any arrangement is designed, it's shaped by what's available. This sounds limiting, but in practice, it's the opposite. Working with what's genuinely in season — what's arriving at its peak from local growers, what's expressing itself beautifully at this particular moment — produces results that no catalog-driven ordering system can replicate.
We work with a combination of local BC growers, the Vancouver wholesale market, and a small number of specialty importers for varieties that simply don't grow here. The sourcing decisions are made multiple times a week, and they directly shape what we can offer.
This is why our everyday arrangements don't come in fixed SKUs with guaranteed specific flowers. What we can promise is quality, intention, and a palette that reflects the actual season — not a rendering of what the season is supposed to look like.
Colour as a Starting Point
When we sit down to design an arrangement, colour is almost always the first decision. Not because it's the most important, but because it sets the emotional register for everything else.
We typically work in colour stories — a dominant tone, one or two supporting tones, and an accent that creates contrast without disrupting the overall mood. A warm white story might anchor around ivory garden roses and cream ranunculus, add texture with pale champagne lisianthus and dusty miller, and finish with a single element of deep plum for depth.
"We're not making product. We're making something that exists once, for a specific person, on a specific day. That matters to us."
Structure and Movement
Once colour is established, the next consideration is structure — how the arrangement sits in space, what its overall silhouette reads as, and how the eye moves through it.
We tend to think about this in three layers:
- Anchor blooms: The large, dominant flowers that establish scale and weight. Garden roses, peonies, protea, large dahlias.
- Secondary blooms: The mid-size elements that fill space and create rhythm. Ranunculus, lisianthus, spray roses, clematis.
- Texture and movement: The elements that make an arrangement feel alive rather than static — trailing vines, fine grasses, delicate branching stems, the occasional wild element that pushes against the structure.
The ratio of these layers changes depending on the occasion and placement. A table centrepiece is built differently from a hand-tied bouquet. A sympathy arrangement operates in a completely different emotional register from a birthday arrangement.
The Role of Negative Space
One of the things that distinguishes editorial floristry from more conventional arrangements is the use of negative space. Most floral training emphasizes filling — no visible stems, no gaps, dense and abundant. Our approach is the opposite.
Negative space in an arrangement creates breathing room. It allows individual blooms to read clearly, prevents the eye from becoming overwhelmed, and gives the overall composition a sense of intention rather than abundance. A single flower with room around it is more powerful than ten flowers fighting for attention.
This is harder to execute than it sounds. The arrangement still needs to feel generous, not sparse. The balance between presence and space is where most of the craft lies.
For Weddings and Events
The design process for weddings is more extended, but the core thinking is the same. What changes is the scope: we're now designing an entire visual environment rather than a single object. Ceremony installations, table arrangements, bouquets, and incidental florals all need to work together as a coherent whole.
Our wedding process begins with a consultation where we listen more than we talk. We want to understand the venue, the time of day, the overall aesthetic, what the couple has strong feelings about, and — just as importantly — what they have strong feelings against. We're not interested in imposing a style. We're interested in finding the version of this wedding's florals that couldn't have been made for anyone else.
Why It Matters to Us
We could make flowers faster if we cared about them less. We've chosen not to. Every arrangement that leaves this studio has been genuinely thought about — not assembled from habit or routine.
That approach is reflected in our Flower Academy as well, where we teach not just technique but the underlying design thinking that makes technique meaningful. Because we believe that the best floral education isn't about producing competent arrangers — it's about developing people who actually see flowers clearly, and know what to do with what they see.
If you'd like to experience what that process produces, our shop is a good place to start. If you have a wedding or event you'd like to talk through, we'd love to hear about it.